March

Newsletter Articles

Principal's Ponderings

Highlights: Looking back on the term what can you say is your most exciting achievement this term? What has been your highlight of success or even a fun and memorable experience?

It is easy to think about the downers…internet hiccups, blue skies when you would love fat grey clouds, students procrastinating when you would love them to be finished so you get to finish your other jobs, and the list goes on.

There have been many highlights for me; Kick Start Conference is one…with the busy active students learning new skills and meeting their friends, and Minischools where the teamwork and planning of our teachers extended to great activities and smoothly run Minischools. Great work team.

School Structure: Did you know that you have a representative from your area who helps to make decisions for the running of the school? We have a Management Committee that meets each term to discuss and enact operational and strategic decisions. These include developing a strategic plan (Quadrennially), discussing field events and considering and making change as the school demographic changes.

The names of the representative members are on the Monday and Thursday Notices that are emailed out to families. Please get to know your representative, give them feedback and participate in any surveys or conversations that are on offer.

P&C: The P&C play an integral part in supporting the students in the school. Fundraising is only a part of what the P&C does. The advice on and endorsement of initiatives that impact on your students' learning is essential to our ongoing success.

On Wednesday 23rd March the P&C met and held a general and an Annual General Meeting. We thank the outgoing team for their time effort and support for the students in this school and congratulate them on a job efficiently done. The executive positions became vacant and we welcome returning members: Michelle Freshwater as Secretary, Christy Bredhauer as Treasurer. Vice Presidents nominated and voted in are: Charleville - Kristy Cornford, Roma – Michelle McInnerney, Quilpie/Eromanga/Thargomindah – Rhiannon Newsham, and Cunnamulla/St George – Christy Goddard. Thank you for taking on this representation and support for the students.

As you can see we do not have a President. The next meeting will be chaired by a Vice President. Could this be the job for you? You have the support of an experienced team, a proforma to follow, and 5 more meetings this year. Annabel or I are very happy to discuss the role.

50th Jubilee: The committee has put together a great program for this special occasion. To assist families in having the opportunity to stay for the Friday evening and Saturday morning if they choose, Sports Muster will run from Thursday midday, until Friday 3pm with the Meet and Greet at 6 pm on Friday the 12th August.

In this Newsletter is the flyer with the program so far. Watch this space.

Cluster Musters: Over the years with fluctuation in numbers in different areas of the school we have had to consider when and where to hold the Cluster Musters. Term two has our six venues planned for as per the invitations that have gone out. Could the Roma and Mitchell families please consider alternatives for combining…or in the case of small numbers of students what else could we offer so that the students have the opportunity to participate in the curricular activities that are planned and Home tutors have the opportunity for the learning and discussion that is so productive.

Please remember, Secondary students are most welcome…it is not one size fits all and adjustments for lessons missed, opportunities for leadership with-in the activities during the day, students who cannot be left at home – all of these can be discussed with teachers and Kate, Zoe and me.

School Review: All state schools undertake a School Improvement Unit (SIU) review at least every four years. This gives all schools the same opportunity for feedback and reflection from independent reviewers. Principals use the findings from the reviews to work with their school community to develop clear actions to help move the school forward on their continuous improvement journey.

Our review is on the 23rd, 24th and 25th May. Reviews are conducted by a review team appointed by the School Improvement Unit. The team consists of an internal reviewer from the School Improvement Unit, an external reviewer from outside the department, and a principal peer reviewer. Full school reviews are conducted over about three days, depending on school size and complexity. The reviews are a comprehensive examination of a school's performance and operations that takes into account school context and needs.

At the completion of the review the review team presents its findings and recommendations to the school leadership group. A written report follows. Using the findings and recommendations from the report, the school works with the region to develop and implement an action plan to support its improvement agenda. This information will also be used to inform the school's strategic plan for 2017-2020.

The final report will be published on the school's website and the School Improvement Unit's webpage.

More information

Wishing you all a wonderful break from school, enjoyment with family and friends.

Jenny

From the Deputy's Desk

It is amazing to me just how rapidly the term can disappear! This is not surprising I guess when we consider just how much has been packed into this term.

It was great to have the opportunity to catch up with many of the students (and parents and home tutors) at Kick Start Conference this year. From the feedback I received from our students gymnastics was extremely well received! It was also wonderful to see the progress everyone made in the pool over the couple of days of Kick Start and to then see this followed up at minischools was very good.

