Heard on the Hill Term 4, Week 9

From the Principal                  

Bonjour à tous, and Wanju

The Education Awards were held on Monday. They are awarded by an assessment of submission.

The categories this year were:

• Excellence in school leadership
• Excellence in teaching and learning (primary)
• Excellence in teaching and learning (secondary)
• Excellence in cultural responsiveness
• Excellence in disability and inclusion

Apart from the Teaching and Learning (primary). There is not one category that you all don’t excel in and should be recognised for. You are working so hard in all these areas. I wish that I could bestow these awards on you all. It would be easy for me to fill this newsletter with the accolades, achievements, milestones and innovations that we are making in all these areas. I know that our community knows our work. I know that you want your/our actions to speak louder than words – and they do. We do things not for the accolades but because we are doing the best for our students. I also know that it is nice to receive recognition for the work that you put in.

Next year I will make sure that the Department of Education knows of Bunbury Senior High School’s excellence and that our staff are, innovative and committed to providing the highest level of education in this state.

Have a great week.

En Avant

Mike Sinagra

Nuts and Bolts

I apologise as I am not very available this week with recruitment processes both here in our school and across the district. School staffing is drawing to a close with a few positions being finalised this week.

If you haven’t yet please remember to RSVP to Ricki Clifton for the staff Christmas Party.

ADMIN DISRUPTIONS

I would like to kindly remind all staff members to be mindful when entering the administrative area, particularly the back office. This space frequently sees a considerable amount of “foot traffic” throughout the day and can become noisy and disruptive for those working in this area. We have taken some measures in the back office to minimise disruption however, the team has reported ongoing noise and disruption. Your cooperation and consideration would be greatly appreciated when next in admin.

Christmas and the holiday season can be a difficult time for some people who struggle to navigate the celebrations and festivities going on around them. They might be dealing with the strain of financial pressure, work demands, recent events, grief, or a challenging family situation.

If there's someone who's finding this time of year tough you can make a difference by checking in and having meaningful conversations with the people in your world who: 

• Are grieving
• Have had a tough year 
• Don’t feel safe in their home 
• Are struggling financially 
• Have been affected by natural disasters
• Are working over the holidays 
• Find the holiday season stressful 
• Are unwell 
• Have challenging family relationships 
• Are spending the holidays alone
• Feel excluded at this time
• Are feeling overwhelmed by world events

It can sometimes be tricky to know how to support someone who may be struggling at this time of year.

The Calendar of Connection provides a range of connection ideas to help you reach out and lend support. You don’t have to take any particular action on the exact date allocated, rather use the calendar as a thought starter for checking in across the festive season.

For more information visit: https://www.ruok.org.au/holiday?utm_source=EDM&utm_medium=TX&utm_id=COMM&utm_term=Seas&utm_content=Holiday

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.