Newsletters

GHS Connect #20 Monday 26th February

Mia's notes

Thank you very much to everyone for contributing to a hectic first week back last week - mock exams aplenty and very poor weather to contend with too!  On Friday morning, some of you may have seen me showing around a visitor who was extremely impressed with what she saw in classrooms on our walk around. You may notice more of these visits as we are advertising for a Deputy Headteacher in charge of Behaviour, Culture and Personal Development for a September start. 

Thank you for everything that you do, day in, day out, to ensure that all of our students are having such brilliant learning experiences every day in school. This really shows when doing impromptu walks around the school and everything is so consistent and of such high quality (even on a Friday!).

The Aim Higher visits seemed to go extremely well - thank you to Amandeep and everyone else who was involved in this and there were some great trips going out last week - thanks as ever for these.  Thank you also to Noor, Will and Kapilan in the latest instalment of chess heaven, which saw them go to Harrow school to compete on Friday.

Have a great week,

Mia

The week ahead

Monday
Normal Day

Tuesday
No meeting - Subject Evening

Wednesday
Briefing in the library - 8.15am

Thursday
Year 12 Subject Eve (& Year 13 concerns). Check your appointments here

Friday
Normal Day

Notes
Yr 11 Mock Exams 
Yr 8 Interim 2

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...  

Paul Stokes engaging his GCSE PE class even before they enter their lesson on drugs in sport. He created a crime scene environment to motivate and engage his class into a brand new topic. A great way to enthuse students with their learning. The class were buzzing with the scene that was set for them and it created a thriving learning environment. 

Equality and Diversity feedback

We had our Link Officer from the Local Authority, Corrinne Gill, visit GHS before half term to look at what we do from an Equality & Diversity perspective and she was very impressed with our provision. Some of the highlights that were noted include:

• Our achievement and progress rates for some groups (which are underachieving nationally) are very good.
• Our interventions, both academic and pastoral, prioritise students from key cohorts, which enables them to feel supported and develop as individuals.
• The English curriculum; Jen and the team have actively sought to introduce texts from authors from diverse backgrounds, which is a real strength.
• Our data analysis throughout the school, subject analysis, behaviour data, PP tracker, attendance data and inclusion tracker mean that we are conscious of how students from different backgrounds are doing and we use the information to inform our next steps.
• Our parental engagement events, Corrinne was impressed at the number and the range of events that we have held this year and how closely we work with our community.

The Link Officer spoke to some of our students about the equity of our provision and the support they received, here are some of the highlights:

• All students felt that the staff body is diverse, which they thought was great. 
• All students felt that they do not get bullied due to the large number of students from ethnic backgrounds, they see GHS as one large diverse community.
• All students felt that when there is a suspension it is fair, although rare at the school, and that when sanctions are applied, they are applied equally to all, regardless of ethnic background.
• All students felt that derogatory language racist or discriminatory language is sanctioned fairly. 
• KS3 students felt that there is a real focus on next steps for education or employment, they felt this is covered in PSHCE; careers advice in class and KS4 students felt they get support from Connexions.
• All students felt they knew where to go if they were worried or very anxious as pictures of the safeguarding team are shared regularly. 
• The students really valued having people from different backgrounds celebrated and referred to in assemblies and form time activities, they found this inspiring.

Areas in which they thought we could improve:

1. Students feel that teachers don't give as much praise or character points as you get older. Please can we reward Y10 & 11 students with Character Points, where appropriate. 
2. The students felt that they did not learn about different countries and their histories, including people from the Caribbean. Please can we look for opportunities to connect concepts to cultural references/positive role models, again where possible.
3. Students want to understand why their language may not be appropriate or offensive at times, so can we incorporate this as part of our wider education programme (even on a one to one basis). 

This is all very positive and there is lots to celebrate. We will endeavour to improve what we do, as always. I will share the report with the Equality & Diversity team and think about our next steps. Thank you for everything you all do to make sure that the GHS continues to be a diverse, equitable and thriving community. 

Amandip

Inclusion Updates 

CP Update

We have now made changes to the CPOMS categories, The CP team will be organising a time with departments to pop in and share this information with you all on these changes.

SEN Update

Please note that whilst exams are in process the number of TAs available to work with students in classes is substantially reduced.

Inclusion Heroes

I would like to say a huge thank you to Kaya Timothy for her ongoing support with some of the more challenging students.

Thank you for all your continued support.

Gurvinder

Character Champions Hot Chocolate

Every week, four students - nominated by departments - will be celebrated for displaying excellent character in their lesson. This week, students celebrated with postcards and hot chocolate with Mia. 

The following students were rewarded and they, in turn, wanted to celebrate certain members of staff at GHS. (Comments are in their own words.)

Harrison Rayment 9G1
Nominated Mr Dyason: “...because of the impact he has had on the community and how he has helped in P.E as well. He is one of my favourite teachers and makes P.E even more enjoyable.” 

Abisana Thavaleesan 8G2
Nominated Ms Rajkumar: “...helped me understand Geography really well.” 

Sophie Wiltshire 9W2
Nominated Mr Bux: “...because he showed me Maths isn’t scary.” 

Abdullah Baig 10M2 
Nominated Mr Lewis: “He is an A Level teacher and he has the talent to control classes and there is less noise.”

Please nominate students, using the stapled forms, in Character Champion boxes. These are in all departmental workrooms.