Heard on the Hill Term 1, Week 4

From the Principal

Bonjour à tous, and Wanju

On Friday afternoon, I completed the signing of an MOU with ECU with the objectives to:

• Work towards the achievement of relevant education, training and research priorities for Bunbury Senior High School (BSHS) and Edith Cowan University (ECU), including identifying education requirements and research opportunities for students that could be supported by ECU
• ECU and BSHS are committed, where practicable, to working collaboratively to provide benefits for students and the region.
• Map relevant projects that give BSHS students the opportunity to work on research projects supervised by ECU academics as part of a team.
• Mutually engage on long term activities aligned to the curriculum where students spend time on ECU South West’s Bunbury Campus to foster interests in careers.
• Create custom content blocks of content for students (micro-credentials) that align to a unit of study at ECU.
• Facilitate BSHS student involvement in spanned delivery e.g. some first-year units at ECU align strongly with ATAR level content and learning outcomes.
• Nurture a model of education pathways to ECU for BSHS students.
• Commit to maintaining a positive and cooperative working relationship

The media event was a distraction to the main event which was to place our learning area PC’s in the same room as the Executive Deans of ECU.  The Friday evening social event provided the opportunity to directly create liaisons and explore the opportunities the Bunbury SHS and ECU could create for students. I am really looking forward to seeing what the PC’s and staff can manufacture with support of ECU.

ChatGPT

The Department of Education has directed us in the use (or should I say non-use) of ChatGPT. This is AI, here and now. If like me, you thought AI was miles off, or something with limited access, think again. Whether you are using it or not you should definitely be across the capability of what is available to students and us. Remember with great power comes great responsibility. After you have spent some time exploring ChatGPT check out this article that has freed it from the rules that govern it.

Chat GPT Article

Have a great week.

En Avant

Nuts and Bolts

Part of our EBA includes 5 hours of meeting time/term. General Staff Meetings (GSM) make up 2 hours of this and Learning Area Meeting (LAM) time is 3 hours. The GSMs are mapped out in the calendar and the LAMs should also be mapped out in a staff calendar. It should only be through an emergency that you need to provide an apology. In future, please consider these meeting times when you make an appointment.  An appointment is not a valid excuse to miss GSMs or LAMs, unless in exceptional circumstances.

WHS Officer - Position Available

The school is looking for a WHS officer. Training is available for this position. Expressions of Interest can be sent to me via email. EOIs close on Friday 24 February at COB.

Future Leaders' Program

The Future Leaders' Program is a formal and structured program of support for aspiring leaders. A new cohort will be selected from a rigorous nomination and selection process. After nominations are received, these are examined closely by a panel, which includes an independent reviewer. Feedback will be given to all who apply, regardless of the outcome.

The future leaders will be supported to work on a development goal throughout the year. Extra support and professional learning is also available to all staff, as well as the future leaders' cohort, via the Aspirant Program running fortnightly after school.

Nominations are now being sought from teaching staff who are aspiring to Level 3 (classroom teacher or program coordinator). The nomination process can be accessed in two ways:

1. Nomination by your line manager - this is the preferred method, as it indicates that your line manager has identified your potential and is working with and supporting you in your aspirations.
2. Self-nomination - this is allowed, but it is recommended that you at least let your line manager know that you are applying and maybe seek some feedback and input from them prior to submitting your nomination.

Nominations are due to Kelly by the end of Week 6 (Friday 10th March). The templates for each type of nomination are attached to this article. They are also in the School Templates folder, along with a range of other relevant documents to assist you in this process.

If you are interested in the Aspirant Program, just a reminder that our next session will be on Thursday 2nd March from 3.30pm in the Boardroom - please email me if interested in attending these sessions.

Learning Support

Understanding Learning Difficulties (dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia and others) is an online course offered by Dyslexia SPELD. See the link below for more information. This course is an excellent introduction and overview about these learning difficulties, and also reinforces the types of accommodations and adjustments often recommended by our Learning Support Coordinator, Sarah Hales, and the Education Assistants. The EA team has completed this course in the past couple of years.

