Heard on the Hill Term 1, Week 6

From the Principal                  

Bonjour à tous, and Wanju

Welcome to the short - Week 6.  I love the long weekend this time of year. It is perfectly placed to rest, recharge and gather up our reserves to finish the term strong. I spent the weekend, checking out the cars at the Bunbury Bumper and Beats car show and honoured a long family tradition of making tomato sauce for the year. I hope that you found something to challenge your body, expand your mind and soothe your spirit.

A positive culture does not just appear and once created it doesn’t just keep going without a constant effort. Many people work hard to keep the grounds clean, tidy and up to date. The new 

buildings and improvements, gardening and classroom repair and maintenance schedule all create a physical environment that contributes to the culture of high expectation of a particular standard at Bunbury Senior High School. You can contribute to this culture with a focus on the physical environment of your classroom. All your colleagues will appreciate your effort to contribute. 

You might like to read further about how the focus on these small matters sets culture.  

Cleaning Up the Mess - The Mayor’s Anti-Graffiti Task Force - CooperatorNews New York, The Co-op & Condo Monthly

 This story of NYC is based on the “Broken Windows Theory”

The theory assumes that the landscape "communicates" to people. A broken window transmits to criminals the message that a community displays a lack of informal social control and so is unable or unwilling to defend itself against a criminal invasion. It is not so much the actual broken window that is important, but the message the broken window sends to people. It symbolizes the community's defenselessness and vulnerability and represents the lack of cohesiveness of the people within. Neighbourhoods with a strong sense of cohesion fix broken windows and assert social responsibility on themselves, effectively giving themselves control over their space.

While discussing culture, the great work done by staff in running lunch time and after school clubs is greatly appreciated. I would really appreciate any help that anyone can give at the moment in setting our Year 7s on the right path of being model Bunbury SHS students.  Currently, the Year 7s don’t really know what to do at break times and they congregate in big groups. This has the potential to go wrong. It hasn’t, and there is no need to be alarmed. If you run a lunch time club, have time to play some handball or kick a football with a Year 7 could you please do that over the next couple of weeks. Thank you in anticipation.

Have a great week.

En Avant

Mike Sinagra

Teacher Relief

Relief Notes

To minimise class disruption, continue learning activities and support individual students’ needs, it is important we leave quality lesson plans for the relief teacher or internal relief teacher.

Some staff are doing an amazing job in supporting their colleagues who are taking their relief classes, we thank you for your diligence.

Can I please refer everyone back to the relief lesson template. This is attached and located in the school resources section in Compass. This should be used for all our relief notes, by being copy/pasted into the Teacher Notes section of the class page.

Upload to Compass

Please ensure relief notes are uploaded to Compass as early as possible in the morning, hopefully by 8am.

Staff often use DOTT times or recess to look ahead at the relief notes for a class they have later in the day to ensure they are prepared.

The addition of relief notes in the morning allows our colleagues to be better prepared before heading into the class. Class resources can also be uploaded to the class page in Compass if that helps the relief teacher.

Problems with Relief Notes

If there seems to be a problem with the relief notes or lesson resources, staff should discuss with the relevant Learning Area PC.

Allocated Relief

If you have been allocated an internal relief but have a valid reason for not being able to complete the relief lesson, please speak with your HOLA or one of the Deputies.

Future Leaders Program

The Future Leaders program is a framework utilised by the Department of Education, to assist schools in their identification and support of aspiring leaders. Our school has run this program since 2019. We have had several cohorts over the past five years, with many of those staff successfully winning promotions, or leadership roles, while engaging with the program.

I have attached more information about the program, for those who may be interested.

If you wish to nominate for the program, it can occur in two different ways. You can nominate yourself (using the Self-Nomination form) or you can ask your line manager to nominate you (using the Nomination form - Schools).

Nominations are due at the end of Week 7. Please email to kelly.anderson@education.wa.edu.au or hand in to front office to put in my intray.

After nominations are received, they are evaluated by a Nomination Panel, and outcomes will be shared with staff in Week 9.

If you have any questions about this program, please email me, or pop in for a chat.

Professional Learning for Aspiring Leaders

My intention this year was to again offer a fortnightly program of professional learning about leadership. With the current Union directives in place, it is not possible to run meetings after school. Instead, what I would like to offer to anyone, is to borrow the book my training program is based on, Dare to Lead by Brene Brown. Her book comes with a companion workbook, that helps you process your learning of concepts as you read. You can also download the audio of the book if you would rather listen to it.

I have 7 copies of the book available (3 are already on loan with existing aspirants). I have copies of the workbook for anyone who wants to engage with this learning.

The work of Brene Brown is regularly being referenced by the Leadership Institute (the arm of the DOE who provides training to DOE leaders), so it aligns with what the DOE expect to see from their leaders.

Howdy folks!

I am checking in to see how staff are progressing with using Cornell notes for Year 7s and hopefully Year 8s. I am noticing that some of my students are starting to slip with their usage/neatness and have made a note to myself to stick to my classroom routine of ruling up a new notes page at the start of each lesson.

Some hints for using the cue and summary sections:

• use the last 5 minutes of class to get students to write their cue questions.
• use the first or last 5 minutes of class to get students to write the summary.
• give the students a word limit for the summary (no more than 20 words).
• get students to write definitions for new words in the cue/summary section and then highlight the word in the notes section.

Many classes are starting to do tests - are you encouraging the use of mind maps for revision? I made my Year 9s do one and had to remember that I hadn't taught them how to do it properly, so had to teach them again!

If you need any help implementing Cornell notes and mind mapping into your class, or any other instructional strategy please come to see me for a chat and support. You can find me in the Science Office or Room 30.

Keep smiling

Cathy Watson
High Quality Teaching Team Coordinator

Promoting Bunbury SHS

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.

FACEBOOK POST https://bunburyshs.wufoo.com/forms/z11e20yz19m4foz/