Wellbeing - Assistant Principal 

Welcome back everyone to HEPS for Term 3.  I know we are all looking forward to having a little bit more sunshine as well as a little more heat as the term rolls on.

I think it's really important that we acknowledge when things are going well and the school has recently received some data that indicates that we are having a really positive impact on our students.  What's even more pleasing is that these are areas that have been a focus at HEPS.  A couple of these are;

Attendance -   As I mentioned last term, our attendance has improved markedly compared to last year.  The research is unequivocal about the impacts that school absence has on student wellbeing and academic outcomes so we are really happy to see these numbers improve. We do, however, still have too many unexplained absences on a daily basis.  It's really important for all parents and guardians to remember that all students must be at school each day, otherwise a reason has to be given to the school. This is a year long focus at HEPS so we will continue to call all parents and guardians of students who have absences which are unexplained.      

Connection - One of our overarching goals for 2023 has been to enhance connection at HEPS.  This has meant strengthening connection between students, teachers and the whole school community.  We have done this through a re-vamped newsletter that showcases student work more regularly.  We have also brought back a strong emphasis on student and parent engagement with our student led assembly's this year.  All of our teaching staff have engaged in professional learning to enhance student connection in the classroom.  It is really pleasing therefore, to receive the results of our Student Opinion Survey that strongly indicates that our students feel much more connected and happy to be at school this year.  We will continue to focus on this important work throughout the year.  

FRIENDOLOGY

In Term 3 we will continue to focus on the language of friendship and how we can teach our students how to foster healthy relationships.  It's really important to have conversations at home with your children about what they are learning about in this space so that we can maintain a consistent approach between home and school when it comes to friendships.  When students come home and talk about problems with friends, it would be really effective if parents can ask their child "was this a friendship fire (a disagreement where no-one is at fault) or someone being mean on purpose?"