Heard on the Hill Term 2, Week 2

From the Principal

Bonjour à tous, and Wanju

Although Week 1 was a short week it certainly feels like we are in the swing of things. I was lucky enough during my holiday break to use a two-day, 45km, walk along the Bilumun Track to recharge my batteries. It is important through the winter months and the hectic Term 2 that you don’t wait for the holiday but find a good balance of work life throughout the term

Thank you for your engagement in the School Development Day. You are not alone in wishing that we had more time like this to; talk with our colleagues; analyse data and prepare.

As we prepare to launch in Term 2, I ask you to consider Marzano’s 4 critical questions that determine student engagement.

1. How do I feel?

Considering how a student feels is the first step. Does the student feel welcomed, supported, and accepted? The teacher’s relationship with the student goes a long way to determining how a student feels in any class

2. Am I interested?

Game like activities trigger situational interest and provide a foundation for maintained situational interest. Basically, the human mind will naturally attend to situations that have missing details.

3. Is this important?

Choices of task, reporting format, or learning goal allow students to take control of their learning and make decisions that ensure personal interest in their assignments.

4. Can I do this?

If students do not believe they can perform the tasks, the brain will eventually reject it             

This week also is the start of the information flow to our Year 10s about course selection and senior school. The senior school team and PCs are actively involved in the structured activities around this process. You can help by giving some key messages to our Year 10s

• If they have a Band 9 or above for any NAPLAN test they should be doing a full ATAR course.
• Bunbury Senior High School has topped the region in results for a number of years now.
• We have high-quality teaching staff who have been acknowledged by SCSA.
• Teachers at this school know them well.
• Our campus is co-located with the CBD and the Back Beach.
• New Senior School privileges are giving students more flexibility with time spent on campus.
• The timetable is being driven by student selection and will provide more opportunities to mix and match course types, eg ATAR, Endorsed, General and Certificate.

Have a great week.

En Avant

Nuts and Bolts

It is important at the start of a term to reset your expectations: Phones off and away, uniform dress passes – please ask to see them, bring your device to school each day, ear pods out and away – unless being used in class activity.

As well as these operational matters this term we will also be focusing on the implementation of our Good Standing procedures.

Thank you very much to everyone who participated in the School Culture Survey. The results will be discussed at the General Staff Meeting next Wednesday 9 May.

Prospective Parents Open Night - Staff Tour Leaders

We are searching for volunteers to lead guided tour groups around the school on the Prospective Parents Open Night. 

Details:

Open Night: Thurs, 11 May (Term 2, Week 3)

Tour: 5pm-5.45pm

Tour Leaders will be given a map with locations of where to stop and take your tour. You will also be given talking points about each location.

We require around 6 staff members for tour groups.

If you are interested or for more information, please email Ellie via email by COB Friday 5 May: ellie.mackay@education.wa.edu.au

Teaching Staff – Personal Leave

I have been getting some questions on what to enter in HRMIS for different types of personal leave.

Types of personal leave include:

• Sick leave – employee is ill or injured. You can’t apply for sick leave in the future, that would come under planned personal leave (see below).
• 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). Funnily enough, you also can’t apply for unplanned leave for a future date, that would be planned leave (see below).
• 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. When scheduling appointments, request times after school hours when possible, although understandably sometimes this cannot occur, and you will need to access your personal leave.

Just a reminder of the importance of entering leave into HRMIS in a timely manner. The school can’t allocate staffing funds appropriately until HRMIS entries have been completed.

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

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

Evidence

Personal leave is not to be used for recreational purposes.

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 any relief lesson requirements. For planned absences, discuss with your Line Manager before entering leave request into HRMIS so they are aware of the request and can plan for replacement needs.

Lesson plans should be left in Compass in the allocated class Teachers Notes section.

Quick Guide – Relief Notes directly into Compass

Thanks to everyone who has already left their relief notes directly in Compass. Feedback from the staff involved indicated it seems to be an easy process.

