End of Term 2

School News

Relay for Life Team

Henry Kendall High School is entering our 15th Relay For Life this year.

 

Relay For Life is a fun and moving overnight experience that raises vital funds for the Cancer Council’s research, prevention, information and support services. Relay is a chance for the Central Coast community to recognise and celebrate local cancer survivors, patients and their carers, to honour and remember loved ones lost to cancer and to raise money to help save more lives.

Start time: 3.00pm, Saturday 19 October 2019

End time: 8.00am, Sunday 20 October 2019

Tabitha Cockburn

Senior State Swimming Championships

On Saturday 24 August, Tabitha Cockburn of Year 8 swam in the freestyle relay and on Sunday 25 August swam backstroke in the medley relay for the Gosford Stingrays in the Senior State Swimming Championships.

 

Tabitha swam her 50m freestyle in 33 secs and 50m backstroke in 38 secs. See more at:

https://nsw.swimming.org.au/events/2019-nsw-senior-state-age-sc-championships

Tabitha with Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre in the background.

Learning and Support Teachers Conference

I was happy to attended the Semester 2 Learning and Support Teachers Conference at the Entrance League's Club on Thursday 22 August.

 

We listened to Speech Pathologist, Magdalen Rozsa -who talked about Executive Functioning and the  impacts on language and learning. Magdalen is a highly experienced speech pathologist with 30 years of experience of working with children with communication impairments. Currently Magdalen works at The Children's Hospital at Westmead and The NSW Centre for Effective Reading.

 

She explored the how's and whys of Executive functions and looked at the long term consequences of developmental language disorders on-

  •  literacy and learning outcomes
  • classroom performance
  •  mental health
  • social and emotional behaviour
  • peer interactions

Magdalen discussed strategies to help students with Edxecutive Functioning, setting students up for success, use of positive reinforcement and creating safe environments.

 

Joanne McDonald-Senior Psychologist also spoke about the variety of standardised psychological assessments used to support students in schools, she gave an overview of each assessments both Functional and Behavioural. She discussed why certain tests were used and how assessment choices need to be appropriate . She explained  what each test comprised of and the types of questioning and activities included. Often in a Learning and Support environment we hear counsellors talk about tests like WPPSI IV, WISC V, Conners 3, it was fascinating learn what was involved in these types of tests.

 

Eva Brzozowska our APLAS-Assistant Principal Learning and Support presented a session on Solution Focused Conversations, this provided a structured approach to conversation coaching. She talked about the importance of communication as a process of interaction and exchanging of information, creating understanding. She gave a series of strategies to  help people move forward in their thinking and behaviours, avoiding communication roadblocks, always being present in conversations and developing trust.

 

The LaST Conference is run biannually and is a excellent opportunity to network with fellow Learning and Support teachers, the information is always presented by professional and working strategies are provided.

Mrs Janelle Wilkinson

Learning and Support Teacher