Term 3 Week 5
PRINCIPAL'S REPORT
RECOGNISING THE CONTRIBUTION OF OUR SUPPORT STAFF
Across South Australia this week, schools are recognising the contribution of support staff.
I often refer to them as the ‘glue’ that holds the school together. Their work is often unseen and unheralded but incredibly important.
Support staff undertake a diversity of roles at Salisbury East High School, including:
- Grounds and facilities maintenance
- Classroom support for students with special learning needs
- IT Network maintenance and development
- Co-ordination of relief teachers
- Day-to-day management of a $12m operating budget
- Co-ordination of building maintenance and upgrades
- General administration – phones, mail, receipt of monies, making appointments, etc.
- Enrolments, absences, files, signing in/out, data input, etc
- First Aid
- Communications including the newsletter, SMS, emails, etc
- Preparation of Science experiments
- Ordering and receipt of consumables for Home Economics
- Case management for FLO and SEAL students
- Social, emotional and therapeutic support for a range of students
- Provision of small group literacy and numeracy programs
At Salisbury East High School, we have a very committed, highly professional team. On behalf of the whole school community I thank them for the work they do and the efforts they make every day for our school and students.
BUSY TIMES FOR OUR SENIOR STUDENTS AND STAFF
It is very much ‘full steam ahead’ for our Year 12 students as the ‘finish’ line approaches. External assessments, final assignments and exam preparation are very much on the agenda at the moment. This week, Year 12’s have been meeting individually with a member of the senior school leadership team to review their progress in the context of their plans for beyond school. SATAC applications are now open and earlier this week we had a visit from the University of Adelaide. We are also looking at offering additional tutoring leading into exams.
Year 10 and 11 students are in the midst of considering pathways and subjects for 2022. We’ve had subject expos for students and in their mentoring classes there has been a focus on seeing subject selection in the context of the big picture of where they are headed. Students interested in a VET pathway have been busy submitting applications and undergoing aptitude tests.
SCHOOL UNIFORM REMINDERS
Across the year most students’ compliance with the school uniform has been sound. In fact, day to day, almost 100% of students are wearing the school polo top. However, since ‘lockdown’ a certain ‘sloppiness’ has crept in with an increasing number of students wearing non-uniform items to school. These are predominantly non-uniform jumpers in a variety of colours, leggings and non-school uniform trackpants.
The benefits of students wearing uniform include:
- Safety and security – being able to identify intruders, identifying truants, being able to keep students together on school excursions.
- Creating a workplace/learning atmosphere, as distinct from a leisure or social atmosphere
- School identity – to encourage a sense of belonging
To support students’ safety, it is essential that the school polo shirt or school jacket is visible and therefore clearly identifies the student as belonging to SEHS.
Families can apply for an exemption on the basis of religious, cultural or ethnic, medical, financial hardship or new enrolment. These are normally granted for between two days and a month to give the family time to get ‘organized’.
We also know that it can sometimes be difficult to source items. Please contact one of our Well-Being leaders - Amelia Molnar (Middle School) or Christina Henriksson (Senior School) - if you need any assistance with this.
Alternatively, if you have any good quality uniform items that your child has grown out of and are happy to see go to a good home, then we’d be delighted to accept ‘pre-loved’ items.
Affordable pants or shorts in navy or black are available from most discount stores.
CLARIFYING SUSPENSION AND EXCLUSION
One of the least pleasant parts of being a school leader is contacting parents to advise them of the school’s decision to suspend or exclude their child from school. In an ideal world, all students would work within the school’s behaviour code all of the time.
However, there are times when suspension or exclusion are appropriate responses. Our department policy identifies these as when the principal believes on reasonable grounds that:
- has threatened or perpetrated violence
- has acted in a way that threatens the safety or wellbeing of a student, member of staff or other person associated with the school (including by sexually harassing, racially vilifying, verbally abusing or bullying that person)
- has acted illegally
- has interfered with the ability of a teacher to teach or of a student to learn
- has acted in a way that threatens the good order of the school by persistently contravening or failing to comply with rules applying within the school about behaviour
- shows persistent and wilful inattention or indifference to school work. (suspension only)
Suspension is from one to five days and involves a `’re-connection’ meeting with the student, parent/caregivers and school representatives. A plan is collaboratively developed at that meeting and identifies goals, expectations and supports for the student going forward.
A number of factors are considered before determining the length of time of the suspension, including:
- The nature and severity of the incident
- Events leading up to the incident
- The student’s history – was this a ‘one off’ or has there been a pattern of similar behaviour?
