Community Connect - April 2025

Dear Parents and Carers

Thank you for your support in what has been another very successful term here at GHS. I hope you enjoy reading about all of the wonderful opportunities our students have had, in the newsletter - please scroll down for more details.

Have a wonderful break and enjoy the improving weather!

With my very best wishes, and thanks for our partnership in working together for the best for our young people,

Mia Pye

Headteacher

Trips, Trips, and more Trips!

A round up of the wonderful trips Year groups have been on in the past term.

Encore Music Competition

Two of our school bands competed in the Ealing music service secondary school’s music competition, Encore. Five schools were present at the event and the quality of musicianship of these young people was truly remarkable. GHS students claimed one of the three prizes on offer this year. This is the second year in a row that Greenford students have won a prize at this event. Fantastic achievement from all involved!

Paccar Scout Camp Visit

In February, GHS staff took 40 Year 11 students to Paccar Scout Camp, Chalfont St. Peters, for a Boy’s Achievement residential trip. Students took part in a range of activities to improve teamwork, motivation and to allow them some time out of regular lessons to focus upon the upcoming exams. Students took part in archery, caving, zip wires, a gladiator challenge, and a nighttime orienteering challenge. Students also attend several classroom sessions during the trip where we analysed current attainment and set SMART targets for the remainder of the academic year. Lastly, we had a variety of guest speakers who presented to the students, including GHS staff and ex-GHS students who had previously completed the achievement trip.

All the students that attended worked in a variety of challenging environments and a real team ethos was evident throughout the trip. The camp leaders expressed their thanks as GHS students’ behaviour was very good.

Green Stem Challenge

Ten of our Year 12 scientists have been attending regular sessions together with students from other schools and PhD students from Imperial College London. Their challenge was to research and propose solutions to some of the world’s issues of sustainability, antibiotic resistance, zoonosis and fossil fuels. Each student wrote an academic essay and then presented it to their peers, parents, teachers and PhD students at the National History Museum. All ten of our students did themselves proud in stepping out of their comfort zone, collaborating and public speaking. Sanila Selvaratnam was a double winner from GHS both for her essay and also for her presentation.

Schools Chess Championships

Our chess teams went into the spring term with so much hope and determination to finally reach the finals of the English School Chess Championships in Nottingham. Firstly, our A and B teams came out victorious in their regional quarter-final ties against Gunnersbury and Ellen Wilkinson respectively. However, our C team faltered at this stage and were knocked out by a strong Harrow School side. 

The semi-final was very intense as there was a possibility for an all-Greenford final (which would have guaranteed a place at the national finals). Both our Greenford teams faced a fierce Harrow side who were also seeking their first appearance at the national finals. 

The Greenford team played amazingly well. However, both teams sadly failed to qualify. Congratulations to all those who took part and for getting so far in what proved to be a tough competition. Huge thanks to the teachers who run chess club each week.  

Sports Round Up

Y7 Netball Tournament - Jan 2025

In January, the Year 7 Netball team demonstrated fantastic skills, game play and resilience in their first netball tournament, representing GHS in torrential rain. They have since gone on to play their final game of the season - this time in glorious sunshine! Unfortunately, the team suffered a defeat, meaning we ended the season with 2 wins and 3 losses overall. All students who have represented Year 7 Netball for GHS have done so with courage, resilience and, most importantly, a passion for the game! So from Mrs Conyard to the team - Thank you!

Trampolining

GHS have recently competed in the borough trampolining competition. Incredibly, our senior girls group came second in the intermediate competition out of 5 teams. We also had a Year 7 girl, Gabrielle, place second in the individual elite category. Students from GHS have been attending the club consistently and showing great perseverance. We also had our GCSE girls practising for their GCSE moderation and hope to continue to develop a love of trampolining amongst the students at GHS. 

GHS Senior Basketball Team - Green Army!

On Monday 24th March Greenford High School Senior Basketball team played Twyford CofE High School in the Ealing Basketball Semi-final play-off fixture. In a tight game, Greenford High School were victorious and won the game 33-30. This means that for another year, the “Green Army” have reached the Ealing Basketball final, where they will play Drayton Manor High School.

For the first time, GHS has a Post 16 Basketball team!  

The GHS Post 16 team had their first fixture against Drayton Manor, consisting of 3 National League players. But our young lads came to play, giving them a tough first half to break away from us, and being supported by an electric fan base! They unfortunately lost their fixture 53-32, but Drayton were shocked to see such a solid team even though none of our team play at club level.

