Newsletters

GHS Connect #16 Monday 18 January

From the Head

I hope everyone is doing okay and managing the remote learning side of things. I taught a live lesson to my Year 7s on Friday and I have to admit that it took me quite a while to get my head around all of the processes involved. It was lovely to see them all though (the ones with their cameras on at least!). On that note, I have written to parents today to explain that having cameras on is far preferable, and I have also made that point in a short talk I have recorded for students which can be accessed on the Student VLE or  on YouTube here.

This week sees the start of our first live tutor times. Thank you in advance for this, and please don’t be too disheartened if you have a low turnout. We will need to nag students a bit to get full compliance, but we will endeavour to get there. Tutor time starts at 8:40am and all Period 1 lessons will now begin at 9am. This means that staff will have more time overall as a result of this change. Please also remember to share my assembly with students this week. Again, many will not watch this, but some will, and it’s important for us to continue to set the expectations as normal.  Please continue to use Kelly’s spreadsheet to flag students who are not showing up for lessons or doing work.

Thank you for all of your outstanding remote learning again over the last week. Again, I have been fortunate to be able to see much of this being undertaken by our key students. I have enjoyed being introduced to the idea of jam boards and look forward to what this week brings on the screen!

Have a wonderful week everyone and don’t forget that there is always someone in school to pop in and see, or telephone to talk to, if you are struggling in any way.

Mia

Learning and Teaching

Spotted!

Thank you to everyone for the energy and enthusiasm with which you have approached this next round of online learning.  The response has been so positive that it’s impossible to pick out everyone, but here are a few we’ve heard about on the grapevine...
 
> Dani Fawcett-Walsh pre-recording an excellent lesson for all of Year 7 French on parts of the body, and then re-recording it for Year 8, acting on the feedback that she was given by her NQT mentor to make it even better.

> Sarah Williams organising one to one meetings via Google Meet with her GCSE students to give them feedback on the mock exams.

> Emmet Waterhouse recording a lesson on Russian nationalism that students could pause and play as they needed to to learn at their own pace. 

> Katharine Peters offering students detailed written feedback on their coursework so that they have a clear plan of action moving forward and can reflect and review in a focused way during her live sessions.

> Belén Sanchez (St Mary's Student Teacher): Contributing to improving collaborative planning of pre-recorded lessons in French by completing the work set for Year 7 this week and offering the team her insight from a student's perspective. 

> Christie Tremain and Dan Siskin training the MFL team on how to embed YouTube video clips in pre-recorded powerpoints. 

> Neha Palta using self-marking Google Sheets with her students.

> Savneet Bhadare demonstrating how to use Jamboards in her lesson to the Maths team.

> Sarah El-Sockary and Alistair Newall experimenting with getting students more involved in live lessons by using Jamboards. 

Learning and Teaching: Live Lessons - Getting the Basics Right

As well as implementing the advice Mark and Jo give us below  on keeping our lessons secure, try these four tips to make everything run smoothly!

1) Make a schedule for your class so they know when your live or recorded lessons will be in advance. If this follows the same pattern each week, it will help families to share devices between siblings. Clare Secombe is making hers clear on the photo behind her class banner:

2) Take a register with a difference.  Not only is it important to keep a track of students participating, it’s an opportunity for everyone to make verbal contact. Ask the students to un-mute to respond and consider whether you can make it useful too by playing a word game or quizzing students on prior learning. 

3) Have something for students to do while they wait.  Admitting each student one by one takes time so think about whether there is something you can ask students to think about or do with this time:

4) Split your screen. If you’re presenting on a Google Meet you can feel disconnected from the class because you can’t see them easily. In this 2 minute video Andrea shows us how  to present and keep an eye on the participants and the chat.

We’re all having to learn pretty quickly during this period of remote learning. If you have something which is working well in your area please share it with the L&T team so we can let other colleagues know!

Kelly McCarthy

Learning and Teaching: The Staff Shout Out Board returns

With the return to working at home, it’s so much harder to have all the little conversations that normally brighten our days. Many of us really appreciated the chance to share positive messages during the last lockdown, so I am delighted to be restarting the Shout Out Board (see examples from last lockdown below). 

The first board will be published in GHS Connect in 2 weeks’ time. If you would like to thank a colleague; highlight something amazing going on behind the scenes or just share your love for your department - then write a post-it note, take a photo and add it to the Staff shout outs folder. 

A plea from me: Please, try to trim the photo so only the post-it can be seen (it saves me so much time) and do not send them over email! 