Did you know that it is most important that your student attends school every day – well yes of course you did! It is interesting however to see the impact that not attending school can have on the amount of time a student is actually at school across the 13 years of their life though.

Just 10 minutes a day of missed school can add up to nearly half a year across a student's school career.

Imagine the impact that missing one
hour a day could be making.

Attendance at Charleville SDE is recorded based on your student's completion and submission of their send in tasks. These may be completed on-air or completed at home under the guidance of the home tutor. Either way it is most important to ensure that these are submitted to your class teacher as required and in a timely fashion.

Before the start of each term/unit your class teacher will send out a Unit Overview. Please ensure that you keep these in a prominent area in your classroom.

A sample of what a unit planner may look like.
Please contact your class teacher if you cannot locate yours.

So as we prepare to hop into another couple of weeks of holidays I would like to wish all a safe and happy Easter. Take care if you are travelling and take some time to relax and refresh ready for term 2.

Cheers Kate

PLO Prattle

What a fantastic and busy Term 1, we have had. Kick Start Conference was a huge success with 85 children and 58 Home Tutors attending. The children participated in varied activities for the week, being Raft making, Hockey, Weaving, Gymnastics, Lantern making and Swimming. The Home Tutors were also upskilled in many different sessions to assist in the classroom. We are now starting to work on KSC 2017. Thanks for all the feedback.

I attended the Charleville, Thargomindah and Roma Minischools where it was nice to catch up with Home Tutors and students. At the beginning of Minischools everyone is so excited to be there, however towards the end of the week, children start to feel really tired. Michael Grose gives some tips on Good Sleeping habits for children.

Every parent needs to read this!

Sleep can be a vexatious issue for some parents: the amount of time spent trying to get kids to sleep, worrying about kids not sleeping, being woken up by kids who should be sleeping…it goes on and on!

It's an important issue for parents of teens too. The sleep-wake cycle for teenagers is delayed by up to two hours. That is, they are sleepy later and awake later than when they were children. Many teenagers today are sleep deprived because they don't get enough sleep. They need between nine and 10 hours sleep each night, yet most get about seven or eight hours sleep.

Sleep experts have noted that children who develop good sleep patterns tend to carry these into adolescence.

So here are 5 tips for good sleep habits, and 5 extra tips for teens to help manage their changing sleep cycle.

Good sleep habits include:

1. Regular bed-times Kids may fight this, but be regular during the week and let kids stay up a little later on weekends.
2. Have a wind-down time of up to 45 minutes prior to bed. This includes, removing TV and other stimuli, calming children down, and limiting food intake (and caffeine for teens).
3. An established bedtime routine that makes the brain associate behaviour such as cleaning your teeth and reading in bed with sleep.
4. Keeping bedrooms for sleep and not for TV. Bedrooms that resemble caves seem to be recommended.
5. Maximising the three sleep cues of: darkness (cave-like bedroom), lowering body temperature (baths can be good for this) and melatonin (work within their cycle).

Sleep tips for teens:

1. Allow them to catch up on lost sleep during the weekends.
2. Help your young person schedule their after school activities to free up more time for rest.
3. Discuss ways to limit stimulating activities such as television and computer around bedtime. Encourage restful activities such as reading.
4. Afternoon naps are good ways to recharge their batteries.
5. Make sure they go to bed early each Sunday night to prepare for the coming week.

Hope you all have an enjoyable break and come back refreshed for Term 2.

Cheers

Helen Cook
Parent Liaison Officer

Curriculum Corner

Back-to-Front Maths:

I would like to say a big thank you to everyone that attended KSC and the Back-to-Front Maths session. I was extremely excited that you all found it very valuable. I have however been more excited by the number of parents and Home Tutors who have taken away this knowledge and are sharing their stories with me about how they are using Back-to-Front Maths in their schoolroom. One of my particular favourites: "Mum! There are 4 blocks there. Why do you keep asking "how about now?" It is still 4!"

If you're not sure what this means… you probably didn't attend. So see if you can find someone who did and get them to share their knowledge.

I feel that as a school, we are very lucky to have participated in this professional development and I'm excited by the possibilities of what we now know. Eyebrows up and go again!

Home Tutor Help – "Teaching and Learning Library"

In Term 2, I will be offering Home Tutor professional development sessions – the Teaching and Learning Library. I will start with fortnightly sessions, but will consider whether this is better to go back to monthly sessions as I know you are all very busy.

