Newsletters

GHS Connect #11 Monday 22 November

From the Head

I had a lovely meeting with our 5 candidates for Head Girl and Head Boy on Friday and took the chance to talk to them about what made GHS great and what we could do better. Their responses were very interesting and helpful. As ever, they were very complimentary about the wonderful teaching and support they have had over the years and very much valued the sense of community which runs through GHS.  They particularly valued the re-introduction of PSHCE and said that they wished they had access to this when they were in their younger years.  In terms of what we could do better, like us, they are keen for a more pronounced return to normality, and felt that cross year group clubs and activities would help to build community further. They were also keen for us to continue to invest in better student wellbeing.

Our move towards bouncing back to a better sense of normality is certainly in progress, and this has come through really well through the ‘good news’ stories you have been sharing. Do keep them coming and look out for Chetna’s announcement each week.  A few highlights to share this week…

Post 16 are very, very busy with UCAS and amongst all of that, 3 Year 13 students have already been invited to interview at medical school and 1 student has been invited to interview at Cambridge to read law.  Also, thanks to Hebe who shared that an Oxford admissions interviewer came into school last Friday to talk to our Oxbridge applicants about their upcoming interviews. It was a fantastic hour where our students could soak up all his expertise and prepare mentally for the next steps of their application.

It was also lovely to hear about the Year 7 and 8 celebration afternoons and experience the delight of one Year 8 girl who chattered non-stop about how much enjoyed it, as she walked alongside me up to the Ruislip Road gate last week. Sometimes we can forget how well most of our students do, as too much of our time can be spent focusing on those who struggle to make the right choices. The reality is, of course, that the vast majority of our students are wonderful, the vast majority of the time!

It has been great to hear about the number of clubs now running. In addition to a great number of sports clubs, with lots of fixtures, we are running 20+ clubs across each week and while I won’t mention them all individually, thank you to everyone who is contributing to this. It makes a huge difference to the experience of the students in school.

Finally, thank you to Kathy Rayner for organising and running a successful Year 10 borough Netball tournament last week, Sarah Williams who is running the Greenford Read this week, Maya and Dan who are preparing for Christmas assemblies and the concert, Christine and the Geography team who are off to Overstrand Hall in Norfolk and Noble and Lou who both organised visits connected to gang affiliation prevention work last week.

Enjoy your day off on Friday and don’t forget to leave straight away on Thursday to make the most of the long weekend!

Mia

Monday
Normal day.

Tuesday
Meeting: Department time 3.15pm - 4.30pm.

Wednesday 
Year 13 Parents' Evening 4pm - 6.30pm on School Cloud.

Thursday
PSHCE P1: resources here.

Friday
Occasional day - school closed for staff and students. Enjoy your long weekend!

Learning and Teaching

Spotted!

A round up of some of the great learning and teaching strategies we’ve noticed being used around school recently... Some great examples of marking and feedback from across the school this week! 

• Georgina Stevens asking a question in LRs or giving students a sentence to complete as a focussed way of ensuring they progress in a specific area.

• Georgia Pawelko circulating in the room offering feedback and  guidance to her GCSE students as they used chalk in different ways to create texture in their drawings. 

• Sarah Lee supporting her students to peer assess each other's designs for a chair.  Students offered feedback on one successful element and made one suggestion for improvement. 

Learning and Teaching: SEND Focus

Hello Everyone,
 
I wanted to share a quick SEN update with you. Lots of staff have asked me how to guide a TA in the classroom. Following on from our whole school training and the example from Jess, I have created a template for you all to use. The TA checklist should be given on arrival to lesson with stickers (where appropriate). Next to the criteria you can assign students' names, so for example, student X may need support with sticking in a document into their books. This will enhance the communication with the TAs and teachers, whilst ensuring our students receive the appropriate level of support to make progress. You can find the document here, feel free to amend the document adding your own criteria and taking out where necessary. 
 
I wanted to say a huge thank you for all your fabulous work following on from the whole school training with A,B,C.  I see lots of great examples around the school.
 
Thanks,
 
Gurvinder Nayyar
KS3 SENCO

Inclusion and Pastoral

4 day week - yay!

