Newsletters

GHS Connect #30 Monday 17 May

From the Head

I hope everyone had a good weekend.

This week and next is, I know, very much about ‘heads down’ and focusing on the TAGs. Thank you, once again, for all of your work on this. There is no doubt that it is creating additional pressures and burdens for everyone. Still, just two weeks to go and we can all have a much needed break. Year 11 and 13 will be leaving at the end of half term, with some online learning for Year 11. We are currently looking at how we might manage to mark the Year 11s leaving with some kind of celebration after half term.

As restrictions begin to ease, we are looking at some changes we might make after half term, including bringing back a socially distanced form of briefing, and some form of assemblies. More info on these will follow, but we will always assess the situation carefully according Covid rates, and if we need to move back from anything put in place, we will. 

Congratulations to Jess Humphries for being appointed to PP Leader. Jess will take up this role from September and we are therefore advertising for a Head of English. We are also advertising for a Head of Business and for Pastoral Support Workers. We will begin the process of advertising temporary posts and other internal positions shortly. If anyone has any questions around this, please feel free to ask.

Have a lovely 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…
 
> Supritha Rao giving her class DIRT Time (Dedicated Reflection and Improvement Time) to improve a recent assessment. Students used a simulator to test the coding they had written in the exam. This made it much easier for them to visualise their mistakes and make tweaks to correct their answers.

> Sushila Hirani creating a really positive and focused atmosphere in her lesson. Students’  learning was well organised in booklets to support them being independent.

Learning and Teaching: Throwback Thursday

Another idea on how you can incorporate retrieval and consolidation tasks into lessons and not just at the beginning of a session. 

Throwback Thursday or Flashback Friday

As an end of lesson task on a Thursday or Friday (or any other day of the week actually) ask students to create a series of 10 questions based on the task/lesson content. The following week, ask students to return to these questions to see what they can remember or recall. Students could answer their own questions or those created by a peer - you’ll know what will work best with your class!

Inclusion & Pastoral

Thank you to everyone for delivering our second PSHCE lesson on Friday and for embracing Tutoring Fridays. This week will be a straightforward tutor session, along with an assembly on character, and our last Friday of term will be back to PSHCE - more details to follow. 

This week’s Virtual Tutor is all about Show My Homework - for obvious reasons, this has not been a priority for us as a school but we are going to be slowly revisiting it, starting with making sure all students are signed up. I know from my own classes that there are still a small handful who have not yet logged in, despite repeated conversations and reminders since November last year. There will, therefore, be a whole load of students who have not yet done anything with it. If you could please encourage your tutor groups to look at Virtual Tutor and follow the instructions, that would be great. 

The only other thing from me this week, following on from Mental Health Awareness Week, is the reminder of those professionals in school who are here to help students and staff - Jo and Tash from SCP, available on scp@greenford.ealing.sch.uk, Michelle our school social worker and Scott who comes in from the Behaviour and Inclusion Service 2 days a week. All are available to talk to staff about concerns you may have about particular students or anything else you might want to discuss. 

That’s it for this week - two weeks to go until we get a bit of a break!

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 #12: Understanding (not excusing) defiant behaviour

Sometimes our students display behaviours that are rude, disrespectful and defiant. Although we can’t excuse these behaviours, we can try to understand where it’s coming from and work together to change it. We already offer a raft of interventions from art therapy to counselling to tots and teens. Of course, planning accessible, clear and differentiated lessons is a big part of what we can do to manage and change poor behaviour. 

There are many challenges that a number of our youngsters face in terms of deprivation, domestic violence and grooming from gangs. We hope that the graphic below might help when trying to understand some of the defiance and rudeness we can face.

Thank you to everyone for your patience and hard work regarding challenging behaviour in school. It has been tough and the bubbles have made it particularly tricky. We will continue to focus on our school rules with all students: ready, respect and safe.

Behaviour for learning working party 

We are still 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.

Have a lovely week. 

Mark and Jo