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GHS Connect #8 Monday 6th November

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GHS Connect #8 Monday 6th November

Mia's notes

I hope everyone had a good first week back last week.

This week I wanted to let you know about ‘Parent Connect’, a new fortnightly newsletter that is being sent out at the end of each week B. The aim is to have better engagement with parents and better advertise the things we do in school. It also gives us an opportunity to remind parents of some of our expectations and provide key information.

You can see past copies of Parent Connect here on the website. Please have a look at our most recent version, to give you an idea of the kinds of things we are putting in there. 

We welcome any new contributions to Parent Connect, whether that be something you want to celebrate or important information you want parents and carers to know. Please send info through to Mia and Lou by the Wednesday of Week B for submission in that week. 

Don’t forget to also keep taking photos and passing them onto Elaine for social media.

Thank you and have a good week.

Mia

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The week ahead

Monday
Normal Day

Tuesday
Department Time 3.15pm - 4.30pm
KS5 TLR Holder Meeting 3.30pm - 4.30pm

Wednesday
Briefing 8.15am in the library.
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

Notes
Year 11 Mocks 1 begin (EBACC)

Learning and teaching: Embedding Excellence

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

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Deborrah Smith completing quick-fire exam questions as retrieval practice. Students said they found it an engaging and useful way to practise exam technique. A useful bridge to independence in exams.

Ji Won Min providing clear and concise explanations with an explicit summary of key points ahead of independent practice. Students were engaged and managed challenging content through constructive paired talk.

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Henry Blake’s students taking pride in their workbooks when deconstructing and analysing texts and quotes as a class.

Elsewhere around school:

Rola Harb explaining the product of prime numbers to students with such enthusiasm they were 100% focused!

Oumayma Geagea using sentence builder technology to support students to improve their sentence construction in MFL.  The students were really motivated and engaged by the competitive element.

Embedding Excellence through Action Research

Thank you to all colleagues for their enthusiasm and energy in the first Action Research Session last half term.   The key to making this CPD successful is maintaining focus on the improvement we want to make to ensure it happens. 

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Below I have shared with you a summary of what one colleague found when they employed some of the strategies recommended by the research/discussion in the SEND group this time last year. 

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Please remember to keep an eye on the new strategy you have decided to test out in your classroom following the first Action Research sessions and give some thought/time to it over the next few weeks. 

If you need a reminder of this, or any support in achieving it, drop your Research Lead an email. 

Thank  you!
Kelly and the L&T Team

KS4 Achievement Update  

Exam Results 2023 - Just a reminder that our progress 8 score has gone up to 0.68, which places us in the top 5% of similar schools in the country. This is an amazing result, and takes us back to where we were in 2019. I presented our results to governors at the Full Governor's Body meeting. They were very impressed with the results and the progress of our students. They acknowledged the hard work of all our staff and commended everyone's efforts to ensure that our students were not adversely affected by the effects of the pandemic. 

Exam Meetings & Reports - We have finished our exam meetings. As always Mia, Phoebe, Richard and I were very impressed with the level of analysis and reflection that has taken place to produce the exam reports which were the focal point of our discussions in the meetings. Thank you to all of the HoDs, TLR 5 and TLR 4 holders who contributed to this process.

KS4 Intervention - We have a comprehensive plan for KS4 intervention, this is what is in place already:

  1. Attendance is a huge focus for us and as such, Jayne contacts every time a Y11 student is not in school, which supports the work of the year team including form tutors in making attendance a priority.  

  2. Studio 11 - we have over 50 students working in school supported by Steve, the Y11 team and Phoebe from Monday to Thursday.

  3. We are grateful to the English and Maths teams who are running Master classes for the Studio 11 cohort on a weekly basis.

  4. We have recruited some Y12 students who have chosen to support the KS4 Achievement agenda through mentoring and study sessions. We are positive that this army of talent will have an immense impact on our students and their results.

  5. We have also planned some study skills sessions for some of our more vulnerable cohorts to give them more focused support.

  6. The Boys and Girls Achievement form groups have been doing some great work with our young people in Y10 & 11.

  7. We are holding a Y11 parents meeting for our ‘winnables’. We will be providing information that will help them to support their children.

  8. We have also launched the Y11 Progress Menu, so that we can all help our most vulnerable students to make incremental progress.

  9. Some departments have already started to support our students through intervention after school. Thank you to all of these subject areas, the efforts are greatly appreciated and will have an immense impact on the students.

  10. We are trying to inspire the students to continue to work hard and become resilient. They have had a motivational talk last half term and will also have another one this half term.

Thank you and keep up the good work!

Amandip

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Inclusion Updates

Mental Health & Well Being 

If you’re under 25 and need help but don’t know where to turn, you can: 

  • Call: the mix on 0808 808 4994 (open 3pm to 10pm calls are free) 
  • If you need help now, their crisis messenger text service provides free 24/7 crisis support across the UK. If you’re aged 25 or under and are experiencing any painful emotion or are in crisis, you can text THEMIX to 85258. 
  • You can also visit their website to access one to one chat online here.
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Stress is a part of life. What matters most is how you handle it. The best thing you can do to prevent stress overload and the health consequences that come with it is to know your stress symptoms. If you or a loved one is feeling overwhelmed by stress, talk to your doctor. Many symptoms of stress can also be signs of other health problems. Your doctor can evaluate your symptoms and rule out other conditions. If stress is to blame, your doctor can recommend a therapist or counsellor to help you better handle your stress. 

CP Messages 

Just a reminder when you enter messages on CPOMS please alert the relevant teams that can be found at the bottom of the page. 

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Inclusion Heroes:  

I would like to thank Jess and Sarah Williams for delivering the form time books, to make reading truly inclusive! 
  
Gurvinder  

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For the latest X/Twitter feed from @ghsofficial, click here

For the latest Instagram feed from @greenford_high_official, click here

04 Nov 2023
KS3 Achievement Activities for this week-handout to be collected from form pigeonholes
Achievement Slides for this week Interim 1 prediction
Read more