Heard on the Hill Term 4, Week 5

From the Principal                  

The Melbourne Cup provides a welcome distraction this week. I hope that you get the chance to get in a sweep or two and have a win. More significantly it signals that the term is half over.  Panic can set in. Don’t let it. I am reminded of the words of Lao Tzu

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished”.

There will be time to get everything done.  Your PC’s can always find ways to create time. It is probably prudent to map out your significant events to the end of the year and discuss them at your next LA meeting, to ensure the school has enough support structures in place for you to get the required work done. 

When we feel rushed or time is closing in we stop doing the little things or stop tackling the difficult things that have made us successful. I urge you to keep consistent throughout this term.

• Question a student every time you see them out of uniform, even if they have a uniform pass. Ensure that the student is ok, that is the context of them being out of uniform.
• The inconvenience of being asked repeatedly is a consequence of being out of uniform.
• Keep your students working right up the bell. The only critical bell is the end of the day for buses. Have some reflection, closure strategies and pack up strategies up your sleeve. If you need to increase your repertoire please speak to your PC, an experienced peer or one of our Teaching and Learning Committee.
• I will keep my visits up to classrooms.

Consistency is the key factor for building trust in each other. The trust we have in each other to act in the manner above gives us a sense of purpose and collective efficacy. We cannot do it alone but together we can sustain the orderly environment that we have built right through to the end of the term. 

Have a great week. 

En Avant

Mike Sinagra

Nuts and Bolts

Reminder to plan for the scheduled CONNECT outage from 17 November to Monday 20 November.

Friday night showed us how precarious life is. Numerous lightning strikes, from a dry summer thunderstorm, very quickly turned into a fire emergency in the Peel region. Good preparation is an important aspect of our response to emergencies. Annually I prepare the Bush Fire emergency plan. Part of this requires an annual emergency drill. Please make sure you are across your requirements should a drill happen soon.

To access last week's leadership minutes, please click below.

Classroom Observations

As we move to the latter part of the term this is a brilliant time to organise a peer to come and observe an element of your lesson. This could be a teaching strategy, a specific CMS feedback or a simple observation of student behaviour. The BEST teachers are always open to self-learning and sharing with others. You can see this around the school where teachers don’t hide in their rooms and collaborate with each other; sharing ideas.

I like to say thank you to everyone for our classroom pop-ins, more so Mike than me. That said, I saw a brilliant ‘checking for understanding’ strategy in full operation, sound low level CMS, self-paced learning with technology and no opt out responses during revision.

Self-Reflection

I am very good at….

• encouraging students to talk about content
• leading students to learning success through collaboration

I know perfectly well….

• that instruction need to be clearly formulated
• that a variety of teaching strategies need to be incorporated

My goal is always to….

• encourage students to communicate more with each other
• encourage students to present their thinking and solution processes more often.

Examinations

Thank you for your patience regarding the examinations. Feedback so far has been positive for both WACE and Yr11 examinations.  

Survey My Class

Do I want to survey my students?

Depends……..will their feedback be of any value?! Hopefully, the survey results will provide you with some positive feedback and direction on areas to investigate for potential improvement.

What will I get out of it?

Obtaining student feedback provides valuable insights into teaching practice and classroom dynamics. Additionally, it empowers students in your class by giving them a voice.

Will they be rude/disrespectful?

This is always a concern. Carefully select which classes you will do the survey with. Sometimes a student may not have the maturity to be able to complete the survey with the right intentions.

As with all feedback, you have the final decision on whether to take it onboard or disregard it. Personally, I have never surveyed my tougher Year 9 boys PE classes. These boys would be frustrated about missing PE class time to do a survey, so it’s obvious some may not respond in a constructive manner.

If you do get anything inappropriate or concerning, chat with your Line Manager or colleague. Ask them to do some observations to see if what the student has written has any validity at all.

What are the questions?

How should I do it?

The students need to access the survey link. Below is how I have set it up in the past:

1. Select your class or classes that you want to focus on.
2. Post the survey link into Connect so the student can access it easily. (https://www.research.net/r/BunburySHSNov2023)
3. Set aside some teaching time. Chat to them about the process and why you are asking for their feedback. This may help them to understand the process and act with maturity when providing feedback.
4. Allow enough time to do the survey and don’t back it onto lunch. The kids will skip through it without any thought to ensure they are able to leave on time.

Who gets the results?

The survey data for each individual teacher remains private to those teachers. Student names are anonymous. You will receive an email with your compiled data at the end of the process.

The combined data of all BSHS staff is compiled into a report for the Leadership Team, which is simply another piece of data used to inform our school improvement plans.

Again, this is private regarding individual teachers’ data. The report that the Leadership Team sees only has a list of the staff members' names that have participated.

The class survey opportunity is open from Thursday 9 November to Thursday 23 November.

Ultimately, we are always looking to enhance the overall quality of teaching and learning in our school, and it would be great to have all teachers participating in this process.

If you have any questions about the process, please contact Adam on 78902.

Using AI?

Thanks to those who have contacted me already about their use of AI.

I am still looking for more examples of teacher’s use of AI to assist their practice.

Are you using AI? How have you used it to support your teaching/planning/class activities?

If so, can you please get in contact with me and let me know. We are looking for some great examples to share throughout the school.

Thanks!

Adam McGill

Technology Committee

The next meeting of the Technology Committee will be Tuesday 14 November 3.10pm in D&T4.

It would be great if we could get at least one rep from each LA.

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.