Heard on the Hill Term 4, Week 1

From the Principal                  

Bonjour à tous, and Wanju

Welcome back to Term 4 everyone. The weather across the break has been fantastic. I hope that you had the chance to experience the explosion of wildflowers, or the beach sand between your toes or found some way to acknowledge the emergence from the darkness of winter into the new term. I achieved a personal milestone, finally catching a fish using my fly rod.  Hopefully, there will be many more to come.

Term 4 is traditionally a time for feedback and reflection. That of course will continue with all of the programs that we are delivering at Bunbury SHS. This year we have set aside one of the school development days for this process. In the past we have rotated through learning areas. That structure adds to the TR burden. To ease that burden, this year the SDD will be almost totally handed over to learning areas to get this valued work done. Hatti has identified good feedback as having the largest effect on student progress. It can affect us in the same way. Please make the most of this opportunity to gather good data, have robust conversations and be courageous in your actions to provide the best learning environment for all students.

As I mentioned in previous editions, the future is upon us and we need to work across several fronts,

• Senior Schooling structures
• technology
• enterprise skill development and
• positive, flexible delivery environment to ensure that schooling stays relevant and useful to our students.

Together with the work being done on creating a sense of belonging through the development of a positive learning environment, project-based learning with community partners and the developing senior school culture our agenda is really clearly defined.

I hope that you have a great term and have a chance to look back at our accomplishments so far as a break from our continuous forward focus on improvement.

En Avant

Mike Sinagra

Nuts and Bolts

Class visits started this morning. I was very happy welcoming the students from the 10 classes that I visited today. All seemed rested and ready for the term. If I didn’t see you today, I hope that I will see you over the next couple of days.

Year 12 Results

General courses have finished so all data should be entered and grades finalised. Final grades have to be entered by Friday 13 October; this includes Year 12 ATAR courses. For ATAR courses there is the need to complete SGM collaboration prior to finalising the grades.

Visible Learning

Over the next few weeks, we will be looking back at Visible Learning. At any point teachers can easily Google Visible Learning and a multitude of websites are there to gain information from. Whatever resource is accessed, Hatties research indicates that Visible Learning has the biggest impact on student achievement. Linking this to the Teaching for Impact we can see the importance of this is everyday lessons.

Cathy and Michelle, having taught ATAR Psychology, are very familiar with a guy called Bandura. Bandura explored ‘efficacy’ and expanded his studies into ‘collective efficacy’: “a group’s shared belief in the conjoint capabilities to organise and execute the courses of action required to produce given levels of attainment.” Simply put, the more teachers in a learning area act as a team with a sound approach to improve student outcomes will see that happen in their classes. Linking this to classroom (peer) observations the better this approach becomes.

To improve teaching practice within a school, there needs to be a shared understanding of what constitutes highly effective practice.

Welcome back for Term 4, I hope everyone had a restful break.

I am looking forward to covering for Kelly Anderson throughout Term 4, no doubt I will be on a steep learning curve.

My main portfolios for Term 4 include:

• Student Services
• Business Plan strategic development
• Staff Development opportunities
• Aboriginal Education
• Line Management for English, Humanities, Arts, HPE

Student Services Term 4:

Nic Andrew will be the Student Services PC for weeks 1 to 5. Then Nghia Nguyen will step into this role for weeks 6 to 10.

Welcome Peta King to the team for Term 4, she will be covering the above HOY roles throughout Term 4, starting with Years 7 & 9.

All the best for a great term 4. Feel free to drop in and see me if you have any concerns.

Adam McGill

Deputy Principal

As most of you will be aware by now, I've picked up Adam's role for Term 4 of this year. I'm pretty nervous, lots to learn and get my head around very quickly!

I'll be looking after the following;

• Staffing changes for Term 4 and management of leave cover
• Recruitment for 2024
• Relief coordination
• OLNA and Yr11 Exam scheduling/coordination
• Duty and Withdrawal Roster management
• New Staff induction and coordination of Prac. Students
• WHS Committee

Adam will be keeping timetabling for now, (you're all welcome!).

I've left the management of Student Service in very capable hands with Nic and Nghia, and I am confident everyone will support them in their leadership of Student Services over the course of Term 4.

Thanks in advance for your patience with me while I find my feet in the Manager of School Operations role!

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.

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.