May 2017

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Ponderings

Welcome to term two:

Master Teacher: Narelle Webb is now acting Deputy Principal at the Charleville State High School. Brooke Andrews will be taking up the role of Master Teacher in the immediate future. As we were fortunate to have Narelle for very valuable time last year, Brooke’s time will be spent with the High School and Primary school with a few days with us. The Senior Leadership team will be working with her to decide what will best support the Teaching and Learning of our students.

Staffing: Bill Grant has returned as our Technical Officer and Camden Fackrell has left us as Bill is fulltime. Thank you Cam for your support during the time you were with our school.

Angie Paynter has left to take up a position at the Primary school. Her teacher aide position has been filled by Ellen Daunis. Welcome Ellen.

We also welcome Deidre Huddy as part time Learning Support and other teaching roles in the school. Deidre commenced on the first day of term. This position is as a result of our day 8 enrolment figures.

Anzac Day: What an amazing parade in Charleville. A special thank you to our students and teachers who marched and participated in the parade and ceremony in Charleville. And to our teachers and students and parents who participated in the Guides and other organisations.

Thank you to those who were able to attend other local ceremonies as well. I look forward to photos and stories for our next Newsletter. Unfortunately I did not have any photos from Charleville.

P&C Qld: On Saturday P&C Qld hosted a face to face information meeting at our school. I had asked that a flyer that had teleconference details was to be shared with our school community. I understand that this was not shared. I apologise to all who would have liked to join.

This was a most informative meeting but it may have been quite onerous at the end of a telephone. Two Charleville State High School executive members attended with me, Margaret Leary (training officer for P&C Qld), Elaine (Area Coordinator DDSW) and another area coordinator from Central Qld Region.

Interesting points were:

• Website…a one stop shop for all things supporting P&C
• State Conference…we can nominate for a P&C rep to attend for the cost of $150 plus travel. This conference is in September, or, the full cost for a representative can be paid.
• The P&C of the year competition…they advised we nominate to win up to $5,000 for our P&C.
• They don’t govern P&Cs but do provide support and guidance to assist you in your roles in the P&C.

SDE Principal Meetings: I will be attending these on Thursday and Friday of this week. The agenda includes:

• SODEA: SDE in 2020…thank you to those who completed the survey.
• Same Day Notification: what each school is doing to complete this requirement.
• ADG Regan Neumann: SDE in Rural and Remote Strategy
• SDE PLC: working with the Curriculum Leaders

Also this week:

• On Wednesday morning we went BLUE for Dalby State School! We put in monetary donations to help our colleagues and past SDE teachers to replace their resources that they lost in a fire Monday night 24th April.
• Zoe and Leonie will be travelling to Brisbane to complete the P.D. on Growth Mindset that was planned for last term and was washed out by Cyclone Debbie. As one of our priorities this year, this will continue to inform the sessions with the Home Tutors at Cluster Musters and will be shared with staff at the staff meeting on 22nd May.
• Sarah will be flying to Brisbane to participate in the QSDE Professional Learning Community – Curriculum Leaders’ two day face to face meetings. Zoe will join Sarah on Friday.
  The agenda includes:
   - Strategic Direction with Principals
   - Assessment Spotlight session: Unpacking Assessment Tasks with Higher Order Thinking strategies
   - Sharing Pedagogy Practice: Differentiating during Web Lessons - Each SDE to present HOW they differentiate in lessons to: Value add to the C2C units to increase A’s and B results by incorporating Higher Order Thinking and Engage students with mental health and high anxiety in lessons.

I look forward to these sessions being shared through our leadership team with all teaching staff.

Leave: I will be on Long Service Leave from the 8th May to 12th May and Sarah Norquay will be acting Principal.

Have a wondrous term,

Jenny

From the Deputy’s Desk

It has only been a few weeks of this term, but we have been busy!

Visits. We had a fascinating whole school community session on first aide for a range of animal bites and insects. It was very enthusiastically attended by students. Thank you to the medical students – Emma and Lauren - who ran the session for our students.

