Newsletters

GHS Connect #19 Monday 7 February

From the Head

And…. we’re on countdown to Friday!

Although it has been a short half term, a number of people have mentioned to me how tired they have felt. Me included! I’m sure that this is because we have yet again been pulling together at a time when we’ve had a bit of absence due to Covid, and I’d like to start by thanking all of those colleagues who once again have stepped in and supported others. Hopefully, next term will be less disruptive.

It’s a time of change as we said our final farewell to Carol O’Callaghan last week and continue to welcome Tam Ashley into life at Greenford. This week we say goodbye to Lucy Metcalfe who has been such a wonderful addition to our SEN team and will be greatly missed by staff and students alike. 

Of course, it is our expert staff who continue to make GHS such a great place. Over the last couple of weeks, I have been spending some time gathering evidence for Ofsted, who I do believe will be visiting us either this year, or next at the latest. While thinking about Ofsted is never a nice thing, it has been such a useful exercise in reminding me about all of the amazing things that go on at GHS, as a result of the ongoing commitment, passion and hard work of staff. I will shortly be sharing a version of this with HODs and wider staff.

You may have heard Amanda Spielman’s recent announcement that the vast majority of outstanding schools will lose their ‘outstanding grading’, so I think it is important that we are psychologically prepared for this possibility, but we must not become despondent about it. We know that we do wonderful things for our school community, and we also know we have things to improve on. 

Although I know that everyone will focus on talking to inspectors about our many positives (when they do finally arrive), we must also remember that while important, their judgement is not the ‘be all and end all’. What’s really important is that we are supporting and transforming the lives of so many of our students.

I hope you have a lovely, restful half-term break.

Mia

Monday
Normal day.

Tuesday
No meeting due to Parents' Evening on Thursday.

Wednesday 
No meeting due to Parents' Evening on Thursday.

Wednesday New Staff (ECTs only) CPD: ECF Module 3 Seminar 2 (virtual event from 4pm)

Thursday
Year 9 Parents' Evening 4pm - 6.30pm.

Friday
Normal day.

Notes
Year 13 Art exams Monday-Wednesday; Year 13 catch-up exams on Monday and Tuesday. Otherwise, Year 13 lessons back to normal. 

Learning and Teaching

Spotted!

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

• Jess Humphries - Checking students understanding in her year 8 class by circulating the room and live marking their work, praising them and giving them a choice of a lovely sticker - the tiger was very popular.

• Jonny Edmundson - giving students Access to the task by modelling the start of the task using the visualiser. Students were then able to be creative with their colour choice and produce some lovely pieces of Art inspired by Kandinsky (below left).

• Kiran Thandi - During a stretch of the lesson where there was a lot of teacher information input, Kiran broke up the teacher talk by asking students to draw and annotate a diagram to consolidate the information she had taught them (below right).

• Chloe Altman breaking down the reading for her Year 9 set 5 English class into manageable chunks and then setting very focussed questions with key words and sentence starters to ensure they are well supported and could all access the task.

• Kathryn Thomas using group work to gather ideas to build a bridge to writing and then writing ideas up in a class paragraph using the IPEVO.

• Amit Pall providing a choice of tasks to his Year 11 Media students for the DO NOW - the tasks were clearly differentiated and recapped learning from the previous lesson, allowing all students to access the task.

• Tara Quigley using the IPEVO to model how to approach equations with her Year 7 Science class.  And saying “I'm stuck, I do not know this one - what shall I do?”. The class were so keen to help her out with their suggestions of what to do when you are stuck!

• Indy Lall moving his students into small, flexible groups to encourage peer discussion in a mixed ability year 12 lesson.

Learning and Teaching: Supporting Students ‘On the Spot’

There are some great examples above of colleagues really considering how to support SEN/struggling students in their lessons. In all these cases the bar is set high and steps are taken to support students to meet high expectations. Sometimes this is achieved through pre-planned activities/resources but often scaffolding activities must be done on the spot in lessons as it becomes clear that students need additional help to access tasks or work independently. Some ideas of how to approach this below:

You are the best resource

As soon as you set a task, note which students are going to find it most difficult and go to them first. If students have missed lessons - which is quite common at the moment - give them a few minutes of you so they can start to catch up.  

