Heard on the Hill Term 1, Week 6

From the Principal

Bonjour à tous, and Wanju

The long weekend in the middle of Term 1 is the perfect placement. I spent the weekend involved in an Aikido seminar, reconnecting with friends and eating out. This was the perfect combination of physical exertion, connection and mental distraction. I hope that you also were able to recharge your batteries for the remainder of the term. The HealthyWA website has some very valuable tips for maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Good mental health and wellbeing

This time last year we were in the grip of the Omicron wave. It seems like a distant memory. Some great lessons were learnt. Many of us have developed a healthy hand wash culture that I urge you to keep up through the winter/flu season. Secondly, we added TR FTE to our permanent staff to increase access to relief teachers and decrease the amount of internal relief. The teacher shortage has eroded that buffer, but we are working to build that backup. I am keen to ensure that internal relief is kept to a minimum.

I will be out a little this week and it is a short week. Please take care and keep doing what you are doing it is fabulous.

Have a great week.

En Avant

Nuts and Bolts

I called for nomination to the Workload Advisory Committee a few weeks back but have not had any responses. If you are keen the meetings will only be held on an “as needed basis”. Generally, my fortnightly meetings with Nghia, the Union representative, is able to resolve most issues.

We are also in need of WHS officer. Full training is offered.

HARMONY WEEK

Harmony Week 15 – 21 March is an opportunity to foster students’ intercultural understanding a general capability in the Western Australian Curriculum. As Diversity is one of our school values, we hope that by highlighting Harmony Week we are encouraging students and staff to celebrate the amazing cultural diversity within our school and our community. If you can find a way to make a connection to cultures through your classroom activities, this would be fantastic.

The Cultural Inclusivity Committee has put together a range of activities, supported by many staff, for the week. Here is the schedule of activities (some of these are still to be finalised at time of HOTH publication).

From Monday 13 March - Tuesday 21 March

• Displays around the school (Mardi Gras masks from French, national costumes).
• Colouring in and origami
• Map and flag display in Cafeteria - the cultural backgrounds of students at Bunbury SHS
• Cafeteria selling culturally specific foods during this week
• Video about various students and staff and their cultural backgrounds - shared to all staff to be played in the classroom.
• Read about different cultures in the Daily Notices
• Music from different cultures will play at break times throughout the week at the front of the school
• Movie Club - will offer a range of films highlighting a range of cultures

Wednesday 15 March

• Year 8 Market Day - Lunch 1&2

Thursday 16 March

• Flag Parade Lunch 1
• Japanese calligraphy activity outside Student Services - L1
• Face Painting by Year 10 VASP students on the front lawn - L1

Friday 17 March

• "Living Library" guest speaker, Widi, in Room 10 - L1
• AUSLAN alphabet lesson with Theresa Ugle in Room 10 - L2

Monday 20 March

• Face painting by Year 10 VASP students L2 outside Student Services
• Diablo and Patanque on the front lawn L2

Tuesday 21 March

• "Living Library" guest speaker L1 in Room 10 - Edana
• Music Performance - L2

Future Leaders' Program - Nominations due this week

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.

Compass Update

At the next staff meeting we will have some time dedicated to Compass troubleshooting.

If you have any questions or need some help with Compass, please complete the below survey and we will attempt to answer them during the Staff Meeting time.

https://forms.office.com/r/7LwznYHn06

Thanks to all who have provided feedback when encountering problems with entering Chronicle events.

From my understanding, most things have gone through smoothly when we are alerted to some problems or concerns we have been able to adjust our processes to ensure staff are able to communicate effectively with students and their families.

Something I learnt on Friday when dealing with an issue was how easy it is to directly email parents or a larger group of parents from within your class set. See below for a quick guide.

I can confirm the email response from the parent came directly to my email inbox.

Howdy Folks!

Thanks to those who have started attending Coffee Club on Tuesday mornings. Our next meet will be in week 7 to allow you some time to get your first observations done and to reflect on where you would like to improve your classroom practice. Thanks go to Andrew H for the free coffee and to Jasmin for a rather epic hedgehog slice.

I am starting to see a lot more students automatically ruling up their workbooks in the Cornell style. Last week I adapted mine for science procedural writing - we used the cue section for placing subtitles for the aim, hypothesis, variables etc. and the summary section for a conclusion. It really forced the students to think and reflect about what they had written on the page. If you would still like some more information about how you could adapt for your leaning area, please see me (Cathy). I have attached a link to an ATOMI Youtube video that can also help you out. ATOMI also have some great videos for study skills, mathematics, science and even a few art videos - thanks to Lou Carr for the link!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLtM3pa9_SQ

Have you tried "Take 5" recently? I have a attached copy for you if you want a refresher. It is a great closure activity where students consolidate or reinforce learning by orally reviewing a concept and presenting it to the class.

As usual, please come to see me for a chat if you want to try or adjust a new teaching strategy, would like some objective feedback on your lessons, want to share something that worked brilliantly in your class or need some help with some tricky students - I am here to help.