Access to the course is usually for a 12 month period, so that you can complete it at a pace that suits you. If teachers are interested in doing this course, please register your interest with Kelly. The course must be completed in your own time, however, the school will cover the cost of registration for up to ten staff.

AIEO relief

We will be employing some relief AIEOs while we advertise the role.  Please say Hi to these people if you see them around the school. They will work out of the Aboriginal Hub over at the Library. This week we have Shannon Collard in on Monday, Thursday and Friday. Welcome, Shannon!

Coffee Club

A reminder that the Coffee Club is up and going for this term. This is a great opportunity to work with peers to establish a safe environment for you to have someone observe a lesson (or part of a lesson). From the current Performance Management agreement; as outlined in the Employee Performance policy and procedures you should use a variety of evidence and as a minimum: data showing impact on student outcomes; information based on direct observation of teaching; and evidence of collaboration with colleagues.

Where information is based on direct observation, this must be done in accordance with the exchange of letters between the Department, the State School Teachers’ Union of WA (SSTUWA) and the Principals’ Federation of Western Australia (PFWA), and includes:

• All teachers are to be observed in the performance management cycle by either a superordinate of their choice or peer of their choice for the purpose of feedback.

The Coffee Club provides that opportunity to meet the requirement of performance management in a safe environment and by tapping into a peer to help. Peer observation of your practice could be a teaching strategy, CMS observation, utilising technology into a lesson or a literacy strategy such as Cornell notes.

Cornell Notes

Speaking of Cornell notes, this is a whole school approach to note taking within every classroom. If you are unsure what this entails please speak to Cathy or Hayley for help. To lift student performance, particularly from a literacy viewpoint, it was identified through the teaching and learning committee a common approach should be used. Cornell notes is the most simplistic method that every teacher can implement into their lessons.

Consent2Go

All queries concerning C2G goes to Adam or myself, not to the front office. With census being later, clean data needs to be provided to C2G and that was not possible until Friday 17 Feb. This data has been sent to C2G and we will have to wait until they have uploaded it into our system.

FINANCE COMMITTEE 

Congratulations to Kyle Smith & Megan Brown on their successful nomination to the Finance Committee.

There is one more vacancy if you would like to put your name forward by submitting the attached nomination form.

The first committee meeting will be held on Tuesday, 7 March at 3.15pm in the Board Room.

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 Device Distribution Plan

We have received our fleet of new staff devices (Apple or Windows laptop) and these will soon be ready for your collection.

Please follow the below dates closely. You will need to hand in your old device within 2 weeks after collecting your new device, this leaves enough time for you to transfer data from your old device to your new.

See Vicki Martin in the office opposite Room 24/25 to collect your new device. Approximately 10 minutes is needed to ensure set up of the new device.

Staff who completed the survey at the end of last year will receive their preference (Apple or Windows device). New staff, returning staff or staff who missed the survey opportunity will receive an alternate email soon so that they can complete their request.

Compass Update - Late to Class

We have fixed the Late to class function and it can now be used by teachers within their own classes when marking the class roll.
If a student arrives to class after you have completed the roll, at an appropriate time in your lesson please go back into your class roll and change from NP to L, then write the time that they arrived.

Students who are late to school, or who have been at Student Services will arrive with a note to say they have signed in/out from Student Services. Please change this student to L.

Any student who is just late to your class as they have been wasting time after lunch or between classes should also be marked Late and issued with an appropriate consequence from the class teacher.
By marking the student as Late, over time you will be able to see a snapshot of the students attendance and any patterns in their punctuality.

Thanks for all the suggestions and queries we have had over the last few weeks with Compass. We are working on getting these actioned or at least finding out if the suggestion is possible.

It's always hard changing platforms and getting used to the new set up but staff are doing a great job.

If you need anything don't hesitate to ask.

Thank you to all that have provided feedback on our school development day session. We have listened and have attached a few of the strategies demonstrated on the day. Feel free to download and use in your classroom.

If there is an activity that you want help adapting to your learning area, please email Cathy for a sit down and a chat to help.

There will be more strategies released over the next few weeks. There will be a range of topics from CMS, instructional strategies and relationship building.

Stay tuned and 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.