June

Newsletter Articles

Principal's Ponderings

So not sure if the above makes me a 3/4s Principal? One for the students out Quilpie and Thargo way to discuss I guess

The end is nigh!

So hopefully we have all made it safely through to the end of Semester One. Looking at all the posts on the "Who got the rain" Facebook page on a lovely wet weekend it seems that many of our families have enjoyed at least a shower, and for some a much needed soaking! May all your dams be full and let us hope that the earth will be able to use this gift to start regenerating.

Cluster Musters

Term 2 Cluster Musters have again been a success, thank you to all who attended and participated in the Home Tutor sessions. Your honesty, feedback and conversations have been much appreciated. It is always wonderful to attend these events and spend this valuable time with both parents, govies and students alike. The students I saw in St George did an excellent job of presenting their plays, the skills learnt in the Arts session were great.

Term 3 will see Cluster Musters offered in weeks 2 and 3 in Charleville, Quilpie, St George, Roma and Mitchell. Please continue to send in your attendance forms so that we are able to prepare the best possible learning opportunities for all.

Sports Muster

Sports Muster will take place on Thursday 11 and Friday 12 August. This year the program is looking a little different with Thursday starting with lunch at Midday.

Please ensure that you arrive on time so that the students all have enough time to eat their pre-ordered lunch prior to the assembly and commencement of activities.

50th Jubilee

Plans are well underway for the celebration of 50 years of distance education! The committee are very busy making sure that everyone will have an enjoyable couple of days to celebrate and catch up with old friends and maybe even make some new ones. They are asking that everyone please make contact with as many past SDE families as they can, and of course then encourage those people to contact others they know, so that we can make as many people as possible aware of the event.

Don't forget to also get your registration forms into the school as soon as possible. This will help the committee in ensuring the best possible catering options are available.

CAMP

Thanks to all for submitting their camp forms to me already, this is much appreciated. If you haven't yet sent these in please do so ASAP. Please also note that when completing the forms students must elect to either ski or to snowboard. There is not sufficient time on the camp to participate in both.

Also make sure that you keep up the exercises so that you are ready to hit the slopes running!

Final payment for camp is due Monday 25 July.

Reporting

Report cards are currently being printed off, signed, folded and prepared for posting. Please remember that if you wish to discuss your student's report card with their class teacher you are most welcome to call or email them to arrange a mutually agreeable meeting time.

Reports will be posted in the last week of term.

Enjoy the holidays and please take care if you are travelling anywhere. See you all next term!

Cheers Kate

From the Deputy's Desk

Thank you all for a very warm welcome and I won't tell Mrs Swadling about the feet on the desk if you don't!

Km Club is over for Term 2.

Our first round of Km Club is finished with results now due to your classroom or Go2 teachers. It has been great to see so many students competing and although Narungi are currently in the lead Kanyanna still has Term Three and Four to catch up. Keep an eye out for our next school newsletter where some exciting changes to Km Club will be outlined.

Annual Art and Craft Competition is open.

Several weeks ago, in your mailbag, you would have received the program for our annual Art and Craft Competition. Please check the program to find out the closing dates for each section. The theme for the photo section this year is 'A page in time'. The idea is for photographs to show the progress of time. It can be of any thing or any place showing any decade. Part of the task is the entrant's interpretation of the theme, so the more unique the better.

Entries in the drawing, painting, photography and 2D collage can now be posted in, or dropped off at school, and they will be taken to the show grounds by the teachers. We will also once again have members from the Charleville Community judging entries in all sections.

Don't forget we are also looking forward to adding to our 'Community Garden' with entries in our Family Welding Competition. This ornament can be of any subject as long as it includes the family or property name. Remember though the ornament needs to be able to withstand the outdoor conditions of our harsh climate.

I'll be back on class again next term, but I'm sure I will catch up with many of you at our upcoming field events. Be safe on your holidays and don't forget to take a well-deserved break from the school room.

Cheers Leonie

CURRICULUM CORNER

Curriculum Dispatch

The production timelines for 2016 papers are becoming too close to the time that units are needed which doesn't allow much time for them to make their way to you or for teachers to plan with them. Therefore, the following decisions have been made:

• Western Alliance: students will use 2015 papers for all subjects from Unit 6
• P-6: 2015 papers for Unit 6
  Unit 7 & 8 to be decided early next term after talking with C2C

This might make it somewhat confusing with discs etc so we apologise in advance for this but rest assured, we are doing what we can to make life as simple as possible.

