1 September 2017

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Comments

Year 6 Mini School

The Rotary support for our Year 6 mini-school ‘camp’ has ended. Thank you to the Townsville Rotary Clubs for their efforts, financial support and organization that allowed our students over several years to experience a wide range of activities.

In 2017, the Year 6 mini-school ‘camp’ will continue though due to these changes in support, costs will need to rise. The ‘camp’ will continue, to be held in Townsville visiting many of the same sites (thanks to those local businesses and organisations for their continued support).

This year the ‘camp’ fee returns to its 2014 price, $200 per student for the week. The school will cover all bus costs (bus for 5 days from Charters Towers – Townsville) and some other operational costs through some discrete funding held for special purposes. The student fee will cover accommodation and meal costs.

John Clark
Principal

Deputy Principal’s Comments

As I write this article, it is hard to believe that the September break is only two weeks away. It certainly feels as though the year has flown by; or, perhaps it is just a sign of age that time seems to go by with increasing speed!

At this time every year, we cast our eyes ahead and begin to prepare for 2018. At the same time, and in some ways closer to home, we also prepare for the imminent demands of reporting, Celebration Day and Mini School. While quite different in nature and mind set, equally important parts of our school’s culture, showing us the road ahead and contributing to the education and welfare of our students.

As a school, regardless of what phase of development or preparation we find ourselves, it is essential that we do not lose sight of the end goal. That of providing our students with opportunities for educational development and growth as a pathway to a successful future.

Cameron Burke
Deputy Principal

Year 4

My goodness, I cannot believe it is week 8 already! What a busy term it has been in Year 4. There has been 2 outreaches and the Primary Inter-schools Athletics Carnival so far. Congratulations to all the students who competed in the inter-house athletics carnival at the end of term 2. A special congratulations to two of our Year 4 students, Georgie Spurdle and Charley McClelland for making the Charters Towers Primary School Athletics Team and will compete at the NQ trials in Townsville. Georgie made the trials for high jump and Charley for long jump.

Year 4 have been busy exploring water fastness and smudge resistance in Science, evaluating the author’s use of language features for Rowan of Rin in English and have been learning about fractions in Maths.

Sharon McLauchlan
Year 4 TEACHER

Rocky Instincts - Jorja holding ‘the baby’. People in the bush use this to carry fire embers from one place to the next. This ensures they will always be able to light a fire.

eKindy Qld – Term 3 fun!

This term has seen the eKindy children learn to be imaginative and creative as they observe their environment, discuss artworks and represent ideas and experiences. The children have explored line, shape, colour and pattern while using a variety of art tools, materials and media. They have explored Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture through art and have created some of their own indigenous artworks.

Children have continued web sessions this term, exploring how to dress appropriately for different weather events. They have sung with Miss Emma and enjoyed the ‘Gummy Bears’ song at their eKindy pod with Miss Katrina. The children have been exploring tempo and beat through a variety of songs and games.

On Tuesday 4 August, Gumlu State School pod attended an Athletics day as an eKindy – Year 6 cohort. The children practised enthusiastically for this event and were able to participate in bean bag games, sack races and many other fun experiences!

Miss Emma & Miss Cath will be visiting Gumlu State School on 25 August for an eKindy play day. We have lots of fun activities planned and can’t wait to play with our wonderful eKindy kids, as they learn about their community.

Miss Emma
eKindy Teacher

Cape River Outreach - Wambiana Station

What an amazing time we all had at Wambiana. The teachers were very impressed with the effort and enthusiasm that each student put into all their activities. The students were lucky enough to continue learning how to play the ukulele in the afternoon activities. They even learnt and presented ‘500 miles’ by The Proclaimers! Some of the students even got the chance to sing a solo!

Prep and Year 1

Wow! What a busy three days at Wambiana Outreach, for Prep and Year 1.

On Wednesday, we read a very special book called Mouse Count. We discussed the story counting forwards and backwards as the snake captured each tiny mouse. We then made Snake Sock Puppets and our very own Mouse.

Later in the day, we read our next Ellen Stoll book Mouse Paint, had lots of fun learning about Primary and Secondary Colours, colour mixing and creating some amazing watercolour masterpieces!

On Thursday, we were all very excited to read the next Ellen Stoll book Mouse Paint. We wrote about our Pet Mouse and then went on to try some directed drawing to create our very own mouse. After morning tea we conducted a super Science experiment where we watched the reaction between milk, washing detergent and food colouring and the results were very cool.

On Friday we read Mouse Shape and created a mouse out of 2D shapes identifying the shapes we used.

It was a pleasure to work with such a delightful group of Prep and Year 1 children over the 3 days. Well done, kids!