Student Council. Mrs Anderssen and Miss Cooper have started the election process of class representatives on the Student Council. This is a tremendous opportunity for students to develop their leadership skills. Nominations are due by 17th May.

Cluster Musters. We are looking forward to the Cluster Musters happening in June at Quilpie, Charleville and St George. Just a reminder that late submission of forms may result in not enough resources and staff allocated to Cluster Musters. Thank you to all the parents who have already submitted their Family Attendance forms. St George is shaping up to be our biggest yet!

Camp. Planning is underway for the Year 3 to 6 Camp in the beautiful Mary Valley. Students will be undertaking a range of outdoor activities such as archery, bush walking, high ropes (flying fox), kayaking or canoeing, and raft building. The program is currently being finalised and all activities are run by qualified instructors. More information should be coming out to parents in the next few weeks.

NAPLAN. I would like to wish students all the best during the two days of NAPLAN testing. This can be a stressful time for students (and parents!).

Sarah Norquay
Acting Deputy Principal

PLO Prattle

Welcome to Term 2, I hope that you all had a very restful break and are ready to steam ahead with this term.

In week one of this term, I along with 3 other staff members attended Professional Development in Toowoomba. The training was presented by Rachel Carr and Amanda Corby from “Illume Learning”, which is Diverse Learning for students with Intellectual Disabilities. The training covered different techniques in Reading, Mathematics, Positive Behaviour and Visual Tools for schools and families to use with students who have Intellectual Disabilities.

Cluster Musters will be happening in the next few weeks. I will be attending St George Cluster Muster as I am also attending the ICPA conference with Jenny Swadling.

Enjoy the term.

Cheers

Helen Cook
Parent Liaison Officer

Curriculum Corner

Why it’s important

We all want our students to get a great education, and the building blocks for a great education begin with students coming to school each and every day.

If students miss school regularly, they miss out on learning the fundamental skills that will set them up for success in the later years of school.

There is no safe number of days for missing school or lessons – each day a student misses puts them behind, and can affect their educational outcomes.

Each missed day is associated with progressively lower achievement in numeracy, writing and reading.

Getting in early

Attendance patterns are established early – a child regularly missing days in kindergarten or in the early years of school will often continue to miss classes in the later years, and receive lower test scores than their classmates. It’s vital that students go to school every day – even in the early years of primary school.

What we can do

The main reasons for absence are:

• Sickness – There are always times when students need to miss school, such as when they’re ill. It’s vital that they’re only away on the days they are genuinely sick. Setting good sleep patterns, eating well and exercising regularly can make a big difference in avoiding illness.
• It's vital that holidays are planned during school holidays where possible, and not during the term if it can be avoided.
• “Day off” – Think twice before letting your child have a “day off” as they could fall behind their classmates – every day counts.
• Truancy – For Distance Ed students, this is where work is not being returned. There can be many reasons for truancy. The best way to address this is for schools and parents to work together.

Remember, every day counts. If your child must miss school, speak with your classroom teacher as early as possible. Distance Education provides flexibility to families to complete unit material, but because work return is our basis for attendance, the work needs to be returned. Completing the work will also provide students with the best education they can access. Every day counts.

Education Queensland has a range of resources to support this with both families and students:

Thanks

Zoe Farrer
Head of Department – Teaching and Learning

Teaching and Learning Library

Home Tutor Drop-in Sessions are coming back! Thanks to you for taking the time to email me with your time and topic suggestions. Home Tutor sessions will occur fortnightly on ODD weeks on Wednesday at 2:00pm starting from 17 May. An outline of topics to be covered throughout the term will be on notices prior to then.

To follow on from growth mindset and to keep you thinking… here is another article. This one is from James Anderson. I’m attending his Growth Mindset PD this week as unfortunately the last one got cancelled due to Cyclone Debbie. I wonder where each of us might fit on the continuum and what we are doing to help move our students along?

