December 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Ponderings

Congratulations and thank you to everyone for the wonderful year. I would like to share the “speech” from Speech and Award’s day this term.

The celebratory alphabet of CSDE

And for humour; we all need a good laugh probably not as good as Mr Morris’s jokes but…

Joke: Do you know the difference between an alligator and a crocodile?

I am not sure…you have to pay attention to whether he sees you later or in a while.

Reflecting upon 2018, we have had an interesting year of constant change…nothing major but always working at problem solving and supporting the students, curve balls and opportunities.

I have had a total of ten weeks out of the school for other work, long service leave and travel to visit schools in Canada and China. How grateful am I for all of these opportunities and to come back to our school and the people. A warm and special thank you to Sarah who led the school through those times and for always being there over the past two years. We will miss your enthusiasm and stoicism as you quickly learned the way of Charleville SDE and will miss your knowledge and expertise in the areas of processes and procedures, which you helped to improve upon during this time. As you return to Charters Towers SDE, we wish you much fun and enjoyment.

Also leaving are Tim Wicks, Nathan Donnelly, Alison Simmons, Jack Morris and Ellen Daunis

We thank these people for their dedication to the school and for their time with us and wish them well in their next positions. Each of you has left a special memory in our hearts and heads.

I recall Alison coming for a pre visit and witnessing the Rocks Hotel burn down…what a welcome to Charleville. Alison embraced all things distance education and built productive relationships with the families, students and staff. You will be missed.

Tim and Nathan, a short sojourn in Charleville, you have gained experience and memories and we thank you for what we have learned from you.

Jack heads off to South Korea on an adventure and further learning about teaching, students and culture. Jack has helped to further grow the Western Alliance with his enthusiasm, honesty and care for our students. All the best wishes Jack.

Ellen has stood in, stepped up and given much to the smooth running of the operations of the school. I do hope that this is not farewell and that we see you around soon Ellen.

Staffing for 2019:

Principal: Jenny Swadling

Acting Deputy Principal: Katrina Dunne

HOD T&L Secondary: Mandy McDonald

HOD T&L Primary and Reading Coach: Leonie Herwig

SWD: Louise Upton

STL&N: Rickie Itzstein
STL&N 0.5: Joel Goodingham
STL&N 0.5: Renae Nass

Diverse Learners support 0.4: Ainsley Thomson

IFS Internal relief 0.8: Katy Williams

LRT/DRT: Rachael De Luca

LOTE: Scott Paine

Other staffing: our wonderful support staff remain the same: Tippy (BM), Mitch (AO), Jenny, Virginia, Kerry, Erica and Leah (Teacher Aides), Carmel (cleaner extraordinaire), Steve and Kevin (Grounds and facilities).

We farewell Nat Batson from the Thargomindah Secondary Learning Centre and wish her all the best as she returns to teaching her children through Charleville SDE. Your organisational skills and support of the students in the centre has been much appreciated and we will miss you. Thank you for being part of the staff.

Our celebrations of success are listed in the ABC and are evident in the report cards that are coming your way in the near future. Thank you for the teamwork, thank you for effort to have your students prepared and ready for lessons and field events this year.

Farewell to the students and families leaving us for other schools and places. It has been a pleasure to have your children at our school. A special mention goes to the students who commenced in Prep and finished year ten. What a journey it has been. Thank you for being part of our journey.

Western Alliance 2019:

Support Committee

A big thank you to Jacque Blacket for her support for the WA and her attendance on the WA Support Committee. We will be calling for a representative through the P&C early in 2019.

Calendar

We have aligned the calendar of events with the other WA schools as best we can to minimise disruption to Secondary students and their accessibility to lessons.

Camps 2019

The WA students have a Careers Camp planned for 2019. This will be generously funded by donations from the RNA Women’s fundraising group and will be the formal camp offered to all WA students. There will be no WA lessons during that week. The Charleville students will also be offered a place in the Snow/Canberra camp that is organised by Charleville, however the WA lessons will continue that week delivered by all three schools. A student will not be able to choose the Snow/Canberra camp without having participated in the Careers camp. A student who chooses to attend both will have to negotiate the content and catch up of the learning/lessons taught during the week away at the Canberra/Snow Camp.

