Newsletters

GHS Connect #14 Monday 12 December

Mia's notes

I hope everyone has got over the trauma of England losing to France on Saturday! We’re on countdown now and a break will be most welcome to everyone, I’m sure. The next week or so will all be about staying positive, pacing yourself and staying warm. There’s a lot going on over the next week or so, so I’m just going to summarise it here.

Staff Pantomime - Mon 12 Dec and Wed 14 Dec 15:30-16:30 in the main hall
This will run as a celebration event for 100 Year 7 students, 100 Year 8 students, and 100 Year 9 students. Year Teams have selected these students based on behaviour, interim data, etc.  Staff are also, of course, welcome to attend and watch their colleagues doing something, er… different!

Staff Social Event and Meeting - Tues 13 Dec from 3pm - dining hall and then main hall
We will start with some festive treats, tea and coffee in the dining hall from 3pm - 3:45pm and will then make our way to the main hall for the staff meeting. We will keep the staff meeting as brief as possible!

GHS Winter Art Exhibition - Wed 13 Dec lunchtime (12:45 – 13:15) EF13

Christmas jumper day for Save the Children - Tues 20 Dec

Winter Concert - Tues 20 Dec 5-6pm

Last Day of Term - Wed 21st Dec 
Staff will be free to leave from about 1:30pm following leaving speeches and celebration event. See full details of the last day of term on Google Drive here.

Return to School - Thurs 5 Jan

Thank you also to the Year 10 team for the Jack Petchey Event on Tues 13 Dec and thanks to Fuad, Noble and Andrea for the Somali Parental Coffee Morning on Thurs 15 Dec between 9:30 and 10:30am. Finally, thanks to everyone who is running one of our last trips of the year - Ten Pin Bowling, Somerset House, Jack the Ripper tour and Westminster Abbey.  Have fun!

Mia

The week ahead

Monday
Staff Pantomime - 3.30pm - 4.30pm in the main hall.

Tuesday
Meeting: Staff social event and whole staff meeting 3.15pm - 4.30pm - starts in dining hall.

Wednesday 
Briefing 8.15am.
GHS Winter Art Exhibition - lunchtime in EF13.
No meeting after school.
Staff Pantomime - 3.30pm - 4.30pm in the main hall.

Thursday
Normal day.

Friday
Normal day.

Notes
Year 11 mock exams - options subjects.

End of term arrangements

As with last year, we will be operating a staggered departure for students Wednesday 21st December. All students will have tutor time and assembly.

It is really important that everyone reads the plans for the day very carefully. They set out what will be happening on the final day for each year group.

Learning and teaching: Spotted!

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

Bright Spots

This week’s bright spots go to Joe Wilcox and Georgia Pawelko. 

Chloe Altman has nominated Joe Wilcox for his support in Studio 11 not only with the boys in his own tutor group, but with the whole cohort too. He is going the extra mile to be there for them most days and is diligent in motivating and organising his tutees during the sessions, using the time for 1-1 chats with them about their progress too. He's been a massive help to me and is a great asset to the achievement team!

Cherish Bristow has nominated Georgia Pawelko for playing an important role within the Arts in the Community. She has organised numerous art trips already this year and keeps the GHS Art Twitter page updated with many fantastic positive examples of what's going on in the Art Department. She spreads lots of positivity within the Arts in the community!

Inclusion Heroes!

Two sets of Inclusion Heroes this week:

Tara Quigley is leading the Year 8 team brilliantly this year while working tirelessly to support our students both in and outside the classroom. On Tuesday, Tara ran a Social Media Awareness evening for parents (see picture below). Tara explained why Social Media can be detrimental to our young people and why it is crucial that parents take an invested interest. In her 45 minute presentation, she skilled up our parents on the top three platforms: TikTok, Snapchat and Whatsapp, explaining why they appeal to students and how to protect them by setting timers and more rigorous privacy settings. Thank you for offering such an important opportunity for our community.

Finally, this week’s shout-out also goes to everyone for embracing and supporting the crackdown on toilet use. Student feedback has been overwhelmingly negative, unsurprisingly, but staff I have spoken to have said that it is good to have some clarity in this area and that it has lessened movement in and out of lessons. I know there is still some tweaking to do around duties - a special thanks to those who have had to oversee the loos at break and lunch. A final toilet-thumbs up goes to Steve, for helping out across the week!

Lou

Staff panto and 2023 musical!

The drama department is gearing up for some major performances with the staff pantomime this week and then preparations for a school musical starting on Friday (see below!) 

Please advertise these events to students in form time, assembly and any other opportunity you get!

Ben

Year 11 Parents' Evening

On Thursday 12th January 2023, we will hold an in-person Parents’ Evening for our year 11 students.

After consulting with parents and asking for feedback from HoDs, we believe that this will offer our parents a great opportunity to hear about their child’s progress.

We will offer two in-person sessions. Parents will make an appointment to see teachers in school from either from 4pm – 5:20 or 5:40 – 7pm.

Parents will also be asked to make an appointment using School Cloud so that they know when to meet each teacher and avoid having to wait in long queues.

More information will be provided in the near future.

Many thanks,

Andrea