Edition 1 - Term 1, Week 2 2024

Bunbury Senior High School’s result clearly marks it as the best performing high school in the greater Bunbury Region.

The success of our Year 12 students reflects our acute understanding of, the educational needs of young people, the quality of our teaching staff and the knowledge of the post compulsory landscape. Congratulations to our class of 2023, staff and families on their outstanding results.

The Results

In 2023, The West Australian newspaper once again, singled out Bunbury Senior High School's NAPLAN results, as some of the best in the country.

Bunbury Senior High School has been focused on making changes to the traditional thinking of senior school to provide students with the chance to create a portfolio filled with “Educational Currency”. What this means for students is greater flexibility to mix and match ATAR courses, with VET programs and Endorsed courses. We are working on further timetabling flexibilities to increase the range of offerings and provide flexibility for students to “value add” to their education portfolio with other important educational activities like part-time work, surf life saving, music and theatre performances, research projects, youth advisory councils and more.

It is worth noting two quite large Capital Works projects that will significantly elevate the facilities for the students. 

• The previous STEM upgrade election funding commitment will begin in 2024 and should be ready for student use in 2025. As part of the upgrade there will also be a focus on creative technologies.  This will result in technological upgrade of our theatre, a robotics lab and STEM laboratory.
• After years of lobbying, design work has begun on a retaining wall for the main school building. There are many advantages of our school being perched up high on a sand dune however long term erosion needs to be halted. This requires significant government support to hold the sand dune in place and protect our historic buildings.

The big news in funding is the deal done between the Federal and State government that should see all schools receive extra funding to support students with the greatest need.  This will be phased in over the next 4 years.

Call for Nominations

The School Board plays an important role in contributing to good school governance so that school resources are used efficiently, and community expectations and the school’s priorities reflect the needs of students. The functions of school boards are covered by legislation and include both approval and advisory roles. Some of the matters councils and boards may make decisions on include:

• fees and charges
• book lists
• sponsorship
• dress codes.

Four positions have become available due to member's tenure expiring. We are calling for nominations. If you would like more information on school boards please click the link below.

School councils and boards - Department of Education

To Nominate please email your name and a short bio of suitability to be a board member to the principal michael.sinagra2@education.wa.edu.au by 19 February. Should more than four people nominate an election will be held.

Parent Teacher Evening

There will be a parent teacher evening in Term 1, on Tuesday 26 March.  The school will be closed from 12:30pm and interviews will start from 1:30pm – 5:00pm. 

Students will be dismissed at 12:30pm. Should you need to have your child supervised because of travel arrangements please don’t hesitate to contact the school.

We are seeking expressions of interest for the Young Writers Collective Program for 2024.

Please fill out the form if your student is interested.

Cafeteria

Our cafeteria staff take pride in the service they offer to students and staff at Bunbury SHS and offer a variety of healthy lunches and snacks. Eftpos and cash are available for purchases or take advantage of the online ordering system which is easy to use and proving to be quite popular. To get started, go to Spriggy Schools and click 'Get Started' to register.

Volunteers are often in short supply so if you have any spare time, we would appreciate your assistance.

For more on our Cafeteria, visit the school's website.

Uniform Shop

The uniform dress code applies at all times where students are required to wear their school uniform before, during and after school.

REGULAR UNIFORM SHOP OPENING TIMES (during school terms):
MONDAY 10.30am - 11.30am
WEDNESDAY 1.00pm - 2.00pm

Please contact our Uniform Shop Manager, Marianne on 0417 982 387 for further enquiries. We accept payments in cash, cheque, EFTPOS or credit card phone orders.

Sports shirts are compulsory for Years 7-10 and our bucket hats are available for a subsidised price of $2.00.

To find our uniform order form and guidelines, head to our website.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

All our incoming Year 7 students in 2024 would have received a booklet on Year 7 Orientation Day late last year with all the necessary information provided for their first day of school. 

You can access this document HERE if you don't have a copy.

Our Student Services team is very experienced and diverse. We have a range of support available to our students. Our staff are focused on providing a Positive Learning Environment for all students. Our new school business plan has this as a priority, which says:

“Our positive learning environment is one in which the core belief of both students and staff is that everyone has the capacity for growth. Social and emotional learning is taught to students as part of the lower school curriculum. Policies and procedures for managing attendance, behaviour and wellbeing are informed by evidence-based best practice. When students feel positive about themselves and have a sense of belonging, they are more likely to achieve to their full potential.”

In our team we have:

Three Program Coordinators:

PC Student Services – Peta King
PC Senior School – Tim Fry
PC Follow the Dream – Asharie Bradshaw

We also have two full time Heads of Year, who oversee the attendance, behaviour and wellbeing for their designated year groups:

Years 7&8 – Nic Andrew
Years 9&10 – Phil Ghasseb

We have Student Support Officers, who provide additional support to the year groups:

Years 7&8 – Cara Van Schalkwyk
Years 9&10 – Sharon Depiazzi
Years 11&12 – Danelle Field

We have two School Officers: Anne Deighton and Toni Hotchin.

And we have a range of other staff who provide important support to students in our school:

School Psychologist – Ida Steyn
School Nurse – Penny Thornton
Learning Support Coordinator – Sarah Hales (Sarah manages our large team of Education Assistants, who provide important support to students in the classroom.)
Workplace Learning Coordinator – Liz Chambers
School Chaplain – Deon Throne
Aboriginal and Islander Education Officer – position currently vacant, we are in the process of filling this role.

There is always someone that the students or their parents/carers can speak to about concerns regarding their attendance, behaviour, wellbeing, or learning concerns.

Tina Nottle

Deputy Principal

Booklists are available on our website for Lower and Senior School.

To access and download the booklists (Requirement Lists) please visit our website.