Kind regards
Cathy Watson

FREE 8 week Health and Fitness Program

The South West Sports Centre is running a FREE health and fitness program called Move for Life, which is a falls prevention program aimed at supporting participants of all ages and abilities to gain strength and fitness.

Move for Life runs for eight weeks under the guidance of our qualified personal trainers, and can help participants new to physical activity, or who have been identified by a medical professional due to age, illness or rehabilitation to need a slower paced base-level program or introduction to exercise.

Supported by Injury Matters and the Stay on Your Feet program, Move for Life will take participants through supervised easy-to-follow exercises to improve range of movement, posture, and balance with modification options to suit individual needs.

All participants will undergo pre-exercise screening and fitness testing, including the 4-Stage Balance Test and the 30-second chair stand falls risk assessment, and may require a medical clearance before commencing the program.

We can tailor individual exercises for participants, based on their health needs and fitness levels as indicated by the pre-exercise screening process.

The Move for Life program will commence 21 March 2023 and will run Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:30am to 12:30pm.  Each session will include 30 minutes of exercise followed by a 30-minute educational talk regarding a range of topics, including nutrition, medication and falls prevention.

If you feel this may be beneficial to you or anyone you know, please get in touch today by emailing your expression of interest to manderson@bunbury.wa.gov.au or call (08) 9795 2249.   Alternatively, I have attached the information flyer for your reference as required.

Strategies to support yourself and students leading into NAPLAN

Excerpts of article from Be You - https://beyou.edu.au/

Creating a safe and supportive environment for children and young people is important for their mental health and wellbeing, and how they feel going into the NAPLAN tests. 

While stress can be a normal response to the demands of work, prolonged or excessive stress is not good for anyone. Sources of stress in the lead up to NAPLAN may include:  

• Increased time pressures and workload
• Conflict with management and colleagues
• Adapting and implementing change influenced by NAPLAN
• Supporting students who may experience increased anxiety during this period, which may appear in the form of lack of motivation and effort, disrespect, or challenging authority.

What are the strategies educators can put in place to support their learning communities? 

Of course, wellbeing strategies should be top of mind all year round, however, the NAPLAN period does provide an opportunity to acknowledge, review, build on, or introduce wellbeing strategies. Strategies include: 

• Build into your daily routine strategies to support your wellbeing, such as taking breaks, going for a walk, eating healthy snack, taking deep breaths or listening to your favourite song 
• Ensure you are help-seeking when needed and reaching out to colleagues for support
• Review and implement structures and processes to minimise work-related stressors
• Access staff wellbeing resources such as the Be You Educator Wellbeing resources (https://beyou.edu.au/fact-sheets/wellbeing ) or the resources through Heads Up (https://www.headsup.org.au/your-mental-health ) to gain information/resources on how to support your wellbeing
• Improve your connectedness with young people and colleagues
• Ensure staff receive appropriate recognition for their work

Lead House Coordinator JDF 2023

The Lead House Coordinator will be responsible for:

• Devising and implementing a strategic plan to build the House program into the culture of the school.
• Leading and directing the work of the other House Coordinators;
• Overseeing House competitions and activities;
• Sourcing and delivery of an appropriate student leadership development program for the student House Leaders Yrs7-11.
• A House and its student leaders (see detail below).

This role provides an opportunity for aspirant leaders to demonstrate high level outcomes as outlined within the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL).

This role attracts a 0.1FTE and SRA Band 4 financial allowance [$46.55/fortnight]

This role reports directly to the Program Coordinator Student Services.

House Coordinator Key responsibilities:

• Manage a House Leadership Group – one lunch time student meeting per week
• Help organise and deliver an ongoing leadership training program focussing on key aspects of leadership including but not limited to; meeting protocols, public speaking, personal presentation, working in a team etc.
• Meet formally with other House Coordinators on a regular basis (before or after school) for planning purposes (typically 3-4 times per term)
• Contribute to the development of a House Competition Events Schedule
• Ensure scheduled House competition events are completed
• Assist Student House Leaders to conduct their leadership role
• Physical set up of Whole School Assemblies as per the appropriate assembly schedule (chairs, flags, podium etc)
• Manage allocated budget in consultation with PC-SS

Community Services Program

This year we are implementing a Community Services Program for our students.

The aim of this program is to recognise all the amazing things that our students do to make our community a better place to live. This program is open to all students; however, those in Years 10 – 12 can complete this program as an Endorsed Program which can contribute toward their WACE.

I am happy to come and meet with you or attend your Learning Area meetings to let you know how you can jump on board. There are many activities already happening across the school that the students are going to be able to include. Examples are:

• The community art projects
• Band performances
• Prefect fundraising activities
• Possum habitats created by the SHED
• And I am sure there are many more…

Students and their parent/guardians will receive information via Connect and the Compass notices. If you know of students who volunteer their time, it would be great if you could encourage them to read the information and register their interest (link is in the Connect notice).

If you would like to learn more about how you or your learning area can support this, please send an email to Peta King with preferred times.

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.