15 March 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Comments

Friday the 16th March is the National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence. While the day is intended to provide a community focus on the anti-social and damaging nature of bullying, the reality is ‘one off’ days for topical discussions and short term programs do not add any real weight to dealing with deep seated issues. Yes, such events draw attention to the problem for a short while, to make some of us feel good and worthy and make the ‘ticking off’ of some social accountabilities, but the addressing of problems takes more ongoing effort.

To really make an impact on bullying, there needs to be a consistent, ongoing effort starting with parents and supported by all elements of the community, to respect resilience and competition for others within our young people. Especially, bullying is a moral issue though it also has some legal ramification. Schools have a significant role to play as do parents.

In today’s world, bullying is accepted in our entertainment (think of some current high rating television shows) and throughout social media. Is it any wonder that young people internalise this as one aspect of normal ‘human relationships’?

Over the next few months, our school will endeavour to provide opportunities for our students to critically examine and reflect on what are appropriate actions in a healthy society. Many parents are already active in this area, some in groups (e.g. the local ICPA’s transition to boarding school workshops) and some in the daily interactions (e.g. getting family values and ethical frameworks) at home. We all need to conform to build within our young people the skills and capacity to survive alternatively and the stupidity of others. In the long term, helping all young people to see that participating in bullying is a sign of personal weakness and failing to have empathy for others is vital. It is long term, and ongoing effort, but for the sake of our children and future communities a necessity.

Some resources families may access include:

• www.bullyingnoway.gov.au
• www.mindmatters.edu.au/spotlights/bullying
• www.esafety.gov.au
• www.ncab.org.au

Let us reflect this week on how each of us may contribute to building stronger and more compassionate young people.

Regards,

John Clark
Principal

Deputy Principal’s Comments – Cameron Burke

Shortly, students in Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 will be provided with the opportunity to undertake national testing to determine their progress against the national benchmarks for literacy and numeracy.

As in previous years, there are three options available to students to undertake the testing:

1. Students may attend our school and undertake the testing over a period of 3 days on Tuesday 15th May, Wednesday 16th May and Thursday 17th May. Please notify your student’s teacher or Pastoral Care Teacher of your attendance at these testing days here in Charters Towers.

2. Students may attend their nearest State School and undertake the testing over a 3-day period from 15th May – 17th May. You will need to contact our school and inform us of your attendance at your nominated State School.

*Please note: It is your responsibility to arrange for sitting the test directly with your nominated school.

3. Students may nominate to complete the testing at home after the testing materials arrive.

*Please note: Only students enrolled under Medical or Geographic Isolation categories are eligible for this option. We are not permitted to mail test materials to homes prior to the afternoon of Thursday 17th May 2018.

Students may be withdrawn from the testing program by their parent/carer. This is a matter for consideration by individual parents/carers.

Should you have any queries, please contact the school as soon as possible.

Further information including deadlines and relevant forms for Option 3 etc. will be emailed to individual Year 3, 5, 7, and 9 students in the near future.

Cameron Burke
Deputy Principal

Lesley Griffin – Parent Liaison Officer

ICAS Assessment (UNSW)

This year students will again be offered the opportunity to enter The International Competitions & Assessments for Schools, which is organised by the University of New South Wales.

The closing date for all competitions is Friday 16th March 2018.

You can send your forms to:

Lyn Simatis – lsima1@eq.edu.au
Meg Mackenzie – mlmac0@eq.edu.au

North Queensland Rural family Support Services

ICPA Swim Clinic

Below is the registration form for the annual ICPA Swim Clinic which will be running, as usual, for two days prior to the CTSDE Swimming carnival at the Charters Towers Council pool.

The clinic days are 27th and 28th March. Please register via email by 23rd March.

Once I have received all registrations I will email out a list of groups / timetable and other useful information. As a general rule, the youngest age to participate in the swimming clinic is one year, unless by prior arrangement with Brian from the pool.

Miranda Ryan
Secretary – Isolated Children's Parents Association - Charters Towers Branch

Swimming Carnival

The Swimming Carnival is fast approaching and will be held on Thursday 29 March. If your child/ children would like to participate, please complete the attached nomination form and return it to Tiarna O’Brien via email (tobri154@eq.edu.au) by Friday the 16 March.

