Newsletters

GHS Connect #9 Monday 11th November

Mia's notes

Today we will have a 1-minute silence at 11:11am. A bell will ring at the start of the minute’s silence and at the end. This is to remember all the people that have ever been affected by any war. Many thanks in advance.

Looking back to last week, it was wonderful to greet some of our alumni and other visiting professionals who came in to do mock interviews with our Year 10 students. It was such a productive exercise for our students and as usual, we got lots of lovely feedback summed up with one quote for me, which stood out: “The kids are so engaged and friendly; this is always such a lovely school to come to!” Thank you to Clare Rodway and Will Halsey in particular, but also to Ben Dyason, the rest of the Year team and everyone else who was involved.

It will be another busy week this week, but hang in there, as it’s the occasional day next Friday on 22nd November!

Have a great week,

Mia

The week ahead

Monday
Normal Day

Tuesday
Department Time - 3.15pm - 4.30pm

Wednesday
Briefing 8.15am in the library.
HODs and HOYs/DHOYs meetings 3.15pm - 4.15pm.
Teacher marking, planning and collaboration directed time 3.15pm - 4.15pm.
SEND focus group 3.15pm - 4.15pm

Thursday
Normal Day

Friday
Normal Day

Notes
Year 11 Mocks 1 (EBACC)
Year 12 Assessment Week (In Class)

Learning and Teaching - Routines

L&T routines are a core focus this year, getting the basics right. With a collective and consistent approach to our routines, we will continue to foster a positive behaviour culture at GHS. As the winter days get darker, it is important that we support each other by sticking to our routines. 
Here’s a reminder of what we’ve been focusing on since September.

Each week in Connect, we have been celebrating staff who put our routines at the centre of their practice. This week, we would like to hear from you. Please take a moment to share your view - anonymously - on our L&T routines here (3 questions).

Interested in further reading? Here is an article from the Chartered College of Teaching on ‘The Role of Routines in Creating an Effective Learning Environment’ here (7 minute read)

Finally, I know everyone will be happy to hear that Mr Wilcox has now set up his Google Classroom so that Elijah Lee (pictured) can upload things directly instead of emailing all staff. Thank you for all your hard work, 

Andrea and the L&T team

Year 10 Mock Interviews - Feedback

I wanted to share the employer feedback that Clare Rodway has collected following the mock interviews on Thursday. It reflects incredibly well on Year 10 students and the whole Y10 team. The feedback we have received so far is linked here, but below is a selection of the responses received:

• The students were eager to engage, I like that they had their CVs with them. 
• Really good.
• The engagement of the students with the interviews
• The kids are so engaged and friendly, this is always such a lovely school to come to!
• Meeting the lovely pupils at Greenford!
• The general enthusiasm the pupils showed
• It was excellently organised, I appreciated the timings so we could do a bit of work in-between, and I really felt like this was a valuable use of our time with the students. I'm very keen to do an event like this again.

Will

SEN Department Updates

I hope you all had a lovely half term break.  I just wanted you to be aware of some upcoming events and updates with regard to Inclusion and SEN.

CP Information

• There will be a greater focus on updating the website.
• CP training has now been delivered to wider team of staff including the canteen staff and exam invigilators.
• We have produced a new booklet which includes the updated links for keeping children safe in education.  This is given to visitors and agency staff on arrival at school.
• We are planning parent workshops around online safety.
• We will be running more workshops with SSO and specific year groups.
• Mental health and Exam Anxiety workshops with students will begin in January.

SEN Update

• The pathway skills centre although in its infancy is providing a safe space and a wonderful learning environment for many of our SEN pupils.  I have shared below the current timetable for the pathway centre to give you an idea of the students that attend.  We also have a group of students that arrive ad hoc, names below.

Ad hoc: 

• RJ
• EDJ
• NAI
• TBB
• CCS – Cover lessons only 
• JSH – Cover lessons only

Alternative Provisions:

The following students are attending Let Me Play and or currently studying on Academy 21.

LMP- RS & ZH

Academy 21- CB, MSM & JO

Gurvinder

Bright Spots 

This Week's Bright Spots have all been nominated by Andrea:

Will, Clare Rodway and the Year 10 Team for the Year 10 mock interviews that happened this week. The organisation was seamless and so professional. It was amazing to see the variety of external visitors who came to ask questions they might need to answer when they are in a real interview. Speaking to a few visitors, they were impressed with our young people. Also, it was lovely to see how much confidence some of our Year 10s left the hall with after having a successful interview.

Sarah Williams for launching our Form Time Reading Project this week. Sarah has launched the programme for Year 7 – 10 this year and there has already been such positive feedback. One form was so excited they asked if their form tutor would keep reading to them until break. We know that reading for pleasure has so many benefits for our young people. This is only one of the ways Sarah is promoting reading.

Suze Hughes launched her KS3 Achievement intervention this week with Year 8 and 9. It was a pleasure to pop into her first session with Year 8 who were immediately engaged and excited to have been chosen. I know that these sessions will have real impact on their confidence.

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