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GHS Connect #4 Monday 26 September

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GHS Connect #4 Monday 26 September

Mia's notes

I hope everyone is feeling rested after the weekend.

Last week started with the excitement of the Year 7 and 11 photos - thank you to Dan and the whole of the Year 7 and 11 teams for your support with what is always a tricky exercise! As the week went on, we managed to secure alternative provision for some of our more challenging Year 11s - well done Noble! - and, with a few exceptions, continue to enjoy a largely incident free week.  Thank you again for all that you are doing to ensure that the school remains a calm, happy and productive place.

This week, we have a visit from the new LA advisor, Corinne Gill, on Thursday and I want to thank everyone who is involved in this. When she comes in, myself and Amandip will be sharing details of our excellent exam results at all levels. I have no doubt that she will be extremely impressed.

In other local authority news, it would appear that there has been a huge influx of students coming in from abroad into London - some are refugees, others are economic migrants. At the same time, some of our students are moving out of the area for various reasons, often due to being rehomed. We therefore have a small number of vacancies, and will pick up a few casual admissions in some year groups, so don’t be surprised to see some new faces over the next few weeks.

Next week is, of course, our open evening. I know that people are taking this opportunity to update displays and tidy up. Thank you in advance and thank you for everything else you are doing to promote our school in the very best light.

Have a lovely week,

Mia

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The week ahead

Monday
European Day of Languages - details on VLE staff announcement here

Tuesday
Meeting: Year team / Pastoral 3.15pm - 4.30pm

Wednesday 
No meeting

Thursday
SLT chat, coffee and cake 3.15pm - 4pm 

Friday
Normal day

Notes
Year 11 and Year 13 assessment week

Learning and teaching: Spotted

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

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Ben Gunn using laminated question sheets to consolidate prior knowledge. Students felt motivated to try using the laminates because any wrong answer could easily be rubbed out and corrected.  The collaborative nature of the task helped to support learning for some and catch up others who were not in. Best of all, the laminates are reusable for future drama rotations so have saved on photocopying!

Amandeep Phull taking time in her lesson to ensure her Year 7s can log on to their MyMaths online platform. She booked out the laptop trolley and modelled a step by step process to ensure all students have access to MyMaths and their online task. 

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Learning and teaching: Access strategies

In line with our ABC training at the start of the year, I have been thinking about how I improve explicit vocabulary teaching with my year 11 literature students so they can better access our set text ‘An Inspector Calls.’ I found a very neat 5-step process in the book Teaching Walkthrus:

  1. Specify and define the words
  2. Say the words-chorally, in pairs and rapid fire to individuals 
  3. Read the words in context
  4. Practise using the words verbally and in writing 
  5. Engage in word based retrieval practice. 

This week I focused on the first two stages but was surprised  at how difficult some students found it to pronounce unfamiliar vocabulary correctly.  It struck me that, until now, I had often skipped over this stage of verbal reinforcement, probably making it difficult for my students to remember and spell new words. However, after using the strategy above, instead of saying that the character of Sheila is a golddigger, the students can use the word materialistic; the character Gerald is no longer a suck-up but a sycophant. 

This week, I’ll be working on the remaining stages so that this vocabulary is embedded and readily available to students as they write their essays.

Kelly

Bright Spots

This week I am sharing 3 bright spots. Keep them coming and keep looking out to see if you have brightened someone else’s day!

Sukey Mathadu: nominated by Tam Ashley  

Tam has nominated Sukey because she has done a fabulous job this year with getting the Year 7’s paperwork in order and onto SIMS. She has worked like a trooper communicating with parents, staff and pupils to get the job done and then taken care of all of the tweaks after day one! All of this whilst being efficient, hardworking, proactive and ALWAYS having a smile on her face. Thank you Sukey!

Clive Joseph: nominated by Phoebe Henderson-Barnes

Phoebe has nominated Clive for always, without fail, being there to run the table tennis club, every Wednesday. This is a club loved and really appreciated by students. Thank you Clive!

