Heard on the Hill Term 4, Week 6

From the Principal                  

With world events as they are, in your capacity as a teacher I remind you that we must remain apolitical in the school environment.  However, I can imagine that for HASS students there is a great opportunity to dissect international law, inter-connected government relationships, and other geopolitical histories. In other learning areas, other aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may come up, like the humanitarian plight of the Palestinian people. Be sensitive in your presentation of material, balanced and take an academic focus to educate our students to become informed, engaged citizens. 

Today we held the first Work Health and Safety Committee meeting. I am really excited by the formation of this committee. Their function is to help keep us all safe and follow the rules and procedures related to health and safety, which can only improve our workplace. With this in mind, can I also remind people to report faults to Tonya using the Faults Reporting process. Each and every one of us has the responsibility to do this to ensure that our workplace is functioning at its highest level. 

I attended the Remembrance Day celebrations at the Bunbury Memorial with our student leaders, Riley Fisher, Scarlett Brown and Alyssa Bain. It was a wonderful ceremony, and the students represented our school proudly. Our student leadership team is shaping to be something special.  If you see them around, please congratulate them.

There are a couple of whole school events coming up. These events where students are involved outside of the classroom and where the school is on show are a great opportunity for staff to build relationships with both; students in a different context, and with their parents. I invite you all to attend or help out to really gain the benefits of being part of our school community. On Sunday we will host the Lego League Competition. Craig Bourne is coordinating this fantastic event. On Wednesday 6 December, we will hold the Music Showcase in the amphitheatre. There is a team of people involved in this but we always need more. Please see Billie or Ellie if you can help out.

En Avant

Mike Sinagra

Nuts and Bolts

It is a busy week. WACE examinations wrap up. Year 11 General students finish and Year 10 exams start.

There have been numerous staffing processes going on recently, and they will continue to. We have had very good interest in all positions posted so far.  Well done to the HR team and those involved in the selection panels.

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

Mindframe

If you casually look at The Best Teachers poster prominently displayed in your office, you’ll note the statement Growth Mindset. In addition, our DoE has pushed out their Teaching for Impact (TFI) poster and other resources, which respects your efforts in identifying how teaching should occur here at Bunbury SHS. Mike and Cathy have delivered activities during our staff meetings looking at the beliefs (Believe) section of the poster.

One element from the TIF poster is:

Effective teachers believe they have the responsibility to evaluate the impact of their practice and seek to improve it.

Hattie also identifies a teacher’s mindframe/mindset is paramount to student success. One of his opening statements is “…my job here is to evaluate my impact, then students are the major beneficiaries”. As we wind the year up, one job that teachers do is to start planning for the next year.

Use this time to reflect on your impact of student learning. Plan out your peer/classroom observation schedule for 2024 (don’t need a partner as yet). While most have a program from this year that requires a tweak here and there, look at strategies that enhances learning and insert that into the program. The use of AI is effective to develop a few ideas to build on.

Cornell Notes

This year the Instructional Leadership Team identified one strategy to be incorporated into classes for 2023 to assist students in improving their Reading skills. Reading scores in NAPLAN has declined over the years yet is one of the major indicators of successful students in an ATAR or Cert III plus pathway. Therefore, to lift students across all years there will be a push out for all teachers to use the Cornell Notes approach in their classes.

For 2024, Cornell Notes is mandatory in all Year 7 classes. The caveat is that teachers may use graphic organisers as a substitute. If a graphic organiser is not suitable then Cornell notetaking is to be used at all times.

Survey My Class

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

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

https://www.research.net/r/BunburySHSNov2023

See last week’s Heard on Hill if you would like further information on the processes to follow.

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

CMS ISE Program 2024

A big part of our school's Professional Development Plan is accessing the DoE CMS Programs.

We currently have the opportunity to request a number of places in the CMS: ISE Program for 2024.

This program is designed to increase the capacity and confidence of classroom teachers to select, apply and evaluate appropriate instructional skills and strategies to engage students in learning.

This is for staff who have previously completed the CMS Foundation Program and includes 3 full-day workshops with an in-class observation and conference after each workshop.

School Development Day – Last day of year

The recent survey completed by staff for the school’s wellbeing committee outlined a request for more wellbeing activities on School Development Days.

I am currently putting together the agenda for the last day – School Development Day. Whilst there are some activities already planned, there is the opportunity to run some staff wellbeing activities in the morning.

If you would like to volunteer to run a session, or have something in mind, please chat with me so I can devise a plan. Approximately 90 minutes to 2 hours at the start of the day.

It should be a nice way to begin unwinding on the morning of the last day for the year!

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.