Principal's Report

What a Term!!

As we near the end of Term 1, I can certainly say that the school year is well underway and for Henry Kendall High School it has been a very hectic but really positive term. The past weeks have been characterised by numerous excursions, excellence on sporting fields, strong achievements in the Lions Youth of the Year, student leadership initiatives, demanding assessment tasks in the senior years, recognition and celebration of our cultural diversity in our Harmony Day event, intensive evaluation of teaching strategies and curriculum development by staff, Mock Trial success, our school and zone swimming carnival’s, school planning and numerous associated projects, Year 7 camp, many parent information evenings, and projects with our partner schools – WOW!

Stage 4 Curriculum Review

Over the next two terms I am undertaking a really close examination and evaluation of our Stage 4 curriculum structure (Years 7 and 8). Through this review process our commitment is to;

learn from success in curriculum practices nationally and internationally;
examine how these can be applied within the context of our school;
provide innovative and exciting approaches to teaching and learning; and,
take informed risks to achieve the best for every student.

Our focus is to reimagine our curriculum approaches to ensure schooling that is learner focussed, passion based, personalised for every student, equitable and provides assessment for and as learning (rather than to provide a ranking of achievement). This will require a real rethink of what we do, why we do it and what will give our students the best education for the rapidly changing world they will enter.

P-Tech Project

Henry Kendall High School is currently in negotiations with IBM Australia to become one of only 19 schools nationally to take on the P-Tech Program.

P-Tech is a world leading educational model that offers secondary school students an industry supported pathway to a science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) qualification. P-Tech is a partnership between the school, IBM, and local industry that provides students with skills and knowledge to prepare them for jobs of the future. P-Tech forges direct links and enables industry to play an active role in the learning and career development of the workforce of the future. It presents an exciting opportunity for Henry Kendall High School to again be at the forefront of contemporary educational practices, and I look forward to keeping our community informed as this program develops.

Executive Conference 2019

An ongoing focus across the school is the development of teacher quality; ensuring the best possible teachers are in front of every class, every day. An important aspect of this is the development of our leadership capacity and supporting our Head Teachers and leadership team in developing their staff.

As part of this focus, in 2019 I introduced an inaugural Executive Conference. On Monday 25 and Tuesday 26 March the executive team spent a valuable and productive two days of professional learning and team building. Our focus was on leadership, with the majority of the conference delivered by an external leadership coaching company. Topics included;

leadership concepts;
understanding of self;
leadership mindsets;
emotional intelligence;
motivation theory;
effective feedback, and;
time management.

It was a very positive, reflective and challenging two days that was highly valued by the entire leadership team of the school.

Teacher Professional Learning Project

This year all teaching staff are engaging in educational research projects as a part of their professional learning and development. This initiative will have staff commit to twelve hours of learning in their own time to research and explore an educational topic of relevance to them. They are then required to either report on their learning or to put their learning into action in their teaching practice. The projects allow staff to maintain authorship and ownership over their own learning directions, in an area that is important to them, and engages them in contemporary educational research that can improve them as teachers – another exciting new initiative that places Henry Kendall High School at the forefront of teaching practice.

School Planning

Our eight school teams are currently and enthusiastically exploring ideas and developing action plans that will drive our directions over the next twelve months. Teams are not only building upon their 2018 work, but are also measuring the impact of this work against the improvement measures we have set ourselves. This process is already providing some evidence of success. For example, our target by the end of 2020 is to significantly increase the number of girls engaging with STEM based courses. In one year we have demonstrated double the number of girls enrolled in Stage 5 computing based courses.

Others areas of impact from our 2018 work include; a complete redesign of the Young Achievers Program with incorporation of a stand-alone project based learning course; significantly exceeding our targets for the % of students in the top two NAPLAN bands in literacy and numeracy; extensive programs implemented to support student wellbeing, including student leadership initiatives; a focus on staff wellbeing to build upon our strong culture and supportive frameworks; and extensive research into Futures focused learning to ensure a strong understanding of the educational directions needed to prepare students for a rapidly changing world.

HSC Analysis

Over the past six weeks our staff have been undertaking a comprehensive analysis of the 2018 HSC results and data. Each teacher completes a detailed analysis and reflection of their individual class. Each Head Teacher undertakes an analysis of data and determines future directions and focus areas for the faculty as a whole.

This detailed and in-depth process is an important one that we undertake annually to ensure that we are reflecting on our own performance as individual teachers, but also carefully consider information from the data to inform our areas of focus that may lead to improved outcomes.

School Budget 2019

Beyond the operational fundamentals of our annual budget including curriculum resourcing, maintenance and utilities, 2019 will see the school invest in a range projects aligned with school planning and strategic priorities. In 2019 these will include;

Significant investments into the projects undertaken by each of our eight school plan teams.
New laptop sets and replacement of a large number of ageing laptops.
Significant physical upgrade to our library space.
Employment of additional administration staff to manage the departments new finance and administration systems.
Employment of an IT technical support officer.
Technology upgrades.
Development of new curriculum to meet changes in HSC requirements.
Our transition program.
Investments in teacher development.
Employment of an additional teacher.
Targeted student wellbeing, study skills and development projects.
Physical upgrades to learning spaces

Whilst budget constraints will never allow us to meet all desired projects, we are certainly seeking maximise available funds to provide the best opportunities for our students.

Term 4 School Development Days

On each of our terms 1-3 School Development Days the staff will be completing additional hours of professional learning. This will be in lieu of the two development days at the end of term 4, when the school will be non-operational.

Mr Andrew Backhouse

Principal