Newsletters

GHS Connect #28 Tuesday 6th May

Mia's notes

I hope everyone had a lovely long weekend. 

Thank you to everyone for all of the wonderful things we continue to provide for our students. Of course, we are working on the final push towards exams, but we also continue with so many more things which really demonstrate our commitment to the whole child and our character strengths.  A really good example of this is the wonderful news that this year we won the category for the Raspberry Pi competition.  

Tom has told me that before announcing our school as the winner, the lead judge—who is also one of the directors of Google Cloud—had this to say about our product.

“This is a case for supporting individuals living with memory difficulties. So, anyone that's been affected by Dementia or Alzheimer's, anything like that, it's just really hard. So, anything we can do innovation-wise to make lives easier for them, less scary, more easy for them to remember their loved ones, and, most importantly, for them to not feel unsafe in their own homes…It was solving a real problem, which we really, really, really thought was, fantastic. It was providing seamless support for using face and voice recognition.

So, so much more than the existing IoT devices that we've got…It was about the facial recognition and then even providing them with memories. ‘Remember your daughter's coming around today; this is her here to remember; this is her name’. And it was, I thought it was really, really relevant.”

Once again, thank you to everyone who is continuing with last minute interventions. It will have real impact and is very much appreciated.

Have a lovely week everyone,

Mia

The week ahead

Tuesday
Department Time
KS3,4 & 5 TLR Holder Meeting 3.30-4.30pm

Wednesday
Meetings - 3.15pm - 4.15pm:
HOD Meeting
HOY/DHOY
Teacher Mark, Plan & Collab
SEND Focus Group

Thursday
Normal Day

Friday
Normal Day

Notes
Yr 7 Assessment Week (in class)
Yr 9 Interim 3

Learning and Teaching - Pride in our Classrooms

This week’s 60 second strategy shares how to obtain Representative Feedback – “We said…”

This strategy supports high-quality ‘sharing’ during Think, Pair, Share.

Aim:

• We want to obtain feedback from pairs that is representative of what was actually discussed.
•  If feedback is representative:

 i) gaps in knowledge and misconceptions can be identified;
ii) every voice is heard.

Implementation:

1. Consider the question before asking students to share. Use prompts like “What did your group say?” or “Summarise your group’s position” rather than “What do you think?”
2. Provide sentence starters that encourage students to share details of their discussion, e.g. “We said…” or “We discussed…”
3. Consciously and deliberately choose different students to feedback at different stages.

Learn more about this strategy here.

PSHCE Top Tips

The second in our series of Top Tips for PSHCE comes from Oumayma Geagea:

• Consider PSHCE a “normal lesson”
• Set expectations at the start of the lesson “Ok, no I would like you to refocus, as we are starting PSHCE”
• Complete activities with a timer if appropriate- especially the Do Now as this sets the tone for the rest of the lesson
• I use praise, displaying a postcard on the whiteboard each lesson, which one student will receive
• Emphasise the importance- it is about real life

Trish

Oracy Update

“There is one simple strategy that has transformed the way I teach every lesson, every day: Think, Pair, Share.” Tom Sherrington shared on his blog Teacherhead.

Thank you for your energy in our Action Research on Wednesday 30th April!

In our CPD, we explored how Oracy can play a vital role in engaging all students. Think-Pair-Share is more than just a chat. It is the key to giving every student the opportunity to rehearse their ideas, practice explaining and engage in scholarly talk. For these opportunities to deepen learning, you need to consider your routine and your stimus.

Here is the graphic used to reflect key questions that will help improve structured Think-Pair-Share 

“Think Pair Share is a powerful and important technique that should play a key role in every teacher’s repertoire” Sherrington blog

For all our Wednesday slides please click here. 

Andrea

Inclusion Updates

Safeguarding Updates

Best Practices for Managing Images and Videos on School Websites

Earlier this month, the UK Safer Internet Centre published new guidelines to protect students and staff from digital media misuse. Educational institutions such as schools and colleges must be kept secure in their virtual space, as much as their physical space. This is particularly important when discussing the practice of image/video management. In an educational setting, this sphere of safety management typically looks to minimise data breaches and subsequent data distribution.

Media content online is an area of particular weakness. Publicly accessible platforms, such as school websites and social media accounts, must be carefully observed. Properly managing images safeguards not only students but also staff. If you are interested in learning more, click here.

A reminder that if you do take photos of students for social media please remind them first that these images may be published, and delete them from your phone once you have sent them to Elaine.

SEN Updates

Just a reminder that the SEN department will periodically run focus groups.  Please ensure that when invented you attend.  It is very useful for the department to update staff on any changes based on Educational Psychologist or CAMHS reports to help students progress.

For those who would like to carry out further reading, please listen to SENDcast (Podcast). Each week they share up-to-date information on the best SEN practices.

Mental Health - Exams Stress Support

Please direct students to the following website for exam stress.

https://www.mind.org.uk/for-young-people/feelings-and-experiences/exam-stress/

Many thanks for your continued support

Gurvinder
 

Bright Spots

This week's Bright Spots goes to Clare Rodway. Will says:

The Year 12 HE and Futures Fair was the biggest careers event we’ve run here at Greenford with over 45 universities and employers present. Attendance from Year 12 students was great too, with 235 students benefiting from the opportunity to talk to universities and apprenticeship providers here on site at Greenford. The vast majority of the work that went into this was Clare Rodway so a particular thank you to Clare for such a huge contribution to our careers provision and UCAS launch.

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