The Friendly Link

In the last edition of the Friendly Link, I relayed feedback the school received around the area of Learning. Learning encapsulated the areas listed on the table below. If you missed it, download the last newsletter and check it out.

There were three areas of the school’s core business – Learning, Teaching and Leading that the school received feedback on. This edition will focus on the domain of Teaching. May I once again thank the community for their responses.

The questions were developed from Excelling statements within the School Excellence Framework (SEF). The SEF supports all NSW public schools in their pursuit of excellence by providing a clear description of the key elements of high-quality practice across the three domains of Learning, Teaching and Leading.

The Framework describes 14 elements across these three domains which define the core business of excellent schools. 

Each year, schools will assess their practices against the Framework to inform their school plans and annual reports. The description of excellence in the Framework supports schools as they engage their communities in the development of a shared vision, the identification of strategic priorities, and the ongoing tracking of progress towards them.

In this edition, I will highlight elements from the Learning domain.

When you look at the survey results, the scale represents:

1= Almost never                                       

2= Sometimes                                          

3 = Often                                                 

4 = Very often                                           

5 = Almost always 

This evening is the AGM for the Parents & Citizens Association. The P&C forms a major link between the community and the school and I encourage families to stay in the loop and get involved through the P&C and its associated services (fundraising, canteen and uniform room). I would like to thank the executive committee and coordinators who did an outstanding job last year despite the challenges of the pandemic. I look forward to working with the new committee for 2021.

The meeting will take place in the school library at 7pm tonight Wednesday 17th March 2021.

One of the main elements of positive wellbeing is the ability to be engaged in a task or work and achieving what researchers call ‘flow’. Flow is where you are fully immersed in a task, that enables you to lose a sense of time as our focus and skills meet the challenge of a difficult task. Every time we are disrupted, it takes a cognitive load to get the momentum up again and get back in the ‘flow’.

The school is aiming to create processes to limit or stop the disruption of students and teachers during class times especially the morning. One strategy is trying to limit messages and movement throughout the school during this time.

I would also like to extend this with the Administrative team in the office. Please only pop in to the school on important or urgent business throughout the day. I am requesting that any forgotten items can be dealt with via a quick call or to not to worry about it if your child does not absolutely need it. I would really appreciate your support with this!

Congratulations to these students on their selection and representation of East Hills District PSSA.

EAST HILLS 11’s RUGBY LEAGUE: Cooper Hayward, William Cope and Pauli Kolopeaua

Good luck at the SSW PSSA Regional Trials