8 December 2016

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Comments

As we end the school year, may I express my thanks and appreciation to the parents, tutors and students who have worked so diligently throughout the year.

There is a consistent thread coming through the data in our school: student attendance at web lessons leads to improved academic performance. Those students who attend their web lessons, whether in Year 11 or Year 2, consistently perform better in academic results as measured by their levels of achievement recorded each semester and in the standardised testing (i.e. reading ages, writing, etc.) they participate in.

So, perhaps the message for 2017 is simple: Continue to work diligently at home in partnership with your teachers and ensure students attend each web lesson available, regardless of their age or situation.

As a school and as individuals, we have so much to be thankful for at this time of the year. As a society we live in relative peace, our challenges can be overcome and, if we are lucky, we have someone who cares for us.

Please take time over the coming vacation period to find some time for yourself and your family. Relax, laugh a little (or a lot) and focus on renewing yourself for the future year. From the staff of our school and myself, a Merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous New Year.

Until January,

John Clark
Principal

Principal’s Awards Day Speech

Good afternoon Students, Parents, extended Family members and Staff

Today we celebrate the successful end of the 2016 school year and the transition of students to the next stage of their learning pathway or their movement to the broader world of work. As our first year as an Independent Public School, it has been a year of transition as we establish new ways of working and investigate the wider range of possibilities that lie open to us. Our school community is diverse, vibrant and rich in possibilities; our students are achieving and have the potential to achieve great things.

Last night, my wife Anne and I, again had the opportunity to attend the Year 12 senior graduation dinner. One of the graduating students, Keely Johnston, delivered a short and impassioned speech about her school. Now Keely is a young woman who joined us some years ago; she has a story that inspires – in her own words she arrived with us a little lost in her earlier schooling life, then faced significant life threatening and changing health conditions, started her own charity foundation to support children with similar conditions, recorded music with some of the more prominent country music artists within Australia – in other words she now works tirelessly for others while pursuing her own dreams. In her address last night, Keely drew attention to our school’s motto – Distance is no barrier. She then challenged this statement by saying that such words did not adequately address the core values of our school. In her opinion, our school is better and more accurately described in a motto that states – Differences are no barrier. She drew upon her experiences in developing friendships with people from different backgrounds she would never have met in other circumstances, highlighted the support networks originating from her school and a range of other elements that contributed to the richness and value she experienced. She stressed that the strength derived from her school in part from the diverse mix of people coupled with the richness of compassion, understanding and sense of purpose that pervaded her time in her school.

While it is generally my role to state our school is a great school (and let’s be honest that is what you would expect of your school’s Principal otherwise you’d have some concerns) it is uplifting to hear how our students perceive their learning situation and the worth is has in their own lives.

Immediately after Keely’s address, representatives from the families present approached me to, as one person said, ‘say our heartfelt thanks to our school and its teachers and to let you know that it is a great school that believes in its students…”

Now while all of this makes me feel immensely proud of our school, its staff and the communities we serve, the reality is that, in this mix of student learning and the growth of young people, families play a vital role.

Our families generally play essential roles in the daily schooling life of our students. Yet next year our school will start to consider how to build resilience within the personalities of our students.

Resilience is defined as an individual’s ability to successfully adapt to life, its ups and downs, its challenges and disappointments. Resilience is in other words, a person’s ability to bounce back from a negative experience and still function and strive to succeed. This is not a rare ability: in reality, it is found in the average individual and it can be learned and developed by virtually any person – young or old. Resilience is what gives people the strength to cope with stress, disappointment and hardship. Dealing with these things is an inevitable part of life.

Now there is recognition that resilience is one of the most important qualities for a successful life. Yet why are we, as a school, having to ‘teach’ this skill when once it was a function of life within a family and broader community?

At some point in life, everyone experiences in varying degrees a series of setbacks. Some of these challenges may be relatively minor (not winning the race on sports day) while others can be life threatening (being involved in a serious accident). As adults and family members how can we deal with these problems and build this capacity on our children so that it plays a part in the strengthening of their personality?

It is vital that we, as family leaders and not just the school, play pro-active roles in modelling, discussing and supporting our young people to understand that the world does go on and that adversity (regardless of how small or large) is an opportunity to reflect and grow.

