Principals Report
A busy term ahead......
Term 3 is always busy with so many special events taking place, and this is the first time in several years we have been able to proceed with them.
Week 2 was our first 7-10 Parent Teacher Interviews in two years, and Henry Kendall High School then hosted our learning community of schools in the NAIDOC Day events.
We commenced Education Week from Monday 1 August with our Gosford City Learning Community Celebration Assembly, followed by two Performing Arts nights.
Year 12 will undertake their trial HSC exams, finalise and submit major projects, complete HSC performance pieces, and finish 13 years of schooling as they graduate on Thursday 22 September 2022.
Year 11 will undertake their end of course examinations in preparation for commencing their HSC studies.
New school captains, vice-captains, prefects and SRC representatives will be elected and inducted for the next twelve months. 2023 subject selections for years 8, 9 and 11 will be finalised. Lots of excursions, wellbeing days, leadership days and sporting opportunities are coming up.
A busy time ahead, however it is fantastic that we have so much to get involved in and to celebrate.
Resilience In Our Teens Program
As mentioned in our last newsletter, our school is one of five in Australia that are implementing the ‘ResilienceIn Our Teens’ (RIOT) program. Our Term 3 Staff Development Day focused on the staff training component of the RIOT program where we engaged with two psychologists in developing individual skills and determining whole school approaches in addressing student anxiety.
Resilience In Our Teens is a program designed to assist students to manage their anxious behaviour. It is a large-scale evidence-based project, delivered through a series of cognitive-behavioural lessons and using teacher-led conversational techniques. These interventions are aimed at helping teenagers to manage their anxiety.
The research on student anxiety shows us that:
- Seventy percent of student anxiety is learned whereas 30% of student anxiety is due to temperament and genetic factors. The good news is that most student anxiety can be unlearned.
- Much of the potential for improvements in student well-being can be achieved through ‘challenging’ students to engage with problems by not avoiding them (Exposure Therapy Model).
- The significant adults in a student’s life – including their teachers – can make an important difference to a student’s ability to manage their anxiety through ‘seemingly modest’ interventions.
A central element of the RIOT program is for our students to Manage their anxiety to ‘have a go’ and be their own emotional coach rather than avoiding difficult tasks or situations.
As a staff we have been undertaking professional learning and reading research from places like the Harvard Center for the Developing Child which had shown us that behaviour by significant adults which inadvertently assists students to avoid difficulties, can be counterproductive. While there will be instances for particular students where alternate strategies are more appropriate; in the majority of cases helping a student to work through the anxiety they are experiencing will lead to long term positive impacts and a greater capacity to carry these skills through life.
As we develop and implement the RIOT program across our school, parents will be kept informed through regular newsletter articles. Specific parent webinars with the psychologists coordinating the program will also be offered through an online format over several evenings later in the year – details to follow.
Our school coordination team will be undertaking planning and further training in the coming weeks before student lessons are provided through welfare days for each year cohort. In these days students will be introduced to a range of skills and their understanding of anxiety will be expanded to encourage and help them to self-manage their mild to moderate anxious behaviour, and ultimately to improve their overall resilience.
Aspects of the approach undertaken through RIOT may be challenging, and possibly confronting, for some students and parents. This is a research-based approach that has been developed by specialist psychologists, and we ask that you trust in the school as we seek to implement positive and proactive approaches towards a growing issue for our youth.
Attendance Matters
Student attendance at school is essential. It sounds obvious, but attendance is fundamental to learning – academically, socially, and emotionally. As a school we are placing a large amount of emphasis on ensuring our students are at school as often as they are able as this is so important to growth, development, wellbeing, and achievement.
As an element of this I need to raise parent awareness over an aspect of the department of education’s processes for attendance. When a student is absent, parents are required to provide an explanation for that absence. We do contact parents by SMS and email, and now also by phone, to try and clear up unexplained absences. However, we do not always get a response – in fact, 25% of all absences are unexplained.
What parents do not realise is that after 5 days from the end of the absence period, the department’s systems lock out our ability to change the leave from unexplained to explained.
I encourage parents to provide the school with an explanation for any absence as soon as possible, and within the first 5 days, to ensure that absences do not remain unexplained on student records.
Equally, the partnership between the school and home in proactively encouraging positive attendance is critical and we value this relationship.
Managing a challenging time!
The winter season is well upon us resulting in unprecedented levels of student and staff illness that are being compounded by the current surge in covid cases.
As a school we continue to focus on the safety and wellbeing of our community. Striking a balance that keeps us functioning, including still being able to hold important events, is important whilst employing measures to do so as safely as possible. Students, staff and visitors are encouraged to wear masks indoors and whole school assemblies have been suspended for the first part of term.
The staff absences and a lack of available casual teachers have resulted in some classes being placed on minimal supervision at times.
These challenging times are being experienced across all sectors of our community, and I thank our parents and carers for the continued support you provide the school as we work our way through the coming weeks.
Assessment Schedules 7-10
Semester 2 Assessment Schedules for Years 7-10 mainstream classes have been published and are available to all parents, carers, and students on the school website. These have also been emailed home to all families.
Start times for evening events
Historically our school holds many evening events, such as information nights, particularly through the middle of the year. These have always been scheduled to start at 7.00pm.
We are considering bringing the start time for these events forward to 6.00pm to reduce the impact on family time across our community. However we do not want to make a change that negatively impacts parents and carers ability to attend, so your feedback on this proposal is important.
It would be appreciated if parents and carers would take a couple of moments to complete this one question survey to provide us with this feedback.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DLV2GT8
Mr Andrew Backhouse
Principal