Friday 10th January 2025

From the Headteacher

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back after the festive break. We hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday.  

We have had a great start back to school with excellent learning going on and some wonderful in-school events taking place.

Year 11 Parents' Evening is coming up on 23rd January so if you are a Year 11 parent, please do pop that in your diary.

As the weather is colder, can I please remind you to ensure that your child has a warm coat and appropriate footwear. A reminder that hoodies are not allowed. Thank you for your support.

Mia Pye

Headteacher

Careers update – January 2025

Year 10 Work Experience

We are delighted to be introducing a week of work experience for Year 10 students in June 2025. This will be a brilliant opportunity to develop a range of skills and experiences to use in the future for job interviews, apprenticeship selection days and university applications. The work experience placement dates are as follows:

Monday 30 June – Friday 4 July 2025.

Students will attend their work experience placement instead of attending school for that week. We are currently encouraging all students to find their own placement in a job or company that interests them. This may be through friends and family contacts or going out and finding an employer in the industry they would like to work in.

All students have been added to a school Google Classroom that has all the forms, covering letters and other resources required.

Unifrog

Unifrog is our complete careers platform with an enormous amount of information about GCSE options, Post-16 courses, jobs and industries, university courses, apprenticeships and much more. We have a special parent code that parents can use to see the platform as if they were a student. Visit: www.unifrog.org/code

Parent code: GRHSPARENTS

All students in Year 8 – 13 have been set up on Unifrog and can access their account by visiting https://www.unifrog.org/sign-in and using their Unifrog login details. If they haven’t logged in before or have forgotten a password, they can simply click on the ‘forgot password / resend welcome email’ link and then check their school email.

Parent feedback questionnaire

We are always looking for ways to develop our careers programme and would be grateful if parents can complete a short 3 minute survey to help us plan future events: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1HqLrGhVlN75O_4mCIvU2a65cMeBTa3LEm7_2bAFOQTE/edit 

TFL Workshop for Year 9

On Friday 17th January, all year 9 students will be taking part in a workshop led by TFL to inform them about Sexual Harassment on Public Transport.

We believe by running these workshops, our students have the knowledge to keep themselves safe.

Free School Meals (FSM) - Frequently Asked Questions: 

If your child is entitled to FSM, here are the answers to the frequently asked questions:

  1. Can my child use their FSM allowance at any time? (break and lunch) – answer: allowance only available at lunchtime.
  2. How do I know what my child is eating? – answer: this information can be found on their ParentPay account. Parents of FSM students do not always activate their accounts.
  3. Can my child use cash to purchase food in school? – answer: No, but we can issue a PayPoint card which enables parents to top-up with cash via a PayPoint store. The initial card order takes 2 weeks, but they can be issued with a barcode letter to use during this period. This type of transaction takes 48hrs for funds to clear. The option of barcode letter can also be used to pay for other events, eg. trips
  4. Requiring help activation their ParentPay account. – Ms Foster is happy to  help parents to activate their accounts either via phone call or in person.
  5. Some parents receiving FSM allowance are not aware they must notify the Local Authority (LA)  when moving schools to ensure the allowance is transferred.
  6. Parents wanting to apply for FSM should compete an online form via LA: https://www.ealing.gov.uk/info/201111/education_grants_and_financial_assistance/701/free_school_meals
  7. We like to encourage parents of FSM students to activate their ParentPay account which then allows them to monitor their child’s food choices.  
  8. Preadmission-When will I received my ParentPay activation codes? – Last week of school in July before summer break we will email parents their activation codes in the hope they will activate their accounts in time for the start of the new academic year in September. Parents must ensure there are funds on the account.

Coffee Mornings

To support our families and students, we like to host coffee mornings so that parents, students and staff can connect and find all the tools they need to be part of the Greenford Community.

This week we hosted another coffee morning....if you would like to be involved, keep an eye out on the Parent Connect and your emails.

Year 13 Coffee Morning

Mr Lewis and Ms Haines hosted a coffee morning for some year 13 parents where parents and staff shared ideas to support students in the final few months of year 13:

PHSCE Provision: Year 8 Healthy Eating Workshop 

On Monday, all year 8s took part in a Healthy Eating workshop. students were very reflective about their food choices and how this can affect their moods.

Upcoming Events

Year 11 Interim 2
All Day
From 13 Jan until 17 Jan
13
January
Year 13 Mocks (study leave)
All Day
From 13 Jan until 17 Jan
13
January
Year 12 STEM Trip to Notting Hill & Ealing High School
3:00pm – 4:30pm
13
January
Year 12 NCS Employability Skills Workshops
All Day
16
January
TFL - Project Guardian Year 9
All Day
17
January
Year 13 Mocks (study leave)
All Day
From 20 Jan until 24 Jan
20
January
Year 12 M&G Life Skills Morning Workshop
9:00am – 12:00pm
23
January
Year 11 Parents Evening
4:00pm – 7:00pm
23
January
A Level Media Trip to Media Magazine Conference BFI
9:30am – 4:00pm
24
January
Year 10 Interim 2
All Day
From 27 Jan until 31 Jan
27
January
Year 11 Careers Fair
8:30am – 12:30pm
30
January
Year 12 Mocks
All Day
From 03 Feb until 07 Feb
03
February

Term Dates 2024-2025

Half-term: Mon 28th October - Fri 1st November 2024

Occasional Day (school closed): Fri 22nd November 2024

End of Autumn term:  Thurs 19th December 2024

Start of Spring term: Mon 6th Jan 2025

Half-term: Mon 17th Feb - Fri 21st Feb 2025

End of Spring term: Friday 4th April 2025

Start of Summer term: Tuesday 22nd April 2025

Half term: Mon 26th May - Fri 30th May 2025

Final Day of School Year: Tues 22nd July 2025.

For more details, see the school website at https://www.greenford.ealing.sch.uk/termdates