June 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Ponderings

As you are aware, Jenny is on leave until the end of the term. Tim Wicks is Acting Deputy Principal, whilst I am the Acting Principal. It was very hard for Jenny to leave her ‘baby’ behind, but she is coping well. We wish Jenny all the best in her adventures as Acting Vice President of the Queensland Teacher’s Union.

At our recent Management Committee meeting, Di Hansen was elected as a voting representative for Charleville Western Alliance parents. Welcome Di to the team!

Congratulations to Ebony McDonald for her First Prize in the Year 7 Writing Division at the recent Charleville Show. Also congratulations to Ethan Gordon-Bond for his Third Prize in the Juvenile Art 11-12 years Category. Their entries were the only two entered by our students, so our success rate is pretty impressive!

Planning for Kick Start 2019 has commenced. As a result of feedback, there will be changes to the format and the type of sessions held. More information to come.

I have received feedback from teachers that some families are expecting the teacher to catch up students who have been absent due to ‘leisure activities’. Please see the snip below of the Management Committee Meeting Minutes from 16 August 2017 regarding absences for holidays and leisure activities. Therefore it is not a reasonable expectation for the teacher to catch up students.

Makala Howard, our Teacher Aide at the Thargomindah Secondary Learning Facility has put in her resignation effective from the end of this term. We have wished Makala all the best in her new position with the Bulloo Shire Council. I have offered the position to a candidate from the interviews held at the end of last year. I am waiting to hear back from her. Makala is on leave from 4 – 12 June. Mrs Nat Batson will be filling in for Makala during that time.

Primary Camp information has been emailed and is in pigeon holes ready to be posted. This camp looks awesome, and I personally can’t wait to go on it. As it will be staffed by female teachers, we are looking for a Camp Dad to come along. Please let me know ASAP if you are interested.

See you at Sports Muster!

Sarah

From the Deputy’s Desk

As I write this we are more than half way through term 2 (don’t forget that it is an eleven week term) and we have had a number of significant events and activities:

• ANZAC Day was a beautiful event here in Charleville, and several teachers and staff marched to the cenotaph
• The Student Newsletter is gaining momentum and is a great read for students and adults alike
• NAPLAN is done and dusted
• Assemblies are well attended and becoming an important part of our weekly communications, and an opportunity to connect as a group.

Reports are now on the minds of teachers and as we work our way towards week 11 students are focussed on assessments and giving their best efforts.

If at any time over the next few weeks you are feeling a little anxious about something (school based or otherwise) remember this quote on making mistakes:

“My spelling is Wobbly. It’s good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places.” – Winnie The Pooh.

This is a fantastic edition of the school newsletter, so sit back and enjoy the read.

Tim Wicks

PLO Prattle

Welcome back to Term 2, I hope everyone enjoyed their break. So far this term Cluster Musters have already been happening. Staff are working on the behind the scenes organization of Sports Muster.

Leonie Herwig and I went on a Home Visit recently, red dirt, flies and trying to find internet.

Leonie trying to get signal

Healthy families know how to fight well by Michael Grose

If your kids constantly fight with each other, then don't despair. All that emotional energy isn't going to waste.

According to a recent study sibling fights teach kids important conflict resolution skills. In fact, parents who stop their children from arguing may well be depriving them of important learning opportunities.

Researcher Laurie Kramer from the University of Illinois in the US found that kids who learned how to argue with their siblings had more advanced emotional development.

Anecdotally, it seems that sibling fighting is one of the biggest impediments to parents enjoying family life. Many parents tell me that if their children stopped bickering their lives would improve dramatically.

Many parents also worry that their children who fight with each other will not get along as adults. The evidence doesn’t support this view. The test for strong families is more about the willingness for kids to pull together when the chips are down, than the frequency of the squabbling.

I think a number of us could relate to this article.

Go Narungi, the winning team for this year. Practice hard Narungi team members.

Cheers

Helen (PLO)

Curriculum Corner

Darling Downs South West Reading Centre Professional Development.

One of CSDE’s school priorities for 2018 is improving student reading within our P-10 classrooms. In order to support our teachers in doing this several teachers across the different age groups within our school attended the first 2 parts (2 days) of a 4 part Professional Development workshop presented by the Reading Centre in Roma.

Over the first two days of this workshop teachers were engaged in:

• Learning to read – Literacy within a whole school environment and how the Australian curriculum supports the development of reading,
• Teaching reading - teaching reading to different year levels, deciding what texts to use within our classrooms and reading pedagogies.

Some of the key learnings they walked away with included;

• The importance of the literacy continuum across the whole school
• Engaging students in reading before the text is even put in front of them
• Teaching subject specific vocabulary and literacies by the subject teacher
• The importance of giving students feedback on their literacy development
• How parents/home tutors play a major role in the development of the student’s reading and literacy

Strategies we would love to share:

Active Reading Procedures

There are a number of active reading procedures we can use to help develop our student’s reading. The ones we found to be the most useful for our setting were;

Choral reading –Students are required to all read at the same pace with the teacher leading the pace. Students who have trouble reading some words in the text will be able to hear how certain words sound and visualise their letter patterns.

Close reading – This requires the students to follow along with their teacher reading out loud. When the teacher stops at certain words the students are then required to read that word out loud. The words that the students are required to read are often the vocabulary they have been studying in that subject.

