Newsletters

GHS Connect #24 Monday 25th March

Mia's notes

3 days to go, not including RAD!

Thank you to everyone for their exceptionally hard work during what has been a long, intense half term. I hope everyone has a lovely break over the holidays and that those members of staff celebrating Eid or those celebrating Easter have a wonderful celebration. 

Last week we appointed Ajay Balu to the appointment of Deputy Headteacher. Ajay will lead our continued work on Behaviour and Personal Development and will work with the existing teams we have in place to build on the work we are already doing. 

Regarding behaviour, please remember to begin the push on well managed dismissal from classrooms and consistent ‘End and Send’. If we can all be present in the corridors, it really does help everyone with managing and setting the expectations for behaviour throughout the whole day.

Have a brilliant holiday if I don’t see you before,

Mia

The week ahead

Monday
Normal Day

Tuesday
Department Time 3.15pm - 4.30pm
ECT Mentors Meeting 4pm - 4.30pm

Wednesday
Briefing 8.15am in the library.

Thursday
Raising Achievement Day.
Last Day of Term.

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...  

How does Digital Learning Empower Individual learning?

Google Classroom 

At GHS, we want students to develop the tools to become good independent learners. I asked three of our year 11 students to reflect on some of the ways teachers have been using Google Classroom to help empower their revision.

• “In Psychology, Ms Thandi organises folders so that we can see which material is relevant for each part of the course. Also, she gathers past questions and posts them on Google Classroom so that we can work through them to prepare.”
• “Mr Chapman always posts worksheets and slides from lessons, so we can revisit topics in our own time.”
• “In History, Ms Leonard will post pictures of our class notes.”
• “In English, Ms Stevens will post useful resources to help support our revision, i.e. knowledge organisers, videos, etc.”

Using Google Classroom is a powerful tool to help learners take ownership.  

Here are some more ideas about how you can use G.C  to help students consolidate students’ learning. 

• Scanning class notes 

• Posting links to online platforms to help check students’ understanding.

GCSEpod
Seneca

• Posting additional support materials to help students understand topics.

• Using ‘How to videos’ to model thinking and writing to students.

Laptops - an update

After Easter, we will be distributing laptops to students who you’ve identified as having a need. We will prioritising year 7, 10 and 11s before rolling out to the rest of the year groups.  

Currently, we have a select group of SEN students who are regularly using laptops, signing them out each morning. We want to work towards breaking down barriers to access and establish a new ‘normal way of working.’

Harshmeet Juneja, 11M2  says having a laptop has revolutionised his learning and work ethic. He says the past two months have allowed him to confidently engage with material set by teachers and get better grades because teachers no longer struggle to read his handwriting. 

More information to come, after Easter, outlining everything you will need to know. 

As always, any questions or concerns, please come and see me,

Andrea  

Inclusion Updates

SEN

Exams Access deadline has passed, I wanted to say a huge thank you to the SEN department, in particular Fay, Monika, Christine and Naz for all their work involved in collating the paperwork, organising testing and completing the applications. 

The list of students that have exams access arrangements in place can be found here

CP Updates - Interesting Statistics

According to a recent Ofcom report, "What percentage of children have had a social media account setup for them by a parent below the age of 11?"

Fifty-eight percent - the top five most popular being: YouTube (33%), TikTok (18%), WhatsApp (17%), Snapchat (14%) and Facebook (9%). It's worth noting that on 11th April 2024, WhatsApp is changing its minimum age to allow children aged 13+ to use the service (down from 16). WhatsApp offers end-to-end encryption - a security feature that scrambles messages to ensure no one can view the contents.

How much do children (aged 8 - 17) spend on video games (including in-app purchases)?

The Insights Family data (Ofcom, 2023) suggests that children aged 8-17 who spent money on video games (including in-app purchases) spent an average of £38 per month.

Gurvinder

Bright Spot

This week's Bright Spot is Trisha Soneji, nominated by Andrea and Gurvinder.

Trish organised the year 8 Saving Lives Workshop that happened throughout the day on Wednesday 20th March. It provided them with a life skill that they can take beyond the school gates. Amandeep Phull commented that when year 8 returned to lesson they were talking about everything they'd learnt. Trish created a buzz and experience they won't forget.