Heard on the Hill Term 2, Week 9
Last Thursday evening I watched a number of our students compete in the WA Performing Arts Eisteddfod. Apart from being in amazement from their talent I was equally awestruck by the initiative that they had shown and the independent manner in which they conducted themselves. There were a number of standout performances, resulting in students being invited to the Gala Concert, which features the top performances in each category. If you have the chance, please check out our students in action.
At the Bunbury Regional Entertainment Theatre
Monday 14 June: Concert bands, Brass & Woodwind
Friday 18 June: High School Troupes & Dancers
Saturday 19 June: Dance Production & Dance Scholarship.
Saturday 26 June: GALA Concert, the best of the best
In the same vein, Country Week coaches are hard at it and I had the pleasure to watch the boys’ and girls’ volleyball teams compete at the SW Sports centre on Wednesday evening. Thank you to the coaches who give up their time preparing the students and being available to be away from their families for the week of Country Week.
It is a truly busy time, with eisteddfods, Country Week coaching, exams and reporting. You are doing a great job and it is truly appreciated and recognised by the whole school community.
On a personal note, I will be away a little this week for medical support for my wife. If you need support, please approach any of the Executive team. I will be available over email and in an emergency, I am able to take a phone call.
Have a great week.
En Avant
Mike Sinagra
Principal
NUTS AND BOLTS
VASP and BEST testing is happening this week.
The redevelopment of the bus shelter has been put back to the Term 3 holidays. It will be completed for the beginning of Term 4.
At the Leadership Planning day last week, the PCs have been working on presenting how they think the school is going across the domains of the IPS review tool. At the school development day next term, we will collect the same information from all staff to collate into the review document.
Classroom Walk-Throughs were discussed at the Leadership Meeting this week. Please have a look through the leadership meeting minutes and discuss components of what is being looked at when we walk through the classrooms.
INSTRUCTIONAL FRAMEWORK
As we have bought the series of expose on our school Instructional Framework to closure the last three weeks of this term we will look again at the strategies for building High Expectations. We will start with the Lemov Strategy of Stretch it.
Say it again better
Ask a student a question
Use any question technique that you usually use
- Cold Calling
- Think Pair Share
- Check for understanding
Acknowledge the first answer
Be positive about the first response given. If it is a half-formed answer falling short of being excellent respond with something like “That’s a good start but let’s develop that further”. If they are simply wrong say something like “Good try, but that not quite right. Let’s see what we need to do to make it right”.
Give supportive feedback
Invite the students to consider more specific ways to respond that will improve the answer.
- “What’s a more technical term?”
- “Is there a more complex pattern here?”
- “Can you include a reason for that opinion?”
Invite students to say it again better
After exploring what a better answer might look like, ask the same student to have another attempt to improve their answer. This is important to check for understanding as well as give the student a feeling of success from having generated a higher quality response.
Respond to the improved answer
Decide if the response is of sufficient quality before moving on. Give affirmative praise or repeat the process until you have the quality of answer required. The effect of this is to demonstrate to the student that they are capable of excellent responses.
Access to last week's Leadership Meeting minutes can be found in the PDF below:
REPORTING
The school year rolls in cycles with periods of increased focus and others of just being busy. The examination period is one such period of increased focus what with checking examination papers, developing a timetable and of course, the marking. This year we had invigilators looking after the examinations and I felt that this was a positive decision. There was a consistency in the operation of the examinations, which had the desired effect of making this period better for the students as they knew from their first examination what was expected from them, and what they expected from us.
With Year 11 and Year 12 data to be entered into RTP by Friday 18 June, I thought it may be prudent to highlight a few expectations as we move into another wave of increased focus – reporting. The assessment outlines in RTP need to be checked by everyone (class teacher and PC) this week. Click here to access a guideline to assist in checking that the assessment outline in RTP is clean, with a distinct focus on the column Semester. If this final bit of quality control takes place it removes errors on the student reports, particularly the senior reports. The other document is the overview of the reporting timeline and process. It includes asking your PC for clarification around students that may need a different comment entered.
I also wish to thank Adam, Sharna, Tim, Gary and Danelle for their time doing the Year 10 counselling. Plus a thank you to the Career Ed teachers for prepping well the Year 10 students, and the PCs for putting their hand up if we got swamped.
Please see below information for our staff on reporting to parents.
BUNBURY SHS NEW INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT!
We are on Instagram!! Our Instagram account has been designed primarily for our students to engage with our school community. We would like to use the Instagram account to promote school activities such as Library, Cafeteria, House competitions, positive education experiences etc.
If you would like to post something on our Instagram account that is about or aimed at our students, please use the Wufoo link below (same as our Facebook link) or send me an email directly.
Please note: Instagram is all about photos and images so please be mindful to grab a good picture to go with your story!
Head over to our page and follow us!
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.
What’s OnTerm 2, Week 9
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Principal's Calendar
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