Staffing

Chris McIntosh will continue as HOD Operations 0.5 for the whole of the WA. Janeen Fricke will continue as Principal and Nikki Barlow will continue as Deputy Principal of Mt Isa for Semester One. Bobby Harding and Rachelle Moore will continue as Principal and Deputy of Longreach.

Mt Isa teachers are: David Yang, Chris McIntosh and Renee Moore. Longreach teachers are Sue Dollery, Frank Taylor and Amy Cochrane.

Cherie Legge (Longreach) and Graeme Foster (Mt Isa) are leaving the WA.

2019 Minischools:

Thank you to all Home Tutors for their input and discussion at the Minischools. Again these were most productive with feedback on initiatives that we have been progressing this year and are fine tuning for 2019.

During the past couple of years we have monitored the attendance and running of the Western Minischool in Quilpie/Thargomindah. Due to dwindling numbers and unfortunate erratic circumstances, and looking at predictions of student enrolment in the area we were looking at holding Minischool in Charleville and Roma. A letter was sent to the school community to notify them of this decision. A meeting was held with parents from the western areas and a survey has been conducted as to the number of students in the western area who would be attending Minischool. At the time of writing this newsletter the number of students is between 15 and 20 and we will hold a Minischool in Thargomindah as per the Field services policy.

Lesson delivery 2019

Flexible Fridays will continue for the Primary classes. The allocated on-air class time will be available for teachers to use these as they require. There will be diversity across the year levels. Teachers are being made aware of multi-age classes in your homes and Home Tutors who prefer their student to be on air each day to allow them time to teach other students.

Primary classes will be in an A and B group (except for Prep which will have a C group as well) and these will be combined geographical areas.

Lessons will be one English per A and B class and one Maths per A/B class. This has come about because there is one teacher per year level and the class teacher is responsible for the students’ English, Maths, Science and all KLAs as well as reading groups.

As with any planning, should there be an increase in enrolments there may be changes to delivery.

Spelling: A rewritten program is being sent to all Primary students. Secondary students do not have a written spelling program as spelling may be an identified support area for a few students, and is the responsibility of the subject teacher for subject specific words.

Reading: Reading groups will continue in 2019. We will continue to build on Home Tutor knowledge and understanding with the Partner’s in Learning and to continue with the development of reading groups. Minilit will continue as the early intervention program.

Priorities in 2019: still being finalised

• Reading
• Wellbeing/communication/community engagement
• Secondary: writing across the WA – all subjects, all teachers (to be confirmed)
• For all staff: Autonomy, Accountability, and Alignment.
  - Autonomy in the work that they do,
  - Accountability to the system and the smooth running of the school to deliver outcomes, and
  - Alignment with the Australian curriculum, with each other and with the needs of the school community.

Wishing you all a very big thank you and a wonderful break full of happiness, family friends and festivity.

Jenny.

From the Deputy’s Desk

It was wonderful to see all the families at Swim Muster and Speech and Awards. All the best for the future for our outgoing 2018 School Leaders. Congratulations to the 2019 Schools Leaders. You are going to do such an awesome job!

I have decided to return to Charters Towers SDE for 2019. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the entire school community for their support over the last two years. I wish Katrina Dunne on all the best as Acting Deputy Principal in 2019.

PLO Prattle

2018 is over, where did that go? This term has been a whirl wind with Minischools, Multischool, Swim Muster, Graduation and Speech & Awards, along with all the other day to day things that happen.

Congratulations to Kanyanna for winning Swim Muster. Also a great big Congratulations to the Staff team (Jack Morris, Leah Thomas, Tam Jenyns, Mandy McDonald and Alison Simmons) on finally winning the Parent/Staff relay.

Congratulations to the Year 6 and Year 10 students who graduated. The next step in your life journey is just beginning.

Kick Start Conference brochures have been placed in everyone’s pigeon holes for mailing out. To receive the early bird discount, registration and payment must be made by the 7th December 2018. Lots of great activities for both the Home Tutors and the Students, hope to see as many of you attending as possible.

I wish everyone a very wet Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, hopefully not too many more dust storms.

