Charleville School of Distance Education
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Parry Street
Charleville QLD 4470
Subscribe: https://charlevillesde.schoolzineplus.com/subscribe

Email: the.principal@charlevisde.eq.edu.au
Phone: 07 4656 8999
Fax: 07 4656 8900

June 2022

Newsletter Articles

Principals Ponderings

A very warm welcome to our CSDE Newsletter celebrating term 2 activities.

Looking back, you will enjoy the photos and reports of our activities during term 2.

Looking forward you will find information about our planned activities next term.

Staffing: There will be some changes to staffing next term: Brendan Ries has left us for another school and Murray Griffin will be teaching in his place in the Western Alliance. Murray’s wife Gayle will be taking Leah Thomas’s students and support role for term 3 while Leah takes some time off. Robyn McLeish will be returning to her support role and Karen Scheerer is returning to take up the District Relief Teacher Role.

     Communication: Did you know there are some avenues you can use to have input into your child’s education? In our school:

     P&C: Our school has an active, dedicated P&C committee that meets each month to discuss fundraising, affirm decisions made by the school, suggest activities for the students and to provide volunteers for school events.

     School Opinion Survey: Please see the information in this newsletter, look out for an email from the department of education next term, and fill out the survey. Your opinion is very important to us and we use the feedback to ensure we are keeping on top of our support for students in all areas of the school.

     Management Meeting: There are parent representatives from each geographical area, a Secondary parent and the P&C President, who meet face to face or on line with members of the school staff four times a year to plan and review our strategic and operational plans. This group considers new initiatives, shares your concerns and ideas and keeps updated on departmental expectations and school operations through reports delivered to the committee. You can speak with your representatives to bring ideas and concerns to be considered at this meeting.

     And then there are phone calls and emails: Rickie and I are available for phone calls and via emails to support you with your children’s education. Please feel free to contact us at any time.

Wishing you a warm, healthy relaxing holiday.
Yours in education,
Jenny

From the Deputy’s Desk

Wow! What an extremely fulfilling term, so much to reflect on and to look forward to.

Whole School Muster Week

During Week 5 of this term, all CSDE students were invited to attend our first Whole School Muster Week. We were delighted to have 70 students register for this event. Unfortunately, some students were not able to make it due to the rain, although we will not complain about that!

Little Athletics Queensland

We were extremely fortunate to have Shaun Lethem from Little Athletics Queensland join us for the week to work with the students and develop their skills ready for Sports Muster on Friday.

Some of the feedback we received from parents included:

  • Great idea to have an expert give the children more skills. His enthusiasm was contagious with the children.
  • You could notice this with the children’s skills on Friday. A fantastic idea!
  • Loved the athletic coaching for the week. It made a dramatic difference on the sports day.
  • The coach who worked with the children was so enthusiastic treating each child inclusively. This is something that should be continued.

Shaun is more than happy to come out in future years to lend a hand and he was extremely impressed with the students’ behaviour and attentiveness.

NAPLAN

Year 3, 5, 7 & 9 students completed their NAPLAN testing online this year. Thank you to our amazing teachers and home tutors for all their support to ensure our new process went smoothly. The test administrators commented on the students’ concentration and dedication to completing the testing to the best of their ability. NAPLAN results will be available later in the year for parents and teachers.

Art Activities

Students also participated in a range of Visual Art and Dance activities. From Bush dancing to Bollywood dancing, foam printing and paper mâché, students were given the opportunity to display their creative flare. Thank you to all the teachers involved with the planning and preparation of these activities. It was a highlight to reveal our new Kanyanna and Narungi mascots, keep your eye out at Swim Muster if you did not get to see the big reveal.

Volunteers

I would like to thank Jess Cosh (Food Coordinator), Cassie Ryan (Assistant Food Coordinator) and their amazing team of volunteers for all their support and work during the week. The food was delicious, and our students very well cared for. These events would not be possible without the tremendous support from our parents and governesses. Thank you!