Firstly, a thank you from me for supporting the SMHW catch-up sessions - these will be continuing this week so apologies in advance for the disruption. Students should only be out of lessons for about 10 -15 minutes as it takes no time at all to get them signed up.

Another thank you to everyone for supporting with the One Kind Word campaign from Anti-Bullying Week - please continue to promote this very simple message. We are still having issues with pockets of students who are continuing to struggle with accepting diversity in all its forms in our school and not channelling their ability to be kind… Michelle Williams, our attached social worker, will be starting some group work this week around peer-on-peer abuse and appropriate conduct online.

Remember that it’s PSHCE this week - as always, if there are any issues or questions about resources, please do not hesitate to contact me or Keely, and feel free to adapt resources so that they work for your group. You can find the resources for all year groups here.

Lastly, Niloo has been working hard on getting information out to students, parents/carers and staff about how to look after your wellbeing, so keep an eye out for this. And, remember our counsellors are there if you need them - Jo can be contacted on jmorgan111.307@lgflmail.org. 

That’s it for this week - have a good week, everyone and enjoy Friday!

Lou 

Inclusion Heroes!

This week’s awards go to the entire Year 8 Team for such a successful Parents' Evening this week and to Kelly McCarthy for going above and beyond while waiting for Welfare to arrive at the end of break this week! Thank you to all of you!

Behaviour for Learning: Consistency (systems) and low-level disruption

Open door policy
Following the news from Europe over the weekend, it is important to remember that we are still in a pandemic, so please ensure that your classroom door remains open during lessons and that the room is well ventilated. Thank you for the superb examples of “end & send” that we have witnessed over the past weeks. Please continue to adopt the “50:50” approach at the beginning and end of lessons, allowing students an opportunity to say thank you for their lesson, whilst you support in monitoring corridor behaviour. 
 
Masks
Now that students and staff should be wearing masks in communal areas, it is a clever idea to get your class to put on their masks before they leave your lesson so that you do not have to address missing masks as you end and send your lesson.

Behaviour Drop-in surgery
Thank you to those staff that attended our first surgery. We had a lovely mix of experienced staff and those newer to the profession, who were able to discuss and share different behaviour strategies over their lunch. Please feel free to pop along to our next one on Wednesday 1st December, in GG13.

Bill Rogers - Top Tips 
Low-level disruption within the classroom can be one of the most frustrating things to deal with as a teacher. Bill Rogers offers some strategies in dealing with this, summarised below. Last year, we offered some examples of these in practice and have shared some again below. 

• Positive Correction: the basic premise that teachers and schools should adopt a non-confrontational approach to discipline, based on positive teacher-student relationships, respect for the dignity and rights of individuals, choices about consequences of behaviour and encouragement for student self-discipline.
• Prevention: planning for good behaviour; teaching the routines and the rules.
• Consequences: have a clear structure that students understand and use to inform the choices they make.
• Repair & Rebuild: the imperative to work hard to build and repair the damage that is done when things do not work out.

No Why Questions
Harpal Sagoo avoids asking students why they are doing what they are doing so as not to inflame them. Students can often not have their correct PE kit. Harpal, rather than asking why they do not have their full PE kit, asks the students what the rules are about PE kit and what students need to do in future to observe the rules. This avoids unnecessary confrontation and changes students’ behaviour. This is an on-the-spot reaction at the start of the lesson but is something that might need more exploration for repeat offenders.

Direction with tactical pausing
Kathryn Thomas uses this effectively with one of her lower set classes at the start of the lesson. Students are often slow to settle and get on task, so she makes it clear what she wants students to do rather than focussing on what she does not want them to do. For example, Kathryn might say, “Omar Ali please take your coat off and sit down.” She does this in a welcoming, calm, and friendly tone even though she is addressing behaviour. 

Blocking with partial agreement
Dan Siskin uses this during restorative conversations. He listens to what students have to say regarding the incident and his response is often, “Maybe you didn’t say/do that, but I have a report here from a teacher that you did.” This depersonalises the conversation, so a student does not feel attacked and responds in a way to match that feeling

If you have any questions or want any support regarding the things discussed in the behaviour for learning section of connect, please get in touch.

We hope you have a wonderful week.

Mark and Jo