See you all in 2019.

Cheers
Helen

HOD - T&L Primary and Secondary 2018 Reflection

We would like to thank the school community for their warm welcome this year. This year we have both enjoyed learning from all our community members at CSDE, tackled the many new challenges faced head on and had our eyes opened to the wonderful opportunities CSDE offer both families and staff. A special shout out to the teachers of CSDE and the Western Alliance for working with us to implement change within the schools. Thank you for supporting us throughout this year. We know that through your hard work our school will continue to progress for the better, ensuring our students are being set up to achieve endless possibilities.

We will both be back in the same positions next year however Leonie will have the added challenge of Reading Coach.

• Data & Observation Days – staff have been able to observe other teachers and learn from them to make changes in their own lessons, they’ve considered research and best practice particularly in relation to giving feedback, the Literacy Continuum, the Balanced Reading Approach and review of class data to set goals for improvement.
• Streamlining of data collection to establish reading and spelling levels of students in Year 7. This data collection will help establish what levels of support students need to further develop their literacy capabilities.
• The Western Alliance song was written, recorded and filmed during Multischool Term 4 as part of the process of revitalising the WA identity and vision.
• MISOTA Curriculum Alignment process was adopted and adapted for secondary teachers across the Western Alliance. This process allows teachers to develop their curriculum knowledge and assessment literacy via aligning the current C2C assessment and resource to the Australian Curriculum Version 8.
• Prep – a new version of the papers were implemented 2018 with more induction and support for Home Tutors being offered in 2019 through Kickstart sessions and Drop-In Sessions after feedback from Home Tutors
• A Unit Planner template has been developed to encourage consistency of information delivery across the Western Alliance. This revisited template included specific aspects that will allow for better communication to paper-based students as well as room for notes when adapting and adopting the current ILMs for V8 Australian Curriculum.
• Secondary Home Tutor sessions have begun and will continue in 2019 as another way of communication.

Digital Discoveries

App of the Month: Microsoft OneDrive (in case you missed it last month)

Students can access their OneDrive accounts on their iPads or Android devices using the OneDrive App. OneDrive is a free online space for all your files. Remember, you must use your student email address to access your account.

Apple - Download from:

Android – Download from:

One Drive for Students

What is One Drive?

OneDrive is a part of Office 365 and provides students with a place to store up to 5 terabytes of work in the cloud. Watch an Introduction to OneDrive Video here.

Accessing OneDrive

Go to Webmail (student email) at the website below and click on the ‘waffle’ (set of 9 squares) in the top left corner and select OneDrive.

Uploading to OneDrive

Once in OneDrive, students can click on the +New button to create folders and create new documents. Students can also use the Upload button to select files they wish to add to their OneDrive storage.

Sharing Your Files

Once the student has uploaded to OneDrive, they can then share this file with their teacher who is able to download a copy of the file. This is a great option for larger files such as PowerPoint presentations, videos and photos. Students can only share their files with people who have @eq.edu.au email addresses.

Students can share a document from OneDrive in a number of ways:

1. Select the checkbox next to the document you would like to share, then click on the Share button in the toolbar, fill in the options and click Share.

2. Open the document in Edit mode, click on the Share button, fill in the options and click Share.

When using either of these options, a Share options dialog is displayed that allows you to send a link to whomever you wish to share it with.

Files and folders can be shared with either Edit or View access - Edit access is the default option. To change the level of access to View, select the Briefcase dropdown menu to access Link Settings and then deselect Allow editing under the Other settings heading.

What Uses Data

Here's a guide to get an idea of how much data on average you are using when performing basic tasks:

From www.telstra.com.au

QParents

QParents is a secure online web and mobile portal that provides parents of Queensland State School students with direct online access to student information such as:

• Timetables
• Behaviour
• Invoices and payments
• Past Report cards
• Enrolment history
• Student photo
• Student details

QParents provides parents with secure online access to student information already available from the school through other communication methods, and complies with departmental policies, privacy and stringent security standards through identity management. It is important to note that schools retain control over the types of information accessible to parents through QParents.

