Newsletters

GHS Connect #9 Monday 8 November

From the Head

I hope that everyone had a lovely weekend and that those celebrating Diwali had a brilliant time.

It feels as if we are in full swing back to our normal routines, with my thanks to everyone involved in Year 7 tutors evening last week, and my thanks in anticipation to everyone involved in Year 8 Parents’ Evening, which will take place on 18/11/21 (please note change to original date in planner).

This week, we will begin a consultation with HODs about the curriculum going forwards. We have had our current curriculum model, with some early entry and a two year KS3, for a long time now. Given the impact of Covid, as well as a review of our vision for the school over the coming years, we feel it is time to ask whether this continues to be the right model.

We will also be undertaking our first book look of the year with HODs, focusing on SEN.  A good way to think about books is through the frame of the ‘ABC’ training provided on SEN during our October INSET day.

• Access to Task - Do the books show how the child has been given access to the task - are there gap fills, starting sentences, other support evident from the teacher?  Remember that this doesn’t need to be prepped in advance necessarily. Going around with a pen during the lesson, and supporting a child ‘in the moment’ is just as good, if not better.
• Bridge to Independence - Do the books show evidence of the child being able to complete a task independently? If they have got stuck, or have run out of steam, what is being put in place to help them? Hint questions given by the teacher, perhaps in the margin are a quick and easy way to support this. Again, this can be done ‘in the moment’ during the lesson.
• Check understanding - Does the feedback in the books demonstrate a full checking of understanding and the chance to follow up through Learner Response? Are LRs also checked to ensure that the child has progressed further following the feedback?

Finally, as part of our commitment to further develop character in the school, Noble has asked me to share a quotation or reference to an event / current affair, which you can then  discuss with your students. This week’s quotation is particularly pertinent, as we will be discussing bullying in assembly, and also marking remembrance on Thursday.

“Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength.” – Dalai Lama

Have a good week,

Mia

Monday
Normal day.

Tuesday
Meeting: Department time 3.15pm - 4.30pm.

Wednesday
HODs/HOYs meetings 3.15pm - 4.15pm.
Teacher Marking, Planning and Collaboration - directed time 3.15pm - 4.15pm.

Thursday
PSHCE P1: resources here. 

Friday
Normal day.

Learning and Teaching

Spotted!

A round up of some of the great learning and teaching strategies we’ve noticed being used around school recently...

• Ben Gunn creating that ‘bridge to independence’ for year 7 students as they set off devising their own plays. He circulated to each group supporting their discussions and scaffolding and redirecting where necessary. 

• Peter Mather introducing a new Year 13 A-Level topic in an imaginative and engaging way, whilst increasing students’ cultural capital! Quite a few students asked to take the newspapers away to continue reading some of the articles:

• Will Hirtzel using a warm manner to build positive relationships with his trickier classes and his voice to maintain a productive working environment. In fact, when the students’ voices get louder than needed, Will becomes quieter and calmer which in turn lowers the volume of the class and helps the students to re-focus.

Learning and Teaching: Book looks

As Mia mentions above, over the coming weeks we’ll be looking at the learning journey in student books, with a focus on SEND and PP students in particular. 

Below are some practical things to consider in order to achieve the support Mia describes: 

• In lessons, keep an eye on student books and check how well students are completing classwork - it’s easy to give this less attention when focussing on the marking of assessments and tests which may be on paper. 
• Consider your seating plan - are students who might struggle or rush learning easily accessible in the room or nearby the teacher’s desk so that they can have some extra attention. 
• Ensure students have enough time to stick in worksheets and tag in assessments; you may need to physically model how you want books to look. 
• Check that prepared resources give students the best opportunity to show you their learning - worksheets photocopied and reduced in size to very small to save money can be challenging for SEND students to access. 

Kelly McCarthy

Inclusion and Pastoral

I hope that everyone had a good first week back - a belated Happy Diwali to those who were celebrating last week!

Don’t forget that we have PSHCE this Thursday - have a look at the resources in advance and if there are any queries, please feel free to ask me or Keely. Some staff have asked if they can adapt the resources so that they work better for their tutor group and that the timings are better. Of course you can - just make sure you make a copy first and cover the essence of the lesson to ensure the SOW is being followed. 

I mentioned a few bits and pieces about our LGBTQ+ community in briefing on Wednesday - to follow that up, here are the key things I said:

• A new policy on protecting our LGBTQ+ community is going to governors in the next couple of weeks;
• Staff who have been approached by staff to discuss sexuality, gender-identification and other issues around this area are encouraged to listen, not judge or try to offer solutions;
• Sign post students to their Year Teams or the Child Protection Team if they need to talk further;
• A LGBTQ+ student group has started to meet each week and can offer support - ask me for more details;
• There is a programme of work beginning to be rolled out initially with Year 7 to raise awareness and promote diversity.

As always, you know where I am if there is anything you would like to ask or if you are concerned about a student. Or, if there is any support or advice you can offer to the pastoral and CP Teams, that would be fab.

Have a good week! 

Lou 

Inclusion Heroes!

This week’s award goes to the entire Year 7 Team for their hard work, nurture and care when it came to Year 7 Tutors Evening on Wednesday - what they did in preparation for ‘meeting’ parents for the first time and the time they spent on Wednesday was really impressive. Thank you!

Behaviour for Learning: Low-level chatter

We know that low-level chatter and off-task behaviour can be a problem across the year groups at GHS. A number of you have asked what can be done about it as it is detrimental to students’ learning.

We have drawn together a list of strategies which we have seen work well in GHS lessons:

• Give pupils legitimate opportunities to talk, e.g. think pair share, talking with their partner or structured small group work with clear roles.
• Use challenges to encourage pupils to be quiet as quickly as possible, e.g. “That took 30 seconds – that’s good, next time see if we can halve it”.
• Clap your hands, sound a horn, use a musical instrument or use a silent gesture e.g. hand in the air.
• Write instructions on the board.
• Set a task as soon as they enter the room (Do Now) – they might be more willing to listen as a result or hand this to students on a worksheet as they enter the room so that they have something to focus on immediately and it doesn’t matter if they can’t find their book etc. This needs to be accessible to all students otherwise they are likely to disengage. 
• Understand that some pupils with SEND will need reasonable adjustments in regard to calling out or reacting to instructions.
• Use engaging short tasks or break bigger tasks down into smaller, more manageable parts.
• Build positive relationships and a part of this is doing 50/50 as students enter the classroom. There’s some interesting research on this which we will share at a later date.

In terms of keeping students on-task:

• Give clear time-limits for tasks and gentle reminders.
• Use positive encouragement and give character points – put the names of the students who receive them on the board so it’s visible. Send positive postcards home. Phone parents to tell them what greatness their child has done.
• Pause the activity, allow for thinking time and ask pupils to feedback on what they have done so far.
• Open the windows and let in fresh air!

As always, we hope you have a great week.

Mark and Jo