1 February 2018
Newsletter Articles
Principal’s Comments
Our school is a great school! It is comprised of parents and caregivers who seek the best for their children; students from very diverse backgrounds who are endeavouring to prepare themselves for productive lives; affiliated bodies and groups that are engaged in actively supporting learning; and of course, staff who are committed to facilitating and supporting learning.
If you are new to our school I hope you find the support you need to be successful in your tutor role or learning process if you are a student.
In this dirt, you will also find the following:
A - An explanation of the terms ‘attendance’ and ‘engagement’, and why each is important for students
B - The broad targets or learning goals for each section of our school
Remember assistance and support is available from your teachers. The learning process is a partnership between parent and tutor, teacher and student; no one should feel alone in this process.
Enjoy the year; there will be challenges, but the outcomes for the student make it worthwhile. Please do not hesitate to contact your school if you have a question or need assistance.
John Clark
Principal
Deputy Principal’s Comments
Welcome back to the start of another school year. I’m not sure if it’s just me, whether it’s an age thing or something else entirely, but the years seems to blend together these days!
As the school year gets into full swing, it’s a time to look at the big picture of where we are headed.
The school continues to experience growth with at latest count, almost 1000 students enrolled in languages alone. This represents a 30 percent growth on 2017 and presents some challenges as we seek to find additional staff, whilst maintaining quality programmes to the students and schools that we service.
In addition to growth in languages, while final numbers won’t be determined until during Home Tutor School, it looks like numbers are up across the school which means we may be seeking additional staff during the term.
In addition to growth in the school, this year is our final year before we need to implement the new senior curriculum which applies to all Queensland schools from the commencement of 2019.
The task of preparing for the new senior is no small task with all subjects offered requiring major reviews and rewrites, and in some cases, developing new courses entirely from scratch.
While we are working with two other schools of Distance Education to share the development load, the extra strain this places on our team, not to mention the extra cost that comes with this cannot be underestimated. While the school has budgeted for this, the timelines are such that there is little margin for error if we are to be fully operational in our senior curriculum next year.
A number of our teachers have agreed to take the lead in developing our new senior curriculum, knowing full-well the huge task that this places upon them at both a personal and professional level. They are to be commended for their commitment and dedication to our school and to distance education as a whole.
Our senior school is certainly not alone in refining and redeveloping our curriculum. While the bulk of our collective efforts are in this area, other areas of our school have not been ignored and work continues in these areas as well.
While they say that change is as good as a holiday, the extra workload that is often necessitated by political decisions and educational reforms, particularly to enable facilitated distance learning, comes with a significant human resource and cost burden.
Let’s just hope that at the end, if there is ever and end to it, that we provide the best education possible to enable our young people to achieve their goals, hopes and dreams.
To the year ahead…
Andrew Smith
Deputy Principal
Meningococcal ACWY Vaccination Program
Due to an increase in Meningococcal disease, the Queensland Government is offering free Meningococcal ACWY vaccine to adolescents aged 15 – 19 years.
Lesley Griffin – Parent Liaison Officer
Parent Liaison Officer’s Role:
The Parent Liaison Office of Charters Towers School of Distance Education is Lesley Griffin.
The role of Parent Liaison Officer is an integral part of school life. This role can only be successful if it is used to its best advantage and this can be achieved by communication and sharing. Please contact Lesley at any time, and together through open communication we can address your concerns or pass on your valued suggestions.
Duties of Parent Liaison Officer Include:
- To take all enrolment enquiries
- To help make the transition into distance education an enjoyable and simple one
- To be available via the telephone
- To be available for face to face contact
- To organise Tutor School and other school activities
- To liaise with CTSDE staff for parents
- To stay in contact with the P & C and pass on relevant information to parents
- To report to school any parental concerns
- To pass on knowledge for support services and resources
- To gain the confidence of the school community
Lesley Griffin
Parent Liaison Officer
Changed Your Address?
If you have moved or are moving please notify Alyson Rainbow at the front desk or Lesley Griffin of your new address.
Contact them on:
Phone: 0747546888
lgrif38@eq.edu.au
awill238@eq.edu.au
Kate Hill
Business Manager
Prep
Welcome to Prep
Welcome to all our new families, tutors and students. We are looking forward to working with you and getting to know you all this year. This year Mrs Alanna Price and Miss Ché D’Amant will teach Prep.
What is Prep about?
