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GHS Connect #36 Monday 6th July

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GHS Connect #36 Monday 6th July

Mia's notes

A really lovely week last week, with the amazing Sports Award evening, the D of E trip, Year 7 at Kew Gardens and lots of other trips. Thank you to everyone who has been involved!

It was wonderful to be a part of the Leading Parent Partnership Award verification visit on Friday and support Amandeep and Ben in summarising all of the amazing work we do. Even though I knew we were doing so many great things, it was still incredible to hear it all being talked about in one sitting. Thank you so much to our brilliant parent ambassadors Silva, Monika and Fuad as well as Ben and Amandeep who have led on such great work with this.

Have a great week,

Mia

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The week ahead

Monday
Normal Day

Tuesday
In School Staff Social Event
Summer Exhibition 

Wednesday
Briefing in the library – 8.15am

Thursday
Normal Day

Friday
Normal Day

Notes
Year 12 Interim 4
International Day (Wednesday)

Learning and Teaching Tips and Strategies

This term, we will be sharing top tips and strategies on ‘challenge’.

How much help is too much help?

Week 5: Scaffolding without oversimplifying

The aim of a scaffold is to reduce barriers to learning without reducing the intellectual demand of the task. Effective scaffolds should not lower expectations but should keep students working within the full depth of the curriculum.

Top Tips:

  • Audit your existing scaffolds by asking what work is the student actually doing?
  • Provide scaffolds that make thinking visible rather than making tasks easier.
  • Design scaffolds around the obstacle and misconceptions so that they support students at points of difficulty.
  • Check that scaffolds maintain the core challenge of a task and do not simplify the thinking required.
  • Remove scaffolds gradually and intentionally over time. Treat them as temporary.

New this term: The second series of the Learning and Teaching podcast. Listen to the next episode here: Practice: A Framework For Independent Practice

Learning and Teaching

2025-26 saw the launch of our Greenford High Five. Thank you for sharing great practice in our final Action Research and filling out the evaluation form.

From your feedback, we are going to continue to use CPD to focus on the needs of departments and provide practice strategies to use in the classroom. 
If you haven’t completed the CPD evaluation, please take a moment HERE.

As we come to the final weeks of the year, is there anything from the Show Case, L&T Podcast or Talk Tuesday you could try? All links HERE.

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Andrea and the L&T Team

Inclusion Messages

Safeguarding Updates

Please see this BBC article which reports on Instagram in India is running ads promoting child sexual abuse material.

SEN

Summary of SEND Reform White Paper

Key Area Proposed Changes and Key Points
New Supports Structures and ISPs
  • EHCPs scrapped for the majority of children, reserved only for the most complex cases.
  • Individual Support Plans (ISPs) introduced for all other children identified with SEND to ensure a baseline of support.
  • Three-Tiered Support System Implemented:
  1. Targeted: Mainstream provision puts support in place at a school level.
  2. Targeted Plus: Support with input from external professionals.
  3. Specialist: Complex needs requiring specialist provision packages.
Mainstream Inclusion
  • Strong push to place more children with SEND into mainstream schools.
  • Dedicated 'inclusion bases' established in all secondary and some primary schools for targeted, expert support.
  • Statutory duty for mainstream schools to record and monitor SEND provision in ISPs.
  • Legal requirement for schools to publish an Inclusion Strategy, which will be monitored by Ofsted.
Funding & Resources
  • £4 billion investment pledged to boost capacity and resources.
  • Funding targeted at mainstream provisions for early identification, early intervention, and specialist SEND training to upskill the workforce.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend,

Gurvinder

Bright Spots

This week's Bright Spots have been nominated by Andrea, who says:

Thank you to Peter Mather for facilitating a brilliant School Centred learning week for a new cohort of Teach First and all the departments who helped make the week so successful.

Also, thanks to Sarah Williams and another year of brilliant Greenford Reads along with the first Schools Laureate/Booker Prize trip to Oxford for 3 of our year 12 students. Last week we had the opportunity to listen to Elizabeth Briggs from the world of publishing because of the connection.

If there are any concerns about Equality and Diversity (staff)  at GHS please contact A Johal (DHT)

For the latest X feed from @ghsofficial, click here. For Threads, click here.

For the latest Instagram feed from @greenford_high_official, click here

03 Jul 2026
Y12 MRC Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit
Dear all, We have organised a trip for our lovely Y12 Psychology students to Cambridge on Monday 6th July. The following students will be absent from your class: Jessica Kalra Mehek Khan Prachi Kharel Ayusma Limbu Parneet Noorie Rose Paquile Dhiya Bhatti Nyx Goswam...
Read more