Newsletters

GHS Connect #4 Monday 27 September

From the Head

We seem to be living in a mad world yet again, where the bulk buying of toilet rolls we saw last year has been replaced by a need for the entire nation to fill up with petrol! I hope that this madness has not spoiled too many plans this weekend.

We had our own share of madness at GHS last week in the form of some of our most vulnerable students, who have been proving a handful. It is Angela, our outstanding LAC Leader, to whom I wish to say a heartfelt thanks this week, for giving up her Friday evening to ensure that one of our looked after children was placed appropriately over the weekend. If you see Angela, do show your appreciation - we would be really struggling with many of these students without her input.

I also want to say a huge thank you to all of the HODs and others who were involved in the visit from Jane Guest. Feedback from Jane was enormously positive, and she was very impressed with everyone’s contributions in the meetings.  

A big area for us to work on is SEN, which of course, we already know, and which was mentioned as a priority at the start of the year in the INSET. Please do refer back to the INSET day slides to remind yourself of the key learning and teaching strategies that Kelly talked through. In every classroom, we should be seeing scaffolding to support SEN learning, and in all books there needs be regular feedback that students have the opportunity to act on to help improve their learning.  More on SEN is to come!

I hope you all have a great week,

Mia

Monday
Normal day. Check update to duty rota.

Tuesday
Meeting: Department meeting (3.15pm - 4.30pm)

Wednesday
Meeting: KS3 Think Tank with Harpal Sagoo in BF10 (optional)
Meeting: Union meeting 3.15pm (optional drop-in)

Thursday
Interim deadline: Year 12 Attitude to Learning.

Friday
Normal day.

General: Year 13 assessment week.

Learning and Teaching

Spotted!

A round up of some of the great learning and teaching strategies we’ve noticed being used around school recently…

• Joe Moors challenging his year 7 students to be creative in their non-locomotor lesson (right).
• Ellie Navarro engaging her year 11 students by setting a task that involved them moving around the room to discover information about animal adaptations.
• Emmet Waterhouse using the IPEVO to model to his students how to annotate a source. 
• Ellie Roome setting Build Knowledge homework for her year 8 historians:

• Aansa Ali creating a very powerful  display (starring Sir David Attenborough) on the humanities corridor!

Learning and Teaching: marking

Just a quick reminder this week that our marking policy requires teachers to mark a substantial piece of work for each student twice per half-term and to monitor the organisation and presentation of books. 

If anyone needs a reminder of the policy, you can find it here.
 
When marking, please make sure that your comments are clear - we don’t insist on a particular colour but many departments use fine-tipped felt pens to write feedback to make it really obvious for students!

In addition, don’t underestimate the power of stickers… even the coolest year 11 loves having their effort acknowledged with a sticker!

Next week we’ll look in more detail at what makes a great Learner Response Task…

Kelly McCarthy

Inclusion and Pastoral

The first thing I would like to say this week is a big thank you to everyone for embracing SMHW! It is being used really well, so keep plugging away, letting me know if there are any issues and continuing to remind all of your classes to keep using it too. 

I would also like to say thank you for PSHCE - Keely and I had a wander around on Thursday and were really impressed with what we saw. If you have any questions or comments regarding the PSHCE programme, please let us know.

Another positive from last week is Jane Guest’s feedback on our student community - she spoke to a number of students while she was with us, and was struck by their commitment to the school and the positive things they had to say. She also said that behaviour was excellent, which is down to all of your hard work. As I mentioned last week, there is that very small cohort who are not coping for a variety of reasons; we are working hard to support them, whether that be in school or looking at alternatives outside.

Lastly, two bits of key info from me - the Welfare Team have been busy making sure all of our records and information is up to date. Watch out for some announcements on the VLE. And, I plan to get the Wellbeing Group together before half-term to see how everyone is doing after a rollercoaster start to the year. If you are interested in being involved in this, let me know.

Have a good week! 

Lou 

Inclusion Heroes!

Well done to this week’s Inclusion Heroes:

The Post-16 Team - for all of their hard work during the summer and continued support with our Year 12s, who have made a great start, with a special mention to Sally Ramsdale for checking in on key vulnerable students over the holidays;

Finola Doyle and Jonathan Edmonson - for such stunning starts with their Year 7 tutor groups. Each had a lovely, nurturing atmosphere in their tutor bases, replete with amazing tutor boards! See below:

Character strengths at GHS

After three weeks of teaching, the Character Points reflect how we are rewarding students for taking responsibility with their behaviour and learning. 

Here's the latest count so far:

How do you keep track of the Character Points you give in lessons? During a PE GCSE lesson, Phoebe was adding names to a list of Character Strengths:

Last week, the assembly theme revolved around community. During form time, take any opportunity to discuss the idea of ‘paying it forward.’ Also, take the time to discuss how they can help build connections in order to create an environment where everyone belongs: 

Andrea and Noble