Ben Gunn: nominated by Lou Grimley

Lou has nominated Ben for brightening up her day by putting in place incredible planning and resources for her first Year 9 Drama lesson on non-naturalistic drama. Year 9 produced 5 non-naturalistic performances, entirely due to the hard work he had put in. Thank you to Ben!

SEN strategies

To follow on from the INSET in September focussing on A, B, C and Mia’s key messages about ‘getting to know’ your students, I wanted to reinforce strategies for our key SEN groups.  Please remember to look at MINT classroom and the SEN need for each child in your class and then apply the strategies accordingly.

Autistic Spectrum Disorder ASD/ODD 

  • Scaffold for oracy: use talk frames to guide conversation, provide success criteria/ checklists, pre-teach vocabulary
  • Modelling: using verbal modelling to show an appropriate volume e.g. ‘If I was answering this question it would sound like’ or ‘Using a whisper to complete this…’.
  • Chunking: adapting text into concise extracts, use a technique to highlight subject specific information e.g., highlighters for +/-, timelines for key dates, use small chunks of instruction, number instructions and model ticking off tasks, use visuals to present information.

Speech, Language & Communication Needs (SALT) 

  • Use ‘Do Now’ to reinforce previously learnt concepts, making links between cross curricular topics, model the required skill to access work, using visuals and sentence starters, give take up time. 
  • Pre teach required vocabulary, encourage students to highlight words they do not understand, use the visualiser to emphasise difficult words and provide images to support word recognition
  • Encourage the use of word webs, if students have a TA, provide them with key words for them to reinforce

Social, Emotional & Mental Health Needs (SEMH) 

  • Descriptive praise whilst circulating in the room (written form/stamp/ sticker) - see example right from Jess Humphries
  • Personalised lesson outcomes for groups of students (e.g., traffic light, Nando's chilly spice rating, bronze, silver, and gold)
  • Engaging students in questions and answers in class to gain interest
  • Literacy perspective find texts that may be stimulating for the student

How to work with your Teaching Assistant in the classroom?

Jo Cole and Monika Siek will also be supporting departments and encouraging teachers to use the 'How to work with your TA in the classroom' template. This is a template which teachers can fill in for their classes and give to their TA, enabling them to target support at specific students. It only takes a few minutes to fill in!

You can find the template here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16HzFw0veIfvnier-U_iZNca95gT-vVwl/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=103536781176594210583&rtpof=true&sd=true

Gurvinder

Ending and Sending

Please can all staff ensure that you are “ending and sending” students at the end of your lesson by “dismissing at the door”. There are some lovely pictures below where staff are modelling the correct way to end & send students, supporting excellent behaviour in the corridors, once they have left the lesson. This is a brilliant opportunity to PIP (Praise in public) those students who have been superb in your lesson!

Mark

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Youth mental health day

Youth Mental Health Day was on Monday 19 September.

Youth Mental Health Day (YMHD) encourages understanding and discussion of mental health in young people, enabling them to live happy and healthy lives all year round. Each year, the day aims to get young people, and those who support them, talking about how to improve mental health.

Mental health concerns for young people have multiplied in recent times and one in six young people aged 5-16 have had a mental disorder. Youth Mental Health Day is here to provide hope by getting young people engaged in discussions and activities about how to improve their mental health, YMHD goes beyond awareness and breaking the stigma surrounding mental health, into tackling the heart of the issue.

YMHD was founded by stem4, a charity that supports young people to build positive mental health.

Niloo

Inclusion Heroes!

This week's award goes to Will Hirtzel and Noor Al-Musawi for an incredible turn-out at Chess Club. The library was so packed, I couldn’t see who was running the club at first but did manage to spot them eventually… 

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GHS Social

Greenford High School Follow
Congratulations Bukayo! https://t.co/ryVIeTMFUV
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Greenford High School Follow
Year 11 had to talk about their ideas wearing blindfolds (ok, old masks), therefore removing the distraction of other people's facial reactions. Here they are mid-discussion and absolutely NOT posing . It really helped them focus on describing, and listening to the key idea https://t.co/OYoAEzEc7R
2 days ago
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Year 8 PHSCE students using drama to explore the theme or 'resilience'. Excellent work! https://t.co/VbxbIbqGhi
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