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GHS Connect #3 Monday 28th September

Mia's notes

Thanks so much to everyone for the hard work put in for another very successful open evening. There was a lovely atmosphere and feel to the evening. It was, of course, helped by a lighter evening and nice weather, but the site, displays, tour guides and classroom activities were all the most important part in making the evening a success.  A special thank you to the following: Pam Lewis for all of her work in training and prepping the tour guides, speakers, helpers and other elements of the evening; Cherish Bristow who managed and rehearsed our wonderful musical act Rebecca; Adil Salamat who stepped in to support with the IT and sound management in the hall; Ben Dyason who oversaw all the logistics and project managed the evening from start to finish. Well done and thank you to everyone else who was involved, and apologies, as usual, if I have missed anyone.

Have a great week,

Mia

The week ahead

Monday
Normal Day

Tuesday
Year Team meetings (3.15pm - 4pm)
Directed time Form Time Reading Project (4 - 4:30pm) - Library

Wednesday
Briefing in the library – 8.15am
HoDs, HoYs, SEND, TF, directed time (3:15-4:15pm)

Thursday
Normal Day

Friday
Normal Day

Notes 
Year 11 Assessment Week
ECT 2 Welcome Conference (Thurs)

Learning and Teaching Tips and Strategies

What comes next?

Week 3: Sequencing learning

Students are more likely to succeed when new learning is introduced in a deliberate order. The aim is to make sure each step prepares students for the next.

Top Tips:

• Map out the conceptual journey students need to take before planning individual lessons.
• Introduce new ideas in relation to what students already know.
• Retrieve the prerequisite knowledge students need before each new idea can be understood.
• Increase complexity by varying one feature at a time, so students can identify what has changed and why it matters.
• Check that students can connect the current learning to what came before, before moving on.

Delve deeper: Peps Mccrea on From general to specific: sequencing for meaning. Read here.

Start of the Year – Behaviour and Routines

As we continue to establish expectations at the start of the year, consistency across classrooms is key. The routines we establish now will shape our behaviour culture for the rest of the year.

1. Meet & Greet
   Be visible at the door. Welcome students, check uniform, equipment and establish a calm entry.
2. Start Strong
   Have an immediate routine: enter, seat, equipment and do now. Begin learning quickly.
3. Insist on 100% Attention
   Do not teach over talking. Pause, reset and ensure you have the room before continuing.
4. Teach the Routines
   Do not assume students know our expectations. Explicitly teach and reinforce routines for entry, equipment, transitions, questioning, packing away and dismissal.
5. Correct Calmly & Consistently
   Keep corrections brief, clear and unemotional. Apply the 4 C’s system consistently and avoid unnecessary confrontation.
6. Notice the Positive
   Actively recognise students who are meeting expectations. Positive narration helps establish what successful behaviour looks like.
7. Follow Through
   If an instruction or consequence has been given, follow it through. Call home. Ensure they attend your department detention. Keep students behind for a caution.
8. End & Send
   Maintain expectations until students leave the room. Lessons should finish calmly and purposefully and they should only be dismissed when you deem the class clean and ready.
9. Sweat the Small Stuff
   Uniform, equipment, punctuality, transitions and talking over classmates must be consistently addressed to avoid larger issues.
10. Our collective responsibility

Students should experience the same high expectations in every classroom with every member of staff. Warm relationships and high expectations go together.

What we consistently reinforce in September becomes our culture. If you are lenient on the above, it will make life more difficult for colleagues who are following all the systems.

Rav

Inclusion Messages

Inclusion

Childline Data: The Five Apps Most Linked to Online Sexual Abuse - NSPCC

The NSPCC has published figures showing which platforms children name when they talk to Childline about online sexual abuse. Between April 2025 and March 2026, Snapchat came top with 324 mentions, up 19% on the year before. It was followed by TikTok (234), Instagram (197), Discord (92) and WhatsApp (39). Between them, these five platforms came up in nearly 900 counselling sessions.

None of these names will surprise you, but the figures are useful to have when you are talking to staff, parents or pupils about online safety. The NSPCC is also calling for nudity-blocking technology to be built into children's devices as standard.

More information here: NSPCC

Keeping Children Safe in Education

This is a one-page summary of what every member of staff needs to know: what safeguarding means, what to do if a child tells them something, and the different types of abuse, neglect and exploitation.

Changes this year include prejudice-based harm, and reporting a child carrying or threatening to use a weapon. It also covers staff behaviour and whistleblowing. For a downloadable copy, click here.

SEN Updates

Below is the link to further enhance your understanding about SEN.   The Podcasts focus on different areas such as parenting neurodivergent kids, thinking about wellbeing for neurodiverse kids, behind the masks focuses on autism.

https://thesendcast.com/sendcast-episodes

Thanks so much, hope you have a lovely week.

Gurvinder

Bright Spots

The first of this week's Bright Spot is Richard Lewis, nominated by Hebe, who says:

Please could I nominate Richard for working tirelessly all year round to ensure a successful enrolment, but especially since the results days. Also, for guiding the Post 16 team to ensure Y12 have the best start they can and that Y13 are ready for the most important year of their school life. The team wouldn't function without him!

Next:

Rosie Soneji has made a wonderful start to life at GHS in the History Department. Ljiljana Krneta (Mentor) and Arron Poole (Head of Department) have been impressed by proactive approach to support the department and her students. Well done, Rosie!

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