Di Luxton
Prep Teacher

Year 2

Ahoy matey! Year 2 spent the 3 day Outreach learning about pirates. We created our own islands using clay, made pirate hats and even went on a treasure hunt! We practiced our quick facts and did lots of adding and writing throughout the day. Mrs Simatis taught us a song about a pirate going to sea. We even dressed up when we presented it to our parents and classmates. What a great time we had in Year 2!

Lyn Simatis
Year 2 Teacher

Year 3 and 4

This was a very busy Outreach for Year 3 and 4. During English, we looked at how to write a paragraph, how to write direct speech and on the last day, creatively wrote about a topic of choice. In Maths, we looked at finding the area of basic shapes and then onto finding the area of shapes found in nature.

Each afternoon we looked at the elements of Drama and rehearsed our play. The students were very enthusiastic and actively participated in the many Drama games and activities we learnt about in these sessions. We concluded the Outreach by presenting the play ‘A Jesting Arachnologist’ to the parents and other students.

On Friday, we learnt about contrasting colours. We drew basic designs and used oil pastels and oil to mix and blend colours together. There were some beautiful artworks to come out of this activity.

Miss Nelson had a fabulous time working with all of you all over the three days. Thank you for all your hard effort!!!

Kym Nelson
Year 3 Teacher

Year 4 money

Year 5 and Year 6

The Year 5 and 6 cohort had a very enjoyable time at Outreach. During English they practiced their reading, writing and spelling skills, and in Maths they worked with decimal numbers and practiced their times tables. In Art, they worked on optical illusion drawings and in Science, they performed two experiments examining chemical reactions. One experiment saw the students making little rockets out of film canisters. The other experiment was slightly messier where students studied non-Newtonian fluids by making slime.

Kate Ruthenberg and Ben Purdie
Year 5 and Year 6 Teachers

Years 5 and 6

Junior Secondary and Senior Secondary

A massive thank you to our dedicated high school students who came in for the 3 days at Wambiana. We’re still not sure who had the most fun – the students or the teachers. This visit, we had three teachers attend Wambiana over the three days: Miss Fuller, Miss Mroz and Miss Power. For Miss Mroz and Miss Power, it was a first time experience and they were blown away by the experience. It is extremely satisfying to attend outreaches and not only meet the students, but also the parents who support us to support their children!

Our students were hard workers and delved into their schoolwork – a few spirited discussions ensued after the English work, focusing on the motivation of Shakespeare’s Romeo (the general consensus deciding he’s a stalker…). We were all thrilled to see the dedication from not only our students, but also from the parents. All of us are still singing along to Bob Marley’s ‘Every little thing is gonna be alright’ and ‘500 miles’ by The Proclaimers. We’re sure there will be a record release very soon…

A massive thank you to all the teachers, parents and students who were involved in the Wambiana Outreach.

Miss Allyson Fuller, Miss Angela Mroz and Miss Leanna Power
Junior Secondary and Senior Secondary Teachers

Junior/Senior Secondary classroom

His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC Governor of Queensland visits our school

On Monday 21 August, our school was privileged enough to have the Governor of Queensland – His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC and his wife Mrs Kaye de Jersey visit to interact with the staff and the Student Council. Upon the Governor’s visit, he and his wife toured the school and observed lessons that were taking place to give them an insight on how our school worked.

Mr Clark, Governor de Jersey and Mrs Kaye de Jersey observing a lesson.

His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC and his wife Mrs Kaye de Jersey then made their way to talk to the teachers of our school and learned a bit more about the opportunities our teachers provide for our students here at Charters Towers School of Distance Education.

Before the Governor and his wife left to continue their day in Charters Towers, they sat down with Mr Venter, the Student Council members and students of our school on Collaborate to have a question and answer session. The Student Council members were fortunate enough to have a one on one conversation with the Governor and his wife and had a question for him to answer which he did in a warming and engaging way. The Student Council teachers would like to thank the Student Council students and Mr Venter for running this very special Collaborate session.

Mr Venter and His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey and Mrs Kaye de Jersey talking with the Student Council Members.

Student Council Presentation

Student Council

It has been a busy Term for the Student Council; they have purchased and placed Buddy Benches around the school. These have been put in various locations around the school. In the Primary area, the yellow bench has been placed and on the main oval, there are the red and green benches. Next time you visit the school make sure you check them out!

Student Council members have also fundraised enough money to purchase some board games that can be taken to Inreaches and Outreaches to engage in social conversations and interactions.

Do not forget to collect your Earn and Learn stickers from Woolworths when you spend $10 or more and send them into the school. Every sticker counts. Let’s earn our school some great resources to help assist our learning. The Student Council members would like to thank you all for your support.

