Thank you to all families that attended in such large numbers our Year 12 Information Evening on Tuesday, and then our Year 7 Information Evening last night. It is brilliant to see so many of you in person and I hope both evenings were informative. 

We look forward to seeing the other Year 7 families on Thursday 24th September. The evening starts with a presentation at 16:30, and then a chance to meet your child’s form tutor. Those Year 7 tutor groups we look forward to meeting are: 7PAG, 7ZFR, 7RKT, 7EWL, 7OKG, 7JGR. 

Improving school food

School dinners have been much discussed in the news over the last few years. As a school, we have dual responsibilities: both feeding our pupils in a timely way, and keeping them energised for their learning, whilst also offering them good quality food. We educate pupils in Years 7 & 8 about food groups and what a balanced diet looks like in our Food Technology curriculum, and want to mirror these lessons in reality in the school canteen.

The government is bringing in very clear guidance to ensure that schools, especially secondary schools, try not to mimic fast food establishments and do offer a varied and balanced meal offer. At Greenshaw, this is not a huge step, as we have our own kitchen garden and offer organic homegrown vegetables as much as supplies will allow. We also sell our fruit at cost price, meaning that as a school we subsidise costs for staffing, energy and so on so that the fruit is very affordable.

This term we have started trialling ‘poke bowl’ salads. These are nutritious pots that mix carbohydrates, fibre and protein. We are running different ranges, and have learnt this week that a chicken bowl is more popular than its egg equivalent, so we have varied our numbers. Each poke bowl combines rice, fibre (such as edamame beans, carrot, spinach) with a main item such as egg, chicken or falafel. The uptake has increased over the week, and we are continuing to experiment to find out what is most popular as well as what is the best food.

A great weekend for Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award students

Last weekend, Ms Fingleton and Mr O’Rourke supported sixteen Year 13 students in completing their DoDuke of Edinburgh Awards Silver qualifying hike around Box Hill. The trip consisted of two nights under canvas and hikes on Saturday and Sunday. Students were energetic and full of confidence when waking up on Friday before their big hike, and I am told that two students even completed a pre-dawn 5km jog as a warm-up!

18 or so kilometres of walking later, the energy levels were certainly reduced, but the students shared a sense of accomplishment after a sunny day's hiking. That evening, the students played communal games like rounders and football, before a spot of stargazing in the surprisingly clear Surrey night sky. The group rose again on Sunday for their final, shorter, hike before departing not long after midday on Sunday. This sounds like it was a series of very successful hikes, and I am sure that memories were made for all. Thank you to the staff who supported this and a huge well done to the students who were very positive throughout.

Nathan Kalembo steps out for Crystal Palace FC

Huge congratulations to Nat who took the pitch for his Crystal Palace Under 21 debut away at Swindon Town FC this week. The game was covered on Sky Sports, so some of you may have seen him come on. As well as turning out for a professional Premier League club, itself very impressive, there are two things to note.

Firstly, Nat is in Year 11 but plays for the Under 21 side, meaning he could be up to five years younger than some of his teammates and opposition players. Secondly, the game finished in Swindon at 9:50 pm, he then travelled home early in the morning, but he was at school on time the next day. I am very confident that, with such a disciplined approach, Nat will go very well in his sporting career. Well done from all of us here at Greenshaw. 

Students of the week

Well done to each student below for being nominated this week. I look forward to hearing about each of their achievements and the contributions that they have made to the school.

Year 7	Year 8	Year 9	Year 10	Year 11	6th Form
William P	Monica	Shane	Eloise	Aleya	Marz, Nadia R

Wishing you all a relaxing weekends.

Mr N House, Headteacher