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 through Harmony Day, lots of training and development by our staff, celebrating International Women’s Day, Mock Trial success, our school and zone swimming carnivals, the Max Potential Program, Cooinda Cultural Programs, school planning and numerous associated projects, Year 12 camp, Year 7 camp, senior study skills programs, instruction of our new Applied Learning, Wellbeing and Aboriginal Studies curriculums, student wellbeing programs, our P-Tech program, – WOW – and all of that is on top what we do every day in classes!
2021 Executive Conference
In March our Executive Team spent two valuable days focused on learning and development. On Monday 22 March our focus was formative assessment practices, building on the substantial work undertaken in this area in 2020. School Services staff from the Department's Regional North office led our team in training around effective questioning and effective feedback in teaching and learning practices. All teachers across the school will undertake training in each of these aspects of formative assessment practices during the Terms 2 and 3 School Development Days and our conference gave our Head Teachers time to plan the next phase towards whole school implementation and is a key component of our School Plan 2021-24.
The focus for Tuesday 23 March was the continued development of the leadership capacity of our executive team. Engaging with Cut Through Coaching, an external professional coaching company, the day explored concepts around the theme of ‘Leading Teams that Learn’. As we focused on developing our leadership skills we looked at wellbeing, motivation, engagement, mind-set and psychological safety within the context of leading our teams.
It was a very positive, reflective and challenging two days that was highly valued by the entire leadership team of the school. I thank our executive team for committing their own time and the hard work that went into the conference.
Attendance Matters
Regular attendance at school for every student is essential if students are to achieve their potential and increase their career and life options. Research indicates what we inherently know – there is a strong link between attendance and student achievement. To put it simply, students can’t learn if they are not at school.
What is concerning is a fall in attendance rates across NSW in recent years. Although Henry Kendall High School's attendance rates have remained relatively stable, only 67% of our students attend for greater than 90% of the time. This equates to nearly 300 of our students being absent for 20 or more days in a school year. To cast this thinking further, for those students to miss 20 days a year over the 13 years of schooling equals the loss of over an entire year of learning. When we consider ‘a day off’ in those terms attendance really does matter.
Promoting a positive attendance culture across our school community is a shared partnership and responsibility between parents and the school. As a school we are placing an increased emphasis on the importance of regular attendance, including students getting to school on time. We have developed and instigated methods of tracking detailed elements of attendance data and will be putting strategies in place to follow up areas of concern. Additionally, attendance is now a target in our school plan with an aim to improve students attending greater than 90% of the time by 5% in the next 12 months.
What is vital in raising attendance across the school is our partnership with our parents. Parents can support the promotion of a positive culture by emphasising the importance of going to school every day your child is able, helping to get them to school on time, and communicating with the school regarding genuine absences. In many ways this may seem like a small issue, but attendance at school really does matter.
Term 4
School Development Day 2021
Throughout 2021 the staff will be completing additional hours of 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 on the following dates for 2021:
- Tuesday 18 May – General Meeting
- Tuesday 10 August – General Meeting
- Tuesday 2 November – General Meeting
Mr Andrew Backhouse - Principal