On Friday we came together as a school community for our annual Sports Muster. It was our first year trialling the event to be held on one day. Feedback from parents and staff was extremely positive and supportive of the one-day event with some minor changes to timing of longer distance races. I would like to acknowledge Jess Head and the Sports Muster Committee, Katy Williams and the Art & Craft Committee and Jenny Juniper for organising Book Fair. I would also like to thank the St Mary’s P&F for preparing morning tea and lunch to allow our parents to enjoy the event.

Overall, this event was so successful because of our amazing staff and the planning and preparation prior to Whole School Muster Week. I commend all our students for their exemplary behaviour and willingness to join in and learn new things.

Thank you to all our parents and staff that provided feedback after the event, we are looking forward to fine tuning a few details for our 2023 Whole School Muster Week.

TRACK

Are you on TRACK?

As outlined in our Student Code of Conduct, our staff are committed to delivering a high quality of education for every student, and believe all adults in the school, whether visiting or working, should meet the same expectations in place for students, being Thoughtful, Responsible, Accountable, Co-operative and Kind (TRACK).

In the Week 3 Secondary Go2 session, our students unpacked the CSDE Student Code of Conduct, how they can stay on ‘TRACK’. Mrs O worked with students to create a comic cell, using Storyboard That from the link below. depicting a particular letter. All entries were shared during Week 10 Assembly, we were extremely impressed with the attention to detail evident in the entries.

https://www.storyboardthat.com/storyboard-creator

Term 3 Field Events

Storyfest Out West: 28th – 29th July

Longreach School of Distance Education are thrilled to be able to deliver a two-day festival in Longreach from Thursday 28 to Friday 29 July 2022. Following a visit by children from the Longreach School of Distance Education (LSODE) to Storyfest’s cornerstone event, the annual writer’s festival on the Gold Coast, a plan was hatched to bring to life Storyfest Out West and provide similar activations to children from the Central West region. Teachers and students from LSODE were captivated by the interactions with authors and have been the driving force behind this event. If you are interested in attending this event, please contact Mrs Peta Bates (LSODE) - prbat0@eq.edu.au.

Term 3 Cluster Muster: Thursday 4th August

Term 3 Cluster Musters will be held on Thursday 4th August at Charleville SDE, Mitchell State School, Quilpie State College, and St George State School. Teachers are looking forward to spending the day with students and have started planning some exciting activities, stay tuned for more details. Activity Consent Forms and a schedule will be sent early Term 3.

Year 4 – Year 10 Canberra Snow Camp: 10 – 17 September

Planning is in full swing for our 2022 Canberra Snow Camp. All students that have registered their interest will receive more information and consent forms to complete early next term. Parent and Student Information sessions will be scheduled prior to our departure.

Year 3 Charleville Camp: 12th – 16th September

It is on again! Our Year 3 students will visit Charleville in Week 10 and “camp” at CSDE. Plans are well underway to ensure students visit several local attractions and spend time working and playing with their peers and teachers. We are looking forward to an extremely rewarding week.

Happy holidays! Enjoy the time with your friends and family, we are looking forward to welcoming everyone back on Monday 11th July.

Rickie Itzstein
Acting Deputy Principal

PLO Prattle

What a wonderful time we had while attending the Whole School Muster Week. An added bonus was Narungi winning Sports Muster on the Friday.

A story I was told on the Friday of Sports Muster by a parent was that she was over the moon that her son who couldn’t do high jump before the week had started, was now able to jump and had more confidence in this activity. This shows with the right coach or instructions anything can be achieved. Be proud of all achievements that we make during our lifetime. Sometimes we feel overwhelmed and lost, but remember there is always someone who can help and support you whether it is someone from your family, friends, school community or wider community. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. We are often our own worst enemy by not asking for help or support during the tough times.

How to manage uncertainty

Focus on the things that you can control and ignore those that you can't. Stop worrying about the things that you can't do anything about.