Top tips:
> Handwritten post-its look best (but a digital one is fine if not) 
> Use a felt tip / bold pen
> Take the photo from above
> Try to avoid shadows

Clare Secombe

Behaviour for Learning

Each week in Connect, Mark and Jo will be sharing behaviour for learning tips designed to help manage behaviour in the unusual circumstances of Covid-19.

Behaviour for Learning tip #6: Managing students’ behaviour during live lessons

The majority of live lessons seem to be going brilliantly thanks to you and all your hard work! You will have seen Kelly’s VLE announcement this week about a very small group of students trying to disrupt live teaching. If you haven’t had a chance, it’s worth watching the short video she made with four top tips:

> Remind students in advance that you will only permit them to enter your lesson with their GHS email address.

> You can, if you choose to, change your settings so that students have to be admitted to the lesson by you.

> You can remove a student who disrupts the learning of others.

> You can disable the chat function at any time.

Here’s a video showing you how to do these four things.

While we will never completely eradicate immature behaviour (as we wouldn’t in school) we will cut most of it out if teachers watch the video that Kelly circulated (link above) and follow the suggestions there, even if it means a slow start to lessons or if students who arrive late have to wait until an appropriate moment for the teacher to pause and let them in.

There are a small number occasions where it appears to your student but it is, in fact, another student is posing as them. If this situation occurs, please follow up with the year teams as you would for other behavioural situations.

It is also good practice to disable the screen sharing function for all participants when teaching using Google Meet for live lessons. The setting is on the bottom left of your video, and looks like a blue shield with a padlock on it. Click this, and you will have the option available to you. This means that students cannot “share” anything on their screen that could be inappropriate.

Click on the blue padlock button

> Turning off quick access means that students have to ask to join (as per Kelly’s video)
> Turning off share their screen is how you can stop students being able to share their screen

> Turning off send chat messages is how you can stop the chat function if students are using it for non-learning purposes!

What about sanctions?

Of course, remote teaching and learning presents its own challenges when trying to sanction poor behaviour. The usual systems that we use in school are now redundant – the restorative conversation at the door, or at the end of the lesson are not possible. Nevertheless, we will endeavour to maintain our high expectations of behaviour whilst students are working remotely. If you are following all of the steps outlined above and there are still concerns, then please notify the relevant year team via email. 

> Your email will trigger a phone call home by the respective Year Team so that parents/carers will be made aware of the incident and a “virtual restorative conversation” will take place. The year team will update SIMS and record the behaviour incident.

> If there are continuous or repeat offences, a member of SLT will contact home and either have a virtual meeting with the student and parents/carers, or, they will be asked to attend a meeting. 

Many thanks!

Mark and Jo

Inclusion & Pastoral

I hope that everyone has got through the first full week of online teaching - I know there have been a few ups and downs this week, but I am also hoping that we are all finding our way through the various complications thrown our way!

It’s been a busy week from a Pastoral and Inclusion front too - Lockdown Mini School continues to thrive with more attendance requests regularly coming through. The novelty is beginning to wear off for some (no prizes for guessing who…) but the Learning Support Team and Post-16 Team have been incredible in keeping the focus and positivity for those who are in school. We are also continuing to extend the invite to those who are in need of some face to face contact. If you have any concerns about anyone with whom you are working, please do let the year teams know.

On that front, the Year Teams have worked very hard this week making huge numbers of phone calls to those students we feel need a regular check in for a variety of reasons. There are also a whole load of other staff keeping in touch with other key groups, such as our boys in the ARP, our LAC cohort and anyone who has a significant social care involvement in their lives. As you are aware, there has been contact home for those who are not engaging with their online learning so please keep  updating the spreadsheets, as well as letting us know who has been working brilliantly. 

The great tech-drive continues, and I am hoping that most Year 11 and Year 10 are now sorted in terms of having access in the home. Please do continue to let me know, however, if you come across students who are still struggling. As someone who is also fielding 3 teenagers at home, I am acutely aware of how important it is to have as much access as possible, and to keep on top of the lessons that are coming through on a daily basis, whatever guise they take. 

The last thing from me this week is the big change in how we are tutoring - many thanks to everyone for doing this, as I know it’s an additional thing to do. Please remember this will mean a later start for our first lessons in the morning, 9:00, and that your tutor session will start at 8:40 on the morning it is your year group’s turn. Mia’s assembly is good to go too. And, I will remind all the students of this new system through Virtual Tutor, which I will continue to send out each Monday.

That’s it - have a good week!

Lou Grimley

Character strengths at GHS

This week, we wanted to celebrate one of our students who has taken the time to create a Character display and posted them around school.

If your students demonstrate any of our Character Strengths: Courage, Community or Responsibility, please send their names to us so we can celebrate.

Noble and Andrea