Newsletters

GHS Connect #21 Monday 9 March

From the Head

Over the last few weeks, I have undertaken a number of lesson observations and I wanted to feedback some trends of the many examples of great practice I have seen. Perhaps one of the most obvious positives has been the planning of lessons which has been consistently excellent. Time and time again I have observed a very clear, logical thread of learning that has forced students through the necessary steps to make strong progress, key to ensuring that great learning takes place. Another real strength has been the positive relationships I have observed between teachers and students. In the lessons I have visited, students want to be there, they really like their teachers and behaviour has been managed positively and effectively. I have also been impressed with books - students have achieved a lot since September!  Learner responses help to support students to take next steps and it is clear that weaker students are being supported with organisation very effectively. Obviously, I have seen a snapshot of practice in the school, but I also know that everybody is working extremely effectively to support the ‘Greenford Way’. The evidence speaks for itself!

Thank you for your attention to my updates on Coronavirus (Covid-19). If you haven't picked up your hand gel, please check your tray in reception. This is for your personal use in school. Please continue to keep me informed if you have any health concerns. We will carry on as normal unless circumstances force us to do otherwise, and please rest assured that I am keeping up with the guidance daily, and also liaising with the local authority. I intend to go into assembly throughout next week to speak to the students, as a number of them have been asking me about what we will do if somebody gets the virus.

Thank you for all of the events that took place last week - Sarah and all of the staff who dressed up and performed a reading on World Book Day; the Careers Talk on Engineering organised by Trish; ‘Chelsea’s Choice’ for Year 9 - thank you Keely and Lou; Year 7 netball organised by Siobhan. We have also had a Post 16 trip to St Paul’s Cathedral (thank you to Joe and Trish); the Globe Players performing Macbeth to Year 11 (thank you to team English); a Chemistry competition at Queen Mary University organised by Christabel and a French play put on for Year 9, organised by Christie.

Enjoy your week everybody!

Mia

Learning and Teaching

Spotted!

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

> Naomi Foot inventively using ping pong balls to show how carbon transfers from one place to another in the Carbon Cycle.

> Dipa Pindoria creating a wonderful nurturing environment for her set 3 Maths class, deftly stretching the most able and supporting those who were struggling.

Learner response stamps

Thank you to all the colleagues using their new stamps to acknowledge the effort students make in completing Learner Response tasks - keep up the good work, especially when feeding back from the PPEs. 

Here's a couple of examples we've spotted:

In focus: 'The Teenage Brain' by Jeremy Jones 

Please find Jeremy’s next fascinating instalment about the teenage brain below. This week, he is focusing on brain plasticity. 

Brain plasticity

It is reassuring to think that brains don’t change very much but as you have hopefully realised over the past 2 weeks, there is a great deal going on inside that skull of yours. Perhaps one of the most fundamental changes of all is encapsulated in the idea of brain plasticity. This is conceptually a difficult idea so hang on in there if you can; or simply come and see me and I will explain face to face. If we go back in evolutionary time it is clear that really the reason we have a brain is fundamentally to allow us to adapt to change, especially changes in our environment. An organism can’t survive on instinct alone if it is to inhabit environments as diverse as the plains of East Africa, the ice deserts of Siberia, the tropical humidity of the amazon basin or the floods and typhoons of the Ganges delta. If you think about it (excuse the obvious pun) then the only way anything can adapt and survive this level of diversity is to evolve an organ that can also adapt; its only prerequisite is to learn about wherever it finds itself. The only precondition is to expect the unexpected and use the resources it finds to allow it to survive. That is essentially what learning is for and as you can imagine we (humans) are bloody good at it; why else are babies’ heads so big, why else do we invest so much effort in nursing babies for so long and why else we would spend so much time in social groups?

That is in essence what brain plasticity is, nothing is fundamentally set in stone; networks in the brain can be reworked and reconnected to suit whatever environment (replace this with: job, school, town, country, friendship group, lover etc) it finds itself in. The important part is that children, unsurprisingly, do this adapting (learning) so much more quickly than adults. Again if you think about it this is obvious; wherever they find themselves will be new so they will have to adapt to it  very quickly if they are to survive. It genuinely is easier for a young person to learn the piano or a new language, or learn how to walk a tightrope or how to ski or how to ride a unicycle. Brain plasticity is an absolutely amazing human adaptation and it has allowed us to, in effect; conquer the world, look deep into the universe and the atom, it allows us to produce the wonders of Shakespeare and the musings of Keats but it also means that a person brought up in a violent environment will have a different view on what it means to survive from the person brought up in a rich, varied and loving community. I will leave you to think on that but know that everybody will change depending on their environment.

Jeremy Jones

Coming up...

GCSE PPE 2 - all week.

Tuesday 10 March: Tuesday meetings

Year Team meeting: 3.15pm - 3.45pm

TLR Holder meeting: 3.45pm - 4.15pm

Department time: 3.45pm - 4.15pm

Thursday 12 March: Year 12 Parents' Evening

Year 12 & Year 13s causing concern 4pm - 7pm