Newsletters

GHS Connect #25 Monday 22nd April

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GHS Connect #25 Monday 22nd April

Mia's notes

Welcome back and I hope everyone had a wonderful break. Thank you very much to everyone who came in and delivered and supported with our revision sessions over the holidays. They seemed to go really well.

A reminder that we are trying to push on various aspects of behaviour including well managed dismissal from classrooms and consistent ‘End and Send’. If we can all be present in the corridors, it really does help everyone with managing and setting the expectations for behaviour throughout the whole day.  

We will be having a staff meeting on Tuesday where we will revisit some of these key expectations. Staff will be able to leave after 30 minutes, so please be on time so we can start promptly.

Finally, do check out this news article on ex-student Navjot Sawhney, a true ambassador of what we aim to instil in our students, current and future… See The Washing Machine Project

Have a great week,
 

Mia

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The week ahead

Monday
Normal Day

Tuesday
Whole Staff Meeting - 3.15pm - 4.30pm
 
Wednesday
Briefing 8.15am in the library.
Action Research CPD 3 - 3.15pm - 4.15pm

Thursday
Normal Day

Friday
Normal Day

Notes:
Year 9 Assessment Week (In Class)

Learning and teaching: Embedding Excellence

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

Kathy Rayner uses specific praise during activities which explicitly highlights which areas of the success criteria students are meeting. Students said they enjoy PE because of the ‘energy’ she brings to the lessons.

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Inderjeet Lall uses ‘VIPs’ (Very Important Points) to draw explicit attention to key statements and core concepts. Students said it makes the lessons easier to understand, and the key ideas easier to remember.

Scott McCreeth bridges the gap to independence at A-Level through scaffolded checklists for coursework. Students said it reduces stress levels because they know exactly what they need to do. He also supports students to use module→grade calculators to review their progress and choose appropriate next steps.

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Muireann Ni Mhathuna uses student-friendly success criteria and scaffolded planning sheets to set students up for success in their final projects in Drama.

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Behaviour Reset Reminders

We continue to work on tweaking our systems to improve behaviour. Please note the following important points:

  • Anti-social behaviour will result in removal from lunchtime for 3 days. Students’ names will be added to the period 4 collection list.
  • Students without the correct uniform should go to Student Services. Please send students there if they arrive in form time or are in a lesson and do not have the correct uniform. Wearing trainers will result in lunchtime detention the following day. Students’ names will be added to the period 4 collection list. 
  • Truancy will result in an IE day. Persistence will result in a suspension.
  • We continue to talk to students who show a lack of respect to staff, as well as sanctioning them.
  • We continue to collect students for lunchtime detention if they have arrived after the second bell and this is logged by teachers on SIMs.

Thank you for your support in a whole school effort to improve the behaviour of a minority of our students who are struggling to meet our expectations.

Mia

Inclusion Updates

SEN

Just a reminder that exams access information can be found below.  Please ensure you review the updated list to enable students during revision to get used to adapting to their extra time where possible. 

The list of students that have exams access arrangements in place can be found here 

CP Updates

As we head towards the main exam time it's worth revising how we can support young people at what can be a very stressful time. 

Young Minds have a series of support pages aimed to help with exam stress and anxiety. Their advice is available to help school staff, parents, and carers and, of course, young people themselves. You can find this helpful advice in the links below - please feel free to share these with parents and students: 

School Staff - Click here

Parents - Click here

Young People - Click here

We will be running some department led CP training in the summer term, to inform staff of the changes in layout and categories set up in CPOMS. 

Inclusion Heroes

A huge thank you to Anup Rai in Learning Support. He goes above and beyond with supporting students, always volunteering to take part in extracurricular activities, truly appreciated by the students he supports.

Separately, a huge thank you to the Pastoral Support Workers for their continued mentoring with our young people.  Each term they will start with their new cohort and mentor for a 6 week period, working with our students to help them regulate, build their self-esteem and raise aspirations. 

We are in the process of plugging the gap for Year 8, but I wanted to thank Tevin, Malaka, Hemal and Justine for all their work picking up students during this time.

Gurvinder

Bright Spot

This week's Bright Spot is Alan Masters, nominated by Andrea, who says:

"Alan has worked tirelessly to ensure that RAD appointments were booked at the right time and with the right people. Also, he generated the interims at an incredibly fast turnaround. We wouldn’t be able to function without him!"

At GHS, our staff are very important to us, and we just want to remind you that as a Senior Leadership Team, we are always here to listen and support:

If you are feeling stressed or just need to talk, please contact:

L Grimley (DHT) or G Nayyar (AHT).

If there are any concerns about Equality and Diversity (staff)  at GHS please contact A Johal (DHT)

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Attendance Tracker

To view the attendance tracker, click here

For the latest X/Twitter feed from @ghsofficial, click here

For the latest Instagram feed from @greenford_high_official, click here

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