Newsletters

GHS Connect #2 Monday 14 September

From the Head

Well, we got through the first few days of having all students on site! A massive thank you to everyone for the combined effort in making the new system work. In the main, things have worked well, and I need to say a really big thank you to Paul for his hours of planning for this.

Thank you for your patience where things have not gone quite to plan. We know we need to look at the clocks to ensure that the time is right on all of them, and we know that at times, Year 12/13 are due to leave at the same time as other year groups in the same block. At these times, we ask teachers to please keep Year 12/13 students back until the corridor looks clear.

Thank you to everyone who also helped with the induction days. Andrea has asked for a shout out for our IT team who ensured that the reading tests all went without a hitch during the Year 7 induction. Thank you also to all of the year teams who supported each year group so successfully on their first day back.

If you haven’t looked at Paul’s document yet, please take some time to do this and note down the relevant timings and exits for different groups of students. The system will not work and bubbles will end up crossing if we do not adhere to his document. You can find it here. You can also find out duty spots in the same document. Jo and Jack have also put together a great, short video outlining suggested ways to manage dealing with the different times / locations for exits. Huge thanks to them - it’s really helpful. 

In this new age of teaching with Covid-19 in the background, we need to ensure that our procedures are watertight. All teachers must therefore have their seating plans set up in MINT and must not deviate from them. This will help us to track and trace close contacts where necessary and is absolutely essential. If you need any help with MINT, please contact Clare Secombe.

Finally, now that all of the students are back, we will be looking at a way to more formally mark the very sad passing of our beloved colleague Douval. Lou will be putting together some slides on bereavement for staff to go through with students, and this will include some reflection time about Douval. We will also be talking to students about how they would best like Douval to be remembered and will provide more information on this in the coming weeks. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Mia

Learning and Teaching

Spotted!

A round up of some of the great learning and teaching strategies we’ve noticed being used around school recently…

> Freddie Simons using his MINT Class seating plan effectively to call on students and learn their names. 

> Jean Hutges impressing on year 12 the importance of organising your work effectively.

> Daniella Fawcett-Walsh encouraging students with praise and using images to scaffold their learning.

Learning and Teaching

As we get used to the new way of teaching, some aspects of our practice are having to take priority.  Seating plans have become even more important in the new normal. 

It is essential that our seating plans are accurate so that we have a clear sense of where students are sitting in different lessons. If you move a student for any reason this must be reflected in the seating plan in case we need to conduct contact tracing. 

Please see Clare’s helpful tips below for how to manage different versions of your seating plan and for how to replicate your seating plan to all the lessons you teach. 

Create multiple MINT plans for the same class

With the new COVID restrictions lots of members of staff have been considering how to ensure all their students receive an equal amount of attention in lessons. A popular choice has been moving students forward, by one row, on rotation. This gives all students some time nearer the front of the room, interacting more easily with you. However, please avoid ‘mixing up’ students unnecessarily, within or between rows. Ideally students should sit next to as few different students as possible. 

If you would like to try this, you can use MINT to help you manage it. Just click the version buttons on the top banner – you can have up to three different plans for each lesson:

If in practical subjects, where students sometimes have to move to the computers and sometimes work on the desk, it is essential that you have a seating plan for both so that we know who students have been sitting next to. This applies to all year groups. This function in MINT will make this relatively straightforward.

Linking lessons together on MINT (so you don’t have to copy and paste!)

If you teach a class multiple times in a week you can link the lessons together. This automatically updates all the seating plans, when you change the “master” plan. If you create different versions of your seating plan, these will also be copied. 

Select the class you would like to make the “master copy” and then click “manage links”. Click the green button to confirm your choice. 

You will then be presented with a list of lessons – select the ones you would like to link to the master. In this example, two lessons have not been selected because they are in a room with a different layout:

Your choice is automatically saved and you can click the red x to exit. 

Any changes you make to the master copy will now show in all the selected seating plans. 

For any assistance with MINT please feel free to drop me an email: csecombe@greenford.ealing.sch.uk

Clare Secombe

Inclusion & Pastoral

Congratulations to everyone for getting through the week - it was great to see our students back in school and spend some time catching up on their lockdown experiences, as well as getting back into learning. I don't know about everyone else, but I was shattered by the end of the day on Friday, no doubt the result of having to walk further than up and down the stairs in my own home and talk to more than 4 people at the same time...

Just a few pastoral reminders this week:

1) Key Year Team messages - when you see your Monday P1 classes, please remember to spend the first part of the lesson delivering key messages from the respective year teams. Each HOY will be putting together their own bank of messages that need to be given to the students, and this will either come in the form of a VLE announcement or as an email to staff taking that year group's lessons. The pastoral team are looking at a more streamlined way of collating this information, so please bear with us for the moment, and watch this space.

2) Virtual Tutor - I have put together the presentation for our first Virtual Tutor session (and a big thank you to Andrea for ensuring it is T&L ready!). You will find the link on the VLE. There is just the one package, so if you would like to adapt it for your tutor group, given the age and nature of your tutees, please make your own copy and tweak away, without losing the key message. And, please do let me and the HOYs know if there are members of your form who have not yet signed up to your Tutor Group Google Classroom, or who are showing no, or little, signs of engagement.

3) How to cope with bereavement and the loss of our dear Douval - a number of staff have approached me about students who have lost loved ones over the last few months, and the fact that there should be some time given to reflect on Douval's death. Next week's Virtual Tutor will gently explore both of these, and Keely and I will be looking at using a PSHCE session to give students, and staff, an opportunity to both share our feelings on the loss of those we love, but also to begin to think about how we can remember Douval as a school and honour his name.

The only other thing from me is a little prod to those of you who haven't yet let me know about CP Training and KCSIE (deliberate use of acronyms!) - and, for those of you who have let me know, chocolate based prizes will be announced this week.

Have a good week, everyone!

Lou Grimley

Character at GHS

Walking around school while students were in their first form time, we caught many members of staff promoting the CHARACTER STRENGTHS: courage, community and responsibility with students building their understanding of how these strengths can have a positive impact.  Whether it was year 7 or year 11, students have begun to discuss what it means to show courage, belong to a community and take responsibility.

Tara overheard Hebe during her year 7 form induction discussing how they had demonstrated courage for completing their first day at secondary school.  On a separate occasion, she heard her talk to her form about taking responsibility for the environment by picking up their litter during lunch and break times. 

We caught students in 9M3 completing a role-on-the-wall for their form board and 9G3 making pledges in their contact book (right and below)

On Friday, students from 11T2 were proud to show me the pledges they had made in their contact books earlier in the week.

If you spot students showing courage, community or responsibility, give them achievement points on SIMs.

Finally, Lou will be getting year groups to explore Courage in their first virtual form time.

Noble and Andrea