Embracing new opportunities

Wellbeing 100 point Challenge Success!

Well done to all students that participated in the wellbeing challenge. There were certainly a lot of happy students and parents on the first day back of Term 3. It was a great way to start the term and it was beneficial that our hardworking staff had some time to make a successful return to online learning and participate in valuable professional learning to benefit our students.

I would like to recognise the work of our Year 9 students who gave it their best to achieve 100 points and more. Great to see students cooking for a family member, exercising, watching a movie, tidying up and writing letters acknowledging the dedication of their teachers. 

Dear Mr Chandler

I just want to thank you for all the time you took to teach 9X and I know that the lesson you told us will help me and the class learn throughout the year  and I know that without science  we wouldn’t be alive I think.

Sorry it is a short letter. I just wanted you to know that I'm grateful for having you as my teacher and I hope I have you next year.

"Tune In"- this year's Mental Health Month theme 

Tips to Tune In this Mental Health Month

Connecting with nature has long been known to have positive impacts on mental health and can be an excellent way to Tune In to the world.  Connection to Country is a huge part of social and emotional wellbeing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and taking time to connect with the Land in ways that are accessible can help build social and emotional wellbeing.   mentalhealthmonthwayahead.org.au

Tuning in means being present

It means being aware of what is happening within you, and in the world around you. Being present by tuning in has been shown to help build self-awareness, help make effective choices, reduce the impact of worry, and build positive connections. You can tune in to many things:

Tune in to yourself – What can you sense right now? What can you feel?

Tune in to others – What might people around you be feeling? How can we connect?

Tune in to your communities – What is happening that you can be part of, or that you can help others be part of?

Tune in to stigma – How do attitudes and understandings of mental health and wellbeing impact on people’s ability to live the lives they want? How can we help?

The link below gives you tips to tune in:

Generation Next

I would like to share the Generation Next article "Giving students time for recovery and learning" by Jane Nursey, Professor Helen Cahill, Professor Jim Watterston and Professor Lisa Gibbs, as it looks at the impacts of learning from home on our students and what we may need to consider and implement once we return to school.  Click on the link below to read the article:

The article states that:

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare in its report on the COVID-19 impact on youth stated that “nearly half of the national school student population are vulnerable to negative impacts from learning at home, due to their age, social disadvantage, specific needs (including physical or psychological needs or language support) or family employment context”.

The article states that:

"The Australian government has recognised that social and emotional learning can help our kids cope, with significant investment in student wellbeing in schools, but there is an additional element we all need to consider and that is time".

Space to adjust and recover

Trauma recovery takes time and emotional energy. So, let’s take the radical step of requiring less from our teachers and students in terms of testing, academic targets and progress, not more, so that they can accommodate the extra demands on them practically, mentally and emotionally. "

A lot to consider to support our Cecil Hills Community.

Supporting academic success during lockdown and the transition back to school

Year 9 students will have a series of assessment tasks over the next three week period. Some of these tasks have been modified and adapted for online learning. It is always important for our students to feel well supported in their academic endeavours, particularly at this time. We have ensured all tasks have an in-built formative component to allow time for students to work on the task in class time and receive feedback from their teachers. The tasks will be set on a variety of platforms pending on the subject area. These online platforms are Education Perfect, Google Classroom and Mathletics.  Some of these tasks will be completed as open book tasks at home in Week 3 and some at school in Weeks 4 and 5.  Students are now returning on Monday, 25 October so it is very important that they bring their own or a borrowed device to school to complete online assessments. They can feel assured that they will be well supported through the assessment period and teachers will cater for students by giving them space to adjust and recover. 

Christine Lord 

Deputy Principal - Year 9