Newsletters

GHS Connect #22 Monday 16 March

From the Head

Last week, on Friday, it was wonderful to walk around the school and see that, despite all of the panic in the news, learning at GHS remains focused, high quality and extremely productive. Thank you for not only just getting on with it, but for getting on with it so well! The students are obviously concerned about what is going on but we are all managing to keep them focused on what matters most - their learning.

Despite trying to keep business as usual, it is clear that things are rapidly moving in a new direction and we do need to respond accordingly. To that end, I have decided to cancel all big events until Easter and also cancel assemblies. We continue to plan for possible closure and I would like to hold a staff meeting on Tuesday 16th March prior to the CPD session to update everybody. Thanks to Will and Paul who have already worked so hard on getting online resources ready to launch on our website.

We also need to be mindful and realistic that some of our colleagues may be self-isolating and / or off sick. This will put additional pressures on the school and could lead to further anxiety. We will all need to work together and support one another and I know that in true GHS style, everyone will be brilliant at doing that.

Let’s see what this week brings!

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…

> Louisa Tall using shared writing on desks in a year 12 lesson to support students writing PEEL paragraphs.  

> Rav Dhindsa celebrating the efforts of his year 8 class in their Midsummer Night’s Dream assessment and providing them with tailored LR tasks to improve even further! (See below)

TUESDAY CPD: A change to the published schedule!

It’s now the GHS Online Learning and Remote Working Marketplace!

*We begin the afternoon with a Whole Staff Meeting led by PYE in the Lecture Theatre at 3.20pm*

In order to make home working as streamlined as possible in the event of full or partial closure, we will be running the following sessions to support colleagues:

Each session will run three times; you do not have to go to all of them - select as appropriate for your level of knowledge.  

Session timings

*5 minute movement time provided to support prompt arrival to sessions!

3.20-3.40pm: Whole Staff Meeting in the lecture theatre led by PYE
3.45 - 4.10pm: Session 1
4:15 - 4.40pm: Session 2
4.45 - 5:10pm: Session 3
 

What do you need to do now?

URGENT: to enable us to prepare resources and rooms, use this link to sign up for the workshops you would like to attend.   

Deadline: Monday 16th - 3.30pm.

Please only sign up in the green slots if possible; you may need to swap the order of your workshops to enable this.  Only when all green slots are full in all sessions should you sign into the orange slots. You will still be able to attend the session, but I will need a bigger venue!

Need more help after Tuesday? 

Drop in sessions will be available on Wednesday from MCC and LPs  to support any colleague who needs additional support after the training to get up and running or to troubleshoot issues.

You may also have experts in your teams who can help.

In focus: 'The Teenage Brain' by Jeremy Jones 

Please find the latest fascinating instalment from Jeremy on the teenage brain below. 

Brain Maturation

As I mentioned last week brain plasticity is a wonderful thing and it is especially important in young people as they make sense of their environment and any changes to it. I imagine the neuron connections in young people as being like B roads linking London to Bristol: try getting to Bristol using just the B roads; it will take you a long time but WOW the variety of connections you could make and the huge number of different routes you could take would be immense. 

The young brain is perfect for the young person but not as well adapted for an adult. An adult no longer needs to amble down B roads, but needs to make decisions much faster and with more confidence. In effect, they  want to build a motorway between London and Bristol: they get there fast, it’s more efficient and they know the route and therefore the risk. In neuroscience this is called Brain Maturation. Brain Maturation involves the consolidation of neuron connections that are being used and the myelination of those connections; in essence the brain gets rid of the B roads and builds super connections (motorways) in their place. No surprise to any teachers but this happens in adolescence (between ages 12 and 18). In Year 9, Brain Maturation has just started and in Year 12 and 13 it has nearly finished. If all of this sounds rather incredible that is because it is! It may make you look at your responses to Year 9 students in a different light!

Jeremy Jones

Coming up...

Tuesday 17 March: Tuesday meetings

Whole staff meeting on Coronavirus: 3.20pm in Lecture Theatre

Training on online/remote learning platforms - see above!