Resilient young people are able to utilize their skills and strengths to cope and recover from problems, disappointments and challenges if we as adults model and guide them on that journey. Instead of failing into negative emotions and adopting unhealthy coping strategies (poor sportsmanship, tantrums, social media trolling and a host of others you could add to), resilient young people face their disappointments and difficulties head on. This does not mean they do not experience distress, grief or anxiety – they do; it does mean that they handle such difficulties in ways that foster their growth and strength.

Why is it that resilience has become topic for education and society in general when once it was a seemingly by-product of communal living and family growth? I find it a little perplexing that we as a school now have to attend to formal approaches to foster resilience within young people. Traditionally, this has been, as I stated earlier, within the realm of family life and the broader social organisations in which children interacted.

As a rapidly aging educator, I direct some of the responsibility to the late 1970’s and early 1980’s phenomena where children were perceived as fragile creatures who could not be faced with disappointment or even failure. So everybody who was in a race won a prize; academic and sporting success was clouded under a range of non-descriptive terms; and somehow the word ‘failed’ created a wholly negative image. The ‘my child’ is always right attitude took hold.

How do we review what we do as a community so that rather than encourage reliance and hopelessness, we strengthen the daily factors and interactions that contribute to resilience?

Some young persons will come to these abilities naturally; they may have the personality traits that enable them to learn from challenges and disappointments. But these skills and understandings are not part of the general make up of human beings; we, especially the young, need to learn this.

As families, and as a school, we need to acknowledge that there are some things we can do, in simple ways that will have a profound effect on the future lives of our youth: In my mind here are five things we can all start to do, in simple ways, that builds this capacity within our young people.

The first is social support. Mentally strong people tend to have the support of family and friends who bolster them up in times of trouble and disappointment. Providing excuses for disappointment or failure in some task diminishes the potential for growth within the individual; talking about the problem and the value of the individual enables the person to grow, reflect and build on the experience.

This is closely aligned to the second point: Help your young person to build positive views of themselves and their abilities. Any person in a developmental state cannot handle constant negative and derogatory statements. In times of stress, it is easy to forget and let emotions and our own frustrations emerge; somewhere in there we need to ensure that the message includes the simple context of “I love you; you are worthy of my attention; you have a place in our world”. It is not hard to do, yet in our own frustrations and rush to deal with the world, we often forget to make time to clearly articulate that we find the young person to be worthy of our attention.

A further and perhaps more internalised point to consider is to ensure a young person develops an internal locus of control. Now, a locus of control is the degree to which people believe that they have control over the outcome of events in their lives, as opposed to external forces beyond their control. If you instil a belief that work will bring benefit; that they have a control and influence on how the world treats them, then resilience will follow.

This leads into the next element which is that resilience follows when people view themselves as fighters rather than victims. It is so easy for us as adults or young persons and in times of stress, to slip into the role of victim – just read the newspapers each day. The drought’s effects are someone else’s responsibility; why isn’t the road fixed; somone/some party in the council or government doesn’t like me…the list is endless. Our current society seems to wallow in victimhood; perhaps that’s one of the reasons we have to consider ‘teaching’ resilience! Fighters know the world is not fair; they know they will be disappointed; but they also know that this can be changed through hard work, diligence and sticking to their values. Please help us to teach your children to be fighters and not victims. Victims end up living shallow lives; fighters have a wide vista of opportunities and emotional wealth to select from.

Finally, it has been shown that those young people who become good communicators have correspondingly high levels of resilience. They can talk about their disappointments; they actively listen to responses; they analyse the communication around them to make sense of their disappointments and to build new pathways to success. Encourage your children to talk, listen, read and write. It is trite, but perhaps the television turned off and dinner around the table while talking might be one step towards ensuring our youth are better prepared for the complex world that awaits them.

Many of you will already do some or all of these things, but if the evidence we see before us has any validity, then we, as a society, need to do more. We can start at the family level; we can continue at the school level; and we can work within our broader communities to ensure the environment in which our children grow reflects the principles of healthy development and not the social fads that come and go.

In summarising, I say: Failure is part of life. Success teaches you nothing, but failure accompanied by the right skills teaches you resilience. The ability for a young person to reflect on their disappointments, then pick themselves up and to try again is invaluable. It may be the difference between a happy and productive life or one where regret and sadness dominates.

To our students, remember to always have a go; do not be afraid of failing in something; use that to learn what to do next time so that you gradually get better and build a life you want – not a life you are given.

