Newsletters

GHS Connect #25 Friday 3 April

From the Head

I hope that everyone has had a good week, not going too stir crazy and staying well. We have had very few students in this week - just one on Thursday and none on the other days!  We don’t yet know what the demand will be like after Easter. Thank you to everyone who has responded to Paul’s rota survey - we have managed to cover the school so that most people only have to come in occasionally. We are asking parents to inform us the day before if they intend for their children to come in so we should have a good idea about how many people we will need on site. That means we will be able to inform staff who are on the rota, the day before.

We have managed to carry on as normal with some things during this crazy period. In the last few weeks we appointed a new Head of PE, Phoebe Henderson-Barnes, appointed Steven Bold to the permanent role of RE teacher and appointed Gurvinder Nayyar as temporary maternity cover for Caroline as SENCO. We are looking at how we might continue to recruit to roles going forwards and will provide more info on that after Easter.

At this time, we will all be aware of those who are much less fortunate than ourselves and to that end, Lisa Panford has shared this info from the Ealing Foodbank Team, in case anyone is in a position to support. 

Thank you for continuing to support Ealing Foodbank with food donations during these current circumstances. Please find attached our April Shopping List.

Please note that we are open to receive donations at the warehouse on Wednesdays between 10am and 4pm. Food can still be placed into the baskets in the supermarkets. All details can be found on our website at https://ealing.foodbank.org.uk/give-help/donate-food/

I know that in some ways, the transition to the Easter holidays will feel hardly any different this week, but do make sure that you have a good rest and recharge and take some time to do some different things (indoors of course!). We will take a break from GHS Connect over the holidays but obviously I will continue to be available if anyone would like to get in contact. After Easter, we will be looking at other ways that we can continue to be in contact with one another so that we manage to all stay in touch.

Thank you to everyone for everything you are doing. Do stay safe and take care of yourselves above everything else.

Mia

Remote Learning and Teaching update

A huge thank you to everyone this week, for the superhuman effort in teaching in our new ‘online’ school. A VERY well deserved ‘holiday’ is thankfully almost upon us!  

A brief word, before we break, about future plans. Hopefully, you will have been communicating in your teams about the way we move forward with learning and teaching after Easter.  As we move into the next phase, it is absolutely fine to set work from existing/slightly tweaked resources. At a time of national crisis, it is not necessary to reinvent the wheel!  However some colleagues are keen to experiment with technology and have been trialling live lessons and methods of pre-recording narrated powerpoints to explain concepts in more detail or model the tasks students are expected to complete.  Business and Economics and Tom Oseku have been leading the way with this approach. 

If you are interested in incorporating any of this into your teaching, please see the guides below which take you step by step through the process.  Both are super simple to use. 

Google Meet: Part of our existing Google platform through which you can invite students to a live lesson or pre-record one for students to access more flexibly.  A huge thanks to Helen Judson for drawing this together from her team. 

Google meet guidance.docx

Screencastomatic: A free online tool in which you can capture whatever you have on your computer screen and add a narration on top for up to 15 minutes. 

How to Use: Screen-casto-matic

If you have any questions about any of this, do drop me an email and I’ll try and put you in touch with someone who can help! kmccarthy@greenford.ealing.sch.uk

Anyway, for now, have a good break, 

The Learning and Teaching Team

Safeguarding update - teaching from home

Please note that our guidelines for the use of IPEVOs, Google Meet or equivalent online teaching platforms have been updated this week: 

1) Set up whatever equipment you are using in a ‘public’ part of your home, if possible, ideally not in a bedroom.

2) Make sure you are appropriately dressed.

3) Try not to give away any key details of where you live, such as road signs through  a window, key landmarks, and so on.

4) If possible, avoid showing other family members in the background, either live or in photos.

5) Have a quick scan around the area in which you are working to make sure there it’s ‘student-friendly’.

6) Keep language and interactions as formal as you would in the real life classroom.

7) Remember you can just use audio only if you are concerned that you don’t have the appropriate setting in place to show on a webcam.

8) Keep an eye on comments and ‘chat’ functions on google meet – remind students that it is a lesson, not a ‘chatroom’.

9) If students are using webcams then they must also follow appropriate guidance regarding dress code and being set up in a public space. It is your responsibility to set out clear guidelines as to dress code, behaviour and room set up and to remind them of these as necessary. If students are not following this guidance, then please ask them to disable the camera until they are ready. If they are in a room alone, the door should be left open. Our experience so far suggests that most students prefer not to use a webcam. They must not be asked to do so if they prefer not to.

10) Always make sure you are the last person to leave a google meet or the students will be able to carry on chatting after you have left. Do a final check to ensure that all students have left before you leave, to prevent this from happening.

11) If there are any concerns that you have about what you see or hear whilst undertaking remote teaching, then please let me know in the usual way at childprotection@greenford.ealing.sch.uk

Apologies if this sounds overly cautious or absolutely obvious, but better to be safe than sorry.

Happy teaching!

Lou Grimley