Newsletters

From the Head

Last week saw me engaged in quite a lot of what I term ‘external verification’ - preparing a Heads Report for Governors, analysing data and evidence for a Local Authority visit, working with SLT on gathering evidence for the new Ofsted framework, looking at data for an upcoming Heads’ meeting….yawn. Before you all fall asleep, I thought I’d share a few highlights which kept me going in this sea of verification. Worth knowing:

> We’re 41st in terms of P8 for all ‘Maintained’ schools;

> 19th for all ‘Maintained’ schools with ‘no-religious character’;

> 7th for all ‘Maintained’ schools with ‘mixed gender’ and ‘no religious character’.

> Our PP students achieved HIGHER P8 in our 9-4 incl E&M measure compared to non PP.

Fantastic stats, indicative of a fantastic school!

However, our real verification comes from our students and parents who remain relentlessly positive about our school. At Year 8 parents' evening, I was told how ‘fantastic’, ‘amazing’, ‘supportive’ and even how ‘tip-top’ we were - my favourite parental adjective of the term so far! Students have also continued to sing the praises of staff in Hot Chocolate Friday. Last week, I was told that Emmet is ‘very funny’, Marline is ‘very welcoming’, Annji and Amanda deliver ‘fun’ lessons, Sushila and Noble are good at ‘guiding’, Allison is ‘amazing’, Sabrina and Charline are ‘always there’, Richard makes students feel ‘happy’ and that Anaam is a ‘support system’.

Who needs stats when David (Year 10), Naven (Year 11) and Kelis (Year 9) can sum it all up so beautifully?

Have a wonderful Friday off this week (absolutely no working please!) and hopefully a good week leading up to it

Mia

Learning and Teaching

Spotted!

> Hanad Mohamed using excellent scaffolds to support the teaching of cells, with Thomas Baugh sensitively and helpfully supporting an individual through the associated tasks. 

> Emmet Waterhouse modelling how to approach interpretation questions in History and verbalising his thought process as he teaches.

> Amandeep Phull making sure that students were acting on the detailed personalised feedback and Learner Response Tasks they were given after an assessment in Maths. 
 

A thought about... stabilisers

There is an explosion of modelling going on at GHS this term which is great to see. Teachers in lessons all over the school are imparting their expert knowledge and demonstrating their thought processes to help students successfully complete a task or answer an exam question.

If you are experimenting with modelling in your classroom, perhaps consider how you then bridge the gap to independent work.  Many students, including those at Post-16, will need a little scaffolding before they are ready to go it alone.

This week, in Helen Judson’s Year 13 Economics class, students were working on how to improve their analysis skills.  After they had seen a model of what they were trying to achieve, students spent time in pairs, practising their answers and talking through the best approach to answer the question.  This carefully planned task provided the ‘stabilisers’ they needed to prepare them to write an essay independently.

In focus: SEND update

At Greenford we have 201 students on the SEN register (11% of the whole school cohort).

21% of the students that are on the SEN register are on for speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). We also have 10 students with EHCPs that state that SLCN is their primary need (even more if you count the students with it as a secondary need).

I’m a strong believer that for strategies to work they need to be simple for teachers to implement and not take hours of preparation time prior to the lesson. Everyone is really busy and therefore the majority of the top tips for SEND you will get from our department will be small tweaks and adjustments to teaching and your normal lesson preparation.

Lots of the strategies for supporting SLCN also benefit other students in the classroom as it is just good quality teaching. Therefore even if you don’t have SEN students in your group, these are worth a read!

Top Tips: SLCN

> Keep verbal instructions short and simple and allow processing (thinking) time.

> Repeat whole class instructions to them individually or as part of a small group. Use recall to measure level of understanding.

> Make use of written instructions/information that the student can refer back to. This can help the student to remain focused. Simply put verbal instructions on the whiteboard as well.

> Highlight key words and provide definitions.

> Encourage the student to use a highlighter to emphasise key facts they need to remember.

> Read through text with the student (or to the whole class), as many students with language difficulties also have reading difficulties. Talk about what the text means with the student.

> Make optimum use of visual support including practical demonstrations, pointing, gesturing, simple diagrams and pictures to teach new vocabulary.

There are lots more tips available, so please contact Caroline O’Connor (SENCO), if you would like more in depth information on supporting SLCN students.

Caroline O'Connor

Staff wellbeing

As mentioned at briefing, there will be more news on the Staff Wellbeing group shortly. In the meantime, there is a wellbeing page in the Staff Room section of the VLE.

Here, you'll find a link to various activities and initiatives including Staff Football. This includes reports from Greenford's staff football matches against rival schools - although the report from Friday's crunch A40 derby away at William Perkins will do little for manager Josh Levitt's wellbeing.

Coming up...

Tuesday meetings 26 November

Department time 3.15pm - 4.15pm

TLR holders meeting 3.15pm - 3.45pm

Wednesday 27 November

Year 12 Students causing concern 4pm - 4.30pm

Year 13 Parents' Evening 4.30pm - 7pm

Friday 29 November

Occasional day - school closed