Newsletters

GHS Connect #5 Monday 4 October

From the Head

I’m sure that everyone is now aware that we are no longer able to run open evening in person. This is a disappointment, as it would have been the first time in ages that we were able to fully show the school off, but there’s nothing that can be done. With cases rising, we have to do what is safe. With that in mind, can I remind everyone that we are going to be asking all students and staff to now wear a face covering in all communal areas. Please set a good example to students by wearing your mask and by politely reminding them to do the same. Spare face coverings will be given to Heads of Year, with others distributed to workrooms, so that we have some to give out where needed.

Our INSET day will run as normal with an 8:30am start but we will not have our directed time on Thursday after school. In recognition of the hard work that everyone has put in since September, we will not claw this time back. Please note that on Friday, we will be starting with a whole staff meeting / training as already published in our school calendar and more info on this will follow.

It still feels very much as if we are living in a version of a crazy world, and I hope that the petrol crisis hasn’t caused too many issues for everyone. We had to go to Wales this weekend for my father-in-law’s 80th birthday, but I needn’t have worried about getting back. It would seem that in the rest of the country, fuel is plentiful! As one of my sons said on the way home, “If you need petrol, go to Wales.”  If only it were that simple…

Mia

Monday
Normal day.

Tuesday
No meeting.

Wednesday
No meeting.

Thursday
PSHCE P1: resources here.
Prospective Parents Evening - online only due to covid cases rising. No early finish - students in lessons as normal until 3pm.
Interim deadline: KS4

Friday
INSET day: 8.30am start, more details to follow.

Learning and Teaching

Spotted!

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

• Dan Oag modelling to his Y8 class what a final piece of work should look like before setting them off to work on it. The class also practised one section of the task on mini whiteboards earlier in the lesson, so they felt confident doing it independently. 
• Harpal Sagoo getting every student's full attention to give clear instructions before they tried the task independently. A perfect opportunity to address any questions or misconceptions before students practised alone:

• Rav Dhindsa promoting discussion with a visual image on the board with his year 7s by having his table layout in groups as opposed to rows. He scaffolded their discussions with a variety of questions to build their understanding and knowledge. 

• Phoebe Henderson-Barnes using a multisensory approach to classroom management. During quiet, independent work Phoebe plays relaxing meditation music to her GCSE PE class. Her students all understand this means it’s time to focus and ensures they produce their best work.

• Hassnain Mahay focusing on literacy in a BTEC Science lesson. He used his “Do Now” activity to get students to unpick the language on an upcoming homework question. After the class was settled, Hasnain added their thoughts and annotations as comments on the homework document, which he later published in their Google Classroom for students to complete at home (see right and below):

• Naomi Foot leading an outdoor survey lesson where students were working independently to survey the field behind C-Block:

Learning and Teaching: Learner response tasks

We’ve all been there: you spend hours marking student work only to feel that the pen on the page doesn't quite have the impact you want it to.  

Marking a piece of formative work in depth is only valuable if the students develop from the marking, otherwise it is a fruitless burden on teacher time. Tick and flick marking is useful for monitoring books but does not constitute one of our substantial pieces of marking. To make our marking really effective we need to be writing a Learner Response Task (LR). 

The best LRs are:

• Short tasks. Think: an instruction; a question or a correction.
• Designed to progress that student in some way based on the marking.
• Clearly evidenced in a student’s book or folder.
• Followed by time (either in class or as a homework) to respond to the feedback.
• And, once the task has been completed, teachers/TAs should check it. This should be evidenced using the LR Stamp.

Tasks can be very varied – you know your students and you know your subject. Remember that if the whole class is making a particular mistake, it may be more efficient to reteach that topic rather than set everyone the same LR. 

There will be more coming around designing effective tasks soon, watch this space! In the meantime, if you need support or an LR stamp, please just let Jacob know.

Kelly McCarthy

Inclusion and Pastoral

I’m going to start with another thank you this week - the school feels calm and purposeful when you walk around during lessons. And, the superb coverage at break and lunch is also contributing to that atmosphere. 

Our Pastoral Support Workers have also been hard at work this week - if you stick your head in at BG10, you will see some familiar names working hard, having corrective conversations or taking some time out to regulate their behaviour. Barbara, Hemal, Hibo, Jesse and Tevin have also now finalised their lists of mentees and will be updating staff on the sessions they have had and key tips for working with those students. 

Another thank you to everyone who has been passing on referrals - the CP Team work through all the concerns that staff raise, consulting on how to best support our students. Remember to keep vigilant about potential signs of safeguarding issues and pass any niggle onto childprotection@greenford.ealing.sch.uk  - along with school staff, we have a team of external professionals who support us too, with a new Clinical Psychologist and Child Wellbeing Practitioner joining us in the next couple of weeks.

Lastly from me, a few key reminders - I am still waiting for some returns from KCSIE, don’t forget to let me know if you would like to join the Wellbeing Group and, it’s PSHCE this week!

Have a good week!

Lou 

Inclusion Heroes!

Well done to this week’s Inclusion Heroes:

Barbara, Hibo, Hemal, Jesse and Tevin - for working so hard with some of the most vulnerable students in our school!

Behaviour for Learning: SEND and behaviour

The Education Endowment Foundation published a report, drawing on the best available research, to bust some common SEND misconceptions. One of them is the idea that: “All children with SEND display disruptive behaviour.” At GHS, teachers understand this and know that some pupils with SEND may display misbehaviours but not all. These challenging behaviours may or may not be related to their SEND needs. SEND can affect: how child behaves; how they may socialise and communicate; and their concentration levels.

Challenging behaviour can feel personal but if we remember that behaviour is a form of communication, especially when a pupil doesn’t have the vocabulary to express what they need verbally, it can be helpful. 

It can be useful to consider some of the following questions if you teach any SEND pupils who display misbehaviours:

• Are literacy needs a barrier for learning and reduced engagement?
• Has explicit instruction* been used?
• Have outcomes been made explicit and modelling has taken place to show the pupil how to achieve the outcome?
• Has learning been supported and scaffolded so the pupil can succeed?
• Does the student need a learning check-list to help focus them?
• Have you tried flexible grouping**?

This isn’t exhaustive but it can be helpful to start reflecting on what we can do to support our SEND learners so that they don’t communicate the difficulties they can face through misbehaviour. Remember that there are detailed strategies for these students on MINT and SIMS on each pupil’s SEND passport.

Have a great week!

Mark and Jo

* Explicit instruction: Explicit instruction refers to a range of “teacher-led” approaches, focused on teacher demonstration followed by guided practice. Explicit instruction is not just “teaching by telling” or “transmission teaching”. It usually begins with detailed teacher explanations, followed by extensive practise, later moving on to independent work.

** Flexible grouping: Flexible grouping describes an in-class approach that sees groups formed with an explicit purpose. They focus on a specific learning need and are purposely disbanded when the purpose is met. Allocating temporary groups can allow teachers to set up opportunity for collaborative learning, for example to read and analyse source texts or complete graphic organisers.

School photography

Thank you to everyone who helped with the website photography a couple of weeks ago. These photos will be appearing in school communications over the coming months so keep an eye out for them.

The full set of photos (700+) has just arrived and will need sorting and editing but here's a sneak preview...