These sessions will be based on what you would like to learn. Already I have had requests from parents regarding what to focus on in the sessions. Reading seems to be a big one so I will offer sessions for these to kick us off. So, please keep an eye on notices for more information going into next term.

If there is something you would like to know more about or something that would assist you in the classroom, please feel free to email me and I can add it to the agenda. Em: zfarr21@eq.edu.au

7 Steps in Writing

This year we trialled starting our year off with the 7 Steps to Writing lessons instead of the English papers. Feedback from teachers has been positive and it has been great to see the excitement around writing. If you have any feedback, please feel free to pass it onto me.

Thanks

Zoe Farrer
Head of Department – Teaching and Learning

Digital Discoveries

BYOD – A new acronym in Education

Want to know the difference between a laptop and an ultrabook? Need to know what a Core i7 is? Then this link is for you! Check out the BYOD for Education for Dummies Online Booklet:

Get Microsoft Office 2016 free of charge

Did you know your child can get Microsoft Office 2016 free of charge, just for being a student at Charleville SDE? All you need is your child's school email address to sign in.

To help prepare your child for success this academic year, the Department of Education and Training has teamed up with Microsoft to provide free Office 2016 to every Queensland state school student. With Office 2016, your child will have access to the latest version of Word for writing, Excel for spreadsheets, PowerPoint for presentations, OneNote for organisation and notetaking, and much more.

You can install a complete version of the latest Microsoft Office on up to five compatible PCs and Macs, five tablets and five smartphones. Your Office subscription lasts for as long as your child is a state school student.

Ask your child to follow these simple steps to get Office:

• For PC and Mac, visit portal.office.com , login using your school email address, click through to install and follow the onscreen process.
• For tablets and smartphones, download from your app store and sign in with your school email address.

Visit www.education.qld.gov.au/office2016 for instructions on how to download and install Office 2016 to your personal home computers. If you have any trouble, contact the school technician on (07) 4656 8909. There is also a CD version available for those worried about the amount of download this would take up.

Norton's $10 Offer

Education Queensland has also secured a deal with Norton's Antivirus, allowing students to access a year's subscription to Norton's for just $10.

For details go to:

Internet Explorer VS Edge

Are you having trouble opening videos from eLearn or getting into Web Conferencing or the Learning Place? Check which Internet Browser you are using. If you have recently upgraded to Windows 10 you may be using Edge (which comes with it). Our educational programs and online tools are made for use with Internet Explorer, not Edge. Try switching – it may solve some of the issues.

Get Internet Explorer from:

NBN Sky Muster Information Sheet 2

The Isolated Children's Parents' Association Qld have issued an information bulletin giving more information about NBN Sky Muster Satellite Internet. The Association encourages all families to read the bulletin so they are best placed to make the best decisions to meet their needs. The bulletin is available at:

Mouse Not Working?

When was the last time you cleaned your computer mouse? If you find your mouse is hard to use and isn't responding as well as it used to, try cleaning the pads on the bottom.

App of the Month: Scratch Jr

Coding is the new literacy! With ScratchJr, young children (aged 5 – 7) can program their own interactive stories and games. In the process, they learn to solve problems, design projects and express themselves creatively on the computer.

Find out more and get links to the App Stores here:

Student Work Celebrations: High Schoolers Start Blogging

A blog is short for web log and is an online space for people to regularly contribute posts of their feelings, actions and reflections. Within our school students are able to use the Learning Place to blog in a safe, password protected and moderated environment. Over the last few weeks the High School students have been blogging about their start of the year, avatars and the importance of being organised.

Check out the latest blog posts:

From the Technician's Table: Videos in Unit Work

Some users may have trouble accessing the videos contained in the PDF files sent to students. To view these files the special flash player for Adobe reader needs to be installed.

Below is a link to the flash player for acrobat reader

When the webpage loads right click on the indicated link and then "save target as"

Once the file has downloaded please run and install as normal. It may be necessary to restart the computer before playing the videos. Double left clicking on the videos in the PDF should run them.

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 starting in Week 3 of this term.

We have a group of girls continuing this year but would like to invite any girls, who are interested, to consider joining us in 2016. Each girl will be able to attend for 4 sessions before being required to become an official member of Girl Guides Queensland and paying the appropriate fees. There may even be a possibility of starting a second group (of High School aged girls) if there is enough interest.

