The Hills School

We Love Learning

Telephone02 9639 7334

Emailthehills-s.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Welcome back to school 2022

Art Studio

Principal’s Message:

Hello parents and friends of The Hills School. It’s been a busy few weeks and much is going on in classrooms and other learning spaces across the school. Students and staff are settling well into new rooms and routines and despite the challenges that COVID has presented in our organisation we are very much happily into the business of learning.

Art Studio / Sensory Room

Over the school holidays we saw a significant set of upgrade works to our living skills space. Our vision was to create a multipurpose teaching and learning space along with provisions for a sensory room which has long been on the wish list for many staff and parents of The Hills School. In 2022 we have asked Cheryl Williams to take on a specialist role in the provision of arts-based learning activities bringing her decades of experience to the fore and providing some truly amazing engagement learning experiences for our students. Visual arts are a powerful medium for expression, communication development and sensory support. There is a messy amount of fun for all.

The sensory room is very much a blank canvas at the moment as we await the first set of resources to be installed. A team of teachers, leaders and consultant occupational therapist Natasha Sansoni have spend many hours designing and refining the space with a vision to create a space that can both stimulate and soothe with options for all types of learners with a multitude of need. We are very much looking forward to working with the community and other organisations to ensure this space is fitted with research backed, state of the art items that will enhance learning supports for our students.

SCHOOLZINE

Our school’s new parent engagement platform, Schoolzine, provides access to our newsletter digitally (via email, the SZapp and on our Schoozine website). We will be transitioning to a fully digital newsletter sometime during Term 1 and will therefore no longer be printing the newsletter for families. We encourage you to sign up to the Schoolzine platform where you will have access to the newsletter via the website, the app and also be able to receive it via email.

Health Care Plans

Planning for the support of student health care and medical needs are a core part of our partnership with families. The department requires that all such planning is based on appropriate planning and direction from health care professionals and families. The annual update of doctor and specialist advice is required for asthma, allergy and epilepsy along with other specified medical needs. We appreciate the challenges of making such appointments etc and for families working to ensure our information is correct and up to date. If you have any questions about this process please refer to notes that have been distribute or speak with your class teacher.

NDIS and School

Our school works hard to collaborate with therapy staff that families engage through their individual NDIS plans. At The Hills this revolves around conversations and communication to support decisions made in supporting students at school and can often influence therapy programs deliver outside of school. Where possible we welcome therapists in making observations at school however regular sessions during school hours are not possible and we continue to encourage families to engage in therapy outside of school hours thus getting the full benefit of both education and NDIS services.

Individual Education Plans (IEPs)

At The Hills School we strive to provide an education that is relevant and meaningful to our students. We utilise the NSW Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum as a foundation for our teaching and learning programs. In 2021 we are refining our individual planning processes and will be introducing a negotiated Individual Education Plan document for our families. We will continue to hold IEP meetings, develop shared goals and seek parent feedback on student progression as in previous years. In addition to current processes staff will provide families with an individual plan that identifies 3 key goals for your child and any key long-term goals as negotiated. The IEP will show your child’s progress in the particular goal and is directly linked to our reporting process. The IEP document will be prepared after the IEP meeting are sent to families for your consideration and agreement. Our hope is that through this communication we can strengthen our partnership with families as we all work to improve the learning for our students. If you have any questions about this process, please see your class teacher.

Mark Gosbell

Principal