Heard on the Hill Term 1, Week 5
From the Principal
Bonjour à tous, and Wanju
I would like to give a special shout out to Lucia and Rachel who assisted with the COVID communication management across the weekend. With the Exec team, they were responsible in distributing the necessary communications to our school community. Informing our school community in a timely manner provides reassurance and confidence in our capacity to manage complex issues. Providing the information allows people to be in control of their own decisions.
The COVID positive student involved was from the Year 7 cohort. They are a student who followed the rules diligently by wearing their mask at all times except when eating or drinking. A fact that certainly limited exposure to other students. WA Health has determined there are no close contacts and therefore it will be business as usual. It is important that positive cases are not demonised. No one sets out to catch COVID. Hence, the identity of the student will not and should not be made public.
This first case has given us an opportunity to pressure test our management plan. As we move further and further into this COVID wave, the case load will grow to a point where there will be many students who have tested positive and contact tracing will become redundant.
There may be some anxiety for staff – and I understand this. If you are worried about contracting COVID I recommend that you
- Wear and encourage others to keep their mask up at all times
- Practice good hand hygiene and social distance
- If you develop symptoms, please get tested and do not attend school
If you are still worried please speak to your line manager or one of the Executive Team, myself included.
Madam Curie said
"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less."
Have a great week and please look after your health.
En Avant
Nuts and Bolts
As student absence grows, with COVID cases, there is no expectation for teachers to deliver lessons in more than one mode. If a student is away with an extended illness we would normally provide work through CONNECT. During the Omicron wave, we will need to do this also, particularly for our Senior School students.
OLNA
This week is OLNA. Please encourage and support our students to aspire to successfully completing this element of their WACE. It is a stumbling block for some students. The more that we can support them, with practical help or even with words of encouragement, the greater the realisation that they have others interested in their success.
Building Updates
This week the cement for the lift shaft will be poured this will create some disruption to parking. The floor for the gym may also be poured this week. The building progress is really moving along amidst the material, and trades shortages.
Amanda Ferguson - Year 10 PBL (Teach for Australia)
I have been a trainer/assessor for many years and have over 16 years in youth development and training roles. It felt like a natural progression to move toward secondary teaching to assist students with pathways for the future. I have a passion for teaching and developing a love of learning and am keen to assist students and families to reengage with education in a positive and supportive environment.
Previous Work History
Geologist (gold exploration and iron ore mining)
Trainer/Assessor – disengaged youth (vocational training)
Department of Defence
Favourite Activity outside of work?
With a 1 year old and 4 year, my activities include cleaning the house 300 times a day, making food no one eats, driving listening to ‘let it go’ and sighing loudly many times a day.
Renee Chapple - Arts/English
I’ve worked at Eaton Community College since graduating in 2010, with a small stint at Eastern Goldfields College in 2014. I’ve taught in English, almost all of the arts contexts, certificate courses and a senior school engagement program. My career highlights include a year 9 student calling my teacher glare “terrifying”, and a year 11 boy wearing a Renaissance-style dress proclaiming that he still “felt manly”.
Outside of school I enjoy reading, musical theatre, watching terrible reality shows whilst being judged by my cat, and injuring myself in ways that cause Bunbury’s health care providers to burst a blood vessel trying not to laugh in my face. If you’re ever having a bad day, ask me about the time I put my neck out by being overly sassy, or the different stories that my students believed when I was on crutches for an entire term.
My favourite thing about my role is having spirited debates with students about the content we are studying. In particular, my media students and I often engage in loud arguments about Marvel characters, and whether or not Groot is a waste of space.
Transitions
Teachers manage a lot of transitions within a lesson. When it isn't managed well, it can take ages to get the students back into some semblance of order to be able to give further instructions. Here are some quick tips to follow when you want to ensure smooth movement or change to the activities in your lessons.
Transitions involve three components: WHEN the students will do it, WHAT they will do, and WHO will do it.
Step and Example:
- A signal to attend - Can I have your attention please?
- Statement of when the students will move - Don't move until I ask you to move.
- Statement of what is expected of them - Please put away all of your books and letter off in your groups A, B and C.
- Statement of who will move - When I say "go", A will get the information sheet, B will take out a calculator, and C will get a large piece of paper.
- The statement to move - Okay, go.
When students are moving, now is the time to carefully monitor your usual students who find it hard to follow instructions or are easily distracted when there is movement going on - use your proximity and your low key verbal reminders to keep them on task.
The more you practice with your classes, the more they will understand and anticipate your steps during transition. Experienced teachers know that the simple statement of "When I say go" can help to manage those moments in the lesson that can get a little messy.
Try it out and see how you go. Ask someone to observe you trying to create smooth transitions and get their feedback about how you can refine your technique.
There is a link to an AITSL best practice video. It is in a primary context, but it shows how established routines, especially for transitions, helps the teacher to conduct her lesson effectively.
Instructional Theories
Visible Learning: when teachers see learning through the eyes of students. The most simplistic question asked of students is: so what have you learnt today? As teachers we can state what was covered through our objectives, our learning strategies and our lesson plans. But what is the answer from a student’s perspective? Below is a Hatties finding regarding student learning with visible learning highlighted as the largest impact.
There is a lot of information about visible learning. One site to visit is https://teamtomeducation.com/what-is-student-visible-learning/. The strategies noted are ones that we as good teachers do quite a lot. Maybe it’s about how consistent we do this. Or maybe the depth of how we do these strategies. I particularly like strategy 2: Ask students to explain the task to each other before beginning instruction and again before beginning the task.
RTP
Teachers are responsible to check that the correct contexts have been linked to their lower school assessment outlines. If in doubt speak to the HoLA. This will assist in the reporting process when comments are allocated to each class in the correct context.
Noongar News
NAIDOC Week Theme 3-10 July 2022
This year’s NAIDOC theme has been announced, Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up! This theme is to highlight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders’ continued fight for justice and rallying to gain equality in our communities.
Whether it’s seeking proper environmental, cultural and heritage protections, Constitutional change, a comprehensive process of truth-telling, working towards treaties, or calling out racism—we must do it together.
One of our new Values in the Department’s Code of Conduct is “Truth Telling”. It’s a very important value to have at our school, allowing our local Aboriginal community to have a voice and educate our wider community about our experiences and culture.
So this year I hope to increase our knowledge, recognition and create change at our school which will allow our Aboriginal students to continue to feel equal and accepted at BSHS.
If you have any ideas you’d like to add to our NAIDOC activities/calendar in Term 3, please contact me. Planning now is key and I would love to expand on our celebrations!
Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up! | NAIDOC
Boorda!
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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 1, Week 5
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Mike's Calendar
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