Digital Readers

During 2015 and 2016, CSDE has subscribed to digital readers for our P-3 students. This has been in the form of a subscription to Sunshine Online. This program has a bank of readers up to level 30 with activities to complete after the reading of the text.

In listening to parent feedback, it is becoming clear that parents are wanting help with knowing how to teach comprehension. I originally decided to run HT professional development sessions fortnightly but understandably, many parents and HTs are finding it hard to fit this into their busy schedules. So, I have been investigating an online program that will assist parents directly with knowing what activities to do and which questions to ask.

Starting on the 21/06/2016, the P-3 students will participate in a trial of a new program called Wushka. This is again a cloud-based levelled reading program that encourages students to engage with fiction and non-fiction texts on interactive devices. This program also tracks and stores a range of student data including the time it took to read the readers, the total score for the quiz at the end and so on. It should be noted however, that this program is not designed for students to sit with and do themselves but should be used under the guidance of an adult so skills can be explicitly taught.

Within this program, teachers also have access to a range of activities and lesson plans which could be better used to support parents if needed.

The program itself is quite expensive and will require a significant amount of additional work on the teachers' behalf. The P-3 teachers however are quite excited to trial the new program because of these additional features so we will monitor to see how this goes and whether it is worthwhile pursuing in our school.

Engagement in Maths

Mathematics is all around us and hidden in plain sight, but what can you do if your kid aren't engaged with it? Award-winning maths teacher Eddie Woo has a few ideas:

1. Mind your maths language: the way parents talk to children about maths can make a big difference in engagement
2. Make maths relevant: get kids excited by unpacking the reasons why maths was developed in the first place.

Find out more by watching his videos: How parents can encourage their kids to love maths

Thanks
Zoe Farrer
Head of Department – Teaching and Learning

Teaching and Learning Library

The power of reflection

If I put my hand into a flame and burn myself, I immediately learn that touching a flame will result in pain. My brain is able to make that connection instantly with little need for reflection whatsoever. Unfortunately, the connection isn't so clear for academic learning.

Effective teachers are those who constantly reflect on their teaching. Reflecting after a lesson makes them aware of their success and failures, of their strengths and weaknesses. This allows teachers to adjust their teaching and essentially become better educators. This also applies to students. It is important for students to reflect on their learning too!

Let's pretend I'm a Year 4 student, distracted by everything from the phone cord to the animals outside my classroom window. If I fail a math test, am I immediately able to tell you why? Am I able to tell you what I should have done differently? Most kids aren't self-aware enough or mature enough to tell you why they failed at something (or in some cases, why they got in trouble). The younger the student, the more difficult this is.

More than likely, since I'm not sure exactly WHY I failed a test, the only connection my brain makes is "Math = F". Since most kids really do want to be successful, students also equate "F=Failure" and "Failure=Bad". They don't understand that failure is a part of the learning process.

This is precisely why reflection is so important. Consider John Dewey's famous quote:

"We don't learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience."

If the goal of an education is not merely coverage of content but actual learning, then reflection is no longer optional – it's an essential piece to transition a classroom from "covering material" to being "focused on learning".

Consider sports teams that watch film of the previous night's game. They're able to identify mistakes and correct them at practice. Reflecting back on learning can have the same result. We can look back on the learning process as well and help students discern which activities worked well for them and which ones didn't.

Reflection helps us recognise what and how we have learned and what we need to focus on in the future. Scaffolding reflection in the classroom is helping students to develop and use the skills of peer and self-assessment – reflecting on what they have learned and reflecting on how they've learned it. Reflection should be about valuing and encouraging student involvement in making judgements about their own or other students learning with a focus towards the future.

During reflection time, some students may think about their 'failures' or things they didn't do so well in. This is not something to shy away from and is something to discuss more deeply with students. Remember that FAIL = First Attempt In Learning.

So, in bringing this very long term to a close, I encourage you to take some time before holidays start to consider reflections in the classroom – allow yourself and your students some time to think about the term that has been and the impact this will have on the future.