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.

For more information about Girl Guides visit these websites:

Girl Guides Australia – http://www.girlguides.org.au/
Girl Guides Queensland – http://www.guidesqld.org/
Charleville Girl Guides - http://cooinda.weebly.com/

Tree Planting Challenge

For one of her challenges for her Zircon badge, this Guide was required to take on a tree planting. Looks like she had lots of fun doing it too!

How to Treat a Blood Nose

Another Girl Guide has been challenged to find out how to treat a blood nose. Here she is showing how to hold your nose with a tissue while sitting down and learning forward and having an ice pack on your neck.

Learning Support

Dear Parents

In the past we have attempted to organise hearing screeners and dental checks for our students. However, due to a number of logistical and external agency staffing considerations, this is no longer possible. It is vital though that parents independently organise the following health checks for their child/ren on a regular (yearly) basis. Health-related problems, if not detected and treated, can limit the ability of a child to learn.

We request that all parents organise hearing and vision screeners (and perhaps dental health checks) to take place at your earliest convenience. Details on where to attend are provided below. We also request that a copy of all of these reports be provided to the school so that we may better cater to your child's learning needs, should anything have been identified.

It's important for parents to understand that, should your child be identified by the school as requiring speech-language assessment or guidance officer referral, a vision test and audiogram will be required prior to this process.

Hearing Screener

Hearing is critical for language acquisition and hearing loss can cause delayed language development. A hearing screener takes around 10 – 15 minutes and provides a snapshot which may assist in identifying the cause of possible hearing loss. A preliminary hearing screener (and audiogram if necessary) can be arranged through:

CWAATSICH

Charleville – 4654 3277
Mitchell – 4623 1011
Roma – 4622 4237
Quilpie – 4656 1391

Vision test

Vision plays a major role in reading and a huge amount of student material is presented visually. Therefore, vision problems can affect a child's abilities, success, and confidence at school.

Michael Young (Optometrist) – 1800 122 006
Michael provides an outreach service to Charleville, Mitchell, Cunnamulla and Quilpie

Other optometrists may also be available in your area and should bulk-bill consultations.

Dental check

Dental checks can be arranged for free through the following hospitals:

Charleville Hospital – 4650 5000
Quilpie Hospital – 4656 0100
Cunnamulla Hospital – 4655 8100
Augathella Hospital – 4959 7100 (visits are at the Dental Van as there is no dental office at the hospital)

Please contact Lyndleigh Keogh (ST:LN) if you should require any further information – 4656 8921.

Teaching and Learning Library

I often sit and consider what I think is the one vital skill that will propel students into a successful future. I'm not convinced it is the math strategy we have been trying to get sorted nor is it the understanding of routines or even manners (though these things are important). Let's be honest, I have no idea what the answer is to that pondering, but I'm convinced there is a good clue in the story of WD-40.

Hold on. Don't think I'm crazy and stop reading just yet. There is a method in my madness so I encourage you to keep reading…

So, WD-40. You know the stuff right? The blue and yellow spray can that stops the annoying gate from squeaking or makes the garage door slide better. But do you know the story behind WD-40?

More than 60 years ago, employees at a Rocket Chemical Company in America were trying to develop a product that they could market to the aerospace industry. They were trying to develop something that would prevent rust. Well, to cut a long story short, their first attempt at the product was called Water Displacement #1 or WD-1 for short. How many times do you think they failed before we ended up with the magical product in all of our houses?

My aim of this article is not to encourage you to go buy WD-40 (but if it will help you, please do!). My aim is to demonstrate that failure exists in everyday life. We all try things and probably don't succeed the first time. However, what do we need to do? We simply need to have the resilience and drive to try and try again. Failure and being ok with it is the vital skill that I think will propel our students into a successful future. We need an understanding that failure isn't the enemy – it is the key.

So, how do we give this key to our students? Well, sadly I don't have the answer for that either but I think there are many lessons to be learnt by looking at people all around the world. Think of the elite athlete at the top of his/her game who still needs a coach, think of scientists trying to develop cures for cancer and look at the starving children who try each and every day to find food. Kids need to know these stories. We need to SHOW them that even adults try and may fail too but that the key is to keep trying until you find the thing that doesn't fail. Kids need to be ok with failing as long as they keep trying and learning to improve.

