Heard on the Hill Term 1, Week 3

From the Principal

Bonjour à tous, and Wanju

Thank you to everyone who stopped to check on me this morning. My car needed a tow right in front of school at drop-off time – perfect.

From the Administration, can I thank you all for what appeared to be a very smooth start to the year, despite an issue from one of our more needy students. It is timely to remind you that we do have some students that are unable to self-regulate or have yet to develop the skills to form respectful relationships. Although part of our job is educating the whole child, please do not put up with abusive behaviour. Use poor social behaviour incidents as an opportunity to use positive language in being explicit about describing our pro-social behaviours. If students are unable to grasp this, then please follow our behaviour management processes.

The final number of students, “bums on seats”, determines our funding for the year. The student services and administration teams are working very hard to make sure all the students that are enrolled with us have turned up and are counted. Currently, there are also some class list issues that will be ironed out as we get closer to understanding our financial capacity.

Last week I spoke to you about getting started. As usual, Andrew Healey and Kelly Anderson will provide articles each week throughout the year in their responsibility portfolios. The Learning Environment (Kelly) and High Quality Teaching (Andrew) are the two areas that when set-up and developed throughout the year will yield great success for our students.  I urge you to look at the topics that they will bring to you each week on things listed below and reflect on your practices. Applying these tried and tested practices consistently will go a long way to helping our students succeed.

• Behaviour and Relationships
• CMS strategies
• Implementing the positive behaviour matrix 
• Establishing High expectations (eg)
• Peer Observations
• BSHS instructional framework
• Instructional Strategies for Engagement

Have a great week

En Avant

Teaching Staff – Personal Leave 

With the new General Agreement, there have been some changes regarding Personal Leave for teaching staff. At the commencement of 2023 sick leave, carer’s leave, and short leave ceased to exist. All existing sick leave credits will have been converted to cumulative personal leave and recorded in days.

The entitlement for a full-time employee for personal leave is:

• 13 days cumulative leave
• 2 days non-cumulative leave

Personal leave is not to be used for recreational purposes. Types of personal leave include:

• Sick leave – employee is ill or injured
• Carers leave – to provide care or support to a member of the employee’s family or household
• Unplanned leave – for unanticipated matters of a compassionate or pressing nature which arise without notice and require immediate attention (i.e. burst water pipe in house, car breakdown)
• Planned leave – planned matters where arrangements cannot be organised outside of normal working hours (i.e. specialist appointment). This leave requires prior approval from the principal

Personal leave is not for circumstances normally met by other forms of leave. Most common types of other leave include:

Long Service Leave

• Leave request in HRMIS is required to be completed and subject to approved by the principal.
• The principal will meet with your Line Manager to determine the impact on student learning and plans for replacement before giving approval.

Bereavement Leave

• Leave request in HRMIS is required to be completed and subject to approved by the principal.

Covid Leave

• See Relief Coordinator

Leave Without Pay

• Every application for leave without pay will be considered on its merits and may be granted provided that the work of the Department of Education is not inconvenienced.
• Leave without pay can only be granted if all other leave credits have been exhausted.
• Leave request in HRMIS needs to be completed and approved by the principal.
• The principal will meet with your Line Manager to consider the merits of the application.

More information regarding personal leave can be found in IKON https://ikon.education.wa.edu.au/-/understand-personal-leave

For all leave, remember to text/call the relief coordinator as soon as possible, then alert your Line Manager to advise them of the leave and discuss relief lesson plans. For planned absences, discuss with your Line Manager before entering the leave request into HRMIS so they are aware of the request and can plan for replacement needs.

Cultural Inclusivity

Harmony Week and Intercultural Understanding

In the Western Australian Curriculum, intercultural understanding is one of the general capabilities schools are tasked with developing in students. Students develop intercultural understanding as they learn to value their own cultures, languages and beliefs, and those of others. They come to understand how personal, group and national identities are shaped, and the variable and changing nature of culture.

The capability involves students in learning about and engaging with diverse cultures in ways that recognise commonalities and differences, create connections with others and cultivate mutual respect.

In developing and acting with intercultural understanding, students:

• investigate culture and cultural identity
• explore and compare cultural knowledge, beliefs and practices
• develop respect for cultural diversity
• communicate across cultures
• consider and develop multiple perspectives
• empathise with others
• reflect on intercultural experiences
• challenge stereotypes and prejudices
• mediate cultural difference

HARMONY WEEK 15 – 21 March is an opportunity to foster students’ intercultural understanding. See the link below for a range of resources to use with students. Please plan to do something, small or big, to highlight and celebrate diversity in our school and community.

The Year 8 Market Day will be kicking off the cultural celebrations by offering some products inspired by different cultures - thanks HASS for supporting Harmony Week!

Cultural Inclusivity Committee

We have a staff committee dedicated to improving our school's cultural responsiveness. We have staff members from a range of roles across the school. If you are interested in continuing on this committee or joining this committee, can you please email me by COB Wednesday 15 February?

Our first main event will be Harmony Week, and I will be arranging a meeting so we can do some planning in Week 4. Thanks!