What have I done well this term? What enabled me to do it well?
What was our biggest achievement? How did I feel in that moment?
What did I not like this term that I would like to change next term?
What goal would I like to achieve in Term 3?

**The above was adapted from the following two articles.
For more ideas on how to reflect daily in the classroom, refer to link number 2.

I wish you all a very safe and happy holiday full of laughter, fun and loved ones.

Thanks
Zoe Farrer
Head of Department – Teaching and Learning

PLO Prattle

Term 2 is now done and dusted after 11 weeks. I'm sure you are all feeling a little exhausted, so I hope you enjoy the break.

Not long now until Sports Muster and the 50th Birthday celebrations. Get your accommodation booked so you don't miss out. A list of the accommodation is listed on bi-weekly notices.

Another tip from Michael Grose around giving children responsibilities, this is a hard one, as sometimes you don't know where/how/why to start, so here are a few pointers that may help.

Giving kids responsibility is a big confidence-building strategy

Giving kids responsibility is tricky. It's easy to give responsibility to responsible kids as you'll know that they'll follow through. Whether it's feeding the family pooch; setting the table for mealtime or helping a sibling get ready for the day you only need to remind them once and the job's done. Too easy!

But what about tricky kids – second or later born; kids with special needs or kids who are discouraged? It's not so easy giving responsibility to kids that need extra teaching and who need to be followed up. It's these kids that make responsibility-giving hard work, even risky for parents.

It's a balancing act

Giving responsibility becomes a balancing act as we need to weigh up between doing a job ourselves, as it's important to be done right, or letting kids experience the consequence of them not doing their job (the family doesn't eat until the table is set). It's easy to take the safe way out and fix kids' mistakes or safer still, don't give kids any responsibility at all.

Ask yourself this:

"What does your child do that someone else relies on?"

If the answer is zilch/zero, then I suggest it may be time to give him or her something significant to do that benefits others – hear a sibling read each day; be the trash controller; tidy the living room before mealtime. There's generally no shortage of opportunities to help out – just a lack of time to make it happen and perhaps a lack of willingness to put up with the approximations in quality, as well as a child's occasional attempts at resisting to help out.

Here are five ideas to make responsibility giving easier:

1. Change responsibilities around. If possible change chores and responsibilities around each week to avoid boredom ("This is so boring!") and resentment ("How come I always get the rotten jobs?").
2. Use rosters when possible. The use of a list or roster takes the onus away from you to always remind children to do their jobs - so it's a great independence-building tool.
3. Remind, cue but don't take responsibility Kids can get tired and overwhelmed with busy schedules so a reminder from time to time about "Who's turn is it to fill the dishwasher?" can make it easy for kids to be responsible, without taking the responsibility away.
4. Start by completing responsibilities with kids If kids are new to any task then it's smart management to spend some time doing the job with them until they get the hang of it, stepping back when you are no longer needed. That's what working yourself out of a job is all about.
5. Let them know how you feel when they do it well Avoid over-praising kids for helping out. Instead let kids know how their help makes you feel: happy, relieved, proud. This takes the onus away from the quality of the help and places the focus more on their contribution, which is what you are encouraging.
   Giving kids real responsibility is harder than ever in our busy, small family environments. But it's more important than ever to expect your kids to pull their weight. The alternative – spoonfeeding kids – tends to produce brittle, brattish children and young people are seen to be staying dependent on their parents for longer. And that's not what great parenting is about.

I hope people got rain in this past week or so. It is sort of nice to be ankle deep in water out in the yard. I felt like a little kid playing in the puddles.

Enjoy your break.
Cheers
Helen Cook
Parent Liaison Officer

Digital Discoveries

New Web Conferencing Starting Term 3

With the new Blackboard Collaborate the school will use in Term 3, students can access Web Conferencing using an iPad. By using the Mobile Learn app students can access eLearn on the iPad and then choose the on-air lessons link for Term 3. After you have selected a class to access and choose 'Join Session' the Blackboard Collaborate App will then open and students will be in Web Conferencing. All eLearn courses have a session available for testing called 'Mrs O's Help Desk'. Please note that while students can use Web Conferencing on an iPad the App has limited tools available and won't give full interaction like the online version does.

