One of our foremost lessons from the pandemic is how much we missed you — the parents. Now please don’t take this the wrong way. We have always loved to welcome parents through the door, we just didn’t realise how much! Yes, we saw some of you in your pyjamas on Zoom. Yes, we heard some of you sing along to the Big Sing in your best croaky morning voice. Yes, we saw one or two of you with furrowed brows during Mental Maths, but it just was not the same! 

As you know, we are all about learning here at Greenfield and this lesson has made us more determined than ever to share your child’s Greenfield experience as much as possible. We are really excited to welcome you through the doors regularly throughout this academic year and wanted you to share in this excitement too. So here is a rundown of the events we have planned in 2021 and 2022 which will quite possibly be the most significant academic year in the school’s history! 

Starting next week with our Senior School Fair, we hope that this school year will be full of opportunities for parents to come into school. We are very excited to be hosting this even after it was postponed last year, as it is always popular with parents of children in all year groups whether they are starting to look ‘seriously’ or just out of curiosity. There are also a multitude of free pens and canvas bags to be had! In the same week, albeit on Zoom, we will speak to Middle and Upper School parents about our assessment procedures, so you can be more informed about the scores you receive and how these might relate to secondary school entry. 

The week after, FroGS (Friends of Greenfield School) have their first meeting of the year and I know they would love to see as many of you as possible. Then starts a series of concerts which were postponed from last year - it will be fantastic to hear the children singing and performing again! The week before half-term will see our first Parents’ Evening of the academic year. This will be a hybrid of Zoom and in-person appointments to give parents flexibility around work commitments.  

The start of November is the beginning of our Christmas preparations which this year will include a Nativity by our Reception class and our annual Carol Service. On that, we are working hard behind the scenes to pull off a bit of a coup with this event — more details to follow soon! The end of the Autumn Term will hopefully see us move into parts of the new building which we are all incredibly excited about! 

We know you will be as keen as us to see inside our new home, and we hope to be able to facilitate tours for current parents early on in January. The Spring Term will also see the return of our ‘Open Classroom’ events which give current parents the chance to have a tour of the school and be nosey at the wonderful lessons going on. (Discreet waving to your child is permitted.) 

Moving into February, our Scholars’ Recital will showcase the talents of those who have prepared and worked so hard towards contention for scholarships at senior schools. So, dust off those dinner jackets and party dresses; this suave and sophisticated ‘do’ is always a real treat. 

Shortly after this, Year 4 will no doubt dazzle us all as they perform their (yet to be decided) musical. Our ‘Arts Week’ at the end of March will give parents more opportunities to visit with a Year 5 Shakespeare Festival, a Year 2 production and, my highlight of the year, the Greenfield’s Got Talent final! 

Moving into May, Year 3 will be hosting a Film Festival. The red carpet has already been ordered, so make sure you’ve practised your best Hollywood smile! Later on in the summer we look forward to welcoming you to Sports Day, and we have some exciting ideas for how this will work on our new site. Year 6 will perform their swansong production over two nights and Year 1 will take part in a Performance Festival to round up a full year of performances. We are very excited to be able to host Prize Giving for the first time in our new home and mark the opening of our new building with a celebratory ball; no doubt these events will prove to be a wonderful way to end the year. 

Phew! I expect you are as exhausted as me after reading all that. But wait, there’s more! Each class will also perform a Class Assembly to their parents, and we will shortly be relaunching our ‘In-Residence’ programme which was postponed because of COVID — more news on this shortly. Along with all the exciting Enrichment Days, Activities Week and trips and visits, we think we will need a sit down come July! We hope you will too. 

David Brown 

Deputy Head