Heard on the Hill Term 1, Week 9

From the Principal                  

Kaya Wanju and Bonjour a tous.

AI continues to be in the news. Will it replace us, I don’t know. For now, it is a tool, one that we should embrace to enhance the learning of our students. I notice that one of the concurrent sessions for the SDD is on using AI. What I do know is that we provide a service. If our service does not meet the need of our clients, then they will seek that service from an alternate source. Therefore, we must continue to, provide a positive learning environment, be relevant and provide valuable learning experiences.

Creating real relevant experiences sometimes requires greater input to get going but that is offset by efforts required once things are running. There are some great projects already running, eg the ECU Portfolio Prep workshops. Other work around the STEM upgrades to facilitate opportunities for teachers to partner with members of the Bunbury Geographe Economic Alliance is also going on. If there is something that you need from the school to help you develop a working partnership with business, industry and higher education please don’t hesitate to ask.

If you’ve got through your term 1 program, survived the Athletics Carnival, ate well at Market Day, participated in one of the myriad of Harmony Day events, listened to an Author describe the writing process, run try-outs for a Country Week team or led one of the many excursions like the portfolio workshops to ECU, congratulations – you’ve made it! The holidays are just days away. I don’t want to scare you, but the moon is also waxing towards a full moon so be consistent right up to the “final whistle”.

Please make sure that you take some time to enjoy the holiday and then recharge for what is going to be a long Term 2. I will be away for week1 and week2 (visiting my daughter in NYC). Kelly Anderson will be Acting Principal in my place. I wish you all a safe and wonderful break.

Have a great week

En Avant

Nuts and Bolts

This week we have the parent/teacher evening. This is a great time to give good constructive feedback to help parents understand the educational needs for their child to be successful. Be thoughtful in your feedback, well prepared for your discussion and see if the parents can give you further information to understand the best way forward for their child.

The Senior School handbook is taking shape. For 2025 we will be adding General Aviation to the Year 11 choices. Now is the time to talk with your Year 10 students, particularly the ATAR bound, about

• The achievement of students who complete ATAR at Bunbury SHS compared to other Bunbury Senior High Schools (30% of ATAR students scored an ATAR over >90)
• All the positives, like teacher quality (14 out of our 17 ATAR courses all had a mean above the state average)
• The school culture that we have (Athletics Carnival, Market Day, House activities, student support) does not happen at other schools and definitely does not happen at Manea SC.
• Developing Senior School Culture (students with good standing can have study periods, use the city for study breaks, etc)

Leadership Minutes

Click the link below for last week's leadership minutes.

Future Leaders 2024

The Future Leaders program is a process designed to identify and support the development of aspiring leaders in schools. Our school has been running this program since 2019. Over the last few weeks, we have collected nominations from staff who are aspiring - either Level 2s aspiring to Level 3, or Level 3 aspiring to Level 4. Staff selected for this program will be privileged with PL opportunities and acting roles as they come up in the school.

The Nomination Review Panel met last week and congratulations go to the new cohort for 2024:

Renee Chapple
Nicola Sharpe
Cathy Watson
Tina Nottle
Mark Woodland

Continuing cohort members are Kelly Anderson and Nic Andrew. Two other previous members of the cohort have placed their program on hold for this year as they adapt to new roles in the school. This means that we have a total of 7 staff involved in the program this year, which is a good number. If you didn't apply, but are still interested, book in for a chat with Kelly to find out how to apply next year and also increase your chances of being selected.

TERM 2 – SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT DAY

See below teachers agenda for School Development Day – Monday Week 1 Term 2.

Support Staff and EA’s will have an alternative arrangement for the day.

Thanks so much to the presenters who have volunteered to run a High Quality Teaching session.

I will send out a link to register for the sessions in a separate email. If you could please register by the end of term that would be great.

SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT DAY – Teaching Staff (Library)

Monday 15 April 2024

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/