Charleville SDE's YouTube Channel

Have you some of the new videos on our YouTube Channel yet? New videos are being loaded, some especially for the 50th Anniversary Celebrations with lots of photos and videos from our history! Visit out channel at:

Phishing Email Alert

The Department has identified a phishing email that is being distributed to some school email addresses. Phishing is all about convincing you to divulge information that could help criminals steal your money and/or install malware on your computer, and potentially sell your passwords to others.

The email which appears to be from IT Helpdesk and has a subject "NOTICE!!!" encourages users to click on a link. The link is blocked on our network but some people have tried to access it from home.

If you have received this email, please delete it immediately. If you have clicked on the link in this email, please contact the Service Centre on 1800 680 445 and advise you may have clicked on a link in a PHISHING email.

The copy of the email below highlights some signs to look out for when receiving an unsolicited email.

iPad App of the Month: OurPact

OurPact is a parental control app for iPhones, iPads and iPods that makes it easy for you to set limits on how much time your children are spending on their mobile devices and using the wireless Internet. Create schedules, block all Internet and app use at a moment's notice or reward them with the allowance feature.

Parents direct involvement in their children's mobile habits has proven to be a key factor in children's healthy approach to technology. Encourage or block all mobile apps and Internet access at your own parental discretion through OurPact's schedule dashboard or block/allow feature.

For more information and a link to download from go to:

Student Work Celebrations:

The ICT students have been learning about ergonomics and the best way to sit at a computer. Check out these fabulous examples of how to sit correctly.

For more information on working ergonomically at your computer watch this informative YouTube video:

Year 8 students have been experimenting with the online presentation tool 'Prezi' as a replacement for PowerPoint. View Matt's presentation about his favourite things:

Check out the latest blog posts:

Prep – Year 3 Student Link:

Years 4 – 9 Student Link:

Year 10 Student Link:

From the Technician's Table: Removing old Apple ID on iPad

If your iPad has an old Apple ID stored it may stop you from downloading updates and new apps. In order to remove the old Apple ID you need to sign out of it and sign in with a new one.

It also pays to check the Messages, FaceTime and Videos to ensure that the Apple ID has been signed out there too.

Girl Guides

Did you know that Charleville School of Distance Education has its own Girl Guide Unit? The 2nd Charleville (Lone) Guides is an official part of Girl Guides Queensland. In 2016 we will continue Girl Guide sessions on Tuesday afternoons at 3:00pm.

Our weekly sessions (subject to leader availablility during field events) are run as an on-air session using Web Conferencing. The girls learn about the World of Guides, they strive for badges, help out in their community, have fun and fellowship, and meet during Field Events if possible.

Email Mrs Sam O on sowcz1@eq.edu.au if you would like to join and application forms and information will be forwarded to you.

Rap Songs About Guiding

Working towards their 'Joyful Noise' badge, the Girl Guides have been busy writing and performing their own rap songs. Check them out in the video below:

Guiding Board Game

One of our members created this awesome board game to help new Guides learn about the Promise and Law we follow in Guides.

Western Alliance

The Western Alliance was the feature of our school's foyer display this fortnight and displayed photos from the photo scavenger hunt at Multischool, Agricultural Science Work, an awesome History scroll by Kyle, photos from the Science field trip in Longreach, Maths Work from on-air lessons and photos from the coding and robotics sessions at Multischool. Great to see our secondary students being so active and engaging in learning.

P& C News

The P and C executives would like to welcome all new families to the school and invite you all to join the P and C. Our P and C is a group of volunteers working together to raise funds to purchase resources, send children on camp, assist families with attending field events, build a playground and work towards a better education for our children.

Big News, Big News

Hot off the press – yesterday afternoon we found out that we were successful with the Gambling Community Benefit Fund application. What does this mean? It means the school will have a playground for our children to play on when they are in Charleville. How exciting is that? Thank you to all the staff and parents involved in the application, especially to Christy Bredhauer who did the hard yards of writing the application. The children and parents appreciate your dedication Christy.

Sports Muster

This year Sports Muster will start at 12 on Thursday 11th August. For all newbies to Sports Muster, please look out for the welcome table with the balloons. Any questions you have will be answered and you will be pointed in the right direction.

