Newsletters

GHS Connect #17 Monday 29th January

${item_alt_tag}$

GHS Connect #17 Monday 29th January

Mia's notes

Two weeks until half term. It’s felt quite hard since Christmas with a few crises and a lot of illness so thank you to everyone who has been so proactive in supporting everyone where we have had gaps or issues. We are really great as pulling together as a team when needed and this is something that I always notice is a very special feature of Greenford.

I have been asked this week to give a special mention to Fabian Lesser by Phoebe. In Phoebe's words, 'Fabian has brought such positivity to the Studio 11 programme. He has led the programme this term, with such organisation and with thoughtful thinking. Most importantly, the students have really enjoyed his weekly science sessions. Thank you Fab’.

Please remember to send me any bright spots about colleagues for anything that has helped you, brightened your day or made a difference and I will set up a separate ‘bright spots’ section once again in Connect.

Have a good week,

Mia

${item_alt_tag}$

The week ahead

Monday
Normal Day

Tuesday
No meeting due to subject evening

Wednesday
Briefing 8.15am in the library.

Thursday
Pizza, coffee & chat in the library from 3.30pm
Year 10 Subject Eve - check your appointments on the School Cloud here.

Friday
Normal Day

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...

${item_alt_tag}$

Joe Wilcox supports engagement by using active examples which involve all students in the class. In this example, students had their eyes closed and connected to their personal emotions, thoughts and feelings.

Tom Baker develops oracy by teaching tier 3 terminology explicitly and showing students how and where to implement this within their paragraphs.

${item_alt_tag}$

Ajmeer Meeran uses real-life examples to show how abstract concepts exist and apply within contexts that students will experience in the future.

Megan Wickens supports engagement by ensuring success of all students through practice questions which are minimally different and build from simple to complex.

${item_alt_tag}$

Year 11 Updates

Year 11 continue to strive to succeed. The year group, in general, have a very positive attitude towards their studies and that data reflects this, if we compare this year with where we were last year. Thank you to all teachers of year 11, who have fostered and maintained this positivity during their GCSE studies.

The next 11 weeks, in the run-up to exams, is the most crucial, and we will refer to this with students and families as ‘ The last big push.’ We have numerous events to support this, including:

‘Focus Mode’ mentoring with Meryn Mensah for 8 higher prior attaining male students.
Sixth form mentoring from Year 12 students for 30 of our PP boys.
A parent session: securing grades 5 in English and Maths 6/2.
Saturday revision: 3/2, 24/2/ 3/3. Please speak to your HOD if you’re interested in running these.
Mock results day: Thursday 21st March, with Action Jackson in to deliver his motivation assembly.
Easter holiday revision during the first week of the holidays 2/4-5/4. Again, please speak to your HOD.
An elevate session for our most vulnerable cohorts: PP boys, SEN and our BCRB.

Our PP boys cohort will need to be a specific focus for class teachers and departments over the next 11 weeks. Please can staff ensure that they:

Motivate these students with positivity, reward and competition in class, where appropriate.
Where intervention is running, PP boys are included.
Liaise with HUM regarding revision guide purchasing.

Phoebe

Inclusion Updates

SEN

Fay has now delivered an online workshop and an in-person workshop supporting parents/guardians with revision tips and resources. All students are in the process of being given a pack of revision resources which includes schemes of work, flash cards, timers, and coloured pens to support their revision.

Please can I also thank and remind staff to attend the focus groups that are being set up with SEN. In line with our behaviour policy when students are being seen by the Educational Psychologist, we are expected to organise these.

Child Protection

Thank you to all staff that attended the focus group with Jo Morgan this week. We have a clinical therapist that will be running some further workshops with self-harm, more information to follow.

Behaviour

Please can we ensure that if students receive a suspension that work is being on Google classroom. This is a legal requirement.

Mental Health

Just a reminder that Niloo runs support sessions for Staff and students on a Tuesday break and lunch. Please email her directly.

${item_alt_tag}$