Newsletters

GHS Connect #37 Monday 13 July

From the Head

…...and suddenly, it’s the last week of the year!  A huge well done to everybody for getting through what has been the most extraordinary year. None of us, including even those partial to reading or studying a dystopian novel, could have predicted the events that have unfolded over the last few months. And while it has undoubtedly been a year of great difficulty at times, and of course, huge sadness in the loss of Douval, and many other loved ones, we have also come a long way. We’ve learnt how to do things differently, in innovating to adapt to our circumstances and in, I’d like to think, supporting each other and looking out for one another. I’d put money on the fact that everyone must have got at least a little better in using technology and I’d also hazard a guess that everyone has surprised themselves by missing at least one aspect of school life at some point!

On Thursday, we will meet briefly as a staff team to say goodbye to those colleagues who are moving onto new adventures. Please join us on google meet at 11am using the following code: meet.google.com/suv-wfnc-dvh. 

Make sure that you have a little glass or cup of tea and cake in hand to celebrate the end of the year together! As always, it is easier if you join using your GHS login details as you will be let in automatically if you do.

Over the next day or so, I will be communicating our plans for re-opening in September. We will be refining these over the coming weeks, and getting much of what is required in place in August. For that reason, we will save Q&A sessions until the September INSET days which will be taking place on Wednesday 2nd September. The SLT will run some ‘socially distanced’ presentations in the hall and other venues, and we will have plenty of time as we have extended our phase-in time for students, with all students coming in separately in year groups across a number of days. More specific details around this will be in the document I will share over the next day or so.  For now, please just remember to:

> Turn up ready for work on Wednesday 2nd September;

> Look out for VLE announcements about specific details from mid-August onwards;

> Be ready to socially distance and be sensible on arrival on the 2nd September. We will give more details about how this will work in September, but please remember that if you are a large department, you will not all be able to cram into workrooms, for example. We are looking at ways in which we can provide larger spaces for staff to gather and have meetings etc - more on this will follow.

For now, all that there is to say is, have an absolutely wonderful summer, and thank you once again for all that you have done to ensure that in spite of all of the difficulties, we have continued to offer a first class education to so many of our students. We are ready and waiting to deal with the ones who have stayed in bed!!

Mia

Learning and Teaching

Spotted!

A round up of some of the great learning and teaching strategies Greenford staff are using currently…

> Jeremy Jones, Rachael Fowler, Will Halsey, Lou Grimley and Louisa Tall observing excellent social distancing when teaching in the classroom!

> Adam Bush having warm ‘banter’ with his year 12 students!

Learning and Teaching

We’ve had really thoughtful and detailed feedback from the two surveys regarding online teaching and learning both from the student and teacher perspectives - many thanks if you contributed to this. The data collected will be shared with staff in due course and will help us to shape the online provision going forward in the new academic year. 

In the last post of the year we wanted to convey to staff the theme which strongly underpinned the feedback of the student survey. Although many students expressed that they found working remotely challenging, a good many took the opportunity to write comments expressing their gratitude to teachers who had supported them through this difficult period. 

The wordle below is automatically generated by Survey Monkey from student written responses and, very aptly, ‘Thank teachers’ appears at the heart of it!

Kelly McCarthy

Staff Shout-Outs

Thanks to everyone who has sent in shout-outs for colleagues in the last couple of weeks. We've had so many that we've had to create 13 collages! Here goes...

Inclusion with Lou

This week's Inclusion update will be short and sweet - all I want to say is a huge thank you to everyone for continuing our pastoral care in these strange and challenging times.

Whether it was: managing a Tutor Group Google Classroom; sending encouraging emails and feedback to students; virtually checking-in; phoning home; contacting a HOY because you were worried; referring a worry to me; facilitating a bespoke session in school; creating space in your Year 10 or 12 lesson to talk about lockdown experiences; suggesting a pastoral activity that could be shared; getting together work packs to go out; dealing with the distribution of laptops; listening to a distraught parent; running Lockdown Mini-School; putting the red/orange list together; taking the time to read the red/orange list; writing a post-it shout-out, or doing many of the other bits and pieces you have been doing, you have all been brilliant.

Have a great summer break, when you get to it, and here's to more Inclusion amazingness in September.

Lou Grimley