P & C

Farewell to our Home Tutor Families

Stacey Kirkwood and Amanda Clark from the P & C presented gifts to Home Tutors who have been with the school for over 10 years, Nicole Stevenson, Liz Shephard and Rachel Weston. Thank you to these ladies for the contribution they have made to their childrens education and to the school over the years. We wish them all the best.

Christmas Raffle Winners

Andrew Hyde from Hughenden and Sue Isaak from Bushland Beach were the winners of the P & C Christmas Raffles. The CTSDE P & C would like to thank family and friends who kindly donated items towards the raffle and for selling and buying tickets.

Student Council

Student Council Wrap up of 2016

This year I was the senior house captain of Shelton. Wow! What a year it has been, to look where we came from to now. We had so many wonderful events this year! We had the sporting carnivals which Shelton won again; however, Treager did very well. I think the best event for the student council all year was the fun run because it was great to get moving! I hope the future years that I am at CTSDE are just like this one.

Montana Spurdle
Shelton Secondary House Captain

I am the secondary student representative for this year. It has been a lot of fun helping to organise events. The thing I enjoyed most this year about being on the student council, would have to be helping out with the preps – three’s dance-a-thon and the under 8’s day at Mini School.

Shontel Bickerstaff
Secondary School Representative

As Junior House Captain for Traeger in 2016, it’s been an honour to represent my school at various events. This year has been full of great times and I’d just like to name a few. As House Captain, it was my responsibility to lead the Traeger war cries and march at both the Athletics and Swim Carnivals. The swim carnival was a tough competition for everyone, and was a great success for both teams with many points earned. Next on the calendar was the Athletics Carnival and although I was not able to compete due to injury, I was still able to cheer on my fellow Traeger team mates. Alas, Shelton was too strong on the day; however, all participants gave their best and competed with pride.

Outreaches and Inreaches came and went but my favourite would have to have been the second Cape River Outreach, held at Wambiana Station, due to the bush setting and laid-back atmosphere. I’m sure everyone had a great time no matter where the occasion was held thanks to the tireless help of parents and teachers.

A few months went and it was time for the much anticipated Minischool, when the Years 6 students spent the week in Townsville. Because of our role on the Student Council, some of us were responsible for organising a disco in Townsville, whilst the seniors ran a biathlon to raise money for the school. The Year 3 kids camped at the school Thursday night and, from what I’ve heard, it was great fun. Then all too soon it was time to say “Bye” to our mates and head home once more, full of good times and plenty of yarns.

Last but not least, we had the ICPA Sports Camp held at Columba Catholic College where we did 7 sports every day for 3 days, including water polo, kayaking, archery, tennis, rugby league, yoga and circus. A huge thanks to all the mums and dads who helped make this week possible, as well as the coaches and Columba for allowing us to use their premises. The week was great fun and although we were quite exhausted afterwards, we’d all had a ball.

Well that seems to wrap up my highlights for the year. I am really looking forward to being involved in the Awards Ceremony and to the celebrations that follow. My last 7 years at Distance Ed has been a roller-coaster ride with more thrills ‘n spills than a rodeo. I’ve made many good mates and I hope to keep in contact with everyone as I head off to boarding school in 2017. So good luck to all the Student Council members next year and thanks to all my teachers and Mum for supporting me.

Connor Lyons
Traeger Primary House Captain

This past year I have enjoyed the position of primary house captain for Shelton. It was a good learning experience and I learned leadership skills through the things I have done. I have enjoyed the responsibility of the student council and the rewards that come with it. In April this year, I was lucky enough to fly down to Brisbane with the primary student councils members for a leadership conference which was an amazing experience. Overall, the student council has given me opportunities and experiences that I would not have had otherwise, with a lot of fun along the way.

Mackenzie Broad
Shelton Primary House Captain

This Year has been an exciting and very busy year for the student council. It was hard sometimes juggling my school work and student council activities. However, I think the hardest was remembering the meetings! Fortunately, I have an alarm on my phone that has saved me from completely forgetting many meetings. The effort and ideas put forth by the other members have been great this year, and made for a different and fun year. The biathlon at the Columba College had to be one of my favourite activities. It was an awesome idea, and everyone involved enjoyed it, especially cooling off in the pool after that exhausting run. Also helping to run the prep to grade 3 dance-athon, was exciting and it was entertaining to watch them all have a great time dancing to the music. I loved being a part of the student council this year, and I hope that next year’s student council members have as much fun as we did.

