Heard on the Hill Term 4, Week 3

Data Literacy

At the beginning of the year I present information specifically about our Year 12 ATAR results. On top of that each PC is provided with a line of inquiry to use with their staff to reflect and review the results for the courses undertaken in their learning area.

One piece of data used in the reflection is Maximising Feedback. The data presented drills down to the performance of students both within the class and across the state for each individual question.

Teachers can see patterns that may link to the complexity of the question, the strength of the cohort, the deficit in teaching/learning of concepts and so forth.

Over the last four years I have seen the majority of PCs and their staff use the maximising feedback but not all. This is an area that I will work on for 2025 data review.

But what I have noticed is that some teachers are developing their own for both Year 11 and Year 12 exams, and for each semester. I have been setting one up for every class that I taught before coming here. I found it to be invaluable leading into the revision session for the WACE.

It is relatively easy to do as I constructed an excel sheet at the same time as constructing the exam and marking key. And when I marked the exam I place the score directly into the excel sheet.

For 2025, teachers delivering an ATAR course will be expected to learn and develop their own maximising feedback for use in analysing student results.

Adam McGill will be running the next aspirant session in Week 5 on Thursday 7 November from 3.15pm in Room 10. Adam will be taking aspirants through the new AITSL standards for middle leaders and unpacking these. If you intend to attend, can you please let Adam know by Monday 4 November? I have attached the standards for your information.

PIVOT

Learning Areas should be moving into the review stage of the teaching sprint. This is the phase where teachers within the team come back together at a Learning Area meeting and discuss how the agreed strategy or technique went. 

• What was our experiences in the class with the agreed strategy/technique to implement?
• What adjustments did we make, and did they have an impact?
• What can we conclude from the evidence we have gathered?
• What are the implications for further refinement or improvement?
• Will I embed this strategy/technique into my daily teaching practice?

 We will have an opportunity at a staff meeting later in the term to review the PIVOT Professional Learning and also the Teaching Sprints model.

Project Kaartdijin

Some may be aware that for last 5 years, the DoE has been looking for a replacement for SIS.  A decision was made early in 2023 that Compass would take over many aspects of what SIS does.

Bunbury SHS is well advanced in this process as we are already a school that uses Compass, so for our teachers, very little will change to what we currently do. Kaartdijin is being configured currently within Compass, and in the process of updating there will be an orange log in button, along with some other things in Compass that will start to show up.

Please continue to use the normal log in process to ensure the attendance data/chronicle entries are saved properly.

I will advise when we can begin to use the orange log in button.

Our scheduled “go live” date for Kaartdijin is 14 November. But as I mentioned earlier, it will pretty much be the exact same for us as what we currently do.

Year 10 – 2026 Proposed Courses

Thanks to all for contributing to your Learning Area’s proposed courses for Year 10 in 2026.

This has been through Leadership, then back to Learning Areas, then back to Leadership again recently for some final adjustments to courses in various Learning Areas.

We will have an opportunity to look at these this week at the staff meeting on Wednesday.

See attached Draft Course Booklet for 2026.

Universal Access Toilet

The Universal Access Toilet for staff has officially been handed over to the school and can now be accessed by all staff. This is located in the former science/maths storage room near the senior girls’ toilets. It has been fitted with an all-keys lock to enable any staff to access it at any time.

STEM Build

The STEM build in D&T has officially commenced as of today. Access to Woodwork and D&T 4 will be through the West door, access to the D&T office, Metalwork and D&T 3 will be through the East door. The building will effectively be cut into two sections for the duration of the build. Completion of this project is estimated to be Term 1 Week 2, 2025.

Co Mingle Bin and Cardboard Boxes

Does everyone know we have a Co Mingle bin situated outside of Room 21? This bin is mainly used for collapsed cardboard boxes and I encourage all staff to use this bin in the future if your Learning Area OSCAR bin is full. If the Co Mingle bin is full, please use the skip bin, but please collapse the boxes as the skip bin is used for general rubbish and space is of a premium at times.