Newsletters

GHS Connect #16 Monday 17 January

From the Head

Welcome back and thank you to everyone for such a positive week last week. As I was walking around, students seemed happy, focused and productive. We still don’t know what the next couple of weeks might hold, but things do seem to be settling down.

Thank you to everyone involved in parents’ evening - whether you were rushing home to make your appointments or staying in school, thank you so much for your commitment. Wherever you held your appointments, it’s no small thing to turn out for parents’ evening on a dark January afternoon. This is something that only people in the profession who have got through a whole day in school would understand! Thank you also to Alan and Mark for their organisation and leadership of the event.

Of course there are already lots of other things going on in the school even though we have only really just returned from Christmas - a big thank you to Clare Rodway for the Year 9 careers event and also to the whole Post 16 team who are busy getting students offers from Oxbridge - a huge well done to Lilia and Najwa! Phoebe has also asked me to say well done to Shaun Channer for his commitment to providing opportunities for GHS girls to get involved in football and thank you to Joe Moors for setting up a new Futsal club, which has proved very popular with KS3. I know that many other people are involved in so many things - don’t forget to share these so that we can all get to hear about them.

Finally, in terms of thank yous, thank you to everyone who supported the welfare room this week when we were short staffed - it was much appreciated and an example of a concerted GHS team effort!

Well done to Haydar who has been appointed as Acting Head of Maths and Rachael who has been appointed to Deputy Head of Maths. Amandeep Phull has been a superb leader of Maths over the past many years, but decided she wanted to have a break from it. Thank you to Amandeep for everything she has done to get Maths to where it is today at GHS. In other staffing news, well done to Chloe, Hanad and Deeqa who will be taking on temporary catch up roles. This week we will interview for the Deputy SENCO roles and also start to consider what other roles we might need in the school going forwards. We also welcome Tam Ashley, our new Business Manager who started on Friday. Do pop by to say hello.

Have a great week,

Mia

Monday
Normal day.

Tuesday
Meeting: Department time 3.15pm - 4.30pm.

Wednesday 
HOD/HOY meetings & Teacher Marking, Planning & Collaboration (directed time) 3.15pm - 4.15pm.

New Staff (Teach First and ECTs) CPD: AfL with SEC in DG08 starting at 3.15pm.

Thursday
PSCHE P1 - resources for Spring here. 

Friday
Last day of lessons for Year 13 before mock exam study leave (two weeks - BTEC lessons continue throughout).

Learning and Teaching

Spotted!

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

• A lovely buzzy atmosphere in Marline Shaheen’s room as students worked in pairs to help each other simplify equations.
• An interesting room layout in Chloe Altman’s year 8 English lesson which facilitated a great oracy lesson (below). 

Learning and Teaching: A Big Push on KS3 Homework

This term we would like to focus on reducing homework concerns across key stage 3. All key stage 3 forms were shown a presentation in form time last week on the importance of homework.

In the presentation students were reminded of our GHS home learning types and what each one might look like when they receive their homework. Can we remind all staff to ensure when setting homework they use one of the four home learning types and it is clearly visible in the homework title or at the top of your explanation/instructions.

During the presentation some of our older students give top tips to help the younger ones complete their homework efficiently:

• Get it done on the day it is set, don’t procrastinate
• Ensure you have all your log in details for online platforms
• Try to have a study space at home if possible
• Ask your teachers for help if you don’t understand it
• Homework is essential to be prepared for your next lesson
• Homework helps us remember the content of the lesson we just had
• Create a timetable to complete your homework
• Check SMHW daily
• Take pride in your work, do not rush it

To help with our push on homework could we ask teachers to consider to help promote these good habits regarding homework and ensure as teachers we try the following:

• Allow pupils to start the homework in lesson, this should hopefully overcome the ‘I don’t understand it’ excuse!
• If possible, move to a computer room or swap with someone for part of the lesson and check students can all log in to online platforms where homework has been set. This should prevent the ‘I didn’t know how to log on’ excuses!
• Continue to use the GHS home learning types when setting homework
• Ensure the homework is meaningful and appropriate for the students. We don’t need to be setting loads of homework; think quality over quantity.

