March 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Ponderings

READING • RELATIONSHIPS AND WELLBEING • WESTERN ALLIANCE STRENGTHENING AND DEVELOPMENT

Thank you all for the very successful start to the year.

While we have had a change in staffing with Leanne leaving Prep and Rebecca coming in, the year has commenced smoothly with Kick Start Conference, planning for Minischools and the Secondary Multischool underway.

Sports Muster 2018:

Thank you to everyone who completed the Sports Muster survey. As per the email on Monday 26th February:

There were 53 respondents:

• While 33 of 53 families are happy with the dates as per the calendar, 15 of the 20 who are unable to come on 21st and 22nd have other commitments.
• Of the 11 who have siblings at boarding school 3 house captains and one junior school captain are effected by the 21 and 22 June dates.

The alternate dates have equal responses with the assumption that 7 families are happy either way.

Of the 17 of respondents who have Western Alliance students, 12 will choose to participate in the Sports Muster and make up lessons delivered by other schools. 5 choose to participate in on-air lessons and will not attend the Sports Muster or Field events.

29 families consider it important to be given the opportunity to compete in track and field events at CSDE and use times and distances to progress to district carnivals.

17 families are not concerned with the competitive nature of T&F events at CSDE

Other comments précised:

• For competitive participation - Training for students in T&F skills – e.g. at Cluster Muster
• For competitive participation - Training for teachers in T&F skills
• Offer the events that are available at District competition

There were mixed views on changing the dates and supportive families who express that Sports Muster is a family affair and they make whatever arrangements are necessary for their students to attend.

Upon consideration of the information the agreed position by the Management Committee for 2018:

To change the date to 18th and 19th June

The reasoning for this is:

Showgrounds are available
Photographer is available
All House and school captains are able to attend.

Other considerations that will be enacted:

• Train Primary teachers on Professional Development day (16th April) in T&F skills
• Cluster Musters Term 2 are all day T&F skilling for students
• Jenny and Sarah to communicate with Secondary teachers from each WA school to work with students to omit/support/change/lessons on the Sports carnival days so that disaffected students are not, if possible, making up lessons.

A full copy of the survey results are available upon request.

Partners in Learning:

The purpose is, that due to the nature of Distance Education, the teaching of reading occurs in the Home Schoolroom. With the help of the school and consistent training, the understanding of how, when learning to read, and if necessary, intervention and/or support from the school for individual students, we aim to have all students reading at benchmark or the level desired by their age and year level. This is a team effort and we rely on each other in the process. These sessions with Tam Jenyns, our reading coach, will be held on the Tuesdays and Wednesdays of each of the Minischools.

While it is primarily for the Home Tutors of Prep to Year Two students, all home tutors are invited. Prep to Year Two Home Tutors who need accommodation for the Tuesday night, if they are not helping at the venue, can claim their accommodation by providing the receipt and a claim form to Mitch.

25 of the Prep to Year 2 students will be monitored as part of the project, for their reading levels, and this will guide the Department as to the effectiveness of the training and future of the program. We monitor all students’ reading levels as part of our reading strategies across the school. Teachers are also being made familiar with the modules that are covered by Home Tutors.

I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at Minischools and Multischool.

Jenny

From the Deputy’s Desk

We are almost to the end of Term 1! So soon!

This term we had one of the most successful KickStart Conferences for the students with over 90 students from Prep to Year 10 attending the activities at the Race Course. All the presenters and swimming instructors made the comment to me how well behaved and engaged the children were. Well done children! Secondary students were able to continue their lessons upstairs at the Race Course, and despite a few technical hiccups at the beginning, it was very successful. We will be offering this service to families again next year.

The school is also holding for first time in many years, regular assemblies every Monday at 2.30pm. These are well attended by families and the goal is to improve communication between the school and the students as well as create a sense of community. They don’t go for very long, only 10 minutes or so and are facilitated by our school leaders.

We had a special visit from Deadly Recruits which included the Australian Defence Forces and Petero Civoniceva. The students asked lots of very interesting questions, which kept the presenters on their toes! There is an article about their visit in this newsletter.

Last week, eight of our student leaders attended the Halogen Leadership Conference. Please read Lillie Brand’s round up of her experience.

We have started our round of Term I Minischools. The Western Alliance Multischool in Week 9 however, is in doubt, due to the lack of registrations across the three base schools, but particularly ours as we are the largest school. Please submit your forms to Mr McIntosh by Thursday 8th March as a decision will be made on Friday as to its viability for this term.

Cluster Muster dates have been set for next term, with invitations being distributed in the next week or so. The dates are as follows:

• Tuesday 24th April
  - Quilpie
  - Charleville
  - Mitchell
• Thursday 10th May
  - St George
  - Roma

I look forward to catching up with you over the next couple of weeks at Minischools and Multischool (fingers crossed).

