Heard on the Hill Term 3, Week 7
Bonjour à tous, and Wanju
I was so happy Sunday talking to students, parents and teachers before they departed for Country Week. The first team to go in two years. There was a real buzz. It really is a whole school effort to get a team to Country Week and I thank you all for your contributions this week to keep the school running and supporting our Year 12 students in particular who will be impacted by the timing of this year’s event.
Of course, it has not all been smooth sailing getting there. You will know that some students have not been able to go due to breaches of school behaviour. The issues have “pressure tested” our procedures attached to our Good Standing policy. Like all feedback, some is good and some has provided an opportunity for us to improve. One particular area where we can improve is with the limitation of our 3rd party SIS management system. It does not give us the relevant data that we need to consistently apply a Good Standing Behaviour Policy for reward and incentives across the school. We hope to have this sorted in the next 6 months. The student services team will also be looking for other upgrades to our processes that create procedures to fairly, reward and incentivise the aspect of schooling that we hold dear – behaviour, attendance and engagement.
I have recently received accolades from our regional office about the work that we do with attendance. Our overall attendance is high, our number of unexplained absences are very low and we have processes to support those with attendance issues. I congratulate everyone working in this space across the school. In particular, I would like to acknowledge the work of Ann and Toni who do a lot of the leg work in following up and recording attendance.
Good attendance comes from students enjoying school and feeling like they belong. Your hard work in building relationships with students and providing engaging lessons is a large contribution to students wanting to attend school. I know that doing this is sometimes difficult. Thank you on behalf of the students for the extra hours your put into planning engaging, relevant lessons.
Have a great week.
En Avant
Nuts and Bolts
If you do not have a Positive Behaviour Poster and how to enact them in your classroom, please see Ellie to get either a portrait or landscape version. The poster reflects our positive behaviour developed by staff. It is very handy to continually refer students to acting in this manner.
Please click the link below to access last week's Leadership Minutes.
Vaping
This week I wanted to highlight the biggest behaviour issue currently challenging us in our school – vaping. We have had incidences of students entering classrooms and other spaces that should be locked without teachers present, and vaping. Please be vigilant and lock your classrooms and office spaces when you are not there.
What we know about vaping:
They are not like cigarettes – they come in a range of flavours that are more attractive to young people – sweet, lolly-type flavours.
They are popular – we are seeing loads of kids trying vaping, after years of cigarettes finally becoming a thing of the past!
They are vaping at school – many of you would be hearing about the vaping that is occurring at school. Please be as vigilant as you can and report incidents of vaping to Student Services.
How we are responding as an organisation:
Government Level
- the Minister for Education has set down a directive that all schools must be working to minimise the vaping issue - schools have been provided with a Vaping Toolkit.
- all schools are required to report all incidents of vaping to DOE.
School Level - The Principal is liaising with Regional Office and local police to try to shut down the suppliers within Bunbury.
- The School Nurse is providing education sessions to students who are caught vaping.
- The school is suspending students caught vaping, as it is a prohibited substance.
- The Student Services staff are reporting every single instance of vaping to the DOE – this is a massive increase in their workload
For your information: If you are interested in reading more about vaping, I have attached an article. It is a couple of years old, now, but covers all the main points.
Teacher Wellbeing - free PL session
A free webinar on Teacher Self-Care is being delivered by Tom Brunzell at 9.30am (AEST) on 7 September 2022. Tom is the Director of Education at Berry Street Education Model. You will need to have Zoom on your device.
The session looks at how the impact of Vicarious Trauma and Secondary Traumatic Stress can lead to Vicarious Post-Traumatic Growth. The webinar is interactive and participants will:
- Discover new research on teacher and staff wellbeing that you can share with your school
- Learn strategies to bolster staff resilience and self-care
- Explore recommendations for sustaining trauma-informed education strategies across your school
Click on the link provided to register.
Expression of Interest – Head of Years 7 & 9
The school’s Executive Team is seeking expressions of interest for the position of Head of Years 7 & 9, starting Term 1, 2023. This position is a fulltime Level 2 role with no teaching component. The appointment will be until the end of the 2024 school year. This position is only open to permanent teaching staff.
The position will be reviewed annually and may be extended at the discretion of the Executive Team. The position will be readvertised at the end of the two-year appointment and the person in the role will be able to reapply.
The line manager for this position will be the Program Coordinator - Student Services Manager (Level 3). Training and support will be provided to you to build your skills, expertise and capacity in this role.
Duties relevant to assigned cohorts:
- SAER: The prevention, promotion, development, support and intervention strategies planned and implemented for students at educational risk (SAER) are based on an evidence-based three-tiered model of support and intervention. Students identified as requiring additional support are discussed (ongoing needs assessment) at regular SAER meetings, and support and intervention strategies are progressively applied on an individual needs basis.
Social-Emotional: Oversee the pastoral care and provision of social-emotional support and development for all students. Coordinate targeted small group programs to build social-emotional capacity of students identified as requiring additional support. Coordinate anti-bullying education/promotion, conduct peer mediation and restorative meetings where conflict has occurred and manage incidents of anti-social and bullying behaviour.
- Mental Health: Conduct risk assessments where the need is identified and complete associated safety and risk management planning. Liaise with school and external health care professionals as appropriate.
- Attendance: Monitor student attendance, identify attendance concerns early and plan/implement informal and formal monitoring, counselling, support and intervention strategies to improve attendance.
- Behaviour: Monitor student behaviour, identify behaviour concerns early and plan/implement informal and formal monitoring, counselling, support and intervention strategies to improve behaviour. Work with staff to support effective classroom management and liaise with external agencies as required.
- Leadership: Manage House System and student leadership development in collaboration with House Leaders
- General:
- Work with PC-SS to plan and coordinate reward/recognition activities and events.
- Collate citizenship data.
- Manage Year 6 to 7 Transition.
- Conduct enrolment meetings and coordinate student timetables
- Manage class changes in liaison with HOLA’s to cater for student needs
- Run Year Assemblies with Student Support Officer.
- Direct the work of their designated Student Support Officer.
Please write an Expression of Interest and forward to Tina Nottle, Program Coordinator - Student Services, by COB Monday 19 September. Your EOI should outline your current knowledge, skills and experience relevant to this role.
KINGIA ARTICLES
Only 2 weeks left to submitt your articles for this year's Kingia Magazine.
Articles for the Kingia Magazine can be submitted via the link below or you can email me directly at ellie.mackay@education.wa.edu.au
If you have a number of photos to submit (more than 10): you can drop these into the drive for me to access here: M:\Kingia 2022
Deadline to submit your Kingia article: Friday, 9 September (Term 3, Wk8)
Video for promotions
We love to see what projects are happening throughout the school! Across all the learning areas, we would like to capture a snapshot of what projects, activities and more happens during school for a new promo video that can be shared on our socials and website.
Ellie is available for classroom visits and can even attend incursions and excursions to get great footage of our students in action.
If you have something that you think could be videoed during class time or an incursion/excursion, please email Ellie: ellie.mackay@education.wa.edu.au with more details.
Download SZapp
Download the SZapp to keep up to date with all our school communications.
It's a very easy-to-use app with links to all of our school platforms, including the school website, newsletters, Facebook, calendar plus more!
Watch the video below on how to download and some of the features.
BUNBURY SHS INSTAGRAM
BUNBURY SHS FACEBOOK
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.
What’s OnTerm 3, Week 7
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Coming Soon |
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Mike's Week |
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