If you wish to watch the whole presentation you can find it here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KSpZX46MAQ

Thank you for all of your efforts with this!

Harpal Sagoo

Lesson Observations

After several years of having our normal observation schedule interrupted we will be going ahead with observations this academic year. All the information, guidance observation forms, lesson plans and advice are all available on the VLE. Click on 'Learning and Teaching' then click on 'Lesson Planning & Observation' to access all the resources.

Kelly McCarthy

Inclusion and Pastoral

I hope everyone survived the first full week back - there was a lovely, calm feel about the school in the winter sun. Long may that last…

As I mentioned in briefing, I will use this week’s Connect to do a little update on some of our biggies, so here goes:

Year 11
Mo Raja - now out at alternative provision for the whole week;
Harris Javed - has been permanently excluded, but in the hope of finding alternative provision;
Jasmine Rehal - now back in school and should be in lessons. A late arrival and early finish may be arranged, but staff will be informed of this when it starts;
Katie Pitcher - in school but using online provision in BG10. Should NOT be wandering around aimlessly;
Chardonnay George-Flavien - coming in each day but shortened hours.
And, we still have 4 Year 11 students who have been educated off-site all term for a variety of safeguarding reasons. I will talk to staff and the KS4 Achievement Team about exam entries.

Year 10
Gursharan Singh - back in full-time as of 17/01/22;
Madison Quish - will be returning to school on a staggered timetable. The Year Team will have emailed staff about this.

Year 9
Rishti (Jozef) Sharda - has left London and we are waiting to hear about the new school;
Shakira Akbari - reduced timetable, different each week as it pivots around lessons she can cope with;
Sakaria Ali - has been permanently excluded, governors yet to meet;
Zakariya Butt - has been permanently excluded and upheld by governors.

Year 8
Lily Green - still coming in on Wednesdays and Fridays at the moment.

The only other things from me are to remind everyone about the counsellors on site who are there to help staff, should you need it and to let you know that we have Your Life You Choose and Chelsea’s Choice coming up, both PSHCE drop-down sessions about key issues. Exact dates and details to follow soon. Remember it’s PSHCE on Thursday too - resources for Spring here. 

Have a fab week!

Lou 

Inclusion Heroes!

I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who stepped in to help cover Welfare last week - Hibo, Barbara, Jesse, Hemal, Harpal, Christabel, Ysobel, Fay, Stuart and Nuggy, you are all amazing! And, a second massive thank you to Will Harrison for his editing wizardry!

Character strengths at GHS

This half-term, we will be focusing on Courage:

The psychologist Dr. Stanley J. Rachman defines courage as a “behavioural approach in spite of the experience of fear,” suggesting that Courage is not a feeling but a choice to act. How can we continue to develop this Character Strength day-to-day?

Ron Berger wrote an article for Edutopia in 2017 stating that academic courage means not sitting in your chair pretending to understand what the teacher says when you don’t. It means you take the risk to raise your hand and ask questions, to share your thinking with others, to take critique from peers. It means having the courage to choose difficult problems and risk mistakes.

This half-term discuss Courage with your form/students. Can you challenge them to push themselves out of their comfort zone in order to build their Courage Character Strength? 

Andrea and Noble

Staff book group 

The Greenford Staff Book Group meets 2-3 times a year to discuss a book chosen by the group to read.

We previously met last term (see right - pre-Omicron and mask requirements!) to discuss 'Hamnet' by Maggie O'Farrell, which, as ever, resulted in a passionate discussion.

The next book we are planning to read is The Descent of Man by Grayson Perry - suggested by Georgia Pawelko and described as a quick and easy read exploring masculinity.

Waterstones says: "By turns funny, insightful, brave and informative, as usual Perry drives a stake through the heart of preconceptions and in doing so makes us re-evaluate the world we live in. An essential read for anyone with an interest in how we rebalance the gender inequalities of our society and, in turn, teach such lessons to future generations."

All staff members are welcome! Anyone who is interested in joining should contact me.

Sarah Williams