I watched a fantastic Youtube clip recently from the author of the book "The Gift of Failure". If your internet connection will allow you, please click on the hyperlink above and check it out. The author talks about how as a teacher she was getting frustrated with parents writing essays for students and at students who were so fearful of failure that they simply wouldn't put pen to paper even with permission for it just to be a scribble. She also then talks about how as a parent, she realised that by tying her own child's shoes in grade 3, she was just really showing him that in fact, she didn't think he would do a good enough job. So by stepping in and doing things for our students, what message are we sending them? What sort of adults will they become?

We learnt at KSC that challenging questions help the brain develop new connections and this is real learning. There is a whole body of research around "growth" vs "fixed" mindset which suggests that the beliefs students hold about their abilities will impact their learning. Intelligence isn't genetic and the brain can grow new connections all the time. We need to provide these challenging questions or situations to our students and be there as a support when they navigate through them. Be ok with the awkward silence (which is often disguised thinking time), praise the process rather than the end result and encourage children each and every day to keep trying, even when they fail. This process is important for the brain to grow.

Below are 10 top tips to help you give the gift of failure to your children:

• Tip #1: Question them
  One question isn't enough. Riddle them with questions and make sure that you always get to the why question. The other questions are necessary and provide sufficient information, but the why question forces students to think deeper and add meaning to their learning. Question their work. Question their mistakes. Question their learning.
• Tip #2: Push them
  Challenge them by bringing them to that point where you know they don't know the answers. If they always know the answer, it's just too easy. It's like working the same muscles for months at a time. It doesn't help you lose weight after a while.
• Tip #3: Confess to them
  Admitting that you've failed yourself means your human. So, despite the way many teachers enjoy standing on their pedestal and announcing their superiority. Confessions bring your students closer to you and ensure that they will follow you the whole way through.
• Tip #4: Entice them
  Reel them in with bits and pieces of information. Don't give them everything they need to complete their assignment or answer too quickly. One of the toughest skills of teaching lies with holding back the knowledge and waiting for the student to figure it out on his or her own.
• Tip #5: Teach them to embrace failure
  Knowing that failure is their key to success should be sinking in by now, but if it's not, teach them to embrace it. They need to understand that without failure they simply can't succeed so make that clear to them
• Tip #6: Encourage risk-taking behaviour
  There are those moments when a teacher's natural inclination is to act like a parent. We tend to act like mother hens and keep them nicely gathered into groups and straight lines. But, when a student exhibits behavior that shows he or she is a risk-taker, encourage it. Let them loose to walk out of step with the rest (unless of course they are going to seriously injure themselves).
• Tip #7: Stay positive
  The majority of people don't see making mistakes as good, so staying positive will make a huge difference, especially because students will be negative at least at first.
• Tip #8: Don't let them give up
  When students pound away at a new idea, it can be overwhelming and sometimes cause anxiety. Some grab that and use it to their advantage while others just simply give up. Be aware of it and stop it before it happens.
• Tip #9: Teach them to take responsibility
  Showing them how to take responsibility for their actions is another great tool to use when in the process of learning from mistakes. Especially because blaming others usually just keeps people stuck in their failures.
• Tip #10: Teach them to believe in themselves
  Teaching them to believe in themselves is similar to confidence but not. Having confidence could mean faking it. Teaching them to believe in themselves means you continue to reiterate that they have the means and tools to accomplish their goals/dreams right there inside them

* These tips are taken from the below link. There is a list of 50 tips if you'd like to know more.

So… is failure ok in your house?
How do your children respond to failure?
Are you going to do anything differently?

Thanks

Zoe Farrer
Head of Department – Teaching and Learning

Western Alliance

Year 7 Maths Challenge: Prove that the angle sum of a quadrilateral is 360 degrees

Students in 7A were given the challenge to show why the angles of a quadrilateral always add up to 360 degrees. There were many creative explanations but one of the most creative was this one by Jacinta who used the local Primary School's play equipment.

Year 7 ICT

In term one the Year 7 students participated in the first round of the 'specialised elective taste-testing' program by completing a unit in ICT (information, Communication and Technology). During the term students have covered topics such as: using webmail, blogging, avatar making, using OneNote, creating bibliographies, CyberSafety, photo editing, movie making and programming. Here are some of the students avatars created earlier in the term – do you recognise anyone?

For more images Secondary students can visit the Western Alliance edAlbum at