Newsletters

GHS Connect #27 Monday 26 April

From the Head

A busy week in terms of recruitment this week sees us interviewing for an Art / Photography teacher, Deputy Heads of Year, and finally, for the Deputy Headteacher position on Thursday and Friday. We will have a full range of tasks for candidates on Thursday, and then those who are successful in getting through to the second day, will be invited back to a main panel interview on the Friday. I will publish details of the tasks for the candidates on Thursday morning on the VLE, so that everyone can see what is going on, and so that anyone who is interested in meeting the candidates, will be able to see when they are available. I have decided to base the activities for Thursday over in i-block as there are more free rooms over there, and I have obviously had to plan for social distancing. One aspect that may be of interest, is break time and lunch time which will be in IF15, the library in i-block. So, if you are interested in speaking to candidates, being mindful of social distancing, of course, then this is a key opportunity to do that. Apologies for the large number of people on site Thursday and Friday - we will have 5 candidates, 4 governors in total and a number of staff involved in the interview process.

Next week, on Tuesday 4th May, we will mark one year since Douval’s tragic death. We have a series of things planned for the week beginning 4th May (after the bank holiday), including making use of the second part of meeting time on Tuesday to allow staff, who would like to, to meet to celebrate Douval’s life. More info on this will be published on the VLE.  We will also run a tutor time session around remembering and celebrating Douval’s life on Friday 7th May. Further details of this will be provided next week, as some of the materials for this will be based on the things that staff celebrate on the Tuesday.

I am visiting Douval’s wife this week, in order to drop off the Book of Condolence we have put together. We will also share our copy of the book next week with staff. Longer term, we will be doing more around remembering Douval in the Summer, and have a number of ideas about this, including possibly planting a memorial garden along with other things. We welcome other ideas from anyone, which you can just email to me, or put in the suggestion box next Tuesday, if you choose to attend the event.

Please let me know if you are likely to want to attend the event next Tuesday as I will need to have a clear idea of numbers to ensure that we do not have issues with social distancing. Preliminary details are as follows:

> Tues 4th May - 4:15-4:30pm. A time of prayer and reflection led by Allison John for anyone who would benefit from this. / like to attend. This will take place in the hall.

> Tues 4th May - 4:35pm - 5:15pm. An informal event for anyone to attend - a chance to share positive stories about Douval (not necessarily out loud) to come together to chat and to think positively about ways to remember him going forwards. This will also take place in the hall.

Staff may attend one, both or neither of the events, but I will need to have some idea of numbers, so please do let me know.

Thank you to everyone or your ongoing efforts with the TAGs - I know it is a lot of hard work and it is very much appreciated.  

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…
 
> Naomi Foot using a HINT box on the IWB to support students in the starter activity on polymers (right).

> Phoebe Henderson-Barnes focusing on literacy within her subject and helping students understand the difference between vasoconstriction and vasodilation. 

> Katharine Hobbiger circulating while her students were writing answers on MWBs to help shape responses and address misconceptions (below).

Learning and Teaching: List it!

We’re all looking for different ways to support students with retrieval practice during the exam season.  Sometimes the simplest methods are the best and the following strategy requires little or no preparation!

With any spare time you have at the beginning or end of lessons - or even as a brain break in the middle - ask students to ‘List’ information about a previous topic. This can be done verbally or on MWBs.

> List as many keywords as you can related to our topic.
> List as many key facts relating to the topic.
> List as many causes of X as you can.
> List as many consequences of Y as you can.

To make it a little more sophisticated, give students the option of a couple of these so that they can access the activity at a basic or more sophisticated level.

Kelly McCarthy

Inclusion & Pastoral

I hope everyone had a good first week back and that you managed to find some time to enjoy the sunshine at the weekend.

The main thing I wanted to flag up this week is, of course, Tutoring Fridays, which will start this Friday. I am hoping that everyone has had a chance to watch my presentation about this on Youtube talking everyone through the plans - if not, here is the link. I will also put the non-recorded version out on the VLE first thing on Monday morning in case you want to look at it in your own time. The main things to remember are:

1. Students arrive at normal time in the morning;
2. Registration will start at either 8:35 or 8:45 depending on the year group;
3. Tutor rooms are in zones - link for this to follow on the VLE;
4. 10 min break at 9:20 - pastoral and SLT will facilitate this;
5. Period 1 to start at 9:30, and the rest of the day follows the same pattern with slightly different times (each lesson will be 45 minutes instead of 50 minutes).

I know this a big change at a time when there is so much going on, but our students will benefit hugely from some pastoral input! This week’s Virtual Tutor is all about Tutoring Fridays, so please could you encourage your tutees to read about it really carefully and also go through it in your weekly Monday morning messages during Period 1. If there are any queries or worries, just let me know.

During this Friday’s registration, you will also be delivering this term’s first PSHCE session - we did try to share these resources with everyone at the end of last week, but Google Drive was not letting us do this. They are all good to go, so Keely and I will make sure these are ready for people to look at by the end of Monday - everyone’s first 2 PSHCE lessons across the board pivot around the subject of health and you are more than welcome to modify the presentations as you see fit so that they are appropriate and differentiated for your tutor group.

Lastly, I had a meeting with our school counsellors, Jo and Tash, this week and they wanted me to remind everyone that the service is there for staff and parents, as well as students. A couple of our families have now started using the service, which is brilliant, and staff are more than welcome to approach them, confidentially - this doesn’t have to be about personal issues, but can also be to talk about students you may want to discuss. And, just to let you know that we now have some information on the VLE under the Wellbeing tab from Workplace Options who are also there to support staff as and when they feel they may need it.

Have a good week everyone - and enjoy the Bank Holiday when you get to it!

Lou Grimley

Character strengths at GHS

This week, we would like to get your feedback.

If you haven’t already completed the short staff survey posted on the VLE last week, please click on the link below. 

It will only take a few minutes of your time but will be crucial in taking the next steps with character at GHS. 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfc_gXjHiEg-Sc93RwNEcFY1yqAeHjHdtnZBePky8H-vi8K4w/viewform?usp=sf_link 

Many thanks,

Andrea and Noble