Community Connect - July 2025

Dear Parents and Carers

As we reach the end of another incredible year, I would like to thank all of you for your support in helping us to provide so many opportunities for our students. I hope you enjoy having a look at just a selection of these in the newsletter, by scrolling through at your leisure.

I wish everybody a wonderful, fun-filled Summer break and look forward to welcoming everyone back in September.

Best Wishes,

Mia Pye

Headteacher

Trips, Trips, and more Trips!

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

Duke of Edinburgh Awards

DofE Success This Year!

It’s been a fantastic year for the Duke of Edinburgh Awards at our school! Our enthusiastic Year 9 Bronze cohort of boys have shown incredible determination, completing six months of volunteering, skill, and physical challenges. Their adventurous spirit shone through on their practice expedition to Chorleywood, culminating in a successful qualifying expedition in the stunning North Downs.

Meanwhile, our dedicated Year 12 participants have worked steadily over the past year to complete their award sections. After a challenging and rewarding practice expedition in Swanage last October, they eagerly prepared for their 3-day qualifying expedition to the North Downs, which took place between 2nd–4th July. We’re so proud of their achievements and can’t wait to hear about their final adventures!

Music - Royal Albert Hall Performance

Ealing Together - Harmony in Diversity

Organised by the Ealing Music Service and the Ealing Symphony Orchestra, this special event brought together around 1,400 schoolchildren from various schools and music groups across the borough, showcasing Ealing’s musical talent.

In June, eighteen dedicated members of the school choir had the incredible opportunity to take part in this event, which was to perform at the prestigious and world-renowned Royal Albert Hall. The students, Miss Popovic and Mr Oag spent months rehearsing for the performance with a range of complex repertoire to prepare. The students represented the school perfectly and displayed outstanding character throughout the process.

Music Tuition - Autumn 2025

We are delighted to be able to continue to offer our students the opportunity to learn a musical instrument at Greenford High School. As well as being an enjoyable subject, musical learning can enrich students’ lives and education.

Tuition spaces are limited and allocated on a first come, first served basis. Please complete and submit your application using the Google form found on the school website.
https://www.greenford.ealing.sch.uk/news/?pid=7&nid=1&storyid=2623

Raspberry Pi Competition Winners

Our post 16 team (R2-Pi2) made it to the finals of the Raspberry Pi Competition and were category winners!

The theme was 'Building a Positive Human Future', and our team used this remit to create a device which supports individuals living with memory difficulties. This achievement reflects the outstanding effort and commitment of the students involved. They put in many hours, including a full day working together off-site, to bring their project to life. Developing both voice and face recognition features was a significant challenge, and it required a steep learning curve.

The final event took place Google London HQ on the 1st of May.

Mr Oseku says of the event:

It was an incredibly educational and inspiring experience for our students, with judges and officials that included senior leaders from the tech industry and top universities. The range and quality of the projects on display were truly impressive.

Year 9 St Mary's University Residential

Our lovely year 9s attended St Mary’s Summer school where they had a university experience they will never forget!

They worked in teams to complete a team-building challenge, which fostered creativity, teamwork and public speaking skills. Other activities students got involved in included:

• Subject tasters (different subjects to explore at university).
• A tour and engaging activities with Strawberry Hill House.
• Extracurricular activities including a silent disco.

International Day

International Day has become one of the most popular days in our school calendar, comprising an array of spectacular traditional outfits and a host of activities for students and staff to enjoy.

This year’s highly anticipated occasion fell on Thursday, 10^th July, where we celebrated the cultural diversity in our beloved school.

Sports Leaders

Year 9 sports leaders were fantastic in supporting the Ealing Primary School Inclusive sports day at Gunnersbury Sports Hub.  They coached, officiated and led with compassion and confidence.  They are a credit to our school.

Sports Day

As per Greenford Tradition, Sports Day is divided into two sections - before the competitive races began, we had a morning of inclusive activities for Years 7-9, such as keepy-uppies, tug of war, welly and hoop throwing and an obstacle course. We hope that all our pupils enjoyed their day at Perivale Athletics Track.