To access QParents go to:

Student Work

The Year 7 students have been developing their coding abilities and were challenged to make a game in Scratch for their peers. Here are some screen shots of their creations.

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: 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.

From the Technician’s Table

Laptop Hire Scheme

Due to a limited number of laptop’s available for hire next year, they will be first in best dressed.

The next pickup is KickStart Feb 2019.

• A reminder for families to make sure that they keep their phone equipment clean as a lot of them have been coming back very dirty.
  They may be charged a cleaning fee if this happens.
  If any of the families need new Voice Tubes or Earpads for their headsets please contact the Technical Officer Bill Grant.

P & C News

Swim & Speech Awards

2018 Swim and Speech Awards are now done. Thank you to the staff and everyone behind the scenes to make it a great event for everyone.

Just remember that our amazing Grant writer, Christy Bredhauer, was able to get a travel subsidy grant to help with the costs of travel and accommodation for GI families who attended BOTH Swim muster on the Monday and Speech & Awards on Tuesday. Make sure you get your form and receipts back ASAP via your blue bags.

THANK YOU!!!

Thank you to everyone who has been involved in the P&C this year.

On behalf of the Executives, we would like to wish you all A Very Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, a well-earned holiday break and most importantly, we hope you all receive some great rain!

All Executives are still active in their positions over the Christmas break, so if you have any queries, please contact us.

We are looking forward seeing you all at Kickstart in 2019, and welcoming you all back with a P&C Meet & Greet Breakfast!

EVERYONE is invited to join us for a provided breakfast on Wednesday 7th February at 7am.

We are excited to see you all back in 2019 with exciting plans for the year!

From the desk of Alison Simmons

The time has come for me to move on. It’s sad, I know, but it’s time to go.

I arrived in Charleville eight years ago looking for an adventure and, wow, what an adventure I’ve had!

I started at CSDE when contact phone calls were weekly and class lessons were together on one phone line in a studio where the teachers sat down to chat. The home tutors worked tirelessly with their students through booklets that had daily work. Finished worked was ‘mailed in’ (snail mail) and teachers ticked, flicked through the pages and stuck stickers all over.

And then digital technology powered ahead and we began web conferencing! Suddenly, we could SEE and hear the students! C2C was introduced and units were created, supplemented with The Learning Place resources and teachers’ skills.

The rest is history. Over my eight years ICT has certainly made a huge difference to learning on the air and via distance education. Some things have basically stayed the same – minischools, cluster musters, camps, sport and swim musters and end of year activities. These field events have always been the most enjoyable part of CSDE. That’s because I’ve always enjoyed seeing the students face to face and meeting families.

Better still, I have really enjoyed home visits. This has been a fantastic way to see how distance education school rooms operate. There are some very organised and creative home tutors out there! It has been an honour to step into some of your lives to share and care. I have learnt so much from these trips, like the difference between a Santa Gertrudis and a Brahman, camp drafting and mustering, mulga and box trees! And how to drive in the red dust.

I have met so many wonderful students and people. Best wishes to the CSDE families. I will treasure my time in this wonderful school.

Merry Christmas and let it rain!

Swim Muster

Speech and Awards

Savannah Blacket’s speech from Speech and Awards

Welcome invited guests, students, staff, parents and home tutors.

11 years ago, I was a little preppy with chubby cheeks and my, now cringey, headbands.

The senior girls used to pinch my cheeks because they thought I was cute. I couldn’t wait till I was older (and taller).

I never imagined myself 11 years from then standing up here delivering my leaving speech and saying farewell to CSDE.

Campbell West has also been doing Prep with me for those 11 years. We have both grown so much. Especially in height! It has been a pleasure to spend 11 years with you Campbell, thank you.

It has been a long journey from Prep to Year 10. I have been very fortunate to have many amazing teachers and classmates throughout my journey. My very first teacher was Miss Jenny Fisher, she taught me how to make fairy bread and spaghetti on toast. I still sometimes eat fairy bread for breakfast.

Over some of my years in primary school and high school I was very lucky (in some ways) to have my Mum as my teacher. There were many arguments, but also many good times. Mum usually says mothers are always right. But I still don’t agree with that Mum. There is only so much mothers can be right about!

