Inclusion & Pastoral
Firstly, a big thank you to everyone for PSHCE last week! We hope that it went well, despite the confusion for some year groups about which lesson they were teaching and the large numbers of students who didn’t have their booklets. Keely is going to map out exactly what lesson goes where, and will put this on the shared area. As for the booklets, I will keep the reminders to students going and make sure that the year teams have LOTS of spare copies, as we clearly need them… Remember that the next PSHCE lesson will be Wednesday 25th November in P1, to avoid those classes where we have a mixture of year groups. If you want to check any other future PSHE dates, they are on the VLE here.
Tutor sessions
As I have flagged up a few times in GHS Connect, we will be using some Tuesdays, P3 and P5, to run much needed tutor sessions, like the one we had in October. Next Tuesday, 24th November, P3 will be a tutor session - you will be with your tutor group and will work through a number of activities, including a whole school assembly from Mark on Behaviour and some Character Development work from Noble and Andrea. If there is anything that you would like to cover with your tutor group, please feel free to do so, even if this is just a space to catch up with them and see how things are going. Details of roomings and logistics to follow...
Schools Counselling Partnership
Many thanks to everyone who has had students come and go from their lessons for Schools Counselling Partnership, our regular counsellors, and the new look Teens and Toddlers - I know this movement can be disruptive and I appreciate people’s flexibility - let me know how students are getting on with catching up on any work mixed, or if there are vital in-class assessments that need avoiding. Over the next few weeks we will be getting ready for the next few big initiatives, including the John Lyons resilience programme I mentioned last week, Iheart, and the next stage of our Stepping Stones Programme (aka Tevin!) which will be to recruit some Year 10 mentors to work with KS3 students.
Social worker joining
Last bit of info from me - we have been lucky enough to be chosen, at random, to have an allocated social worker work with the school as part of a national pilot to reduce the number of referrals made to social services across the country. Michelle Williams will be starting with us on Thursday so say hello if you see her. She will, of course, be working ostensibly with key teams in the school, but will be a huge asset and will bring a wealth of information about how best to look after our students in terms of safeguarding and their well being.
Have a good week everyone, and if you get the chance, have a read of the PREVENT update, now on the VLE and our website. And, keep that trickle of KCSIE coming through!
Lou Grimley