Heard on the Hill Term 2, Week 3

From the Principal

Bonjour à tous, and Wanju

It is great to be back. My leave was to visit my daughter who lives in New York City. It is a busy expensive place. As well as visiting my daughter I got to visit other friends, practice Aikido, fly fish in the Catskills and sample the culture of life at the “centre of the universe” with visits to the MOMA, Times Square, Central Park, the Apollo Theatre, take in a Minor league baseball game and much, much more.

Thank you so much to Kelly Anderson, who did a magnificent job back filling for me during my leave. There were many challenges she had to contend with while doing this – including the teachers industrial action.  She handled them all professionally. Also thank you to Mark Woodland who filled in the Deputy Principal role and Renee Chapple for helping in English.

I read a book while I was away about the transformation of the New Zealand rugby team the All Blacks. Sport teams spend a lot of time practising. In fact, more time practising than playing a game. They have a result each week to be able to evaluate their performances. They have video to analyse their skill level. They have coaches and team meetings. If this idea was applied to business or education what could that do for our performance?

Teaching and leadership is like sport, it is a skill-based practice. Soon students will take exams and they will get results, we also have attendance and behaviour data and student feedback surveys to help us review our performance. There are structures for meetings and coaching at all levels throughout our school. Although industrial action has limited our opportunity to access these structures and work on improving our teaching/leadership practice it is the heart of why Bunbury SHS is the best school in the region and the 2019 Secondary School of the Year. 

At this time, please don’t forget who we are and how we got here. Sometimes, the words data analysis has an officious undertone. Our data is all the bits of information that we have that gives us feedback about our practice. It is a natural part of being a Bunbury SHS teacher. Our instructional leadership team and Coffee Club can also give the coaching support required for you to move specific parts of your practice to the next level. If there is anything more that I can do to provide: more data, coaching, or support the opportunity for review please don’t hesitate to ask.

Have a great week,

En Avant.

Nuts and Bolts

As I mentioned earlier our staff are well recognised across the region.  Kelly Anderson will be Acting Principal at Eaton Community College for the remainder of the term and Mark Woodland will be going to Australind Senior High School in an Acting Deputy position. Congratulations to both of them, we wish them well in their new roles.

General Staff Meeting

While the union bans are in place, general staff meetings are being suspended. Our calendar indicates that there will be a GSM on Tuesday 30 April. This has been cancelled. Please check your professional learning tab on IKON to ensure that you have completed any compulsory training. There may be additional training that you can also access there. Student exams are coming up. Please use this time to prepare for reporting and examination preparation for students (and yourself).  Additionally, it is a great opportunity for you to consider the Year 10 timetable changes that we are working on.

High Quality Teaching Team Survey

Hi folks

Can you please fill in the survey from the school development day. It really helps us with strategic planning and organising professional development for staff.

Thank you to the five staff that have already completed the survey.

I have attached the link below and have extended the closure date until tomorrow.

Please, please, please fill it out.

Promoting Bunbury SHS

Welcome back for Term 2!

Please continue to email and submit posts for our Facebook and Instagram pages! 

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.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

We are still looking for more staff volunteers to run a 1hour tour of the school grounds during the Prospective Parents Open Night.

Tour: Thursday 9 May
Time: 5-6pm

You will lead groups of Year 6 parents on a tour of the school grounds by following a set route (giving to you on the day).

If you are interested to help, please email Ellie asap.