From the Principal
From the Principal
At our leadership planning day, last week, we gave a lot of thought to student behaviour. As you can imagine it is a wickedly complex problem with many facets to it. We have a number of medium term strategies and some long term strategies that we have started working on but I think, and you all might appreciate, some short term things are needed to get us through to the end of the term.
We can all help by showing our support for each other
- Question a student every time you see them out of uniform, even if they have a uniform pass. Ensure that the student is ok, that is the context of them being out of uniform. If it is a jumper give them the choice of removing it and putting it in their bag or getting a replacement from SS if they are cold. Otherwise, they will need a uniform pass.
- The inconvenience of being asked repeatedly is a consequence of being out of uniform.
- At the end of each lunch break, Andrew and I will walk the school, questioning errant students and being visible to settle students quicker and move them to classrooms.
- Keep your students working right up the bell. The only critical bell is the end of the day for buses. Have some reflection, closure strategies and pack up strategies up your sleeve. If you need to increase your repertoire please speak to your PC, an experienced peer or one of our Teaching and Learning Committee.
- We are working on some strategies with the small group of Year 9 and Year 10 boys who have been “ganging up” together to create safety of disobedience in numbers. Watch this space as that evolves.
At this time of year, as we get tired and the end is in sight, it is easy to miss things or not tackle the difficult parts of our work. This short term strategy, above, is really just about consistency. Consistency is the key factor for building trust in each other. The trust we have in each other to act in the manner above gives us a sense of purpose and collective efficacy. We can not do it alone but together we can sustain the orderly environment that we have built.
Last week I also spent some time with the Director General of Education. In both a big forum and a smaller one over dinner with a small group of Principals. Please look in the Nuts and Bolts section for more detail.
Have a great week.
En Avant
Mike Sinagra
Nuts and Bolts
I had the pleasure of spending some time with our Director General for the educational conversations. This is the Department’s way of collecting feedback to help build their strategic plan. There were people from across a range of positions. Principals, Deputy Principals, Teachers, Cleaners, and Gardeners.
There were a number of presentations.
NAPLAN potential vs WACE outcomes
We are already a part of a small group of schools that are trialling a metric. It compares the students' lower secondary performance to see if they have met their potential in Year 12. This is great data as it gives targets for individual students from Year 7 to Year 12. The Leadership Team interrogated our school data last week and I’m sure that you will see more of this over the remainder of the term and into next year.
Wellbeing Taskforce
The taskforce aims to set clear expectations for and embed effective approaches to student wellbeing and care across WA public schools. This is to assist us to concentrate on our core function. There will be 6 main foci:
- Expectations of schools in relation to student wellbeing
- Support schools implement whole school approaches
- Improve support for effective case management
- Consider the role and practice of the school psychologist
- Consider effective wellbeing metrics
- Identify policy changes and system guidance required
High Quality Teaching
When it comes to the quality teaching strategy the focus is not on the teacher it is on the teaching. There are three main components:
- School culture
- Environment impact to help teachers grow
- Teaching practice