Newsletters

GHS Connect #24 Monday 21 March

From the Head

I hope everyone has enjoyed the great weather this weekend.

I’m afraid that I have to mention Covid again this week as cases do seem to be picking up with some staff. Student cases remain very low. I mention this specifically, as this does involve some members of the SLT and the pastoral teams. I will obviously keep you posted if we begin to struggle further with staffing. In the meantime, I would ask colleagues to please consider coming out to help at break and lunchtime, if you are able to, for the odd session, as we are likely to be low in terms of presence. Thank you very much in advance.

We have Year 11 mock results day on Wednesday - thank you to Andrea for organising this and to everybody who is involved. This is always a great event as it helps the students to really focus on the coming weeks ahead, with clarity and purpose. It can be a little tough on those who don’t do very well, and on those with SEN, so please do keep an eye on our vulnerable Year 11s, and help them to remain as optimistic as possible.

You will have noticed from the VLE announcements that we have external adverts out for a DHT i/c of Student Standards and Expectations; Parental and Community Engagement, and another role i/c of Cyberbullying and Communications. These roles are part of our strategic planning moving forwards, and part of our succession planning for the SLT. We continue to appoint new teachers where there are vacancies, with another successful Science appointment last week, and we will be interviewing for the DHOY posts in the coming days.

I hope that everyone has a great week,

Mia

Monday
Normal day.

Tuesday
Meeting: Department time 3.15pm - 4.30pm.
Diversity working party meeting.

Wednesday 
Meeting: HOD and HOY/DHOY meetings 3.15pm - 4.15pm. 
Note: Teachers not involved in these meetings do not need to stay in school for planning and marking time and can go home if they wish.

Thursday
PSHCE P1: resources here.
Data deadline: KS4 interims.

Friday
Normal day.

Year 12 debate team

Five of Greenford’s Year 12 debate team were invited to St Benedict’s school in Ealing for a competitive debating competition. The team:

• Lemuel Martin
• Saba Khan
• Amani Hersi
• Zakariya Delmi
• Kate Jimenez

They competed brilliantly on the subject of conscription. St Benedict's were so impressed with the GHS team that they are asking for a rematch back at Greenford in April.

Learning and Teaching

Spotted!

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

• Colleagues working with Andrea Hetherington develop their KS4 teaching as part of the Teacher Research CPD groups.:

Teacher Research CPD Groups: Keep Tweaking Your Practice!

Even though we are about to enter a busy time, preparing students for examinations, please remember to keep a focus on the area of your practice you identified in the last Teacher Research CPD session (see Spotted above).    

In most cases, colleagues have selected to work on an area that is the bread and butter of teaching: modelling; supporting SEN students; understanding memory,  motivation and revision techniques; creating a calm and purposeful learning environment.   This is now the perfect time to refine our practice in these areas, particularly for our exam classes

Some colleagues have already seen success from tweaks made to their practice: . 

“My year 11's attitude to learning has improved and the work they are producing is of a better quality. Guiding them through the revision process and ensuring they have a model to follow is boosting their confidence and leading them to become more independent. ” MFL Teacher (SEN L&T Group)

“BTEC students are showing some improvement in their written answers  - especially when they write answers straight after we have modelled together.” Business  and Economics Teacher ( Modelling and Metacognition Group)

Next half term we will see the return of the L&T Carousel where volunteers from each CPD group will put on a mini session to share what they have been working on with colleagues from other groups. This is always a fun and inspiring event and we look forward to seeing how teachers have been experimenting and innovating this year!

Kelly McCarthy

Inclusion and Pastoral

Last full teaching week of the term - hurrah!

Just a few bits and pieces this week - we’ve got two new initiatives starting up before the end of term. The first of these is the next cohort of Teens and Toddlers, which will involve students from Years 8 - 10 mentoring students in nursery at Ravenor Primary School. Staff who are affected by this will be emailed each week. And, the other initiative is Mentors Preventing Violence (MVP), which will involve a group of our older students working with those lower down the school - there will be a training session for those students on Monday 28th March in the morning and again, staff will be given further details both for next week and moving forwards. If you’d like to know a little more about the programme in Ealing, look at this on EGfL. 

The only other thing I wanted to mention this week is that we are still having issues with self-harm and students under a lot of pressure. This is the classic time of year for it for some year groups, given pending exams and workload, but it has been compounded of late by everything else that has been going on. Please look after yourselves, while looking after our students, and remember to use the resources we have in school for support if you need it. If you have any concerns or queries about a student, please do not hesitate to contact the CP Team or the Year Teams.

Have a good week, everyone!

Lou 

Inclusion Heroes!

My Inclusion Heroes this week are all the staff who took part in the Staff-Student Basketball Match last Friday afternoon - it was a great occasion, a fabulous atmosphere and good to see, again, our community coming together. Thank you to all of those involved!

Character strengths at GHS

March is Women’s History Month and to celebrate, Chloe organised a speaker from the East End Women’s museum to come and speak at our school. She explained that the museum was born out of a protest against the opening of a Jack the Ripper museum. Today, the team’s vision is to research, record, share and celebrate women’s stories. 

In 45 minutes, Sharondeep described the COURAGE and RESILIENCE shown by women who have been invaluable in shaping society. She also shared the stories of women who have impacted society from our local COMMUNITY: Ada Lovelace, Lady Byron. 

At the end of the talk, she encouraged our students to take RESPONSIBILITY and get involved in to make a difference. I know many of our students left inspired by what they’d learnt.

You can find out more about the East End Women's Museum here.

Andrea and Noble