Chester Hill High School

Strength in Unity, Excellence in Education

Telephone02 9644 1099

Emailchesterhil-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Principal's Report May 2010

We ended Term 1 with a highly successful and well attended School Cross Country Carnival held at Pioneer Park in beautiful Autumn weather. I hope all our readers enjoyed a restful break over the holidays.

 

Our joint Staff Development Day on 19 April was an interesting change for teachers. We met with the staff of Sefton and Birrong Girls high schools to discuss how we can best meet the learning needs of our students.  We met in cross school and faculty groups to discuss "Exceptional Outcomes" achieved by schools and had the opportunity to listen to Professor Steve Dinham in the final session. He spoke about what the research is telling us about effective teaching and learning and strategies that really work to improve student learning outcomes.

 

This initiative is part of our National Partnerships program. This program runs for 4 years: 2010-2013 and brings considerable funding to the school. In a previous Cheso News I listed the extra teaching staff we are employing with these funds.

 

Our 4 projects over the four years are:

 

1. To develop, implement and evaluate a school-wide Reading Plan to improve overall literacy outcomes as measured by NAPLAN, School Certificate and Higher School Certificate

 

2. To develop, implement and evaluate strategies and programs to enhance student engagement in Stages 5 and 6

 

3. To further develop, implement and evaluate ESL pedagogy across all KLAs

 

4. To further address the needs of Gifted and Talented students

 

Please see our school website for further details in our School Plan. And a fuller report from Ms Mateus our National partnerships deputy principal who is leading and managing our National Partnerships projects.

 

Other activities at the time of writing so far this term include our first High Resolves session involving our Year 10 student leaders, our Italian Gelato and Canoli Day and of course our Year 11 Half Yearly Examinations.

 

Staffing: congratulations to Ms Langmack who will be relieving Head Teacher: Administration for the rest of this year. A fond farewell to Ms Vermiglio who has been transferred to Queanbeyan High School ,from Week 5 onwards. She has been a highly effective and popular teacher here at Cheso for 11 years and we all wish her well for the future.

 

Christine Casey