Newsletters

GHS Connect #17 Monday 16 January

Mia's notes

Well done for getting through the first full week back - not easy, especially in the gloom of January!

We have so many things to celebrate already, not least the news that 5 of our students have received conditional offers for Oxford! Do say a big well done to Jenusiya Jeyaseelan (Biochemistry), Maria Lightfoot-Boston (English), Zoe Gordon (Medicine), Maisah Kabir (Medicine) and Antwone Andrews (Law). This is a hugely impressive feat - a massive thank you to all of their wonderful teachers and our brilliant Post 16 team, who have supported them through this. Regardless of whether they end up finally going, they have done brilliantly.

Last week, Rianna Alexander from 10M3 competed in the Regional Finals of the Jack Petchey Speak Out Challenge at Ada Lovelace High School. Although she did not make it through to semi- finals, Allison and Hassnain have said she did a brilliant job and shared how proud they were of her. We also had the HS2 interactive workshop, delivered to Year 9 - thank you to Sushila and the DT team for organising this. Thank you also to Cherish and Dan and Rachael and Will who went on trips to Wicked and the BFI, respectively.

Finally, a thank you from me for such an excellent Year 11 parents’ evening. Again, a wonderful atmosphere, a very good turn out, and some excellent feedback from parents. Info on the next parents’ evening - for Year 10 - will be provided soon.

Have a lovely week, everyone.

Mia

The week ahead

Monday
Normal day.

Tuesday
Department meeting 3.15pm - 4.30pm.

Wednesday 
Briefing 8.15am.
HODs and HOYs/DHOYs meetings 3.15pm - 4.15pm.
Teacher marking, planning and collaboration directed time 3.15pm - 4.15pm.

Thursday
Normal day.

Friday
Normal day.

Learning and teaching: Spotted!

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

Jess Humphries employing her IPEVO to help Year 8 students access the text and annotate more effectively. 

Tara Quigley utilising Think-Pair-Share to ‘spot the difference’ with clear visuals on the board. Students were also able to self-mark as Tara modelled answers on the interactive board. 

Trisha Soneji questioning students to create an effective group discussion with her Year 7 class. It was a great way to get students to access their prior and wider knowledge. 

SEN update

A very Happy New Year to you all. I wanted to share with you all some SEN updates.

As a department we have been completing a number of ERSA applications. This, if successful, will lead to children receiving a statement (EHCP). This will enable the children to receive a level of top-up funding that we can use to support them both in and outside of the classroom. The process of this from submitting the form is approximately 20 weeks. You can find the update on individual students on Google Drive here - you'll need your Greenford Google login to access.

Challenges and strategies

I also wanted to remind you of the challenges SEN learners face and the strategies I discussed in the staff meeting to support them further.

• Listening. If they don’t seem to hear you 1st, 2nd or 3rd time, please try to be patient. This is likely to be a speech and language need.
• Finding appropriate language to express themselves. This can sometimes come out ‘wrong’ especially during conflict or challenge. Take up time or modelling can help.  “I think you may be feeling angry right now or may feel that something isn’t fair. Is that right?”
• Getting started on tasks. They may need instructions repeating or may need you to go over and help them begin. 
• Processing information. SEN children will need time to process, and this may take significantly longer than others. Giving thinking time to the whole class can help.
• Social problems - they may say literal things to their friends or teachers which may come across as hurtful or rude. Again, modelling can help here. “I think you might have been trying to say…….would that be right?”

We also published our first Learning Support Newsletter last term, here is the link for you to view.

Finally, as always, a huge thank you for all the work you do to support the SEN cohort, it's hugely appreciated by the SEN department, students, and the parents/guardians during feedback in annual reviews.  

Gurvinder Nayyar

Bright Spots

This week’s bright spot comes from Serena Hayes, who has nominated Kiran Thandi for being an amazing HOD for the Psychology team. In Serena’s words, “Kiran leads Psychology with impeccable organisation, kindness and generosity of her time.” Well done Kiran!

Inclusion Heroes!

There are two Inclusion Heroes this week – firstly, I would like to say thank you to everyone for an excellent Year 11 Parents Evening! I thoroughly enjoyed both meeting my class and families in person, and also taking in the buzz and busyness of it all. Following on from that, I visited as many Year 11 lessons as I could on Friday afternoon and it was just fab to see everyone so engaged and focused.

Secondly, I would like to do a big shout out to Akeella Burgess, our allocated social worker, who quietly works away behind the scenes with some of our most vulnerable students, supporting both them and their families. The Child Protection Team would find it hard to function without her! Thank you, Akeella, for everything you do.

Lou