Cheers
Sarah

PLO Prattle

What a fantastic Kick Stat Conference that we had for 2018. 95 Students and 75 Home Tutors. Each year the numbers are growing. The weather was quite hot but the students were kept cool at the Racecourse Complex and the Pool.

Lifesaving, Puppet making, NRL and a Children’s Storybook Illustrator were the students’ focus this year and from feedback the students had a great time.

The Home Tutors learnt Behaviour Management skills from Peter Miles, along with the requested sessions around ICT, CPR, B2F Maths, Reading and many other sessions.

The highlight of the Conference would have been the Colour Skirmish that we held on the Tuesday night. It was a hot afternoon/evening so everyone was more than happy to get wet and coloured. Showers that night were long to remove the colour, but we will do it again next year due the success of the evening.

Our next big events are Minischools and Multischool, which again are exciting opportunities for the students to catch up with their classmates, friends and peers.

I will see you there.

Cheers
Helen
Parent Liaison Officer

Curriculum Corner

Meet the new HODs of Teaching and Learning

Hi All. My name is Leonie Herwig and I am the Primary HOD. This is my fifth year of working at Charleville SDE as an experienced senior teacher and I will be continuing to teach Year 3 Back to Front Maths as well as embracing the challenges of the HOD role. I am looking forward to continuing to build and strengthen the learning partnerships I forged with many of you during my years of teaching and Kickstart this year… right after I finish answering emails about how to get USBs to work. I welcome and encourage each of you to contact myself with any questions, queries or concerns you have about our curriculum and I’m looking forward to catching up with each of you at our 2018 field events.

Who am I? My name is Mandy McDonald and I am the HOD of teaching and learning for Secondary. This year I will be working with the secondary teachers across the Western Alliance to help develop their pedagogical practices. I am so looking forward to taking the skills and knowledge I have obtained from my previous roles as Acting HOD Junior Secondary and Pedagogy Coach to ensure CSDE continues to successful equip teachers with the skills needed to produce successful learners. Like Leonie, if you have any questions or concerns around secondary curriculum please don’t hesitate to contact me. Looking forward to getting to know you all throughout the year.

Home Tutor Help – “Teaching and Learning Drop-In Sessions”

In Term 2, Mandy and I will once again be offering Home Tutor professional development sessions. Last year, these sessions on a rotational fortnightly basis with Sam O who covered her ICT drop in sessions on the alternate weeks. We will continue to do the same this year.

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. These requests have included word study, feedback and visible learning which sessions that were done at KSC 2018.

Mandy and I will be sending out a Survey Monkey to help us identify a suitable time to hold the sessions and topics Home Tutors and parents wish to cover. The link for the survey will be on notices in coming weeks.

We will record the sessions so that if you are unable to make the live session you are able to listen to the recording later at night or on weekends when you have more free time.

Remember, research shows that professional development has a high effect on student learning and as you are the ones in the school room most of this day, we need to invest in you and you need to invest in yourself as well

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 Mandy and myself and we can add it to the agenda. Em: lherw1@eq.edu.au and mrose118@eq.edu.au

Reading Coach

Hello, my name is Tamara Jenyns and I have two roles this year, as Year 2 Teacher and Reading Coach. My Reading Coach role is to support Home Tutors teaching and monitoring reading at home, as well as, to support the Prep to Year 2 teachers develop their skills in teaching reading and how best to work collaboratively with Home Tutors to best meet the needs of students. This is the first year this position has existed and I am excited about the opportunity to focus on improving the reading skills of our students.

What’s Happening and School Notices

You may be unware but there are several ways you can access school notices and information about upcoming events.

By checking these places daily you will be kept in the loop of upcoming school and community events, the Sound Waves focus for the week and the new Student Newsletter edited by our school captains Savannah Blackett and Renae Hubbard.

Mandy and I are committed to finding a system of communication that works for all. Should you have any questions, suggestion or concerns in the future, please feel free to contact us to discuss.

Thanks
Leonie Herwig & Mandy McDonald
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, OneNote and Outlook. To access your copy contact the school technicians for a copy on CD or visit:

iPad App of the Month: Tiny Scanner

Tiny Scanner is an app (for both Apple and Android) that turns your phone or iPad into a scanner! Scan pages of school work, documents, photos, receipts, or just about anything.

Batch mode combines multiple scans into a single PDF that you can send to the teacher by email or by wifi or direct connection to your computer.