Emma Shepherdson
Secondary School Captain

2016 Outgoing Student Council

2017 Student Council Members

Learning Support

Miss D’Amant’s Learning Support Class

There is no elevator to success, you have to take the stairs.

The end of the year has come around again, and I’m sure all the home tutors can relate. However, among the tough times, there are always break throughs, light bulb moments and laughter.

We have had a great term here in the Learning Support department and the recruitment of new students has exploded the social aspect of our lessons. I have listened to the students chatter away online to each other, offer wonderful encouragement and provided each other with some healthy competition.

I look forward to working with our students next year and watch them grow and progress as much as I have this year. Happy holidays to you all.

Miss Ché D’Amant
Learning Support

Miss Watherston’s Year 5 Learning Support

At the far end of the year
Where our lessons come to an end
Our small class of two
Acquired a third friend.

Term 4 saw the addition of a new classmate so it will be the three musketeers going into 2017 together for their final year in primary school. This term we immersed ourselves in the colourful world of Dr. Seuss’ Truffula Trees. We opened our eyes to deforestation, pollution and greed while comparing Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax book and movie. We had some great discussions about the Once-ler’s impact on the world around him and all students produced detailed, labelled drawings showing the setting of our text.

Miss Erin Watherston
Year 5 Learning Support Teacher

Miss Watherston’s Year 6 Learning Support

This term our year 6 class set out on the confronting journey of learning about bear farming in South East Asia. We looked closely at two texts: Moon Bear Rescue by Australian author Kim Dale and Southern Asian Moon Bears; an informative brochure where we discovered the sad and unnecessary fate that awaited captured moon bears unless they were rescued by wildlife sanctuaries. The year 6s showed great maturity and did very well at tackling this topic head on, building our scientific language along the way.

The year 6 learning support class will be moving on to high school next year, and I am very proud of how far each of you have come this year. Good luck in Year 7!

Miss Erin Watherston
Year 6 Learning Support Teacher

Braxton’s persuasive writing

Too Cool for Primary School

Year 2 were hooked in at Mini-school…

The Year 2 students packed their snorkels and flippers and dived head first into a breathtaking mini-school “Under the Sea.” Upon their arrival, the students were surprised to be greeted by several familiar characters such as Dory, Nemo and Bruce. Dory and her friends kept a watchful eye over our Year 2 students who had a swimmingly good time.

In English, the students were a little bit tongue-tied learning tongue twisters, sea poetry, sea songs and sharing sea stories and facts they found in the sea books. Our school of students also shared some information they had researched on interesting sea creatures. In Maths, we skip counted our way to the water where we baited our lines and took a chance at fishing. Each group tallied up their catch to record and graph which group were the better anglers. Let’s just say it was impossible for Dory to decide! Through the luscious green seaweed we found a baby stingray and shark. It was certainly an exciting experience watching them grow before our eyes! At the end of our deep sea diving into knowledge each day, we chilled out in our coral reef and completed some jaw dropping art work. Looking out of our porthole windows we watched our seahorses float past us as we dreamed what it would be like to be a mermaid or merman.

The Year 2 students also had the opportunity to experience some different activities throughout the week with some very valuable teachers with some hidden talents. Miss Geisel came and introduced us to some Drama where the students acted out a scene from Shakespeare. We decided we didn’t know how to speak whale as such but we were able to recite some Shakespeare. We danced like jellyfish until Miss Heath came to our rescue and taught us some groovy moves! NRL helped us practise our crab scuttle and unfortunately for Miss Micallef and Mrs Simatis they took the bait and ended up trapped in the net. Once the teachers were back on their feet, Year 2 went for a trip to the Library to visit Mrs Currin. Much to our surprise she was not the Mrs Currin we remembered; CRIKEY she was wrestling with a crocodile! We let her do her job as we discovered the coral reef on the map of Australia and when the coast was clear we swam back to our classroom.

By the end of the week, the Year 2 students were ready to hang up their flippers, rinse out their snorkels and head off back home. We as teachers had such a wonderful time with our students and we hope you all enjoyed your last Early Years mini-school.

Miss Chantel Micallef and Mrs Lyn Simatis
Year 2 Teachers

The Alternate Learning Initiatives Department.