One of the biggest social media myths about Mindsets is that there are only two: the Fixed Mindset and the Growth Mindset. This is simply not true. The reality is that our Mindset lies somewhere along the Mindset Continuum.

While Dweck herself typically talks about Mindsets as being either Fixed or Growth, this juxtaposition is simply to help contrast the difference between the two extremes. Throughout her research, she recognises that we fall along a continuum.

When we see Mindsets as a dichotomy, we misjudge the subtlety and complexity of Dweck’s work. We may also misunderstand what we must do to change our Mindsets. Students can’t instantly “have” a Growth Mindset. We can’t expect our teaching strategies to suddenly result in students taking on challenges, embracing effort and learning from their mistakes.

Rather, our goal is to help students become increasingly growth oriented. It is more realistic and helpful to expect that as students become more growth oriented, they will persist a bit longer. They will take on a bit more of a challenge, put in a little more effort, and respond more positively to mistakes. Their progress towards a Growth Mindset is gradual.

Furthermore, if we view Mindsets as a dichotomy, we run the significant risk of adopting a one-size-fits-all approach. Students at different stages along the continuum have different worldviews – therefore, they require different teaching strategies. A student with a Fixed Mindset will respond and act differently to a student with a Low Growth Mindset, so we must adapt our teaching methods accordingly.

In other words, a Growth Mindset is not a declaration, it’s a journey – one that involves small, progressive shifts in thinking, rather than huge leaps. Most people aren’t Fixed or Growth, but somewhere in between.

As Dweck says, “Nobody has a Growth Mindset in everything all the time. Everyone is a mixture of Fixed and Growth Mindsets. You could have a predominant Growth Mindset in an area but there can still be things that trigger you into a Fixed Mindset trait.”[1]“How Praise Became a Consolation Prize”, The Atlantic, December 16, 2016.

If we are to help our students move along the continuum towards an increasingly growth-oriented Mindset, we must recognise that the journey will be a long one.

As our understanding of the nature of our abilities changes, we travel along the continuum. We become increasingly aware of our capacity for growth. As a result, our responses to challenges, feedback, mistakes and effort slowly shift.

A Growth Mindset requires careful nurturing over time. It’s about taking small, targeted steps to ensure that gradual and effective progress along the continuum is made.

Thanks

Zoe Farrer
Head of Department – Teaching and Learning

Digital Discoveries

Microsoft Office 2016 Free

Students of Charleville SDE are able to access a free copy of Microsoft Office 2016 via Education Queensland. This provided students with the latest version of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher and Outlook. To access your copy contact the school technicians for a copy on CD or visit:

Charleville SDE’s YouTube Channel

Have you some of the new videos on our YouTube Channel yet? New videos are being loaded! If you would like your videos share on the Channel ask your teacher. Visit out channel at:

iPad App of the Month: Camera and iMovie

Get your student to tell stories, read a story or recite a poem and record it effortlessly with your iPad. Use the camera app of the iPad to record a video, by sliding the option from Photo to Video. The video file will then show in your ‘Photos’ app of your iPad.

Now, you can open the video (and any other photos) in the iMovie App to add background music, more photos and a theme.

A great way to show your teacher your presentation and reading skills.

From the Technician’s Table: Password Requirements

When a student accesses any Education Queensland system, including eLearn, iConnect, Student Space and Webmail, they are asked to log in with a username and password.

The primary aims of having a password on our systems are:

• To protect our students while accessing our systems;
• To protect information stored on our systems from unauthorised access;
• To ensure that the level of security assigned to data properly corresponds to its sensitivity and confidentiality; and
• To mitigate the risk of data loss resulting from accidental or malicious events.

In order to maintain the above, certain rules are in place regarding our passwords that we use.