Library Update

As we come to the end of the academic year, a reminder that pupils should try to read for at least 20 minutes every day over the summer. Pupils can borrow books from our library, and monitor when they are due back 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

In the summer term, Miss Williams (MFL) ran the ‘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, who was delighted that his book was chosen.

Greenford High School is a reading school, and we make time and space for students to share their reading experiences: there are no right or wrong answers, only ‘what you thought and how you felt’. 

These activities were designed around group tasks, accessible to all, regardless of ability. This year, interactive quizzes were also included, and cross-curricular drama skills were called on, using ‘hot-seating’, where students took on the role of a character and had to speak from the character’s point of view; and the ‘hot air balloon game’, where students chose the role of a character and had to argue their case as to how significant they are and why they should not be thrown out of the sinking hot air balloon!   In leading these events, Miss Williams encouraged good oracy skills by distributing ‘speaking tokens', which students had to ‘spend’ during the course of the event.  

Feedback from students was very positive. Here’s what some of the Year 9 students said:

“Everything was really fun and good today. It was a lot of fun to meet a lot of people and have the chance to improve my oracy skills. I loved everything and everything was really engaging, thanks for having me.”

“Everything was great; Ms Williams' energy, everyone's contributions, working in a group (along with people I don't know) was immaculate. Everything seemed to take time and effort, and it was really appreciated.”

“It should be something that is done more regularly.”
 

Student Development Programme

At GHS, we understand that achievement is one aspect of success and that developing our students’ character and providing opportunities for them to flourish is just as important. Our personal development programme this year has provided our students with so many activities to get involved in; From cyber security workshops to university talks.

Here is a sample of what has taken place just for year 8s:

In addition to this, our students work on personal development through our PHSCE programme and assembly themes. Here is a sample of what was covered in just one half-term during assembly to provoke thinking:

Overall, this has been a fantastic year for our students, and we are proud of them for embracing all the activities that were on offer to them.

Another proud moment for GHS.

Post 16 Update

Year 12 Mock Exams and Year Group Trip to UCL

Year 12 have been diligently completing their Year 12 content with coursework and mock exams (pictured) which included some really important revision; this was preceded by a term of many trips, visits and employability skills sessions. The students have been very resilient and dedicated to their futures, working very hard right to the end of their deadlines as well as juggling consideration of what their life post 18 will look like. The final Friday of the exam period saw 210 of us at University College London where we attended lectures, walked around campus, and got a feel for University life. While most of us did this, 34 community-minded individuals stayed behind at school to support the Year 6 induction day - in very hot weather their work was hugely appreciated! We now move towards UCAS with full-steam ahead; personal statements are being drafted, and students are really settling down into their applications for university and apprenticeships. There’s lots to look forward to in Year 13!

Year 10 Work Experience

The whole of Year 10 went out on work experience for the week of 30 June – 4 July.

This was a brilliant opportunity for students to find out what work is really like and get an insight into the skills needed in the workplace. Placements ranged from primary schools to retail, law firms to family businesses, restaurants to sports coaching.  

We’ve had some wonderful feedback from employers, none more so than this email from Tudor Primary School where four of our students were placed:

I am writing to express our sincere gratitude for the four students who joined our school this week for their work experience placement – Abhinaya, Ivan, Tyrice, and Aayush. They have been an absolute pleasure to have, and we were truly impressed by their commitment, professionalism, and positive attitude throughout the week.

They were polite, confident, and showed excellent manners at all times. Their presence made a real impact, and they will certainly be missed by both staff and children alike. It may have only been a week of work experience, but their contribution was meaningful and memorable. They are a real credit to Greenford High School.

A massive well done to all our students for completing their work experience which is a step outside their comfort zone but such an important introduction to the world of work.

The week of work experience completes another year of careers activity, including trips, mock interviews, careers fairs, higher education fairs, Aim Higher workshops, university residentials, assemblies and Greenford alumni events.

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