Newsletters

GHS Connect #19 Monday 24 February

From the Head

Welcome back! I hope that everyone has had a good half term, with some much needed rest and time away from the job. I was in Ireland, which was rather wet and soggy but it made for a good change of scene. I hope that many of you made it away to more pleasant weather or managed to hibernate at home. 

This week will see Emmet, Lisa and Jo finally head off (fingers crossed!) to Berlin after they were unable to fly following Storm Ciara. A massive thanks to them all for their forbearance, especially Emmet, who spent many hours in his own time, before and during half term, working with the travel company to make the trip happen. I hope that it all goes well once they finally make it.

Well done to Richard Lewis who was appointed as Head of Post-16, following a very competitive interview, with everyone who put themselves forward performing extremely well. Well done also to Jamie Rosser who has been appointed as our ARP Centre Manager. Jamie will take up post at Easter, whereas Richard will start his new role in September. This term will see recruitment season well and truly underway and I will continue to keep everyone updated with any opportunities that may arise internally. Please do let myself or Paul know if you are thinking about moving on; it really does help massively if we can advertise roles sooner rather than later.

Thank you very much to everyone who was involved in the Year 9 parents' evening before half term and thanks in advance to everyone for the Year 7 one coming up. RE had what can only be described as an epic evening, with teachers trying to see up to 4 classes in one evening. I can only imagine that they must have been reciting their key messages in their sleep that same evening! 

I hope you all have a great first week back.

Mia

Learning and Teaching

Coming soon to a pigeon hole near you…

A number of colleagues have been asking for LR stickers for their teams -apologies for the delay on this. I know they are used brilliantly across school to acknowledge that students have made a real effort to act on feedback given to them by their teachers. 

To streamline the process we’ve invested in some snazzy stamps that will hopefully do the job just as well and avoid having to print thousands of stickers every term!

One will be allocated to each member of teaching staff shortly, along with a couple of other bits of stationery to make the marking process a tiny bit more bearable!

Please can we have a big push on using them to recognise where students have made progress in their learning by responding to teacher feedback. 

Thank you!

Kelly McCarthy

In focus: 'The Teenage Brain' by Jeremy Jones 

For those of you that don’t know, Jeremy is somewhat of an expert on the teenage brain, and has spent the last few years working with Learnus, an organisation he helped to set up, that aims to link the work of neuroscientists with the education profession. Before half term, he did a lecture to parents, students and some staff on ‘The Teenage Brain’. Fascinating stuff. A key takeaway today is around ‘memories’ with more to follow in future editions.

The problem with memory…

So the real problem with memory is that it is actually really, really difficult to achieve, which is why we all forget most things that happen to us on any given day. As a teacher you have to ask yourself why would anyone remember something they were told only once or indeed twice? After all, we retain only a vague recollection of about 5% of the content of  books that we read; indeed most of us can’t remember what happened on Love Island yesterday, let alone what happened on it a week ago and we actually liked watching the programme! The truth is that to make a new memory the brain (well, neuron) needs to build a new connection with a neuron that it hasn’t been connected to before. It literally needs to commit the protein, eaten at breakfast, to building new neuron connections (axon terminal), that is quite a physical undertaking and one that no sensible brain will do unless it really thinks it is worth it.

Not only that, but once it has laid down that new pathway, it, the pathway, is constantly being monitored to see if the new memory is being used enough. This is the really strange part of memory… if the new link is not being used then it will be pruned/cut away, literally like pruning your roses. The brain is a wonderful thing and if memory pathways are being used then the connection will get stronger and stronger but only if they are used over and over. If this doesn't happen, they will be broken down and the precious proteins reused for something more constructive: like remembering a football match you had been to; or a family gathering you enjoyed; or the fear of having no friends; or the worry of parents arguing at home; or the boy/girl that you made laugh last time you met; or the latest Kpop band's lyrics. 

You see, memories are wonderful but surprisingly hard to form and hold on to. Think twice next time you assume someone has remembered something because unless it is important to them, or unless they are enthused about an idea, or it has shocked them or intrigued them, or humiliated them then it will be recycled as some other, more important part of the miraculous BRAIN.

Jeremy Jones

Coming up...

GCSE PPE 2 - all week.

Tuesday 25 February: Tuesday meetings - note shortened meeting due to extended Year 7 Parents' Evening.

Department time: 3.15pm - 3.45pm

Thursday 27 February: Year 7 Parents' Evening (4pm - 7pm)

KS5 Interim deadline (Year 13 PPE results)