Newsletters

GHS Connect #12 Monday 2nd December

Mia's notes

Thank you for attending our emergency briefing last week which, as I said in my announcement on Friday, may lead to some interest this week, due to sentencing being postponed. 

We are now in December, which in many ways feels unbelievable! As we run up to Christmas we will plan for the usual events at the end of term. An assembly, tutor time and early dismissal will take place, and we will meet as a staff to wish each other well for the Christmas break. More details will be on the VLE this week. 

Speaking of Christmas, many of you will know that it has been a tradition for me to buy presents for all staff and for students to wrap these up. Following some feedback last year, this year I have decided that instead of presents, I will donate the equivalent amount of money I would normally spend to charity. This year I have decided to donate this money to Médecins Sans Frontières who do such important work in saving lives in crisis moments all over the world. Whenever I am having a bad day, I always try to remember that there are other people across the globe who are experiencing something far, far worse. This charity helps to remind me that when something goes wrong, it really is ‘life or death’ in other places overseas. So no wrapped presents from me this year, but hopefully the equivalent donation will make some difference to other people somewhere else in the world.

Have a great first week of December,

Mia

The week ahead

Monday
Normal Day

Tuesday
No meeting due to Subject Evening. 

Wednesday
Briefing 8.15am in the library.

Thursday
Year 8 Subject Evening. Pizza, coffee & chat in the library from 3pm. See the VLE for further details.

Friday
Normal Day

Learning and Teaching - Pride in our Routines

If you were helping a colleague, you wouldn’t stand 5 metres away, call across the room, and assume understanding just by looking at them. The same logic can be applied to the classroom, and this makes purposeful circulation one of our non-negotiables.

This week, Dipa Pindoria shares her top tips for purposeful circulation:

Circulation should be intentional and deliberate. Therefore we should:

• Vary the type of circulation according to its purpose:

1. Start of lesson → circulate to check expectations e.g. planners/equipment.
2. During MWB activity → circulate to identify misconceptions and confirm correct answers.
3. During discussions → circulate to hear good ideas to share with the class.
4. Start of independent task → circulate to check understanding of task.
5. During independent task → circulate to support students with work.

•  Carry a marking pen as we circulate to live mark.
•  Plan our circulation route - our ‘deliberate path’- informed by formative and contextual data.
•  Position ourselves so that we can always see the rest of the class. E.g. use the room’s perimeter as a generalised path.

Here is Tom Sherrington’s take on the power of circulation.

Elsewhere, Mr Balu uses 'pop up' models to help scaffold students in comprehending the formation of tropical storms. Dimensional models are a fantastic tool for subjects like Geography, DT and Sciences.

Arjan Dhindsa and Fabricjo Likmeta are on great form in the lesson. Lujain Tyrer shows off her artistic talent in the second image. Well done Year 9 Geographers
 

SEN and ARP updates

Importance of teacher feedback

At this point in the year, we can start to identify some students that may need some additional help. As part of the process of supporting students with additional needs, or who may have additional needs, collecting teacher feedback is invaluable. We can share this information with parents and wider professionals to ensure that students get the right support. We also use this information to support with the annual review process and make the appropriate referrals to external agencies. We collect information in the form of Round Robins, which are sent out my our SEN Administrator, Naz. Please ensure you complete these with as much information as possible to help us ensure that students are receiving the right support

Fay

Inclusion Heroes

This week I'd like to nominate Fuad, Silva, Amandeep and Monika for their wonderful work with the Somali parent workshop this week.

Gurvinder

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