Prep aims to build children’s:
- Knowledge and application of language, early literacy and numeracy.
- Develop a sense of self, skills for relating to others and knowledge of the immediate world.
- Develop a positive attitude/approach to learning.
How will my child learn?
- Focused learning and teaching
- Real-life situations
- Transitions and routines
- Investigations
- Play and music
We hope you have enjoyed your first week of Prep!
Alanna Price and Ché D’Amamnt
Prep Teachers
Prep – Year 2
Tash Weston
Year 1 Teacher
Year 8
Our intrepid year 8 class of 2018 are now well into the secondary phase of their school career. For them this will be a year of discovery. Discovery of the world around them and about themselves as individuals. As the teachers and families of these amazing young people, one of the most important things we can do to support them on their journey is to have a great system of communication, between HT – student, student – teacher and HT – teacher. This way we can ensure that we are all on the same page and the students can feel secure in the knowledge that everyone is working towards the same goal – to give them the best year 8 experience possible.
This communication can take many forms, from lesson attendance, text messages, emails, phone calls, BlackBoard notices, and if possible face to face encounters at inreaches and outreaches. Find the way that best works for you and your student and get in contact. The more we know, the more tailored support we can provide.
We look forward to a great year and getting to know all of our wonderful students and Home Tutors.
Jacky Coffison
Year 8 Teacher
Year 9
Welcome to Year 9!
I trust that all our Year 9 students have had a very enjoyable break and ready to get back into an exciting new year of learning.
In week two we start our Collaborate lessons and in week five, we have Home Tutor School here in Charters Towers. This term the Year 9 students are studying HPE, Maths, English, Science, Economics & Business and History. Closer to week four, students will be told which Literacy group they will be in. Once students know their Literacy group, they will then start Literacy lessons on Collaborate, in the time slots outlined on their timetable.
Next semester the Year 9 cohort will be starting an exciting technology project. More information about technology will be given to students as the year progresses. Remember to contact your Pastoral Care teacher (by phone or email) if you have any general concerns or questions and your subject teacher if you have a question about specific school work.
We hope all Year 9 students have a wonderful 2018 and look forward to working closely with you.
Allyson Fuller
Junior Secondary Teacher
Languages
Greetings from Languages team
I would like to introduce our new languages teacher to CTSDE students.
They are Ms Cheng, Mr Goto and Mr Yamada. Ms Cheng is both a Chinese language and Japanese language teacher and Mr. Goto and Mr. Yamada will be teaching Japanese. Please come and say hello to them when you come to the Home Tutor School.
This year is the year of Dog and known as Earth dog.
“Trustworthiness and dependability make Earth Dogs great leaders. Grounded in reality, their sense of fairness enables Earth Dogs to be supportive of others. They are confident and inspire confidence in others”. This will reflect on characteristic of this year as well.
http://www.chinesezodiac.com/dog.php
The Language teachers will develop a senior program, which will be implemented in 2019 and many other projects to improve our programs to provide you with quality Languages’ programs.
Yukari Doi
Acting HOD of Languages Department
IT Support
Computer Requirements
The minimum specifications for computing requirements for Distance Education are listed in the PDF document available below. Additional recommendations are also listed to improve your digital learning experience.
Voice Recordings
If you need to create a voice recording to be sent to the teacher or uploaded into Blackboard, you can use the free Hi-Q ap-plication. It will record your voice to a .mp3 format file which creates a good quality recording that is small enough to email as an attachment. Additional information on voice recordings will be found in the PDF document below.
Audio Setup
There are two parts to configure for your audio settings to make it work for your best learning experience. First part is setting it up in Windows and then second part is inside of Blackboard Collaborate. For the full audio set up guide, click on the PDF document below.
Internet Security
The internet will open you up to a wealth of great information and learning options, however being connected can also put your computer at risk from malicious people. You must make sure you have internet security / antivirus software installed to protect yourself. The following PDf will highlight the most suited internet protection software for your computer.
Microsoft Office 2016
While enrolled at Distance Education, you can download and install Microsoft Office 2016 on up to 5 devices (Mac or Windows) for free. Microsoft Office 2016 is the most current version and is backwards compatible, meaning it will open office files from a previous version. To find out how this is done, click on the following Microsoft Office PDF.
ICT Technical Support
While enrolled at Distance Ed you will receive an Education Queensland or EQ email address that is paired to your username. Additional information on an EQ email is found in the PDF document below.