FINANCE COMMITTEE NOMINATION

Bunbury SHS Finance Committee is calling for nominations for membership. We have 3 staff member vacancies to fill.

The finance committee assists the principal to exercise their governance responsibility in the management of the school's financial resources.

The Committee wishes to thank Liz Chambers, Kyle Smith and Julie Russell Krebs for their commitment over their membership tenure.
Tenure on the Finance Committee is 2 years. Meetings are held twice per term at 3.15pm Monday - week 4 & 8 with the exception of Term 1 which will be held Tuesday 7 March.

Special meetings may be called when necessary and are held in Boardroom.

Please complete the nomination form below if you wish to nominate for a position on the Finance Committee. Retiring members can renominate. In the event we have more nominations than positions available, the Committee will vote to elect members.

Nominations will close Friday 17 February 2023 at 3.00pm.

LIGHTS & AIR CONDITIONERS

With our ever-increasing power bills, please ensure you turn off lights, fans and air conditioners and lock the door when leaving your classroom at the end of the period if you are not using it the following period. Please also remember to do this at the end of the day.

Thanks for your support.

Staff Wellbeing

We have arrived at week 3 of the term and it is well and truly in full swing!

As things begin to ramp up, it is important we make a conscious effort to keep implementing healthy work habits.

There is a brief summary of an article below from Beyond Blue on ‘Finding the work-life balance sweet spot’, that may provide you with some tips on setting some healthy habits at work.

A gentle reminder for those of you who were interested in joining the Staff Wellbeing Committee at BSHS for 2023 to please get in contact with me by the end of this week.

Have a good week ahead.

Finding the work-life balance sweet spot

‘Work-life balance’ is a phrase you probably hear often – and it describes a goal that anyone who’s ever been employed relates to. Because, let’s face it, there’s more to life than work, no matter how rewarding your job or career.

Yet genuine work-life balance might seem impractical or even fantasy. A culture where ‘working hard’ is often promoted as the best path to success doesn’t always leave room to achieve other needs and goals.

Juggling the need to earn money and filling a desire to have non-work interests, activities and commitments is challenging. Perfect work-life balance probably doesn’t exist – what it looks like largely depends on what suits you and those close to you.

If working overtime becomes the norm rather than the exception, or you need more flexibility, chat with your manager or supervisor about your concerns. Assuming they’re human, they should get where you’re coming from.

Leaving work ‘on time’ isn’t always possible. Busy periods, tight deadlines or spells of intense activity can lead you to feel the need to go beyond standard hours. Working for longer doesn’t necessarily mean you’re being productive – sometimes you may want to say ‘no’ to certain requests, and that’s ok. Pre-planning activities for after work can be a good way to be better organised to leave on time.

Satisfying downtime (away from work) is a sure-fire way to feel like you’re achieving a healthy balance. Limit the amount of work you do at home – including responding to phone calls, texts and emails. Successfully switching on and off from work will help you de-stress and sleep better.

Finding the right balance between professional and personal satisfaction is tricky. Take care of yourself and consider the benefits of some of that effort being spread elsewhere.

To read the full article visit this link:

Finding the work-life balance sweet spot (beyondblue.org.au)

Reflection and Closure Activities 

Hello wonderful educators

The ILT hope that you have been able to use some of the reflection and closure activities that were demonstrated during the school development day. There have been some great hallway conversations about how teachers have been using them in their classes. If you would like to try out any others that are on the Shared Instructional Framework or would like to find ways to adapt them to your classroom, please find Cathy for a chat and a brainstorm over coffee. Remember...

Reflection
Students reflect by summarising the content and assessing the level to which THEY have ACHIEVED the learning objective.

Closure
An ORGANISED conclusion to a learning sequence that serves to CONSOLIDATE what was taught and practised.

Ellie is working hard creating PDF documents of the strategies demonstrated on the SDD so that staff can have a copy for their classrooms or offices. If you would like a copy before we release them, please email Xan, Travis, Asharie, Nicki or Cathy and we will forward them to you.

Last week I sent out a feedback form for the SDD reflection and closure session. Thank you to the staff that have already submitted it. To those that haven't - please, please, please fill it out. Your responses will help guide the direction of the ILT and the professional development we will provide you.

Have a fantastic week.

Social Media Content

Welcome back to all staff and I hope you have had a great start to the year.

We love seeing students in action, whether in a classroom setting, in an incursion or off-site for an excursion or camp.

If you are conducting any activities you think are suitable for our school's Facebook or Instagram pages, please submit your content through the link below.

Please contact me with prior warning if you would like me to attend a session, lesson, activity etc if you would like me to take photos/videos to accompany your story.

If you have taken photos on your phone/iPad and are unsure of how to transfer these to me, please send me an email or come and visit me and I can assist you.

Submit your Facebook post using the link below.

Schoolzine

Keep up to date with all the latest news for staff and parents via the schoolzine app. You can access Heard on the Hill, the school's website, Facebook page, calendar, Connect, and more via the homepage of the app.

This easy-to-use app also sends you notifications when newsletters have been published.

See below for how to download the SZapp.