Welcome to Term 2!  Before I talk about all the wonderful things happening this term, I wanted to highlight some of the great work that occurred at the end of last term.

The School Captains represented BHS at the annual Blessing of the Roads, held at the Town Hall.  Alex McGuire and Joe Reape spoke about the dangers of becoming distracted while driving.  They presented an excellent speech with assistance from Mrs Francke.  Students from other schools in the area also spoke about other road safety topics before everyone enjoyed morning tea provided by the CWA.

Students in Years 8 to 10 participated in a Youth Leadership Workshop funded by the Shire of Bridgetown-Greenbushes (thank you!) and facilitated by the Youth Leadership Academy of Australia.  Students learned about the cycle of self-leadership - a positive mindset, understanding your feelings (and responding rather than reacting), followed by actions that they can be proud of making.  The students engaged in a range of activities as they explored these concepts.  They then brainstormed about what the big issues were for young people in our community.  They delved into what caused these issues and what opportunities could be explored to solve them.  This work will be used to help inform the Shire’s Youth Action plan.

We celebrated the terrific behaviour throughout the term with our PBS Reward Day on the last day.  Students enjoyed a sausage sizzle lunch and tried to solve the mystery of who kidnapped staff members (first it was me being kidnapped, then Yuko, the School Chaplain) – all in good fun, of course!  Students cooperated in teams to seek clues from around the school, until they could locate the missing staff member.  There were a lot of laughs had by all.  Thank you to our PBS staff and student teams for making this happen.

BHS participated in the ANZAC Services in town, with student leaders Alex McGuire and Grae Beswick speaking at the service on ANZAC Day.  They did a brilliant job representing the school and speaking so well about the ANZAC spirit and what it signifies.  I want to thank them for giving up their time on the holidays to meet this commitment.

On the first school day of Term 2, we conducted an ANZAC service delivered by the student leadership team.  This was a moving service, and the students were very well behaved throughout.  Thank you, Mrs Francke, for organising this important school event.

The staff started a day before the students and used this time for some important professional learning.  The whole staff is getting ready for our Public-School Review, which is happening in Term 3, so we reviewed how we are going and what we need to do next.  Staff also spent some time learning about a new system coming to BHS for recording attendance and behaviour data.  They attended a workshop run by Ms Cockerill, about how Artificial Intelligence can automate tasks for teachers and reduce their workload.  They finished the day by working in their teams to plan and prepare amazing programs for students.

I have started updating the school website.  It isn’t finished yet, but I am working through each section and making relevant changes.  I hope it is useful to those who visit it.  If you have suggestions for what you think we should include on the website, please let me know on kelly.anderson@education.wa.edu.au

We have welcomed an exchange student from France into our Year 10 cohort.  Astrid Leduc will be with us until the end of August.  Astrid is staying with a local family, whose children also attend BHS.  Astrid is learning English and Spanish, enjoys drawing and gymnastics, and seems to be settling in well to Bridgetown.

This term there will be a stronger focus on what’s next for our Year 10 students, as they start to contemplate their senior school course selections.  They will be well supported in this transition process, both by Mrs Hardey as well as through  visits from MSHS staff throughout the term.  Keep a close eye on the school planner for upcoming events.

Some specific events happening in Term 2 are:

• Student Forum – this team will visit the Shire Chambers once a term, to experience local government processes.
• Humanities and Social Sciences - Copernicus excursions and Geography and History Competitions.
• English – Year 9s will deep dive into social media and its impacts through their inquiry learning project.
• Roadwise incursions for Year 7s & 8s.
• Year 10 exams in Maths, English, Science and HASS in Week 6.
• Live and Deadly – a cultural performance by Sean Choolburra – for all students – in Week 7.
• Year 10 OLNA – testing is in Weeks 8 & 9.
• Boyup Brook DHS Lightning Carnival – our older students will be supporting this by umpiring and coaching the younger students.
• Career Conversations – a useful information session for parents and young people.
• Year 10 Test a Trade in Week 10.

Gee, we might be a smaller high school, but we sure have a lot going on!

Kelly Anderson