Echo reading – The teacher leads this procedural reading by reading a word, phrase or sentence (depending on the class’ reading level). The students then read the same word, phrase or sentence back, acting like an echo. This helps the students develop their fluency, expression and vocabulary as it is the teacher modelling the way it should be read.

Engaging students in reading

It is important to practise explicitly talking about reading. By talking about reading explicitly, it may be easier to monitor student progress and motivation as well as to provide feedback and set individual reading goals with students.

Model being an engaged reader to your students, for example, sharing reading experiences, recommending texts you enjoy or explaining why you didn’t enjoy it.

Annotation to help with comprehension

This strategy might sound familiar to those parents who attended our recent Cluster Musters. Students use THINKING MARKS during reading to make connections to a text. They then discuss with someone else their thoughts. These thinking marks can change depending on the information you are wishing your student to take away from the text.

We are all very excited to start to use this knowledge within our classes and to also share our learning. If you would like more information about this please contact myself or Leonie so we can organise a drop in session for you.

Digital Discoveries

App of the Month: Adobe Spark Video

Have your student create videos and presentations using this fun, fast and simple app by combining video clips, photos, text and icons. Excellent for constructing multimodal presentations including advertisements, recounts and narratives.

Password Changes

When accessing eLearn and other Education Queensland sites you may find your password needs to be changed (usually about every 90 days). It is advised that you use the Webmail website to change your password rather than eLearn or the Learning Place. Many users are finding that when they change their password on eLearn it doesn’t ‘stick’, whereas when changing at Webmail it works better and changes for all Education Queensland sites, including eLearn.

Webmail: https://outlook.office365.com

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 the site below.

Student Work

The Year 8 Technologies class has been working on designing and making an obstacle for a mini-golf course that involved an electromechanical system. Check out some of their end products in these videos . . .

Our Year 8 students have also been working on developing their ability to touch type and have been tracking their progress in Excel.

Meanwhile, the Year 9 Technologies class have been learning to use Python (a coding language) and have made these creations:

Check out the latest blog posts:

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

Welcome to Term 2, hope you are all having a great year so far.

The P&C still have a Presidents position vacant. If anyone is interested, please contact Brie Boyle. The P&C is a great group to work with, you will never feel alone. It is also a great chance to get involved in the school and work together to make anything possible.

Sports Muster

Hope everyone has their accommodation booked for Sports Muster. This is a great event for all the family (husbands included) with not only the Sporting events, but the art and craft competition, the P&C Meet & Greet, book club, a Cent sale and a Souvenir and Uniform stall.

Just remember to get your children lunch orders in ASAP. The children’s lunches and smokos will be provided by The Blue Gum Cafe. The Mitchell/Tomoo – Dunkeld ICPA Branch ladies have kindly offered to run the canteen over the two days for everyone else.

On the Monday night there will be dinner and entertainment at the School. There will be hot dinner available to purchase. This night is a great opportunity for everyone to catch up with friends and meet new ones. Please BYO alcoholic drinks.

Please come to our Meet and Greet on the Monday Morning at 11am. Register the children, grab their pre-ordered lunch and come and catch up with everyone. Look forward to seeing everyone there.

Battery Drive

This is constantly ongoing. If you have any old batteries lying around at home, contact Anne-Marie and Gregg - gfcolamba@gmail.com. A lot of money has been raised for the P and C through the battery drive.

Fundraising

Please ensure that your Pie Drive Order Forms are filled out and sent back. The pies are a great way for a quick dinner after a busy day. Pick up your order at Sports Muster and stock up your freezer with some yummy pies and sweets.

There will be the Cent Sale again this year at Sports Muster. Could each family please donate one item for the cent sale? Tickets will be $5 a sheet and will close Tuesday morning so that people can collect their prizes before heading home.

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

This year, the P&C are organising a Tea Towel Fundraiser. Most children, should have drawn a picture of themselves to be added to the tea towel. This will be put together and more information will be coming out in the near future…. WATCH THIS SPACE! Tea Towels are a great memento or gift for all family members.

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

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. 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.

SLUG Camp

In the April holidays, three Girl Guides, Belle, Eve and Kristy travelled to Brisbane to participate in a Lone Girl Guide camp called SLUG. The girls, along with leader, Kookaburra, had a great time, despite a little rain, and enjoyed adventurous activities, making new friends, and renewing old friendships.

Belle would like to tell you more . . .

This year some of the Lone Girl Guides went to a SLUG camp. Just in case you don’t know what SLUG stands for it means State Lone Unit Guides. On our SLUG camp we went abseiling, bush walking and canoeing, we also did 1 minute challenges and lots more. We had so much fun and if you want to join in on all that fun, come join the school’s Girl Guide Unit run by the best teachers Kookaburra and Seagull (Mrs O and Ms Simmons)

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

School Photo Day

Charleville Show Winners

Great work from Ebony McDonald and Ethan Gordon-Bond!

Quilpie RSLA ANZAC Trier of the Year

Congratulations to Katelyn Worsnop who was the proud recipient of the ANZAC “Trier of the Year” award.

The “Trier of the Year” award is sponsored by the Quilpie RSLA Sub Branch.

Sport Stars

Charleville Junior Cricket 2017-2018 season

Bryce Pampling - Under 8 Cricketer of the Year
Rohan Pampling - Under 10 Best Batsman
Harry Sewell - Under 12 Coaches Award

Congratulations Bryce, Rohan and Harry!

Year 6 Persuasive Advertising

Year 5 News reports

eKindy Newsletter

Student Newsletter