GHS Connect #21 Monday 1 March
From the Head
Hi Everybody,
Myself and the rest of the SLT have been busy drawing up plans for a safe return to school. We have an added complication this time around; the small task of having to undertake around 6000 lateral flow tests in the next 2-3 weeks!
However, we are confident that we can achieve this and resume ‘normal’ life back in school quickly. I will be setting out detailed plans around the return to school once I have spoken to union reps this afternoon. I hope to be able to share plans with you tomorrow. We will then run a Google Meet session which will also provide opportunities for Q&A on Wednesday 3rd March at 11am. You can join the call at meet.google.com/qme-pgvv-ajx.
I won’t, therefore, give out lots of details now, but I will say that we are beginning the testing of students on Thursday and Friday of this week, which will ease everyone’s transition back into school in a far less stressful way. Teaching staff are obviously not expected to be involved in this and in the main, we are using agency staff to support us with this. A big thank you to our Covid testing lead team, Arshdeep Dang, Monika Siek and Katie Menia who have set up a whole range of safe and effective processes around testing. They have been doing a fantastic job.
On Monday 8th March itself, we are also planning to give some lead in time to staff in the morning so that teachers are not straight back in the classroom on the first day back.
Other key points to be aware of include our plans to suspend all live teaching as from Thursday this week, so that students who are being tested are not affected, and so that staff can have some time for planning ahead of this week, so please plan for using Google Classroom only as from Thursday. More detailed info will be up on the VLE tomorrow.
On a totally different note I just want to share some more info from Hebe and Trish around National Careers Week 2021. They have put together 5 Easy Ways to Promote Careers this Week, some of which which I would urge you to try out:
1) If teaching a new skill, tell students why they will need this skill in the world of work eg. Trigonometry is helpful to engineers and architects when they design and build structures.
2) Look out for our second episode of "Futures in 15", our series of inspirational careers interviews, and promote it to your classes. This week we feature an investment banker who talks about how students can get their foot in the door in the finance sector!
3) Encourage your tutees to engage with the National Careers Week posts on Google Classroom.
4) Try and incorporate a careers-based starter activity into one of your lessons. e.g. In Hebe's Year 10 English lesson last week students brainstormed careers that require good speech and language skills before continuing a live lesson on speeches.
5) Use a careers-based example in a lesson eg. If debating, start a debate about the gender pay gap or positive discrimination.
Have a lovely week everybody and try not to be too anxious about our return to school. I am confident that we will manage it smoothly and in a stress-free way, as much as that is possible!
Mia
Rav shared one example with me this week: Alaa Alnono called another student who was struggling to access live lessons. Alaa was able to translate in Arabic and help the student understand what he needed to do. 