- The age of the student
Exclusion is for a longer period of time and involves a ‘Directions’ conference with key parties - often including our local Behaviour Coach from the Gawler Education Office. Alternative learning programmes are explored and the duration of the exclusion is discussed.
REMINDER: SCHOOL CLOSURE AND STUDENT FREE DAY
A reminder that there is a school closure on Monday, September 6 and a Student Free Day on Tuesday, September 7. These will be the last ones for the year. Teachers will be involved in moderation of student ‘work’ to ensure consistency of standards and also curriculum planning for Year 7’s into High School.
YEAR 7 TO HIGH SCHOOL UPDATE
Over the last couple of weeks, we have made progress in our planning for Year 7 and 8 transition. We have been able to act on feedback from students and families ready for next year.
Parents from primary school families, and future students stated that they were most concerned about making friends and yard safety.
We are already planning opportunities for students to make new friends and develop the skills they will need to do this in 2022. One way we are doing this is by making our first week back at school more robust and developing the opportunities which allow students to make connections between classes, and amongst their entire year level in fun and informal ways. Additionally, we are extending our induction to high school activities for students so they get more time to develop friendships in their own classes. We are planning for all students to know who is in their class, and have met them before 2022.
In the yard, we will be making changes to the canteen to ensure younger students are served separately to senior students. We will be running a range of activities for students outside of the yard, like gaming spaces, arts spaces and chess to provide alternatives and foster friendships. Moreover, we think it will be very important to have a space just for our new year 7 and 8 students and are in discussions about the best place for this to be.
Some other planning elements on the radar for us at the moment are peer support, and how we can work this into mentoring next year.
Enrolments are due back to the school for year 7 and 8 students by the 27th of August. We are offering dates for families to access help completing these packs if needed.
Feel free to contact Kate Mckinna on 8258 2070 or via the email below if you have any concerns about the move to high school or the enrolment process.
Kate Mckinna, Learning & Transition Coordinator
SEHS COLUMNIST GROUP
Surviving Lockdown 101
Surviving lockdown can often be hard for most people, especially students. However, after working from home for a whole semester at the beginning of the pandemic, I’ve been able to formulate a way to cope. If you plan to follow this, you may need to switch out and tweak a few elements to fit your circumstances, but you can use this basic guide in case a stay-at-home order is issued…
- Make sure that you keep a routine. Obviously, nobody likes getting up early, especially if you’re about do school work. So, unless you’re a morning person, you need to ensure that you’re getting up at a decent hour. Take moderate steps and begin by setting your alarm for 8:30AM at the latest; then you will still have plenty of hours in the day to get caught up on schoolwork.
- Next, make sure that you’re able to block out distractions. If this means finding a quiet place to work or pumping music to keep you going, then do it. It’s vital that you’re able to stay on task without getting caught up in a tangent.
- Finally, planning is key if you want to be productive. When you wake up in the morning, write yourself a ‘to do list’ which you and your family can add on to during the day. It is very important to schedule breaks. You need to make sure that you don’t end up extending a 5-minute break to a 45 minute one all because you got caught up doing things that disregard your schedule.
Hopefully, these 3 points will help you keep up during another possible lockdown. Sticking to these will improve your work ethic and boost the amount of work you’re handing in each day/week. Good luck and stay safe!
By Luke Skinner, Year 10.
SUBJECT EXPO & COURSE COUNSELLING
Course counselling is well underway for our Year 10 and 11 students as they investigate what subjects they may wish to study in 2022. All students have been working on a planning document and subject selection sheet and have been asked to share this with their families, as well as show them our Google Classroom resource. This site provides extensive information about every SACE Stage 1 and 2 option at SEHS; a guide to completing the SACE; how to achieve an ATAR; and information about VET.
On the 11th & 12th August students started considering their 2022 options by attending SEHS Subject expo's. They had the opportunity to speak with subject leaders and teachers and thus gain valuable information about the various courses on offer.
Parents/caregivers can also access additional information on our offerings by visiting the link below and then selecting Curriculum>Course Information. Course confirmation appointments, when students ‘officially’ choose their subjects, and additional information will be sent out to our families electronically this week. These will take place for all Year 11s next week (Week 6) and for Year 10s in Week 7. Parents/caregivers are welcome to attend!
More information regarding Middle School to follow.
YEAR 12 IMPORTANT DUE DATES
STAGE 1 FOOD & HOSPITALITY
During week 4, the Stage 1 Food & Hospitality students had their summative practical, ‘Creative Food Presentation’ where they had a specific focus on desserts. They were required to plan carefully and make a dessert from scratch which included some garnishing elements such as berry coulis, crumble and chocolate décor to showcase their creativity in the presentation.
Ms Rungkat, Year 11 Food & Hospitality Teacher
