Newsletters

GHS Connect #31 Monday 22 May

${alt_tag}$

GHS Connect #31 Monday 22 May

Mia's notes

Welcome back to our final week before half term. I hope that everyone is gearing up for a great break but I know that some people are coming in to support with revision classes - a massive thank you to everyone who is coming in to teach and also an equally massive thank you to SLT and support staff who are coming in to support in various capacities.

A few other thank yous this week. Firstly, thank you to Jess, for an outstanding presentation at a Governors Meeting that offered them some excellent training and also brought them up to speed with all of the great work that she has been doing. Feedback from Governors was very positive. Thank you also to Sarah Williams who did a great job of organising a visit from Gurnaik Johal, ex student who was doing some work with Year 12 about his book ‘We Move.’ Lots of staff had their books signed and it was lovely to welcome back an ex student and as Sarah said, provide such a wonderful local role model for our students. Last but by no means least, I’d like to say thank you to Amandeep Phull for organising the Maths workshop for Year 8 parents, ably supported by Haydar and Rola.

Finally, a massive thank you to everyone involved in the exams - in a school our size, it really is a team effort and I have to say that keeping some of our more challenging Year 11s in check at this time, has been trying. However, as usual, everyone is rising to the occasion and working together to ensure that we get through the next few weeks and give every child the very best chance of success.

Have a good week and get ready for that holiday!

Mia

${alt_tag}$

The week ahead

Monday
Normal Day

Tuesday
Department Time 3.15pm - 4.15pm.
TLR Holder Meeting 3.30pm - 4.30pm.

Wednesday
Briefing 8.15am.
No meeting after school

Thursday
Normal Day

Friday
Normal Day

Notes
GCSE and A Level exams - all week

Learning and teaching: Spotted!

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

${alt_tag}$

Kathy Rayner creating motivation and enthusiasm through persistent praise and encouragement. A really positive energy and atmosphere in the classroom!

Paul Stokes supporting all students to access the task by removing extraneous information from instructions, using appropriate pauses to split instructions into sentences, and taking the time to ensure the task is set up adequately.

${alt_tag}$

Pam Lewis facilitating constructive group discussions by encouraging students to share ideas in turn and empowering them to work positively in groups.

Sarah Williams bridging the gap to independence by using phrase banks to support the construction of extended sentences.

${alt_tag}$

Digital Learning

Digital Learning, using technology and digital literacy are important parts of our school improvement plan and a priority for the governors.

Our use of Google Classroom and Google Drive are key. Through these, students will always be able to access resources online at any time.

Google Classroom and Show My Homework work together to support setting of homework, access to resources and completion of tasks. To clarify:

SMHW should be considered the digital planner. The main purpose being to remind students and their parents of the homework set and when it is due.
Google Classroom should be the library of digital resources which may include:
-materials needed for the homework (an essay frame, model paragraph, worksheet)
But should definitely include:
-the slides or worksheets from the lesson if they are available.
-Any other digital resources-reading, practice questions, revision materials, digital textbook-that you think students will find useful in your subject.

It is our intention to ensure that SMHW should be used routinely to set homework and the resources referenced or needed for the homework should be in Google Classroom. Resources should be available for student self-study, and we will also be moving to having lesson resources routinely put online for students to access anywhere, anytime.

Google Classroom Rubrics

If you’re not familiar with this and haven’t used or discovered it, Rubrics on Google Classroom is a handy feature which allows you to create and attach rubrics to assignments you share with students and speeds up the marking process. Rubrics provide instructions and guiding criteria for assigned tasks and helps students develop a better understanding of what is expected from them on a given task.

Here is a link to a tutorial video on how to use Rubrics.

Also:

How to create a rubric
How to mark with a rubric
How students can check their work with rubrics

Paul

Bright Spots

This week’s bright spots are for Hebe Westcott, Lisa Leonard and Marie Van Marke and have been nominated by Christabel Haines and Sarah Williams, respectively.

Hebe Westcott

Between juggling 6-period days, parent and student meetings, opportunities newsletters and running around all the form groups, she also works with students from four year groups to support their path to Oxbridge or medicine, getting in speakers and providing weekly tailored training for them. She doesn’t rest until she knows she has provided the absolute best for her year group, her classes and all the people she works with. Thank you for all you do Hebe! Christabel.

Lisa Leonard and Marie Van Marke

Earlier in the term, I was knocked off my bike by a driver on Greenford Broadway on the way into school (their fault, not mine) . I was badly shaken and my bike was damaged but in the end it was not serious and I'll get my bike fixed.
I just wanted to thank Lisa Leonard for taking registration without me and Marie Vanmarcke for covering the start of my p1 lesson, to allow me enough time to recover and calm down so I could manage the day. I was so grateful that they just jumped in and helped out straight away, as it was a frightening start to the first day back. Sarah.

Inclusion Heroes

This week’s Inclusion Hero Award is shared between Dan Oag, Gulaid Gulaid and Fuad Mohamed for lots of lovely things that have been organised recently. A big thank you to Dan for bringing in the Bollo Music Workshop for Year 8, which has had brilliant reviews, and another big thank you for organising last week’s Social Media Awareness Coffee Morning for our Somali parents, which has also been heaped with praise. Let the fantastic work with our local community and our parents and carers continue!

Lou

Phoebe has also given a massive shout-out to the Year 11 pastoral team for last week. "They have supported the year group amazingly. From exam prep to dealing with incidents: Suze, Shem, Ben and Hemal I can't thank you enough for this week! "

For the latest Twitter feed from @ghsofficial, click here

For the latest Instagram feed from @greenford_high_official, click here

19 May 2023

Year 9 Rounders' fixtures

We open the season Monday!