Newsletters

GHS Connect #12 Monday 28 November

Mia's notes

I really hope that everyone enjoyed the long weekend. It’s incredible to think that during this week, we will be in the beginning of December. 

We’ve always got lots of things to celebrate, but this week I want to thank everyone for such a great Year 8 parents’ evening. Obviously this was a new way of doing things, but I had some really positive feedback from lots of parents as they left the in-person event, and there was a lovely atmosphere throughout the evening in both rooms. Thank you so much to everyone, but especially Andrea who organised the entire event.  Andrea has also specifically asked me to thank all Year 8 teachers for their energy, making parents’ evening a real success.

I also want to thank Noor, Will and Tracey who took some students along to a national chess competition on Monday. This is the first time the school has competed in an external chess competition. The team came second, and were within a game of finishing first, which would have qualified them for the next round! Not content with that, chess club continued to run on Thursday as normal (below).

Thank you to everyone who runs extra-curricular clubs in the school - it makes a massive difference to our relationships with students, and helps with our commitment to try to ‘make things easier’ for so many of our students, so that they feel positive about school and themselves, and so that they know we want to work with them, rather than against them.

Finally, thank you to Andrea, Jess and Hardeep for running an excellent Year 11 Parents’ Coffee morning last week. It was a lovely event, made all the much better by having Hardeep present in the capacity of both Exams Officer and parent who has recently had her own son sit GCSEs.

Mia

The week ahead

Monday
Normal day.

Tuesday
Meeting: Year Team meetings 3.15pm - 4.30pm.

Wednesday 
Meeting: Action Research CPD2 - 3.15pm - 4.15pm.

Thursday
Normal day. 

Friday
Normal day.

Notes
Year 11 mock exams - options subjects.

Learning and teaching: Spotted!

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

Learning and Teaching: The Boy Question 

“Teachers who are working hard to boost the grades of their underperforming male students may need to brace themselves. The research into boys’ study skills makes for very grim reading.” 
The Boy Question: How to Teach Boys to Succeed in School, Mark Roberts

This week I’ve been looking for inspiration for how to support some of my Year 11 boys who are about to take mock exams. Study skills are obviously crucial to succeeding in exams and Roberts explains in his book how poor implementation of revision strategies and plenty of procrastination hinders male students in particular.

One solution he offers is to ensure every step of the independent study process is modelled so the students are really ready to continue by themselves at home. 

Many of us encourage students to use flashcards as an active revision strategy, but these too can end up unused, crumpled at the bottom of students’ bags. Roberts suggests an acronym which we could model and teach students to help them ace their retrieval practice and be an exam PASSER when using flashcards:

Pause before checking the answer, don't just flip it over quickly.
Answer all of the cards in your pile.
Save the cards that you find the trickiest and have another go at them. 
Shuffle the pile regularly so you don’t always look at the same cards.
Explore your notes/book when you struggle.
Repeat, repeat, repeat!

Please share with the teaching and learning team if you have been experimenting with any other revision strategies that have been successful!

Kelly

Bright Spots

Amandip Johal has nominated Chloe Altman for a bright spot this week. Chloe has done a brilliant job rebranding and setting up a new style study club, now known as ‘Studio 11’. The atmosphere is fantastic; the students are focused and motivated to work hard. Chloe is there as a constant source of support and encouragement for the students. Well done to Chloe! In Amandip’s words: “I am certain that this safe space for students to work together and/or independently will reap dividends in terms of results for some of our most disadvantaged Year 11 students.”

Sally Ramsdale has nominated Niloo Adhami, Angela Thomas and Rav Kaur for the time and support they have given to a very troubled young man who had some serious mental health issues. In Sally’s words: “They were absolutely fantastic in supporting him, and me, through that difficult time.” 

Pupil Premium: November update! 

There are two exciting developments in our PP provision:

The launch of a new and improved Student services
To streamline the support we have for our vulnerable students, all the resources bought from the pupil premium funding are now in AG14/AG16/AG17.

The resources range from uniform to pencil cases to breakfast bars. Student services is staffed and open daily from 8.15-8.30am. If any PP student in your form or who you teach is hungry or not fully equipped for learning please direct them to visit student services before school. This means we can remove barriers and ensure they have what they need to achieve their potential.

Coffee morning for Year 11 parents
This week Andrea and I held a coffee morning for Year 11 students. We invited parents of pupil premium students and those currently underachieving. We held a panel discussion where Hardeep Brar gave her perspective on supporting a child through exams. She gave terrific advice: from no technology upstairs, to downloading exam papers, to ensuring they have a good nights sleep before exams.

On the panel were four Year 12 students who are my PP champions: Helena, Abisana, Reanna and Riya. They gave an interesting insight into what they needed from their parents to support them through Year 11. Tips such as allowing the dining table to be used to spread out revision resources, or encouraging siblings to be quiet whilst they’re revising or rewards to balance hard work. It was a great way to build connections with parents and thank you to everyone who made it happen!

Jess

Inclusion Heroes!

This week's Inclusion Hero is Nugbinder Banger who has been holding the Attendance fort for the last few weeks all by herself. And, will be doing this up to the end of term. She is working inordinately hard every day fielding all the absence calls, sending out truancy alerts, working out where all our students are and chasing up those missing registers. Thank you, Nuggy!

Lou