1. Students and teachers are required to change their password every 90 days
2. New passwords cannot have been used during the previous 13 password changes
3. The length of the password must be at least eight characters
4. The password cannot contain all or part of the user’s account name
5. The password must contain characters from three of the following four categories:
   a) English uppercase characters (A through Z)
   b) English lowercase characters (a through z)
   c) Base 10 digits (0 through 9)
   d) Non-alphabetic characters (for example, !. $. #, _, %)
6. Avoid using words which can be found in the dictionary

Year 9 Technologies Student Work

Our Year 9 students have been learning to use Python, a computer programming language, to create drawings, interactive objects and animations. Python is used in a lot of things from websites to apps and is a good introduction to computer programming language as it is closest to the English language.

Check out the latest blog posts:

Prep – Year 3 Student Link:

Years 4 – 9 Student Link:

Year 10 Student Link:

Girl Guides

ANZAC Day

A major part of the Australian Girl Guide program is giving service and ANZAC Day is a perfect opportunity for our members to show their respect and give service to this special day.

Lily made a very special area and spent time performing a family service including 2 minutes of silence – 1 for servicemen and women and 1 for the animals who have served in war.

Ebony also held a special family service at her property where she lit a candle, recited the ode, played the last post and had a minute silence.

Savannah was fortunate enough to be able to join the Charleville Girl Guides in the town parade for ANZAC Day and had the honor of carrying the Girl Guide flag.

Kristy’s family made the drive into their local town to pay their respects at the local service.

P & C News

Congratulations to the incoming executives and Co-ordinators and thank you for putting your hand up to hold a position. It is very rewarding to work alongside others to achieve objectives for our children.

President- Michelle McInnerney
Correspondence Secretary – Brie Boyle
Minutes Secretary – this position is still vacant. If anyone is interested please contact Brie or Michelle Mc
Treasurer – Bec McKeering
VP Roma – Sue Hurford
VP QU/ER/TH – Rhinannon Newsham
VP Charleville – Kristy Cornford
VP Cunnamulla/ St George – Christie Goddard
Cookbook Co-ordinator – Kimberley Rains
SODEA rep – Annabel Tully
Grant Writer – Christy Bredhauer
Souvenirs and Uniforms – Eunice Campbell
VISE – Sally Campbell

Many thanks to the outgoing executives and co-ordinators for their time and effort to the P and C in their respective roles.

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.

Sports Muster

Book your accommodation and start planning for the trip to Charleville for Sports Muster. This is a great event for all the family with not only the Sporting events, but the art and craft competition, the smoko challenge, book club, a cent sale and Souvenirs and Uniform stall.

This year Sports Muster will go back to all day Thursday and Friday morning. Lunch will be pre -ordered for the students (E-Kindy to Grade 10) and a canteen will be operating for the younger children and adults. The children’s lunches and smokos will be provided by Leith Brennan. We are still trying to source a group to do the canteen.

The smoko challenge, a yearly competition between the staff of the school and the home tutors/ govies, will be held on the Thursday morning. Sports Muster is the Home Tutor/ Govie smoko while the staff provide the smoko at Speech and Awards. Remember Home Tutors and Govies to bring something along so we can win the trophy this year. Brie and Sue are organising this year’s smoko challenge.

Battery Drive

Thank you to Greg and Anne-Marie Flynn for taking on the role of Battery Drive co-ordinator. If you have any old batteries lying around at home, contact Anne-Marie and Gregg - gfcolamba@gmail.com. A huge thanks to Sally and Damian Campbell for all their work with the Battery Drive over the last couple of years. A lot of money has been raised for the P and C through the battery drive.

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.

Paula Harrison is organising the Cent Sale at Sports Muster. This year we are asking each family to donate one item for the cent sale. Please let Paula Harrison know what you are bringing and if you can help on the day - bj.pcharrison@bigpond.com.au

Ticket sellers will be required at Sports Muster, so please consider putting your name down for an hour.

Grants

We are always looking out for ways to fund money to assist our students, families and the school. If you hear of any grants, please contact Christy Bredhauer - lambertstud@skymesh.com.au.

REMINDER……

All memberships are NOW DUE

If you have not been receiving the documents for the meetings, your membership is not current for 2017. Membership is free. Please complete the form and send to the secretary.