Newsletters

GHS Connect #11 Monday 21 November

Mia's notes

I hope everyone has had a restful weekend.

Four days to get through before we have our nice long weekend - an opportunity to rest and recharge or simply do something different on a Friday, instead of being at work!

Once we return from this weekend, it will almost be December, and it does begin to feel psychologically a lot easier, in the lead up to Christmas.

Thank you in advance for everyone’s contribution to Wednesday’s parents’ evening. Hopefully it will go well, but we will, of course, be interested in feedback after the event. Please do take note of Andrea’s announcements and make sure you understand how the evening will run. One point of confusion has been around times to book breaks. There is an allocated break time during the evening, during which any breaks should be scheduled. Please do familiarise yourself with Andrea’s announcement.

Finally, we do have a bit of sickness going around, so I would ask people to support where they can, and please ensure that everyone is out and about doing meet and greet and out on time on duty. This is even more important when we have colleagues off. Thank you in advance. On this, a massive thank you to Gina who coped admirably whilst we had a lot of people off on Friday - you are a superstar Gina!!

Have a great week everyone, and enjoy the long weekend,

Mia

The week ahead

Monday
Normal day.

Tuesday
No meeting due to Year 8 Parents' Evening.

Wednesday 
Year 8 Parents' Evening - hybrid model. Details on VLE here - you'll need to be logged in to the VLE for the link to work.

Thursday
PSHCE P1 - Fire evacuation practice. Details on VLE here. 

Friday
No school - occasional day. School closed for staff and students.

Learning and teaching: Spotted!

A round up of some of the great learning and teaching strategies we’ve noticed being used around school recently... This week, a bumper crop of examples of teachers embedding the ABC strategies in their lessons. Thank you for all your hard work on making this strategy live in lessons!

Gulaid Gulaid using ‘I do - we do - you do’ expertly with his year 10 Business Studies students.  They were creating ‘market maps’ and Gulaid modelled it at first, then students completed one together as a class, before working in small groups before finally each creating a market map on their own. It enabled all students to access the work and created the bridge they all needed. 

Bright Spots

Bright Spots this week are dedicated to various aspects of SEN and Learning Support this week.

Dan Siskin has nominated Bal Jassal, Clive Joseph, Marcia Henry, Tia Tamou and Justine Doughty for their work with Year 7 ARP students. In Dan’s words: "I want to publicly share how grateful I am for all the work that Bal, Clive, Marcia, Tia and Justine have done with the Year 7 ARP students this half term. The students that they support present some incredible challenges in our school setting, however every day, the team are there, supporting these students (and the wider year group too!). They are undeniably an integral part of  the Year 7 community.”

Thank you and well done to the whole team!

Gurvinder Nayyar has nominated Harpal Sagoo for delivering the Purple Pen Training with our HLTAs and TAs. In Gurvinder’s words: “He shared excellent examples, modelled great practice, and made the session incredibly interactive.”

Well done and thank you to Harpal!

SEN update

I just wanted to update and share with you some SEN links, resources, and information, that you may find useful.

Student Support booklet

You can find the SEN Student Support Booklet on the VLE here. You'll need to be logged in to the VLE for the link to work and can also find it under the Pastoral menu > Student information.

• Please look at this closely, it highlights all our SEN students that are on our SEN register, their needs and the strategies staff can use to support these students
• The booklet will be updated when required so please check regularly.

Exams Access referral form

A reminder that on the desktop you can find the Exams Access Referral form (EAA).

• Please complete this for any students that you think requires exams access in school from Year 9 upwards.
• This may enable a child to benefit from extra time, scribe and/or reader and give our students every opportunity to achieve and make progress. 

SEND referral form

We also have the SEND referral form which can be found on the desktop.

• Again, please complete this for any students that you think may have SEN needs and require further assessments.

SEN categories - background information

I wanted to share with you the different categories of SEN and the difficulties these learners face in lessons. After reading this, please refer to the SEN Student Support Booklet for further strategies to support our cohort of students (see above). 

Finally, I just wanted to thank the SEN team, Monika Siek and Fay Hudson (Deputy SENCOs) and Baljit Jassal our ARP Manager for all their fabulous work leading the teaching assistants, organising, and delivering staff training, creating resources, and working with external agencies. Monika Sierkowska for her fabulous organisation and continued support with collating and filing information, organising, and liaising with our external agencies to ensure information is up to date. Finally, the Teaching Assistants/HLTAs for all their incredible work day to day supporting staff and students in the classroom, communicating with families, and leading the numerous SEN extracurricular clubs.

Thanks to you all for all your amazing work with our SEN cohort.  It is hugely appreciated.

Gurvinder

Inclusion Heroes!

This week’s Inclusion Hero is Steve Wilson, aka Security Steve, quite simply for all the times he has stepped in over the last week to help out with various situations at times when we were struggling from a staff point of view. Steve, the staff and students (and parents!) of Greenford High School are lucky to have you. Thank you!

Lou

White Ribbon Day

White Ribbon day is on 25 November each year, which is also the start of 16 Days of Action against domestic violence and sexual violence.  16 Days of Action ends on 10 December (Human Rights Day).

White Ribbon is a campaign led by men to end male violence against women and girls. The White Ribbon movement began in Canada in 1991 following a massacre of female students at a university in Montreal. A small group of men got together and looked for a way for men to oppose violence against women. They decided to encourage men to actively show their opposition by wearing a white ribbon. Since then, the White Ribbon movement has developed internationally and is active in over 60 countries.

White Ribbon is the UK’s leading charity engaging men and boys to end violence against women and girls.

For more information please visit: https://www.whiteribbon.org.uk/

Niloo