Learn to let go. You can't solve everything.

Take care of yourself. Neglecting your physical and mental health will not help you during uncertain times.

As parents we want the best for our children and see them achieve. Even in a garden some plants grown faster than others; children will develop at different times. Don’t compare your child to someone else’s. We all have hidden talents or ways of doing things. The important thing is for children to be allowed to fail and re-try to learn another way. Adults also need to remember this for themselves.

Enjoy the break and take time to smell the roses, have a cuppa, call a friend, go for a walk and take some me time to re-charge the batteries. Children also need to do this to be able to continue on.

Keep warm and safe and we will see you all next term.

Cheers

Helen Cook
Parent Liaison Officer

Head of Department Primary and Secondary Teaching and Learning

Whole School Moderation

This year we have revised our whole school approach to moderation as part of our Annual Implementation Plan focus point of systematic curriculum delivery.

Focusing on the way we do moderation, and allocating time for teachers to work in their teaching teams, has allowed for great collegial discussion and a rigorous analysis of assessment tasks and student responses.

As we near the end of Semester 1 our teachers will have been a part of the four different phases of our moderation process, including the newly focused End phase which requires teachers to take student assessment folios and look at the student’s response to achievement standards across the semester of work. This is then how a grade is award for that reporting period.

Western Alliance Careers Camp

This year students from years 7 to 10 were invited to attend a Careers Camp to Brisbane. While on camp the students visited UQ Gatton, Southbank TAFE, the Qld School of Film and Television and the Qld Museum to explore possible career paths. Students also had the opportunity to experience Southbank, GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art), Urban Extreme (rock climbing, laser tag and many other activities) and the Escape Room at West End. We had 12 students attend and the feedback from students and staff was extremely positive. The Escape Room even scored a 10/10!

PLD – Literacy Groups Prep-Yr3

Prep – Year 3 teachers have continued to meet on a regular basis, to work collaboratively on the planning for Literacy Skills. Teachers reflect on their practise to ensure our students are provided with the appropriate phonic focus and constantly monitor their progress. Literacy Skills teachers are currently completing Term 3 screening. This will allow for effective planning to be implemented for Term 3.

These last few weeks, teachers have begun to use the Sparkle kit. This kit will allow the teachers to evaluate and monitor the reading skills of our students in lower primary. The P-3 teachers have worked carefully on ensuring the assessment reflects what the students have been taught during their Literacy skill lessons. This is a change to what has previously occurred as we move away from using PMs as our data collection tool.

Decodable Readers

CSDE continues to purchase decodable readers to help support our students with developing their confidence and skills with reading. Decodable readers are designed to give students practice with the phonics they have been taught.

Natalie Dare, Jessica Carr and Michelle Sieber (PIL Coach) delivered a HT session to help support our Prep Parents with the use of decodable readers. The team not only presented the research behind decodable readers but also presented a vignette of a prep student completing a decodable reader at home. This was a very successful sessions and allowed HTs the opportunity to not only hear from the team but also see what the process looks like.

Please feel free to ask any questions or provide feedback.
Mandy McDonald, Venessa Moore and Natalie Dare

Western Alliance Reading and Writing Coach (Head of Department – Partners in Learning

Partners in Learning

A collaboration project supported by Rural and Remote, Reading and Writing Centre, State Schools Performance – Curriculum Teaching and Learning and Western Alliance Schools of Distance Education (Charleville, Longreach and Mount Isa)

Many of you will be familiar with the previous version of the Partners in Learning Project which was established as a four-year-trial that commenced in 2017 and was closed in December 2021. It is with much excitement that I can inform you that a revised Partners in Learning project has been established, commencing in 2022. Using revised Partners in Learning modules, developed by the Reading and Writing Centre, this project aims to build confidence and capability of Home Tutors of Prep to Year 2 students to support their students in reading and writing, provide resource packages to Home Tutors, provide ongoing, needs-based support to Home Tutors through access to a dedicated Western Alliance Reading and Writing Coach and improve reading and writing results for SDE students across Prep to Year 2. The revised modules have been updated to reflect current research and models of best practice and have been written in a more user-friendly manner.

