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GHS Connect #28 Tuesday 5th May

Mia's notes

I hope everyone has had a lovely longer weekend. I know that last week felt quite hard in lots of ways for quite a few people, so I’m sure it was very welcome. Still, we are definitely on the home straight for Year 13 and 11, and there will then be time for a little breather and valuable head space to think about priorities for next year in all of your areas.

I’m sorry I have not been at briefing for a while, and the next couple of weeks will see me not there too. This week, I am sitting on an Independent Review Panel regarding an exclusion for another school and next week, it’s High School Heads’ Meeting. Do remember you can pop in and see me at any time if there’s anything you would like to discuss.

Mia

The week ahead

Tuesday
Department Time - 3.15pm - 4.30pm

Wednesday
Briefing in the library – 8.15am

Thursday
Normal Day

Friday
Normal Day

Notes
Year 7 Assessment Week (in class)
Year 9 Assessment Week (in class)
Year 13 last day (Friday 8th May)

Learning and Teaching Tips and Strategies

This term, we will be sharing top tips and strategies around revision.

Are your students seeing connections or just memorising facts?

Week 4: Visualising and Organising Knowledge

Effective revision is not just about remembering more, it is about organising knowledge so that it can be understood and retrieved.

Top Tips:

• Combine words and visuals to help students connect ideas through dual coding.
• Use simple diagrams to support explanations.
• Model how to turn notes into visuals such as flowcharts or concept maps.
• Link visuals to retrieval by asking students to recreate them from memory.

Use colour to highlight connections between ideas.

See here for Adam Boxer’s 7 steps for dual coding.

Learning and Teaching Update

Student exercise books act as both a tool for teachers and students to ground the learning journey that takes place and should demonstrate, over time, the progress that students are making.

At this point in the year, we are focused on Year 11 and Year 13, who will start exams next week. What routines do you have around books to ensure every student still takes pride in their work? 

Don’t forget that in our final Action Research this year, we will be asking that you showcase something that has had a positive impact on learning in your classrooms.

What pledges did you make at the start of the year that have helped your students make progress? Is there a routine you’ve successfully embedded, or a retrieval activity that has made a difference in how students retain information?

Remember, the learning and teaching team have been sharing top tips since the start of the year. Here are all the links you need to find them.

Andrea and the L&T Team

Inclusion Messages

As we approach the season of exams, I wanted to share with you some podcasts and websites around mental health support and the issues surrounding young people.

Experts unpack the growing pressure on young people and what must change 

Young people are increasingly facing unprecedented pressures. Thanks to this, the conversation around mental health and youth services has never been more crucial. From the cost of living crisis to the pervasive influence of social media, today’s youth are navigating challenges that can severely impact their mental well-being. Watch or listen now:

Public Sector Executive Podcast on Youth and Mental Health Services

The Hidden Dangers of Pinterest - White Hatter

Pinterest tends to fly under the radar. Unlike Instagram or TikTok, it has never attracted the same level of public concern, it's older, it's built around image collections, and most parents consider it benign, if they think about it at all.

That perception is the problem. The White Hatter, a Canadian digital safety organisation, published a blog post recently after supporting two families whose children had shared intimate images via Pinterest's direct messaging feature. In both cases, the parents had no idea the platform had a messaging function.

It's a broader pattern worth raising with parents. Platforms that present as visual or creative tools like Pinterest, VSCO, Tumblr, Lemon8, Canva, Amino, often include messaging features that aren't obvious. The question worth putting to parents isn't "what app is my child using?" but "what can that app actually do?"

The article is a short, practical read:

https://www.thewhitehatter.ca/post/what-parents-didn-t-know-about-pinterest-matters-for-all-caregivers

Hope you all had a lovely bank holiday weekend.

Gurvinder

Bright Spots

Congratulations to Rachael Chong who was one of the local authors talking at the recent Ealing Book Festival. Click here for a write-up of the Local Authors Showcase.

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