Newsletters

GHS Connect #28 Tuesday 4 May

From the Head

Welcome back after the long weekend. I’m sure that everyone feels like I do….wouldn't it be lovely if every week ended with a 3 day weekend?! 

As explained last week, today, and throughout this week, we will mark one year since Douval passed away. Please remember to sign up to the google sheet if you would like to attend either the prayer event, the memorial celebration or both. Lou provides further details about plans for tutor time further down in Connect. We will also be gathering ideas about other ways to remember Douval in the Summer this week - please feel free to input into this during the events, or by just letting me know your ideas, either in person or via email.

A reminder of the timings of the events this afternoon:

Tues 4th May - 4:15-4:30pm. A time of prayer and reflection led by Allison John for anyone who would benefit from this / would 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. 

Finally, to finish, some staffing news. Congratulations to Sarah El-Sockary who has been appointed to Deputy Head of Year. This post replaces Rav Dhindsa who has been promoted to Head of Year. Sarah has been working up until now as a DHOY in the Sixth Form, but will now move to the main school. There will be further opportunities for permanent DHOY posts later in the year - details will be published on the VLE soon. Congratulations also to Lou Grimley who has been appointed Deputy Headteacher in charge of Inclusion and Personal Development. Lou has been an Associate Deputy Headteacher in the school for a number of years and gained the post last week against a strong external field. We also appointed a new Art and Photography teacher on Monday to replace Ollie who is sadly leaving us in the Summer.

Have a good 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…
 
> Andrew Rugg teaching year 8 students to label the male reproductive organs just as Kelly popped in with a DHT candidate on a learning walk!

> Savneet Bhadare using a nifty bit of tech to model to students how to draw an angle correctly and getting them to come up with the steps to success as she did it:

Learning and Teaching: Hands up or no hands up? That is the question

When almost every aspect of teaching is either different to normal or downright stressful it’s easy to fall back into taking the correct answer from the reliable students who always put their hand up.

To avoid this and make sure every student is engaged and ready to respond, here’s a reminder of three key strategies:

1) Tell students you are implementing the ‘No Hands Up’ rule for that part of the lesson and cold call students instead.

2) If ‘cold calling’ results in a limited response from students make sure you build in some thinking time, Think-Pair-Share or direct students to resources in their books before you take student answers.

3) If you are not differentiating your questions by student, use a random way of selecting students to ensure wide coverage when asking questions. Lolly sticks or a computer randomiser (there’s one in MINT) work well.

Kelly McCarthy

Inclusion & Pastoral

I hope that everyone has had a lovely long weekend - what a treat! And, a huge thank you to everyone for making the first of our Tutoring Fridays happen. I am sorry that I wasn’t around to help it all run smoothly, but will be back out and about this week.

I know this week is going to be a difficult one for us as a school. We will all deal with remembering our lovely Douval in our different ways, but if there is anyone who feels that they would like to spend some time with our professional counsellors, Jo and Tash are around all day on Tuesday and Wednesday and Diane and Angela are our counsellors on site Wednesday to Friday. In addition to that, Jo will be based in AF16 on Tuesday afternoon after school if anyone needs a space to be while we come together as a staff. If you would like any more details of how our counselling provision can support our staff, please feel free to speak to either me or Ange. There is also the option of contacting Workplace Options and you can find all the details on the VLE under the Wellbeing tab.

Following Mia’s discussion with the Science team, we will be using this week’s Tutoring Friday to facilitate some time for our students to reflect on and celebrate Douval’s life and begin to think about how we can have a lasting commemoration of his legacy. More details on that will follow after we have all met on Tuesday, as the Science team were keen that we include staff memories and thoughts in the tutor time session, and we will need some time to collate them. As always, please feel free to amend as you see fit, as you will know best what will work with your tutor group and the most appropriate way to approach the discussion.

I am going to leave it there this week as there is enough going on at the moment - I look forward to seeing people during the week as we come together to remember our much loved colleague.

Lou Grimley

Behaviour for Learning

Each fortnight 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: Restoring a sense of normality Part II

Whilst we are all becoming used to teaching during a pandemic, it is important to remember that for some of our students the daily challenge of school is a strenuous experience. 

Keeping it simple
Our three school rules can be applied to most incidents when addressing behaviour. Every half term, we are focussing on each of these with a clear message to our students that is consistent amongst all staff. 

The focus for this half term is:

Ready
Ensure that you arrive to school in the correct uniform (with a mask) and lessons with the correct equipment. 

Respect
Treat everyone with respect at all times. 

Safe
Go straight home at the end of the day. 

Pastoral teams and SLT will continue to support students and staff. 

Toilets
Please do not allow students to leave your lesson to go to the toilet. If you feel that a student is desperate please call for patrol who will escort the student to the toilet. Please do not allow students to use staff/disabled toilets at any time of day.

Behaviour for working party 
We are looking to reinstate the focus group and welcome anybody who would like to contribute. If you have an interest in working with us please email Mark and/or Jo by Monday 10th May.

Have a lovely week.

Mark and Jo