Principal's Report

Welcome to the first Newsletter for Term 2. It seems like I’m regularly saying it’s a big term, which probably means Cowra High is a vibrant school which offers a lot of opportunities to our students. This term is no different, so I will try to capture some of the highlights.

Friday of Week 1 saw senior students travel to Bathurst to experience a university and careers day. This is one of the many experiences we provide under the guidance of our Careers Adviser Mrs Williams, to prepare our students for life after school. The students who attended found the day extremely valuable and opened their eyes to new pathways and careers they had not previously considered. These events are promoted throughout the year and I encourage our senior students to take advantage of the opportunities.

On Wednesday 9 May, our Junior Rugby League team played Forbes High in a semi-final of the Buckley Shield competition. Our boys were successful in progressing to the finals round, with a convincing win. I was particularly pleased with the spirit of the game with both teams playing hard, but with great sportsmanship. We wish them well in the finals.

18 May will see Year 10 and 11 students have meningococcal vaccinations. I encourage all parents to have their children vaccinated against this debilitating and life threatening disease.

I hope many of you saw the Cowra Guardian article acknowledging Nicola Carter’s selection into The Arts Unit. As 1 of only 12 students selected, it is a tremendous acknowledgment of Nicola’s great talent as a dancer and the outstanding work Mrs Alison Buckley achieves as our school Dance teacher. Mrs Buckley has become so well known in the state for her Dance teaching that for the week beginning 21 May, Cowra High will host the Western Region Dance Camp. We will have over 80 students from Cowra and far afield travelling to Cowra to experience her teaching and that of choreographers from Sydney and Melbourne.

We have seen a few devices being used at school by students with Windows 10S installed. In short, Windows 10S is a stripped down version of Windows 10. It is very restrictive and only allows software to be installed that comes directly from the Microsoft store. This prevents users from installing the free Microsoft Office Suite (provided by the DoE through the portal), Google Chrome, Adobe Creative Cloud etc. The document below is a guide detailing the steps required to upgrade to Windows 10 Education edition. This can be done for free.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EB949L_rU8MuI6tLtJb9O6dMvEY9MYF7EGwCbknqrRY/edit?usp=sharing

Have a good fortnight.

Charles Gauci

PBL Winners

Professional Learning Report : "Taming the Brumbies in the Classroom"

On Friday 4 May I attended a workshop at the University of Technology in Sydney. It was titled “Taming the Brumbies in your classroom: Horse whispering techniques that work for wild and spirited children”. The workshop was presented by Dr Shannon Morton, a child and adolescent psychiatrist from Brisbane.

The workshop provided insight into the common “Brumby Breeds” – children with challenging and complex patterns of disruptive behaviours in the school setting. It also focused on applying horse

whispering techniques to the classroom including reading body language, seeing the teacher as leader of the Brumby herd, and how to achieve relational “join up”. Dr Morton provided details of current research studies into how to reduce a challenging child’s defence mechanism or resistance to learning through humour, creativity, and play. These strategies have been shown to improve optimal learning for difficult children.

Dr Morton spoke about the need for teachers to ”harness the Brumby spirit” in students with challenging behaviours, through productive learning, leadership, advocacy and innovation.

Di St Clair

Support Unit Teacher