The school’s Department of Alternate Learning Initiatives has had a productive 2016 with our Partnership Centres.

We have received terrific news in the last few days that one of our partnership centres, INTERCEPT YJET was the recipient of a Bronze National Award at the Australian Violence and Crime Prevention Awards. YJET staff were flown to Canberra for the presentation ceremony. The media release mentions CTSDE as a partner agency which has played a major role in this centre achieving this special award. Well done Intercept and the ALI team!

Last week our school celebrated student achievement at the annual Celebration Day and a number of students were recognised for their efforts. These are excellent results from our students and we congratulate each of them.

2016 ALC Award Nominations (Merit):

10 Core English- Student from Salvation Army Maroochydore
10 Core Maths- Soraya Adelerhof from Intercept
9 Core English- Student from PCYC Upper Ross
9 Core Maths- Student from Salvation Army Maroochydore
8 Core English- Student from PCYC Upper Ross.

ALC Awards from Secondary Department:

Year 12 English Communication (Academic) - Kayla Leonard from Salvation Army Caloundra.
Year 12 Prevocational Math (Academic) - Kayla Leonard from Salvation Army Caloundra.

In addition to these awards, we also have a number of Year 12 students who are graduating. They will receive Graduation Mugs and pens. We wish these students all the best with their future endeavours and trust that their achievements in working through our courses will stand them in good stead for their future.

2017 will mark the start of a new era for our department, as students are re-classified from Category C to Category A. This will mean more support provided to these students in the form of additional contact and online lessons. The Partnership centres have been invited to attend a Workshop in Term 1, covering topics pertinent to the new changes and to support their role as tutors in the centres. We look forward to strengthening our partnership with the attending centre staff.

Another change for our department as we move towards 2017, is our new name. We are moving from being named Alternative Learning Initiatives to FLIQ- Flexible Learning Initiatives Queensland. This will enable us to be better recognised for the work our team does at a state level.

As this is the final DIRT article for 2016, we would like to wish all of our students, Partnership centres and tutors a Very Merry Christmas. Enjoy the break and stay safe.

Meg Mackenzie

ALC Teacher

Roseberry Community Services Celebrates

One of our partnership centres INTERCEPT YJET has received a Bronze award at the Australian Violence and Crime Prevention Awards. This is a well-deserved award for INTERCEPT and one that we played a major role in. Intercept is very proud and excited about receiving the award and were quick to point out that we were/are part of that success.

Richard Heard

Year 3 Mini School

The Year 3 students had a busy schedule at the 2016 Mini School. The students created artworks, explored the underwater aquarium at Reef HQ, wrote exciting stories, acted out a Shakespeare play, went swimming, participated in NRL and even enjoyed their first sleepover. There was even a joint birthday celebration during a morning tea.

Throughout Mini-School the students investigated threats to the Great Barrier Reef and suggested actions to help protect and sustain the Reef. On Tuesday, we participated in an underwater dive with a marine biologist at Reef HQ.

The students were very excited to be sleeping over Thursday night at the school. As expected, they behaved perfectly. In the evening we were lucky enough to watch Mary Poppins over at the Cricket Centre – what a treat!

When the students were not busy working on their English stories or investigating the Great Barrier Reef they were participating in a range of activities. Tuesday afternoon we went for a splash in the pool to cool off. On Wednesday, we were lucky enough to have Miss Geisel come down and teach us all about Shakespeare and we all got a chance to act out part of a play (Miss Nelson and Mrs Purdie included). On Thursday, we brought out our artistic talents and used chalk pastels to create beautiful works of art.

Swimming

Thanks for a great year!

Miss Nelson and Mrs Purdie
Year 3 Teachers

Library News

A HUGE Thank You to all who participated in Bookfair.

The Library now has $701.80 worth of new books.

Another Thank You for a donation of $100 from Goldfield Ashes Association. I have purchased some sporty chapter books.

We would also like to thank Helen Milton and Yeronga Memorial Swimming Pool for a donation of $200 to purchase books to encourage our reluctant readers.

If you search our library site under “notes” for Goldfield 2016 or Yeronga 2016 you will find a complete list of donations. Also search Bookfair October 2016 for our newbies.

The winners for the overall QSuper Premier’s Reading Challenge Competition have been posted online and can be found at:

Jenny Currin
Librarian

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