And that first and last time I had Dad in the schoolroom. Let’s just say when he was my age he couldn’t wait to leave. I think that gives you all an idea of why that was his first and last time. Dad rarely came to any of our school events. He works a lot so it makes it really hard, I don’t think he’s the only one either.

I think the worst times during primary school were when we would have to pull out those MABs and coloured bears and count them. Do you even still use those? I never liked Maths… Mum even made a video about how much I didn’t like it for my teacher at the time. It was only until I was in High School that I started liking Maths.

I remember when our pody goat Rima ate the phone and internet cords. We had no internet or phone for at least a week. And when I would explain to my teachers, they found it rather funny. Of course, not at the time for us. Rima still lurks around the house and shed, and eats whatever looks edible. There are miniature versions of her now.

The days in the schoolroom where everything would get so hectic was the time where we would get up YouTube and play just dance or watch something hilarious. Or other days I would blast Disney soundtracks or K-Pop. That’s when Jayden would lose the plot and tell me to turn it off. Then just to annoy our govies it would be heavy metal!

Over my years at Charleville Distance Ed I have learnt a lot. No, I don’t mean just schoolwork. I have learnt to have patience (except for when the computer freezes), to always do my best and do everything to the best of my abilities. Recently, I just learnt that they now use a food circle. It was a triangle when I learn about the food groups. Just goes to show you do learn something everyday.

To my Year 10 class this year. We have done it, all those exams, assessments, send-ins and weird Science experiments. I wish you all the very best. Some of you are going straight into the workforce, some of you are continuing to 11 and 12 like me and maybe some of you just want to stay home and work out what you’re doing with your life.

To my teachers I have had over the years. Thank you! The only reason that I am able to say I have graduated is because of you. Without teachers there would be no school.

Mrs O, you have been with us for 11 years. You are simply amazing. Every lesson that you do is so much fun.

Miss Nolan, your Ag lessons were my favourite, but not those times when we would come to class not knowing our glossary.

Mr Morris, those Science and History lessons were always awesome. Except for the naughts and crosses, and connect four games. I would usually lose…

Miss Moore, your excitement for Math exams and home work was… refreshing. You always just could imagine my excitement over it too.

Ms Juniper, my love for books is because of you. I will miss receiving your recommended books.

Mr Wicks and Ms Machray, Chill Club is a relatively new club, it is so worth going to. The name says it all. I think you should have the pass it on game as tradition.

Mrs Swadling and Ms Norquay, thank you for being my principal and deputy principal. It has been a pleasure.

Mrs Anderssen, thank you for giving Renae and I the opportunity to be senior school captains.

Next year I will be going to Scots PGC in Warwick for my last two years of school. I hope to study and get a job after that. And live happily ever after. Only joking, unfortunately life isn’t like Disney movies. I’m sure a lot of us wish it was at times. But not Frozen, because then we would have to sing Let It Go a lot.

Thank you for listening, enjoy the rest of your day

Student School Photos 2019

Attention Families

As our Sports Muster for 2019 has changed to May in 2019, our usual photographers, MSP Photography are unavailable. Attempts have been made to source other photographers to come out at this time, but unfortunately they all have prior commitments.

Good news!

Country School Photos are in Charleville during the week of KickStart and we have asked them to provide this service to our families.

The photo dates will be Thursday 7th & Friday 8th February 2019.

The photo order envelopes will be provided at the registration desk at KickStart Conference, along with the photo schedule that will detail the order of class photos, staff photos, clubs, group photos etc.

Packages:

• Class photo only (20 x 25cms laminated print) - $20.00
• Photo Pack including Class Photo - $30.00
  (1 15x20cm, 1 10x15cm, 4 5x7cm portraits)
• Sibling Pack - $20.00
  (1 15x20cm, 1 1015cm, 4 5x7.5cm portraits)
• 3 Extra Bookmarks with Photo Pack - $3.00
• Class Fun Photo (B&W laminated print/Not named) - $10.00

So this means that school uniforms need to go on your packing list for KickStart Conference. Please note that uniforms are available for purchase at the Office.

Student Newsletter

Please click on the following link to view the latest Student Newsletter