Newsletters

GHS Connect #30 Monday 18th May

Mia's notes

This week brings a Year 9 Thorpe Park trip, continued interventions for Year 11, a visit from Learnus to film a celebration of their work with us, a Geography trip and much, much more, as usual! Thank you so much for everyone’s support with everything that is going on.

Now that Year 11 and 13 are off on study leave, I want to reiterate Ajay’s request made last week, that we do not let students out of lessons to wash hands and fill water bottles etc. I also want to reiterate our commitment to ‘meet and greet’. Now is a good time to reset expectations about routines and learning. We are also doing a uniform push; we’re aware that crocs suddenly seem to be the ‘go to’ shoe for some of our students and trainers are making an appearance too. Rav shared the communications we have sent to parents about this and how many students are being put in lunchtime detention.  We need everyone to play their part please by sending students to Student Services if they are not in perfect uniform first thing in the morning.  

Thank you and have a great final week before half term!

Mia

The week ahead

Monday
Normal Day

Tuesday
Department Time - 3.15pm - 4.30pm
Equality Working Party

Wednesday
Briefing in the library – 8.15am

Thursday
Normal Day

Friday
Normal Day

Notes
Year 9 Interim 3 due
Year 11 Interim 4 (Indicatives)
Year 13 Interim 3 (Indicatives)

Learning and Teaching Tips and Strategies

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

Week 6: Metacognition and Exams

Effective revision is about making good decisions about what, when and how to revise, rather than just revising more. Modelling metacognitive processes helps students to learn how to plan their revision and revise strategically.

Top Tips:

• Encourage students to identify strengths and gaps before starting revision, and to prioritise difficult content.
• Teach students to choose strategies deliberately rather than using the same approach for every topic.
• Use low-stakes quizzing to identify gaps in knowledge and focus revision on these areas.
• Model the creation of revision timetables by breaking content into manageable sections.
• Show students the difference between familiarity and mastery.

Dos and Don'ts

Louise Astbury joins the EEF to consider the challenge of building revision routines in the run-up to exams. See here.

Student Voice - What feedback have our School Council Shared this year?

At Greenford High school, we aim to use 'Student Voice ‘ as a consultation strategy, regarding pupils as ‘expert witnesses’ on teaching and learning (Rudduck and McIntyre, 2007). 

The School Council at GHS

• Our current school council model is comprised of Form Reps who have been selected by their form tutors. Their ‘job’ to to represent the thoughts and feelings of their fellow tutees 
• The school council is a microcosm of our school community, and it is here that we have the opportunity to gain feedback from a wider range of students. 
• We had our first meeting of the year at the end of March, which was a great opportunity to evaluate some of the key changes made to teaching and learning and to gauge their opinions on the Student Experience at GHS.
• In Assembly earlier this year, students were asked to use their voices to be professional, disciplined and the architects of their school experience. Please see some of the insightful ideas and feedback they have shared during our meeting: 

I hope you’ll agree that our Student Council are reflective of our student body with practical and somewhat realistic headteacher suggestions and a good understanding of feedback/ teaching and learning!

If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback or if there is something you’d like discussed with our students, please contact: jwilliams@greenford.ealing.sch.uk

Jen

Inclusion Messages

Safeguarding Updates

Resources and Guidance - Crimestoppers

Crimestoppers' youth service, Fearless, offers a range of free downloadable resources for professionals working with young people. These cover topics including county lines, knife crime, child sexual abuse and harmful sexual behaviour, child financial exploitation, FGM, and drugs and alcohol.

The resources are practical and school-friendly, and include downloadable booklets, posters, and a set of scenario-based playing cards designed to prompt discussion with young people about reporting crime. Fearless also offers free outreach sessions for schools.

One barrier to young people reporting crime is fear of being identified or of being seen as a "snitch." Fearless addresses this directly, offering fully anonymous reporting by phone or online, with no personal details taken at any stage.

The full resources library is available here:

https://crimestoppers-uk.org/fearless/professionals/resources

Mental Health Support for Students During Exams

As we enter exam season, we are seeing some students struggling with increased stress, anxiety and panic attacks.  Please do take a moment with the child and encourage the following:

Encourage students to sit comfortably with a straight back.
Place your left hand on your chest, and right hand below it, on their diaphragm. Inhale deeply through your nose for 5 seconds.  Hold their breath for 2 seconds.  Exhale slowly through their mouth.  They should feel the expansion in their diaphragm.  Repeat for 1 or 2 minutes until the student feels calm.  Please also seek support from medical if unsure.

Coping with exam pressure

Gurvinder

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