Before 7.00am this morning, two school minibuses were in the car park, headlights on and engines running, as the final bags of Year 12 Geography field trip students were being loaded up on their journey to Wales.

A few hours later, our Year 11 students started their first mock exam in maths, while in classrooms some Year 13 students were starting to receive feedback from their mocks a week earlier. So amongst another busy school week, I have selected just a few highlights, along with some important messages for families about the next half term.

City Harvest Food Collection

This morning started with a horrid downpour of rain, but as students came into school, the day was brightened by the generosity of families in donating so much food for our City Harvest Collection. You donated 22 crates of pasta, rice, tinned goods and other items. This was collected mid-morning and taken to a very local food bank in Sutton, so will benefit local families almost immediately. Thank you to all of you who were able to support this activity that helps us model to our students the power of collective kindness.

Large numbers of Year 13 students applying early for university

Our oldest students are sitting their A Levels in the summer and many have started applications for jobs, apprenticeships and university courses. We are delighted to have 30 Year 13 students who have applied for what are classified as the most competitive courses. Applications for these courses closed on 15th October, and we have seen record levels of applications.

These include courses such as dentistry and medicine. They also cover applications to Oxford and Cambridge universities to study courses including architecture, chemistry, classical archaeology, engineering, English, geography, history, languages, law, maths, philosophy, and physics. We congratulate all of these students on their ambition, and also wish them the very best with their applications for the chosen courses.

Early closure, Thursday 12th November at 13:15

In the second week back, we are running our Sixth Form Open Evening. This does require some set-up, so on that date we will run our normal periods 1–4 for all students, and then close. Students entitled to a free school meal will be able to take this at morning break if they wish. 

I do appreciate that this may be inconvenient for some families, particularly of our youngest students, but the setting up of classrooms does mean that we need additional time beyond the usual closure. Thank you for your support.

Parent survey

I am really grateful to those families who have completed the survey that I mentioned two weeks ago. However, we can always do with more responses! If you have time over the weekend, or during next week, please take a few minutes to follow this link and let us know your thoughts. 

Image consent

We have been reviewing the parental and student consents across the school for image use and understand that there may be some areas of duplication leading to confusion over what is covered in each area. To address this, we will be removing all image use permissions from our systems and asking parents and eligible students to review the new list and choose their preferred options. An email will be sent to all students and families asking them to update their preferences either through the MCAS app or the Frog platform.

Stars of the half term

Congratulations to our stars of the half term who have demonstrated something special in their attitude to their peers, the community or their learning. Well done to each and every one of them.

Year 7	Year 8	Year 9	Year 10	Year 11	Year 12	Year 13
Felix C	Devlin	Yasmin	Tamara	Daniel C	Yahya  Kwaku Christian Ben O	JJ

Support while school is closed

At Greenshaw, we work closely with a variety of agencies, including the London Borough of Sutton, volunteer groups and the NHS. Please be aware that our website has many signposts to support agencies in the section ‘Care & Support’ as needed.  

Our Help for the Holiday leaflet here also provides lots of useful information for families, including access to exciting activities, enriching experiences and nutritious meals for children on benefits-related free school meals – at no cost!

Next half term starts on Monday 2nd November

A reminder that we will have a full two-week break from school, returning on Monday 2nd November with staff welcoming students at the normal time from 8:20am. We welcome our students back in Week 1, so if you could, please remind your child to pack the correct books for their Week 1 timetable lessons.

See you all in November.

Mr N House, Headteacher