Student Email Addresses

Every State School student is provided with their own school email address as part of the Managed Internet Service (MIS) operated by the Education Department. Students are encouraged to use to their school email address to communicate with their class mates and teachers. Email addresses created using the following format (username)@eq.edu.au, where the username is that that the student uses to access all Learning Place resources. Students can check their school email by going to the link below or clicking on the School Webmail link on the School’s website.

Why Student Email Accounts?

• By having individual email accounts, students can take control of their communication with peers and teachers and become more independent as they grow older.
• Parents can set up Microsoft Outlook to allow students to check their accounts without interfering with personal, business or home email accounts.
• As students are using a standard program and accounts teachers will be able to assist with technical issues as everyone is talking a common language.
• Finally, the EQ Code of Conduct says that teachers are not be using the personal email addresses of students, but rather their EQ email addresses and the addresses of parents.

How to Encourage your Student to Email

The key is to start simple! Start by getting your child to email their teacher to ask a question or to tell them about something they really enjoyed in a lesson. Encourage your child to type their teachers name at the beginning and their own name at the end.

Email Etiquette

When you send a letter there is certain etiquette you follow and email is exactly the same. Here are some tips to follow next time you send an email:

1. Use the person’s name—start with Dear Bob or Hi Bob
2. Use your own name—remember to sign off with your own name so people know who the email is from
3. Re-read your message—always have a quick read to ensure you have said everything you wanted and haven’t included anything that may be taken the wrong way
4. Font and Colour—consider the font and colour of the text you use—is it easy enough to read? Avoid red and bold fonts as these can be seen as offensive.

Blogging

Have you tried blogging yet? Blogs are a great way for your child to communicate with their peers and teachers. It is also an excellent opportunity for them to develop their literacy skills. Remember your child can read and comment on other students’ blogs as well.

Ideas for blogs include:

• give your thoughts on a news story you have read,
• share a recent photo and write about what it shows,
• take a photo of a piece of work and tell others about it,
• create a daily diary of events,
• draw a picture or write a story and share it, or
• Tell others about a book you have read.

Encourage your child to have a go on their own first and then type what they have written underneath before you save it.

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

Change of Password and Webmail for Students

In the past the change of passwords worked well with eLearn.

With constant changes with network security and such this does not now always work.

The best way we have found for you to change your passwords successfully is to go through your child’s webmail account (the same one you use for eLearn).

Every student enrolled with EQ has a webmail account.

To get to your child’s webmail account you need to go to this web address below and log on using your school username and password (the same one you use for eLearn).

If your password needs changing you will be prompted to do so.

Once you have changed your password you will be able to log onto eLearn again.

If you have forgotten your password you can ask your Teacher or the Technical Officer to reset it for you.

Phone Equipment

Firstly, thank you to those that have sent back all their Phone Equipment items clean, it helps us so much to keep the Equipment in a presentable state for the next family and aids for a quicker turnaround.

I have been getting a lot of phones coming back very dirty and missing items.

Please note that if you send back your Phone Equipment dirty, the cost of the cleaning and missing items will be deducted from your Bond. (Keeping the Phone Equipment clean is part of your loan agreement)

Here as some tips on how to clean your phone and keep it clean:

• Use a damp cloth to wipe it over.
• If you have dust in some of the grooves use a small brush or old toothbrush to remove it (do this before wiping with a damp cloth).
• You can put a cloth over the top of the phone or use a big plastic bag when not in use to stop dust collecting on it. (Some families use a large clear zip lock bag and leave it on the phone all the time).

Your assistance with this is greatly appreciated.

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

The best site to change your password to ensure it changes easily and correctly is by going to the webmail site at the link below (some users have experienced difficulties changing their password from the eLearn site so this one is preferred).

Visiting the School? Did you know . . .

When you visit the school’s campus in Charleville students are able to bring their own device (eg. tablet or laptop) and connect to the school’s Wifi Internet using their school username and password. This will allow students to connect to on-air lessons, access eLearn and use their emails while on campus. Students may also use a dedicated room (‘The Green Room’) to do lessons from using a phone, however this must be booked in advance and a home tutor must be present at all times. Please contact the school if you wish to use this resource next time you are visiting the school.

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 – Bill Grant: wjgra0@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, Student Space and Blogging).

Give us a call or send an email.

P & C News

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

MARCH 28TH AT 7.30pm

Phone: (07) 3181 5999
Conference No: 2901452267#
All Welcome
ALL POSITIONS ARE DEEMED VACANT
MEMBERSHIP & NOMINATION FORMS ARE AVAILABLE BY CONTACTING BRIE BOYLE
Please forward to the Secretary
PandC@charlevisde.eq.edu.au by March 23rd

Well…. here we are in Week Five already, looks like this term is going too quick! At the AGM, all positions are deemed vacant. We really need someone to join us and become President. It is a great way to be involved in the school and not a big job at all. If you have any enquiries or are interested please contact me or one of the Executives.

