Heard on the Hill Term 1, Week 7

From the Principal                  

Bonjour à tous, and Wanju

Apologies for the delay this week in our weekly newsletter. Across the weekend we had the Education Department’s GAT testing with over 100 Year 6s registered to take the test. Special thanks to Andrew Healey, James Wiseman and Kylie Ward who managed the students across the weekend. Later that Saturday evening, at the opposite end of schooling, our Year 12 students attended the 2024 School Ball. It was a fabulous evening and all those involved in getting it to happen should be congratulated. Particularly Almarie January, Danelle Field and Tim Fry. I’m sure that you will see the photos soon.

This week we will be meeting with the potential ATAR students for 2025.  Yes, 2025. We are building on our presentation from last year, providing information to the students to make informed decisions on their future schooling needs. For example, there is no better place to study ATAR in Bunbury than Bunbury SHS. We have had, and continue to provide, the greatest value adding to students Year 9 NAPLAN scores. That is, our Year 12 students achieve as expected and beyond, more than any other school in the Bunbury region.

We will continue to offer the varied pathways, but our focus is on communicating to the greater community, that Bunbury SHS, is the ATAR school in Bunbury, as our results continue to show. This will be true for students accessing 1, 2, 3, or a whole pathway of ATAR courses. Our notion of creating “High Value Educational Currency”, has been enhanced this year with the ECU portfolio program in Visual Arts. In 2025, we are planning to offer the opportunity to match relevant Alumni to potential ATAR students in a mentoring relationship.

Alongside our: magnificent location; ever updating buildings; the integration of the city and the beach into our campus; and the network of successful students and Alumni that a student can build; Bunbury SHS is a very special option for any senior school student.

Have a great week.

En Avant

Mike Sinagra

Nuts and Bolts

This week there are a couple of special events with Market Day on Wednesday, my favorite day of the year and the Maggie Dent presentation on Thursday evening.  If you would like to attend, please see Ellie for free tickets.

Future Leaders Program - due this Friday!

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.

Harmony Week: 15-21 March 

Harmony Week is an opportunity for all Western Australians to celebrate our vibrant multicultural State. With one of our school values being Diversity, this week is an important one for our school, and we want to make sure that our differences are recognised as our greatest strength.

There are a range of activities planned by the Cultural Inclusivity Committee, with the support of many other staff and students, including the newly formed student Culture Club. Thank you in advance to those who have offered to help.

The Daily Notices will include some interesting facts about other countries (see attached), and also attached to this post are the schedule of activities (staff version) and a colouring in pack as a fun break activity for your classes.

Please promote the activities to the students and maybe even do a lesson linked to Harmony Week if you can.

PARENT-TEACHER AFTERNOON

This year the Leadership Team has decided to modify the format of the school day leading up to the early close for the Parent-Teacher afternoon.

Rather than having just the 3 periods, we will now have all 5 periods in a shortened format.

Lunch 1 will also be split duties between the lunch 1 and lunch 2 duty teachers.

We hope this alleviates some of the concerns staff had surrounding equity around DOTT times and access to their classes.

From 1pm there will be a catered lunch for staff, with parent meetings from 1:30pm – 5:30pm. If you have any questions, please speak to your PC.

NEW COMPASS TEMPLATES – NEUTRAL BEHAVIOUR

BYOD Parent Notification

We have set up a template so that teachers can send a quick parent notification home to alert parents that their child has not brought a device to school on a regular basis.

This is more of a friendly reminder to the parent and refers them to our Bring Your Own Device Policy.

My recommendation on using this would be after some initial warnings and reminders to a student, then send this notification. If still no improvement, then I recommend moving on to a Letter of Concern and parent phone call.

Lower School Missed Assessment

Due to popular demand, we have duplicated the Senior School Missed Assessment template and updated it to reflect the Lower School Policy.

This can be used to alert parents to a student who has missed an important in class task due to an absence. The email requests the parent to remind their child to see the teacher on their return to school to organise a suitable time to complete the missed task.

As always, if you have any delicate or challenging conversations with parents, please refer to your PC or relevant Head of Year for support.

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/