Lunch will be ordered for the students (E-Kindy to Grade 10) and the canteen will be operating for the younger children and adults. The canteen will again run on the Friday and pre-ordered student lunches and morning smoko will be provided by Leith Brennan. Helpers will be required in the canteen on both Thursday afternoon and Friday. Tracy Sargent (granvillestn@activ8.net.au) and Anne-Marie Flynn (gfcolamba@gmail.com) have agreed to co-ordinate and will be asking for people to volunteer an hour of their time in the canteen. Thanks Tracy and Anne-Marie for putting your hand up.

The smoko challenge will be held on the Thursday afternoon as photos will follow the day's events. The smoko challenge is a competition each year between the staff and parents of the school. Staff provide smoko at Speech and Awards and parents supply smoko at Sports Muster. Could all families please bring something along for the smoko table so we can win the trophy this year. Leannda Fountain (in-depththerapy@outlook.com) and Bianca Sanders (wagirl1991@gmail.com) have done a great job already of organising the theme – "Fifty and Fabulous – Hollywood Style". We appreciate your efforts ladies.

This year the P and C will be running a cent sale at Sports Muster to raise funds for the ski camp later in the year. Keep an eye out for more information in notices. Thanks to Sally West, Sue Hurford, Jacqui Tickell, Paula Harrison and Savannah Blackett for organising this for the P and C.

The art and craft booklet is out with plenty of time for the children to work on their pieces. This is a great way for students to contribute towards the points. They also love seeing their work on display for everyone to admire. Holidays are a great time to get a start on the art and craft items.

50th Anniversary

The 50th Anniversary celebrations kick off with the book launch on Friday night. Saturday is the markets, the wine and cheese tent at the races and then the Trivia night on Saturday night. The breakfast on Sunday concludes our celebrations. Please make sure you fill out your registration form and send it back to the school.

50th Anniversary photo Book

The committee has been very busy compiling the book, raising sponsorship and working with graphic designers to ensure we have a fabulous book to commemorate the school's 50th Anniversary. The P and C would like to thank the following sponsors of the book: Elders, Southern Wire and Williams, Hall and Chadwick Chartered Accountants and Business Advisors. Please consider supporting these companies as they have supported us.

Battery Drive

Sue Hurford has organised for batteries from the St George Cluster to get dropped off at CRT. Details about dates for transport will be finalised later. Please ask your family and friends if they have any old batteries. Julie Hawker has organised for Paroo Shire Council to store their batteries for us. Thanks for organising this Sue and Julie. Sally and Damian Campbell and Anne-Marie and Gregg Flynn are still collecting batteries and raising a lot of money for the P and C. Many thanks to these families for all they do. For any further information or to co-ordinate a drive in your area, contact Sally on abc_campbell@harboursat.com.au.

Fundraising

This year the P and C will be running a Pie Drive in August. This is a great way to support the school, but also to fill your freezer with yummy pies that are quick and easy to cook for those busy days we all have.

We will also be doing Calendars, Diaries and Cards later in the year. Please keep an eye out for documents in relation to both these fundraising activities.

REMINDER……

All memberships are NOW DUE

If you have not been receiving the documents for the meetings, your membership is not current for 2016. Membership is free. Please complete the form and send to the secretary.

Next meeting is Tuesday 26th July. We hope you can join us.

Students with Disabilities

Dear Parents

Nationally consistent collection of data on school students with disability – 2016

Our school is participating in the collection of nationally consistent data on school students with disability. A fact sheet has been attached for your information. We will be collecting information already available in the school about the support that is being provided to students with disability. Better data will help the Government plan for students with disability. The data collection will have no direct impact on your child and they will not be involved in any testing process.

As part of the national data collection, the privacy and confidentiality of all students will be maintained because:

• personal or confidential information will not be provided to anyone not authorised to see it
• personal details, student names or any identifying information will not be included in data sent to the local education authority or to the Australian Government.

All information is protected by privacy laws which regulate the collection, storage and disclosure of personal information. If you do not want your child to be counted in the data collection, you must email the Principal to apply for an exemption by Wednesday 8th August, 2016. A decision to exclude your child will not affect the support they currently receive.

Further information is available to help you make a decision from the:

If you have any questions about your child being included in the data collection, please contact Georgia-lee Coldwell at CSDE on 4656 8999.