U12 2025 Girls Semi-Final V Ada Lovelace

In January, the Under 12 girls' Football team faced a tough and physically strong Ada Lovelace side, and although they were 5-0 down at half time, they showed incredible determination. After making a few adjustments, they fought back in the second half, drawing 1-1. Their resilience and team spirit were outstanding, and they should be really proud of their efforts. Well done, ladies!

Year 9 Boys Football

Year 9 football had a season of ups and downs. With our strongest team we look a match for anyone, but injury and availability issues meant that this was rarely the case. 

A glorious run to the Cup Semi Finals was ended with a heartbreaking defeat to Cardinal Wiseman, but the boys returned there in the league and delivered their best performance of the season to claim a 2-1 win. 

A mid table league finish sees us remain in the premier division as we move into year 10.

Library Update

A reminder of borrowing limits for the library:

• Year 7 & 8 - 2 books at a time.
• Year 9 - 3 books at a time
• Year 10 - 13 - 5 books at a time.

All books can be borrowed for 3 weeks at a time, after which they must be returned or renewed.

When books are overdue we send emails home - if you receive an email about an overdue library book, please remind your child to find and return it to the library as soon as possible.

Don't forget your child can monitor their books on loan by logging into our amazing library catalogue.

E-book library

As well as having a well stocked school library, we also have a great eBook library, called Wheelers. The eBook library link can be found here. All pupils will have been emailed their usernames and passwords, but if in doubt, they can email ghslib@greenford.ealing.sch.uk to check. Please do encourage your son or daughter to borrow books from the library before the end of term, and to keep reading over the holidays.

Whole School Reading

There is lots happening in Whole School Reading! There was a fantastic turnout of staff in costume on a beautiful sunny day for World Book Day on Wednesday 5th March, and the group photo, taken outside, proved a happy distraction for many of our students at lunchtime. World Book Day is always widely enjoyed at GHS. Staff come to school dressed as characters from books or book titles, which awakens students' curiosity and gets them talking about books and reading. There were numerous 'Wallys' this year, and very strong representation from MFL, English and DT / Art / Music. A heartfelt thank you to everyone who dressed up in costume to support World Book Day.

In the summer term, Miss Williams (MFL) will be running ‘Greenford Read’ events for students in Years 7-10 : this is a book group discussion for 24 students from each year group, which follows on from the shared experience of reading the same book together during the Form Time Reading Project. Thirty Year 12 students have also volunteered to read ‘The Offing’ by Benjamin Myers, and will be coming together with some members of staff to share their impressions on Wednesday May 7th. 

Post 16 update

On Wednesday 26th March fourteen Oxbridge hopefuls visited St John’s College, Oxford University, where they had three sessions and a tour led by current students and tutors. The PhD student who taught a session on critical thinking was highly impressed by our students. The bus was buzzing on the way home with ideas about future goals and how to get there. The highlight of the day however, was a sunny thirty minutes spent in the University Parks with a tennis ball, letting off the energy of the day built up with lots of brainwork from the morning sessions. Our in-school Oxbridge sessions continue weekly for the Year 12s who are leading a seminar each on a topic beyond the curriculum to develop their understanding of their favourite subjects and prepare them for the application process that starts next half term with their UCAS days.

Medicine Conference
In mid March, we held our inaugural GHS Medicine conference. We hosted 100 aspiring medics and dentists, including 40 students from Cardinal Wiseman, William Perkin & Dormers Wells in attendance.

Over half of the attendees (from across 4 schools) gave the event a perfect 10/10 score... With 90% awarding it an 8+/10. We hope to be able to repeat this success in years to come.

Student Development

As part of our student development programme, students have taken part in many workshops to enrich their experiences. These opportunities are to give them experiences outside the curriculum to develop their thinking skills and raise their awareness of important issues as well as raise their aspirations.

These included:

• Learn with the Lords, where Year 7s had a visit from Lord Ranger.
• Royal College of Music with students from the University of West London performing a play about the stereotypes society puts on us.
• A Careers Day and networking event for Year 9s, helping them to prepare for their GCSE option choices.
• Events delivered by the University of Roehampton, including a Cybersecurity taster session, and a 'Getting into Teaching' Session.
• Safety on Transport session delivered by TFL.
• Enlighten Education delivered study skills sessions for our Year 10 and 11 students.
• Year 11 Subject Fair to support students choosing their Post 16 Options.

Join Our Alumni Network

We are thrilled that our Alumni Network continues to grow and go from strength to strength.

In order to sign up to our network, just follow this link and fill in the online form – we promise it will only take a couple of minutes: https://www.futurefirsthub.org.uk/register/greenford-high-school