What a great way to start the year with Kickstart, it was great to see old friends and meet new Home Tutors. Thanks to Helen Cook and the Kickstart Committee for organising such a great week for the Students and Home Tutors.

Thank you to everyone that supported the P and C Souvenirs and Uniform Stall, for those of you who couldn’t make it to Kickstart these goods can be purchased through the School Office. Most items can be sent out in the Blue Bag.

Have a Great Year and see you at the March AGM.

How to Teach Reading Workshop – Partners in Learning

All Home Tutors are invited to attend a two day workshop on Teaching Reading, to be held the Tuesday and Wednesday of your students’ Minischool Week.

The ‘Partners in learning’ program trial has been developed with the goal to improve our students reading skills. It will help Home Tutors understand more about learning to read, so that tutors are confident monitoring and providing feedback to teachers about their child’s progress.

The Partners in Learning reading workshop will cover 4 modules;

Module 1 – Learning to read
Module 2 – Engaging with phonics
Module 3 – Supporting readers
Module 4 - Responding to readers

Dates:

Roma - 6th & 7th March
Thargomindah - 13th & 14th of March
Charleville - 20th & 21st March

Estimated times are 9am-4pm Tuesday & 8am-3pm Wednesday.

Home Tutors will need to source accommodation Tuesday night if wishing to attend, to minimise disruption to students and teachers at Minischool.

Please indicate if you wish to participate in this workshop by email or phone to Tamara Jenyns, by 23rd February.

Yes, I would like to attend the Partners in Learning Workshop at;

• Roma
• Thargo
• Charleville

Home Tutors will be able to claim their Tuesday night accommodation cost, so please keep your receipt. Meals will be provided at Minischool for participants.

For more information please contact Tamara Jenyns on phone: 4656 8949 Email: ttayl243@eq.edu.au

Congratulations Sporting Stars

Well Done, Xavier!

2018 Halogen Leadership Conference

Hello everyone,

My name is Lillie Brand.

I am the Junior School Captain for 2018. Ms Norquay, Mrs Bryant and my Mum took the School Leaders to the Halogen Young Leaders Conference in Brisbane.

We had lots of fun there. On the first night we ate Chinese and on the second night we had Japanese.

We went to the Brisbane Convention Centre and listened to four speakers. I think the most inspirational speaker was Holly Ferling. She said that failure is good because if you don’t fail in your life you will never learn. We stayed in a five story motel. Me, my Mum and Renae were at one end on the fifth floor and at the other end was Mrs Bryant, Will, Daniel and Hugo. The boys tried to be funny by waking us up early but they knocked on the wrong door.

We went on the big ferris wheel and we went to the museum. We also went to the ice cream shop and lolly shop. We saw ice cream getting made with nitrogen.

I would like to thank Ms Norquay, Mrs Bryant, my Mum and all the School Leaders that attended for the wonderful couple of days. I would also like to thank Glenda for driving us down there and home again.

John Coutis was born with no legs but his positivity and jokes lit up the room. He was bullied at school because of his disability and nearly died from the bullies’ treatment. They tied his hands and threw him in a rubbish bin and set it on fire. His main message was – Treat people the way you want to be treated and know what is right and know what is wrong.

Then we listened to Jack Heath and he is an author. He talked about how he became a writer and he told us how to make a plan.

The third speaker was Harrison Craig from the voice. He had a stutter and was bullied at school. With lots of practice he was able to speak clearly. Singing helped him and he talked about dreams. He has also written a book called ‘Harrisons song’.

The Last speaker was a cricket player named Holly Ferling, I thought she was the best one we listened to. She talked about not worrying if you fail because you can learn from your failures. She also talked about having a go at anything and everything because you can discover what you like and dislike and you will find your dream and a career path.

I really enjoyed the experience and it was very inspirational.

Renae Hubbard
Senior School Captain

Australia Defence Force and Petero Civoniceva Visit

On Tuesday our school was lucky enough to have a visit from the Australian Defense Force Staff: Jenna, Kieren and Jason who spoke to the students about their journey in the Defense Force so far and some humorous stories along the way. The students had some interesting questions for them to answer. Petero Civoniceva also joined us in the studio and shared his journey, story and question time. All students who participated had a great time.

Dolly’s Dream Fundraiser

On Wednesday 31st January during our annual Kickstart Conference, all Home Tutors were invited to “Wear Blue for Dolly” in memory of Amy “Dolly” Everett. Together, they raised $145.00 that has been donated to the “Dolly’s Dream Foundation”. The Dolly’s Dream Foundation has been established by family and friends of Dolly to facilitate positive change for young lives that are affected by bullying.