Western Alliance Reading and Writing Coach (Head of Department – Partners in Learning)

My role as the dedicated coach for Partners in Learning participants is to provide face-to-face and online delivery of Partners in Learning modules (over 2 days) multiple times throughout the year, provide support to Western Alliance home tutors as requested by schools and provide on-going, direct access support to home tutors following the delivery of modules. I will be following up with participants following each workshop delivery to touch-base and offer you support in implementing the recommended strategies outlined in the modules, to answer any questions that you think of following the workshops, model strategies with your students or generally be a listening ear.

I have 15 years of teaching experience in rural and remote locations with experience covering Prep to Year 10. I may be familiar to some of you as I have been at LSODE since 2020 although I did step into an Acting Principal role at a nearby small school for Term One. Whilst I genuinely love teaching, getting to know my students and their families, my passion area is literacy, especially teaching reading and inspiring a love of reading. My partner and I have two children, Henry and Evelyn, who are in Year 1 and Kindy respectively. So we are right there with you in teaching our children to read at the moment. We love going camping and exploring new places, or going on adventures as the kids say.

Please do not hesitate to contact to me if you have a question or need something clarified. The only silly question is the one you don’t ask. I am really looking forward to working with you all and meeting you throughout the year.

Michelle Sieber
Western Alliance Reading and Writing Coach
(Head of Department – Partners in Learning)
Based at Longreach SDE
Available Monday – Thursday
Email:
msieb4@eq.edu.au
Phone: (07) 4658 4239

Digital Discoveries

Student Laptop Hire Scheme

Check out the flyer for more information:

Magazines Online

Did you know you can borrow digital copies of magazines through our school library?

Through our online library system, Oliver and Sora, you are able to borrow copies of these digital magazines to read on your computer.

Browse the collection from the link below.

https://soraapp.com/library/eduqueenslandau/generated-1267910/page-1

The latest edition to our magazine collection is Double Helix.

Check it out from the link below.

https://soraapp.com/library/eduqueenslandau/search/query-double%20helix/page-1/100423/9032266

Spotlight on Cybersafety: What Parents Need to Know About Group Chat

Your child may be using a range of social media apps that have a group chat feature. Do you know how to prepare them to use these platforms safely?

Regional Tech Hub

The Regional Tech Hub provides independent, free advice about telecommunications services for regional, rural and remote Australians.

https://regionaltechhub.org.au/

Student Work: Year 7 - 3D Design and Printing

The school has also purchased two 3D printers to be used as part of our Technologies Curriculum. Year 7 students have been able to develop 3D block designs online that the teachers are then able to print and post out to them. The printers use a single colour and are perfect for students to see their designs become prototypes.

From the Technician’s Table: Need More Help?

If you are having trouble with log on details, access problems, computer or headset issues or just want some advice we are here to help you. . .

School Technician – Shiv Vemula: svemu4@eq.edu.au or 07 4656 8909

For all phone and headset issues and problems with computers.

Digital Learning Facilitator – Sam Owczarek: sowcz1@eq.edu.au or 07 4656 8915

For advice or help with using programs or tools on the Learning Place (including eLearn, Microsoft Office and Collaborate Ultra).

Give us a call or send an email.

School Opinion Survey

The annual suite of School Opinion Surveys will be conducted in Term 3 and will close on 12 August 2022. All families, school staff and students in target year levels (5, 6 and 8) will be invited to participate. We encourage you to take this opportunity to have your say about what our school does well, and how we can improve.

An invitation to complete the Parent/Caregiver Survey will be emailed to one parent/caregiver per family in the week beginning 11 July. The invitation will be sent from the Department of Education, not the school, and it will have the subject line School Opinion Survey for parents and caregivers, 2022. Check your junk email folders if you can’t find it. The survey can be completed as soon as the invitation is received and will take approximately 5 minutes using a computer, tablet or smart phone.