Chantel Micallef
Student Council

School Sports

Interschool Athletics Carnival

Proudly representing Charters Towers School of Distance Education were some excellent primary and secondary school competitors at Frieman oval and All Souls St Gabriels ovals recently. Our students showed great sportsmanship and skill at the Primary Interschool Athletics hosted by Millchester and Charters Towers Central State Schools, and the secondary carnival hosted by All Souls St Gabriels School.

The primary CTSDE team included athletes from Prep to Year 6 while the secondary team included students from Year 7 to Year 12, who all gave it their all and participated from running events to the field events. CTSDE students managed some excellent achievements. Congratulations to all our competitors, with many making the final heats in the races and top 8 in field events which is quite a feat in itself. Our relay teams worked hard and made the relays an event worth watching.

All competitors gave it their best with Georgie Spurdle setting a new record in the 9 Years girl’s high jump. Well done Georgie for a great jump. Other results include; Chelsea Collins 2nd 60m Sprint, Jimmy McClelland 2nd 800m, Charley McClelland 1st 800m, 3rd long jump and 3rd 200m, Chloe McLean 3rd 200m and 3rd Shot Put, Charlotte McLean 2nd 80m. Other competitors who competed on the day included but not limited to Ella Collins, Ryan Grant, Stirling O’Brien, Yasmin Godwin and Lochlan Godwin. Upon completion of the day the Charters Towers District Athletics Team to compete in the NQ Primary School Athletics trials was announced and three of our athletes were selected. Georgie Spurdle - high jump, Jimmy McClelland 800m and 1500m and Charley McClelland – long jump.

All the athletes who competed deserve to be congratulated and commended for their fantastic efforts.

Kathy Macdonald
Sports Co-ordinator

NQ Primary School Athletics Trials

The three CTSDE students who were selected as part of the Charters Towers Primary Schools Athletics Team, competed in the NQ Primary School Athletics trials in Townsville on Wednesday 29 August.

Students who took part were: Jimmy McClelland for 12yrs boys 800m, Charley McClelland for 9yrs boys Long jump and Georgie Spurdle for 9yrs girls High jump. Congratulations to Georgie Spurdle who placed 1st in her event.

We commend all our competitors, who showed great effort, sportsmanship and skills.

Kaori Waerea
Teacher

Education Support Program

Years 4-6 in the Education Support Program have been working so hard! Lucky they love Maths and English!

In English, some of us are studying poetry, including onomatopoeia – you know what that means…lots of noise! We are also learning about alliteration – you know what that means… lots of silly sentences – Cheeky Charlie is a chimpanzee! Joshua juggles jellyfish! Nicole is NOT naughty! Rheannon rented a robot to run to Rome! Wacky William woke up a walrus!

Some of us have been learning to write a news article. At Cape River Outreach, Tayla played a nosy reporter, asking everyone about their outreach experience – she has lots of good information to write with now. We have been looking at the difference between fact and opinion – turns out it is a fact that everyone’s opinion of outreach is that it’s awesome!

We have also been working hard on our memory skills – take our Memory Challenge to see how good your memory is!

Another thing we are loving is Kookaburra Cash. Congratulations to everyone who has been getting to class on time and ready to go every day!

Memory Challenge

Ewan Outreach

Wow! What a fantastic three days students, teachers and parents had out at the Ewan Outreach. We certainly packed a lot of school work (and some fun) into our time together. Mrs Shepherd worked with the Prep and Year 1 students, Mrs Purdie with the Year 3 and 4 students and Mrs Langham with the Year 6 students.

Over the three days, the Preps and Year 1’s read Where the Wild Things Are and sequenced the events in the story. The Year 3’s and 4’s worked through a drama unit, and worked on presenting a readers theatre performance on the last parade. The Year 6 students choreographed (by themselves) a dance to The Script’s Hall of Fame.

One of the highlights of the outreach was the Annual Ewan Outreach Concert. The audience was dazzled with 12 performances which ranged from listening to the violin, watching plays and science experiments to listening to songs sung by some very talented students. You could tell that everyone had worked hard on their performances, and they certainly entertained the audience.

The end of the Outreach was bitter sweet as the Ewan Outreach said good-bye to the Year 6 students, Amy, Grace, and Mackenzy, as they embark on their new path next year at boarding school. Amy wrote a poem titled Year 6 Graduation Poem, which was read by all the Year 6 students at the Ewan Concert.

Mrs Shepherd, Mrs Purdie and Mrs Langham hope that the students from the Ewan Outreach had an amazing time over the three days!

Mrs Chloe Langham
Ewan Outreach Coordinator

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