Heard on the Hill Term 2, Week 4

NUTS AND BOLTS

I would like to remind staff that the cornerstone of our teaching practice is safe, orderly accountable classrooms. Poor student behaviour must be followed through our behaviour management flow chart. Whether you are making informal contracts, issuing detentions, subject withdrawal or talking with home please follow the flow chart and remember that your PC is your greatest support.

Of course, this week is NAPLAN. You can let the students know of your support by asking them how they are going, making adjustments to lessons to account for the testing and being extra tolerant of the disruptions to your lessons. Please encourage them to do their best.

It is that time of the year when line managers and the Exec Team are looking at student performance in RTP. Please make sure that your assessment records are kept up-to-date. RTP is the mechanism by which the Leadership Team monitor and make decisions.

This time of year planning for the following year begins. 2022 timetables are developing, Year 10’s are being prepared to select courses, senior school course offerings are being proposed and staffing is being considered. Please continue to work with your PCs in this planning for 2022.

I hope that the presentation on the timetable at last week’s GSM has started a discussion in your learning areas. On 21 May the Leadership Team will spend half a day off-site creating an implementation plan.  Special consideration will be around the necessary training and preparation required to get started. 

Shared Instructional Framework

This week we are looking at Guided Practice

Guided Practice

In guided practice, students apply new knowledge with the help of their teacher or peers. It is often linked to the gradual release model of “I do”, “we do”, “you do” which leads into independent practice

Teacher Modelling is the starting point for this section of instructional framework. Be it notes on the board, working through an example, it is very much about watching the teacher work through expected skill/application of knowledge to complete a task. It can be done with no instruction or question right through to step-by-step explanation as you go.

Co-construction often involves the use of cooperative learning activities that encourages peer to peer support in working through a new task.  This is a great place to get those students who have grasped the concept to work with those still trying to “get it”.  As the teacher, you will be busy monitoring and observing to see which students still need your input. It will be more successful if you have modelled the expectation and hold students to the standard (link to Lemov’s 5 - right is right)

WORKLOAD ISSUES

If you have a workload issue, talk to your line manager and see if they can help you to resolve it. If it is unable to be resolved, please complete a submission via the link provided. The submission requires the submitter to propose some solutions.

The Workload Advisory Committee collects the submission and then meets to discuss possible solutions and then provides recommendations to the Executive Team. A response is then communicated to each person who submitted a concern, with the recommendation made to Exec.

The WAC consists of the Principal, the DP (Strategic Development), the Union Rep (Nghia Nguyen) and three staff representatives (Dave Waddell, Nick Mulligan and Mychelle Mahar).

If you have any questions about the process used to address workload issues, please ask Kelly Anderson.

DESIGN THINKING - Presentation from last week's staff meeting

In case you missed it, here is the presentation from our staff meeting last week. I would also like to remind teaching staff of the Challenge and Reward in place until the end of this term:

Challenge: Plan a project based learning activity and invite your Head of Learning or a member of the Education Executive Team (Mike, Kelly, Andrew) to visit your class in action.

Reward: Nominate to start later or leave earlier if you have a DOTT period 1 or period 5 OR have your yard duties covered for one week. You will need to let Kelly know who has visited your class and what type of reward you would like.

Year 10 Counselling

This term the Year 10s will be involved in making choices for senior schooling in 2022. This may involve some interruptions to classes for interviews or meetings with the administration staff but we will try to minimise these where possible. Aaron is doing a great job coordinating the process for the first time.

OLNA

OLNA results are available for you to look at for the students in your classes. The data is located in the Admin_Storage folder (M: drive)\Department Folders\OLNA\2021\March. As presented at the end of last year you can look at the NAPLAN/OLNA level for your individual classes through RTP and have an idea of how a student is performing. Is the student underachieving if NAPLAN/OLNA at Band 8 or above but grade level is C?

With reference to Cat 2 students, there is the opportunity to introduce a strategy to assist all students to become stronger in their literacy and numeracy skills. Have a chat with Inga if you have a particular student in mind or even if its just for a strategy to use.

SENIOR SCHOOL UPDATE

Please be aware of the following Year Meetings during Week 4:

• Year 11 Year Meeting: Monday 10 May P2

Teachers to bring Year 11 class to the PAC for an important (short) year meeting.

• Year 12 Year Meeting: Wednesday 12 May P1

Teachers to bring Year 12 class to the PAC for an important (short) year meeting.

Key Messages:

• Upcoming Exams
• Upcoming WPL
• Country Week- reminder of requirements for participation
• Cohort attendance & behaviour review
• Lead up to Semester 1 report – an opportunity to improve and focus on individual results

Please continue to communicate progress and concerns to students and parents on a regular basis.

There is a small group of Year 11 boys who are still demonstrating challenging behaviours. Please refer to the SAER Management Flow Chart in managing these type of behaviours (found within Academy Quicklinks).

If concerns persist given appropriate interventions at a classroom level, refer to your HOLA. Parent meetings conducted by a teacher and HOLA is the next phase of managing ongoing behaviour concerns before referral to Student Services.

The HOLA will then contact the appropriate Head of Year if further support is required.

BUNBURY SHS FACEBOOK

Something interesting happening in or around your classroom? Having an incursion or excursion this term? Please let me know! We love to share updates from the school with our community and would like representation from each area of our wonderful school; no matter how big or small.

Please submit stories for our Facebook page via the wufoo link below and include as much information as you can, plus a few images to accompany the article. If you are having trouble with the wufoo form, you can email the information to me directly.(ellie.mackay@education.wa.edu.au)

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and check out what our students and staff get up to.

SCHOOLZINE APP

Download the Schoolzine app (SZapp) to make viewing Heard on the Hill accessible from anywhere. On the app, you will be able to view the parent and staff newsletters, plus many other functions including viewing the school calendar. You can also get notifications from the app when a newsletter is published so you can always up-to-date.

To download the app, head to your app store and search SZapp or follow the instructions below:

Principal's Calendar