Questioning: give them two options

When students can’t answer your question, don’t let them pass. Instead, give them two possible answers and get them to explain which they agree with the most. 

Narrow the task; don’t lose the challenge

If students are completing a 10 word challenge, labelling a diagram or a similar task with multiple things to consider, narrow the task by selecting 3 or 4 items for students who are struggling to begin with and praise them when they achieve these. 

Kelly McCarthy

Inclusion and Pastoral

And, just like that, the half-term is nearly over… A huge thank you to everyone for all of your help with Pastoral and Inclusion since the start of this term.

The only thing I wanted to flag up this week is that it’s Children’s Mental Health Week, the theme being Growing Together - this is an opportunity to get everyone thinking about how important it is to look after our mental wellbeing, regardless of age or circumstance:

1. Jo, one of our lovely SCP counsellors, is putting together a recording to go out to all students tomorrow. I will pop it on the VLE so it can then be shown in tutor time;
2. Make sure you have your wellbeing posters up in classrooms and talk to students about how to look after themselves and what they can do if they are feeling in need of support;
3. Remind students to check their SMHW this week as I will be posting bits and pieces as the week goes on to raise our awareness of mental health;
4. Look at some key websites to get some more ideas on mental health and how best to nurture it - here are the links to Mind, Children’s Mental Health Week and the Mental Health Foundation, all of which are brilliant;
5. Make sure you do at least one thing this week which is just for you and makes you smile.

Lastly, some of you will have heard in the news this week about children’s mental health services - this BBC News article is not always an easy read but a reminder of how important what we do in school is at this time and the amazing job that you do.

Have a fab half-term when you get to it!

Lou 

Inclusion Heroes!

I wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who has stepped with key pastoral and inclusion staff being off - special mentions go to the PSW Team, Kelly McCarthy, Ange Thomas, Jo Cole and Dan Siskin for going above and beyond! 

Behaviour for Learning: 10 top tips

1) Before the lesson even begins… Greet students with positivity whilst doing 50/50 at the door to welcome them.

2) Become the broken record… If you establish clear routines and expectations with your classes, you will limit the chances of poor behaviour escalating.

3) The power of the pause… The unbroken, unrelenting reminding about these low-level disruptions will result in the reminders becoming redundant: it is now time to replace with a tactical pause. This is for you to stop whatever you are saying or doing. Usually the young person displaying the low-level disruption or holding up the lesson will get the message and stop whatever they’re doing. Failing this, a faint whisper from a fellow student who has the message works equally well.

4) Never say please… When you give an instruction never say please as this is a request. Instead, always follow an instruction with thank you as this shows an expectation that it must be done.

5) Relationships… This is not about trying to befriend the students or being the ‘cool’ teacher; positive and effective student-teacher relationships are formed through time, sincerity and trust. 

6) Give students the responsibility… Students have to reflect on their actions openly and honestly. Give a class time to discuss what needs doing to make things right and how to stop something from happening again. How can others in the class help? This is where corrective conversations are key.

7) Home-school communication… To foster a good working relationship with parents, find out how it’s easiest for them to communicate with you. Some prefer a phone call but others find it easier by e-mail.

8) Own your classroom… Own your classroom, walk around and be confident. The relationships that we model to students and with other staff may be the only positive behaviour that the children see. Apologise if you make a mistake – you are modelling this for the child or young person and this will support you to build trust and respect. This, of course, extends to the corridor and any space you occupy!

9) Stick to your routines… Have your set classroom habits formed with crystal clear expectations and don’t deviate away from them, use time to reinforce these. You will soon see the benefits of the children knowing what to expect and where they stand. Invest time in setting up your routines and planning for behaviour. Talk about routines and expectations regularly, the start of a new term is a good time for this.

10) Praise… The classroom is a place filled with funny and positive interactions, and your students will all feel appreciated in different ways.

Please get in touch with either of us if you’d like us to drop in to a particular class or student that’s causing you concern or if you’d like to meet to brainstorm strategies to use with particular groups. If you’d like some behaviour for learning coaching or to develop CPD for your department, we’re here to support!

We hope you have a great week.

Mark and Jo