Principal's Report

Welcome Back

Welcome to 2021, and to the start of another school year. 2021 will be an exciting, challenging and rewarding year. Hopefully it will also be a more normal and settled year for our entire community. A particular welcome to parents and students new to Henry Kendall High School, especially our Year 7 cohort.

We have had an extremely settled and industrious start to the school year. As a whole our students have returned with a positive and focused mindset, and have engaged themselves straight into learning. It is wonderful to see that our students are keen to make the most of each opportunity and to contribute positively to what is their school.

New Staff

I would like to welcome a number of new staff:

Mr Jackson Parkes and
Miss Melissa Jackson join us in English
Mrs Lisa Wright joins us in CAPA
Miss Jade Ridely joins us in PDHPE
Mr Jon-Paul Grant joins us in Science
Mrs Michelle Woodland and
Mrs Leah Pappin join us in our new Applied Learning faculty
Mrs Jane Mackay (Science Assistant) joins us in Science

We are excited to have such a strong array of new staff join our fabulous school and our outstanding teams committed to the education of our students.

Outstanding HSC Results

Well done to our 2020 HSC students with the release of strong and well deserved results. Of particular note;

22 Band 6 results or 5.5% of our results.
Our highestt individual results are Cythia Li (Mathematics Advanced), Willow Pratt (Music) and Stella Tufuga (Music) who all achieved 96, closely followed by Tai Ho (Mathematics Extension 1) with 95.
Highest ATATR’s were Tai Ho with 97.30 and Cynthia Li with 96.6
67.1% of our results were in Bands 4-6 – the most we’ve ever achieved.
Henry Kendall High School is the second-ranked comprehensive school on the Central Coast behind Kincumber High School, and the sixth ranked overall.
Recognition to the Maths Squad – every course attained a Band 6 result – well done!
Across all exams we equalled state average – this has only been bettered once in our school's history.

In addition to this, many students exceeded their expectations and in some cases, getting over the line is the achievement. Each and every HSC outcome is celebrated in our school. Congratulations to Year 12, 2020!

I take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank our wonderful HSC teachers. The selfless work they do is a significant factor in the achievement of our students. Their dedication, passion, drive, subject knowledge and depth of educational expertise is valued and appreciated.

New School Plan 2021-24

This year sees the commencement of our new School Improvement Plan 2021-24. The new planning process sees the implementation of mandated targets for our school in aspects of NAPLAN and HSC achievement, and in student attendance.

Over the next four years we have identified three strategic directions;

Student Growth and Attainment
Future Focussed Learning Now
School Culture

These three areas will guide the development and implementation of a range of initiatives aimed at strengthening the outcomes of our students.

Our priorities & focus for 2021

2021 is an exciting year for Henry Kendall High School as we not only implement our School Plan, we are also bringing to fruition the significant work undertaken over the past eighteen months in the development of our new Stage 4 curriculum model. Across Years 7 and 8 this will see;

New courses introduced in Applied Learning, Wellbeing and Aboriginal Studies.
New programs across all key learning areas (KLAs).
Formative Assessment being implemented as a core process.
Skills based reporting replacing our old model.

We are also implementing a new Department program in intensive literacy and numeracy improvement which will see a strong focus in improved results to meet government priorities and targets. This will bring four new part-time teachers into the school to facilitate the program.

We have also looked closely at our Student Rewards Program and have implemented a new model focussed on recognising not only high achieving students, but also those who try their personal best and achieve little things every day; and of course, everything else that we always do will continue to happen. We have a very busy but very purposeful year ahead!

Yarning Circle

Stage 1 of our Yarning Circle project was undertaken during the holidays and looks phenomenal. A huge thanks to the P&C – especially Janine Waters - for sourcing the grant funding to facilitate this. The funds required for the remaining aspects of the project have been planned within the 2021 school budget.

COVID Guidelines Term 1

Schools have again been issued with new COVID Guidelines for Term 1. For the most part, there are few changes.

However, students are now required to wear masks on all public transport to and from school, including school buses. Masks must also be worn on any transport to and from school events including excursions and sport.

There has been some easing of restrictions, including professional learning and school excursions, which is welcomed. Meetings remain restricted to 30 people, which will prevent us from holding any of our usual information nights. We are looking at alternative delivery methods for these. This continues to be a fluid situation, and we hope for further easing of restrictions for Term 2.

A Strong & Open Partnership

We have a strong and supportive culture at Henry Kendall High School, where parents and staff work together to nurture and grow the most important people in your world … your children.

A sign of any mature organisation is knowing that if people want to voice an opinion or concern, they have permission to do so. As Principal, I can proudly say that we are all part of a school where opinion and feedback are accepted and valued … not always practical or within policy, but certainly heard.

The vast majority of feedback is positive and we love receiving affirmation from parents. There are also occasions where parents/carers feel the need to share insights or perspectives of a negative nature. We value that feedback as well. We are not sharing information about how to highlight concerns because of a perceived problem. In fact, we have quite the opposite! The vast majority of feedback we receive is complimentary.

This information is being shared because we value the partnership we have with the community and we want to ensure that you understand our school-based procedures for expressing concerns, should you ever feel the need. The best person to assist you initially is your child’s classroom teacher or Year Adviser. If you still have concerns after chatting to your child’s teacher, then please feel free to contact a member of the school executive team. Please see the attached School Community Charter for more information on this topic.

Mobile Phones

Mobile phones in schools have presented a challenge for a number of years, and our school is no different. Whilst they can be a tool that can be used to enhance learning opportunities, too often in classroom situations they present a distraction or can be misused to the detriment of others.

To address this issue Henry Kendall High School is taking a stronger policy line on mobile phones in classroom situations. All students are required to have their devices (including headphones) in their bags prior to entry to the classroom. If the device is to be used within the learning program, the teacher will ask students to retrieve their device. Any student who has a device out in a classroom context when they shouldn’t do will have the device confiscated and they will need to collect it from the Deputy Principal at the end of the school day. Repeated infringements will require the device to be collected by parents.

It is expected that these clear guidelines will remove the issues that have been creating difficulties. Parents and carers support in reinforcing the schools expectations with their children would be greatly appreciated.

Skateboards

Throughout 2020 our school had ongoing issues with risk-taking behaviour of students coming to and from school on skateboards. Numerous complaints were received from other parents, hospital staff and local community members. Despite significant time given to the issue and interventions attempted, we were unable to prevent students endangering themselves and others in this manner. Unfortunately complaints have already been received from the community about the same behaviour this year.

As a result I have made a decision to ban students from bringing skateboards to school as a last resort to address this issue before a serious injury results. This decision has been endorsed by the HKHS P&C Association.

Term 4 School Development Day 2021

Throughout 2021 our staff will be completing additional hours professional learning. This will be in lieu of the Development Day at the end of Term 4, when the school will be non-operational.

Parents & Community Association

The P&C meets at 7.00pm in the Nichols meeting room in the Administration building. There are two meetings in Term 1, then one meeting in each of Terms 2, 3 and 4.

Tuesday 16 February – General Meeting
Tuesday 2 March – AGM
Tuesday 18 May – General Meeting
Tuesday 10 August – General Meeting
Tuesday 2 November – General Meeting

Mr Andrew Backhouse

Principal