Newsletters

From the Head

Just before half term I was reminded again of how much people are valued at GHS. In my most recent ‘Hot Chocolate Friday’, a variety of teachers were nominated enthusiastically by the students that I met. Thank you to Jamie Rosser, Pam Lewis, Sabrina Thurairajah, Josh Levitt and Niloo Adhami who all featured this time. My favourite quotes were from Kyrah who wrote of Niloo, ‘I respect the way she respects me’ and Russell who said of Jamie, ‘he always makes the lesson fun but also makes us concentrate on our work.’ Two quotes summing up the best of what we all do at GHS, showing ‘ready’ and ‘respect’ in action, I felt!

I have also had a number of staff contacting me to celebrate their colleagues. Jeremy wanted to thank Jen Williams for her work with Post-16 while Sanna wanted it made known that Jo Leaver-Cole had been an amazing support to her while she was preparing for a CPD session. Sanna also suggested that GHS Connect is used regularly for staff celebrations, which sounds great to me. If you have anyone you wish to celebrate, please just email me with your nominations.

I’m writing this in advance of the new half term, and I’m trusting that everyone will have a safe return from the China and Valencia trips and that everyone has had a great time. I didn’t have such an exciting break in sleepy Suffolk, but it was a rest nevertheless. Wherever you have been and whatever you have been up to, I hope that you have had a good, relaxing and rejuvenating week away from school.

Have a great week everyone!

Mia

Learning and Teaching

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

Spotted!

> Cimi Hysenaj personalising his Learner Response tasks by giving a gap fill where necessary and indicating the length of response required so that all students are clear about how to make improvement.

> Georgina Stevens leading a lively and sophisticated discussion about Animal Farm with 11y1.

> Amanda Hill building strategies that help promote vocabulary as a tool for learning. Her students were able to discuss the role of social responsibility with success in ‘An Inspector Calls’ because the key vocabulary has become part of every lesson.

Using MINT to support your lesson planning

A helpful new feature has been added to MINT to make it easier for you to access SEN information. 

When a student on your seating plan has the SEN button showing, click the  > symbol  to flip their card over:

This will show you the “SEN info” button:

When you hover your cursor over this you will get a detailed description of their condition and specific difficulties:

(Currently only 7 and 11 showing, but other year groups will be following soon)

An example in action

Alicia (see above) is in my Y11 class. I have sat her near the front to help her visual difficulties. When we are completing long written activities I let her know at the start of the lesson – this gives her time to get her laptop running. If there is a need to copy text from the board during the lesson, I print the slides or write the information on a mini whiteboard, so that Alicia can have it in front of her to read. I have also written her access arrangements on my mark book, so I remember to offer them to her during assessments. 

Clare Secombe

In focus: Successful sixth form lessons

Class as Community

Your class will function better, perform better, behave better and make teaching more fun when they work together as a proper learning community. 

Group work is beneficial (in pre-selected-by-you pairs and trios) when you are grouping students together by strengths and/or weaknesses. Sometimes random groups produce wonders too. Students need to feel comfortable learning (and making mistakes!) with each other. This is especially crucial for external students who may feel isolated in a class of students who’ve known each other since Year 7. Easy ways to get them out of their seats and working with a mix of students in the class include:

> Have every other or every third student stand up and move clockwise two empty seats over.
> Names on sticks – useful not just for cold calling on students!  Pull out three at a time to form a group.
> Spell for Groups:  students take turns spelling a word one letter at a time.  I used “MOUSE” the other day with my Year 12s.  All the M’s were a group, all the O’s were a group etc.

Annji Bashforth

Coming up...

This week - Key Stage 5 assessment week and book look

Tuesday meetings 29 October

Department time 3.15pm

Key Stage 4 cohorts meeting 4.15pm

Key Stage 4 core meeting 4.45pm

BTEC course leader meeting 4.45pm

Thursday 31 October: Year 7 Tutor evening