If you are not sure what to do, please check the attached Quick Guide, or come and chat with me and I can help.

Thanks again.

Jobs Advertised

We currently have job adverts going live for English, Science and HPE. Please share this knowledge within your teaching networks so we can attract the best applicants possible.

Duty Areas

A reminder to check your duty allocation for Term 2.

Can front lawn duty teachers please ensure that students on the front lawn are seated during break times. This is a passive area and is the first area parents and members of the public see when they pass out school. There are other areas of the school that students are welcome to engage in athletic pursuits, please direct them to the oval to play sport.

Please Note: 

• A boy named Ryan Shannon (who has Autism) has a habit of pacing between the pine trees, please allow this to occur.
• Idea Wanto spends Lunch 1 on the front lawn with some friends. He will be briefed on the expectations (and supervised by an EA), however, please ignore him if he has a negative verbal response to the instructions.

Compass Events

In time, the Compass Events module will replace Consent2Go within our school. I would love to set up a small working group on this task to ensure we get the best set up possible. If you are interested, please chat with me.

For now, and the foreseeable future, staff will continue to use Consent2Go for excursion planning.

Electrical Equipment

Please be aware that personal electrical equipment may not be used onsite unless it has an approved electrical testing tag.

We have a team of electricians that come through in Term 3 who test all electrical equipment onsite to ensure compliance.

If you have any personal equipment onsite that does not have this approved tag, can you please remove it from site asap until our testing team comes through in Term 3.

Thanks for your cooperation.

Fault Reporting

Due to the size of our school site, we are often unaware if things are not working the way they should, or of any breakdowns or damage. Please ensure you let us know if you notice any faults and report them via the faults link on the quick links page. If the matter is urgent, please contact Tonya on 78909.

Thanks for your cooperation.

Printing & Photocopying

Please take the time to re-visit the BSHS Print Policy below. Current printing and photocopy costs are becoming excessive and I would encourage you to consider this policy in your current work practice.

Staff printing and photocopy costs and environmental impact in Term 1 is as follows:
$12,143.60 equivalent to: 430.7 trees and 45,580kg of CO2

Learning Area PCs will receive quarterly reports on printing and photocopying in an effort to manage costs and your help would be appreciated.

National Careers Week is held this year during Week 4. There will be a number of activities running throughout the week. It would be fantastic if you could encourage students (and yourself) to participate.

The library will have a display throughout the week.

Throughout the week, staff are encouraged to consider bringing in guest speakers or showing short videos that link their current curriculum content to career learning or pathways. Please let me know if you would like help in sourcing videos or ideas on speakers who may be available.

There will be a daily quiz with the link to be posted in Connect for students and emailed out to staff each morning. As part of this quiz, it would be fantastic to encourage careers conversations using information from staff (eg your first job). If you would like to participate, please complete the following form https://forms.office.com/r/BTNwq9WQra

On Monday, there will be an activity for students to be able to show us their future career aspirations. More details to come in notices.

On Wednesday, I will be holding a PL session with the focus on "Accessing career related resources and how they can be used in the classroom". This will be 3.15pm - 4.15pm. If you would like to attend, please let me know via email.

If you have anything happening during Week 4 that is career related, I would love to hear about it!

Workload Advisory Committee

Workload is often the main cause of staff stress or anxiety. Our school has a workload advisory committee, which was set up as part of our focus on Staff Wellbeing in our previous business plan, and which we continue to support through the new Staff Wellbeing Committee.

Staff Representatives for this year (continuing their 2 year tenure) are: Renee Chapple, Luke Marinoni and Adam McGill.

If you have workload issues, please discuss them first with your line manager, as many of these can be resolved quickly and easily.

If you have an issue that cannot be resolved, please submit it via either the survey link provided here, or on the document below (which can also be found in the School Templates folder on your desktop.

Social Media Content

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.