Parents/caregivers who do not have access to the internet at home are welcome to complete their survey online at the school. School computers/tablets will be available.

Sports Muster 2022

From start to finish, determination, perseverance, and resilience was on display at our 2022 Sports Muster field event. This year we were fortunate enough to have 68 students attend Sports Muster in Week 5 of Term 2.

Every year, Sports Muster gives students the opportunity to compete in a range of field and track events, demonstrating stamina, fitness, and skill. All students worked hard to earn points towards their sporting house this year. With a lot of grit, Narungi came out on top with 1096 points. They were closely followed by Kanyanna with 1060 points.

Students also earned points for themselves. From 8 years and up, boys and girls who exceeded in their age group were presented with the title of Age Champion. A big congratulations to our Track and Field Age Champions for 2022:

Age Group

Girls Champion

Boys Champion

8 Years

Olivia Todd

Chett Smith

9 Years

Clementine Muenster

Conrad McCarthy

10 Years

Isla McCarthy

Cody Prow

11 Years

Paige Hurford

Lachie Delforce

12 Years

Grace Todd

Liam Goddard

13 Years

Jack Cosh

14 Years

Kymberlee Russell

OPEN Girls

Tori Usher

Three very talented young ladies also need to be recognised for their achievements. Grace Todd, Lucy Harrison and Kymberlee Russell pushed themselves to their limits and beat school records. Here are their achievements:

Name

Event

Record

Grace Todd

12 Years Girls 400m

1.33.08

Lucy Harrison

12 Years Girls Discus

18.74m

Kymberlee Russell

14 Years Girls Discus

17.92m

Of course, it wasn’t only the students who shone and showed their competitive spirit. This year, Leah Thomas, Ainsley Thomson, Shiv Vemula and Jess Head were able to change the tides and bring home victory in the 4 x 60m relay. It was a close run but the teachers finally got their name engraved on the trophy after a very long dry spell!

The 2022 Sports Muster was a massive success. A big shout out needs to go to the Sports Muster committee for all their preparation leading up to the event and a huge thank you to all school staff here at CSDE for their participation, help and positivity on the day. We also thank all parent helpers and home tutors who played a part in making the day a triumph, whether that was organising delicious food or travelling far distances to ensure your child gets the opportunity to compete.

I am sure 2023 Sports Muster will be just as good!
Jessica Head
2022 Sports Muster Coordinator

Sports Muster 2022

Art Attack Club

This year I was part of the Art and Craft Committee for Sports Muster. One of our goals was to increase participation and entries in the competition, knowing full well that most school rooms are very busy and our families don’t always have time for extra curricula demands. Mrs O scoured the units of work for each year level and created lists of art works that could be taken from the units. We also thought a club dedicated to some of the sections in the Art & Craft competition might drum up a bit of interest.

So, it was decided that I, the teacher with the least artistic ability in the whole school, would run Art Attack club on a Tuesday afternoon. What could go wrong, right? What sounded like a recipe for disaster has turned out to be a whole lot of fun for both the students and myself. It has also produced some very amazing pieces of artwork, none of which are the result of my tutelage, more a reflection of the remarkable artistic abilities of our CSDE students.

Over the last semester we have attempted a number of art techniques in painting, drawing, collage and water colours, all with varying themes. However, the main focus has been on having a go and each student putting their own personal flair on their artwork. Often student interests and suggestions inform what we attempt from week to week. Below are just some of the amazing items that the students have created.

Art Attack Club will continue in Term 3 from week 2. If you are interested in art or just having a fun time with some of your friends, keep an eye out for the announcements in Blackboard and join us on Tuesday afternoons at 2:45pm.

Katy Williams

Whole School Muster Week 2022

Whole School Muster Week 2022

Readers Cup 2022

Sporting Stars

Sporting Stars