Heard on the Hill Term 2, Week 6

To access the Leadership Minutes from last week, see below.

Consent2Go (C2G) is the platform we use to propose and plan excursions. Some staff are fully cognizant of how to propose and plan an excursion and this makes the whole process very smooth. Most are a little bit rusty so here is a brief overview of the process and some notes to clarify the approach.

1. Same day incursion – this only needs to occur if the event impacts other classes and/or occurs over multiple periods AND requires parental permission to attend. If no parental permission is required then we do not need to use C2G.
2. Same day excursion – any event whereby a teacher takes the students offsite. If the excursion enters a site other than a State school a copy of the certificate of currency or public liability insurance is mandatory. This also includes outside venues such as the Athletics Club.

To start an excursion it needs to be proposed and accepted by Leadership. The steps are:

1. Proposal – need to be a minimum of four weeks from the date of the excursion. If on the calendar it will be approved immediately. If the event is new it must be presented to Leadership by your PC, approved by them before I will approve it. That is why four weeks at the minimum is promoted.
2. Approval – this is a two-stage process. The first approval is done by Sue Gledhill. She will check to ensure the budget/costs are correct. Even if there is no cost it will still be checked by Sue first. Once Sue has approved it I will then go through the information.
3. Management – once approved you are required to manage the excursion, monitor the responses and chase up any student that has not replied before the date. On the day, even for a quick walk into town, it is the teacher’s responsibility to have a good indication of the medical details of their students, including contact details. There is an C2G app that a teacher can use that contains all of these details (and includes marking the roll!).

I look at the Risk tab very closely. The information entered here tells me how much a teacher thinks about the excursion; what possible risks are involved. I also closely look at the itinerary to have an idea of where and when ‘stuff’ is happening. The trick is to set out the itinerary like a running sheet to make reading it easy.

The fall-back position for any excursion is very simple; come and see me for a chat!

No Opt Out

In a high-performing classroom, a verbalized or unspoken “I don’t know” is cause for action. When a student begins by being unable or unwilling to answer, you should strive to make the sequence end as often as possible with the student giving a right or valid answer. Choose among four basic formats to respond:

Format 1. You provide the answer; your student repeats the answer.
Format 2. Another student provides the answer; the initial student repeats the answer.
Format 3. You provide a cue; your student uses it to find the answer.
Format 4. Another student provides a cue; the initial student uses it to find the answer.

This is surely among the most helpful and efficient techniques for raising classroom expectations,
especially if

• Students tend to duck away from questions rather than answer them.
• Students don’t hear themselves getting answers right.
• The class lacks a culture of accountability and incentive for each individual.

Take the rigour of your interaction up a notch by wrapping up the sequence with a request for another correct answer or an explanation of the “why” (stretch it).

I will go into more detail in future editions of Heard on the Hill.

Positive Behaviour

POSTERS

Please display the Positive Behaviour Matrix (classrooms) posters in your classroom spaces. At this stage, we just want to get them up and visible for the school community to become familiar with. These posters are available in a long vertical or long horizontal format. You can get them from Ellie Mackay's office (near the staff toilets).

CODE OF CONDUCT
Please work with your PC to finalise your Code of Conduct and submit this to Tina Nottle as soon as possible, preferably no later than Wednesday 1 June. Tina will need this prior to the next whole staff meeting, which is on Tuesday 7 June.

National Reconciliation Week 2022

National Reconciliation Week (NRW), held every year from 27 May to 3 June, is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.

What’s the significance of 27 May and 3 June?

27 May marks the anniversary of the 1967 referendum when Australians voted to remove clauses in the Australian Constitution that discriminated against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

3 June marks the historic 1992 Mabo decision in which the High Court of Australia recognised native title—the recognition that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ rights over their lands did survive British colonisation.

The day before National Reconciliation Week, 26 May, is National Sorry Day, which was first held in Sydney in 1998 and is now commemorated nationally to remember and honour the Stolen Generations.

What is reconciliation in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples?

At its heart, reconciliation is about strengthening relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous peoples, for the benefit of all Australians.

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, Australia’s colonial history is characterised by devastating land dispossession, violence, and racism. Over the last half-century, however, many significant steps towards reconciliation have been taken.

Reconciliation is an ongoing journey that reminds us that while generations of Australians have fought hard for meaningful change, future gains are likely to take just as much, if not more, effort.

What is our school doing for Reconciliation?

Bunbury SHS staff and students participated in the Reconciliation Walk in Bunbury on National Sorry Day. Both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students walked together to symbolise their commitment to reconciliation.

Our school has established an Aboriginal Advisory Council, which will work with school staff to co-design a Reconciliation Action Plan over the next 12 months.

Additions to our staff, such as a dedicated Aboriginal and Islander Education Officer (Kristy Carriage) and a Follow the Dream Coordinator (Asharie Bradshaw), have provided the crucial perspective, voice and support needed for our aboriginal students.

The staff professional learning and focus on implementing the Aboriginal Cultural Standards Framework will continue. English LA staff are engaging in specific curriculum PL with ECU to support their embedding of Aboriginal content into the curriculum.

Survey My Class

It's that time of year again, when we offer teaching staff the opportunity to survey their classes to get some feedback. We offer this twice during the year, in Term 2 and again in Term 4.

The process is simple. During the dates the survey is open (30 May - 10 June) you send the link to your students. They click on it and off they go. It is a good idea to actually give them some class time to complete it. They can use their iPads to do the survey.

The survey data for each individual teacher remains private to those teachers. The combined data of all staff is compiled into a report for the Executive Team, which is simply another piece of data used to inform our school improvement plans.

Participation is not compulsory, but it can be a useful process to do for your own professional development.

If you have any questions about the process, please contact Kelly on 78902.

Survey My Class Link

Lift Concrete Pour

Academy Replacement

Project Kaartdijin (SIS replacement) is still some time away for secondary schools with implementation predicted to be mid 2024 – 2025.

With this in mind, a working group has been working behind the scenes since the end of 2021 on a replacement attendance and behaviour module for Academy, which is also nearing end of life service.

The working group investigated two alternative platforms:-
• Compass
• SEQTA

Both companies were invited into the school and held presentations and Q&A sessions with the working group. The group also did some networking with other schools to get feedback on both platforms.

The response from the working group and other schools overwhelming voted Compass as the preferred platform. Compass are currently servicing 124 WA Secondary & District High Schools.

A tender process is now in place to commission Compass. We are looking at a slow transition that will commence in Semester 2. Comprehensive training sessions will be provided to staff before it goes live in 2023 with the Attendance and Chronicle (Behaviour) Modules.

I will advise further when a formal transition plan with Compass has been designed.

Your HOLA has been involved in the selection process, so I would invite you to direct any questions to them in the first instance.

Here is a link to Compass for further information.

https://www.compass.education/

Teaching Staff IT Survey

The Technology committee met for the first time this year. We are trying to gather data on IT use to help guide our decision making. A significant example of this is the direction we will go as the staff Macbook fleet starts to be replaced in the near future.
It is important that as many teaching staff as possible complete the survey.

The next Technology committee meeting will be Tuesday Wk 8 (June 14) 3.10pm D&T4. It would be ideal if all learning areas are represented.

If you would like any info about the Technology committee, please contact Craig Bourne in D&T

Please click the link for the survey.

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Is 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.

Mike's Week