Facebook Page

Science Resources

Over the last few years CSIRO has published a series of books called Science and Solutions for Australia. The series provides an accessible guide to the big challenges for Australia and the latest information and scientific thinking on these topics. The three books that have been published so far are Climate Change, Water and Biodiversity.

The Science and Solutions for Australia: Oceans has just been published along with accompanying teacher resources.

The books and resources are also freely accessible online in the form of an eBook that can be downloaded from the CSIRO Publishing website (see the link below). To access the teacher resources select the book you are interested in, scroll down to the tabs and select 'for teachers'. You will need to go back to the original link (See the link below) to access the teacher resources for the other books.

Umbrellas

What a beautiful week it has been! Much needed rain blessed Charters Towers and the surrounding areas, filling most dams and rivers to their brim. We hope that the rain reached everyone who needed it and that there is still more to come.

Clermont Show

With big celebrations to come, we want you to be involved in designing a tea towel. Clermont Show Committee are so excited to add this competition to their 150th Celebration Clermont Show!

Clermont Show Design a Tea Towel Competition Flyer and Information

Library

Thank you to all who supported our Paws for Books Book Fair during Home Tutor School. The Library now has $524 worth of new books (43 new titles).

If you search NOTES for Book Fair February 2018 a list of new books will show.

Jenny Currin
Library

eKindy News

We were very pleased how the 13 children settled into our very first eKindy Activity days, hosted at C&K Charters Towers Community Kindergarten.

One of the main focuses for these sessions is to enable children to build a sense of their own identity in relation to others. It can be a challenge to interact with others in an unfamiliar environment, however with the help and support of their families and teachers, the children managed this transition very well.

The children were offered a variety of indoor and outdoor experiences to explore and were actively encouraged to make choices about what they wanted to try and to select a variety of activities that reflected their personal interests.

Routines were established over the three days to help the children to act with independence. Throughout each day the children were encouraged to take responsibility for themselves, to listen attentively, to follow routines, to manage their belongings, and to help pack away activities.

Sincere thanks to C&K Charters Towers Community Kindergarten for the use of such a rich learning space.

For any families still wanting to register for eKindy in 2018 please go to the link below.

Megan Duigan and Cath Priaulx
eKindy Teachers

Primary – Prep – Year 6

Primary

Term 1 has brought about another successful Home Tutor School for our primary team. I would like to thank the parents, home tutors, students and teachers who braved the thunderstorms during the week. The storms provided some interesting weather events. Nevertheless students and teachers managed to enjoy the weather, which brought some much needed rain, and alternative activities.

All students enjoyed swimming or wet play activities during the hot and humid week. The early years students enjoyed their book parade and visit from Bunnings. While other students enjoyed the action packed rugby union sessions or more relaxing indoor art activities, as well as our regular curriculum lessons of Maths, English, Science, and so forth.

Students and teachers alike were still smiling on Friday afternoon and you can see by their photographs they all had an enjoyable time. Thank you to all people who were involved to help make is such a successful event!

Mrs Colleen Purdie
Acting Head of Department - Primary

Year 1

We had a wonderful time at Home Tutor School!

Check out some of our photos below

Tash Weston
Year 1 Teacher

Secondary – Year 7-12

It has been a very exciting start to 2018 for the Secondary School. This year has seen the amalgamation of the Junior and Senior Secondary areas, which provides students a greater opportunity to work with a variety of teachers across a range of subjects. Although these two areas have combined, the two secondary heads of department will continue to look after their respective areas: Christine Ohlson– Years 7-10; and Sarah Jenkins – Years 11 & 12 (including VET).

The Secondary School has celebrated the success of students, by awarding Distance Dazzler awards to students in years 7 to 10. These awards are for students that completed every send in sheet and assessment task on time and to a high standard. We are very proud of the number of students that have achieved a Distance Dazzler award this Term.

As we hurtle towards the end of Term One and holidays are fast approaching, it is also a timely reminder that students still have quite a lot of work to get through. Most students will have a number of lessons to complete that will be vital towards achieving success in their assessment tasks. Please encourage students to keep working hard until the end; we would like all students to have a strong finish to the term.

Please ensure that students are regularly checking their Work Rate Calendars for each subject and paying close attention to assessment draft and final due dates.

The School Calendar also highlights significant events within the school community. You may have noticed that there are two blocks for the VET Training Workshops in 2018. Please note that the first block (Term 2) is for Certificate II in Agriculture only. The second block will cater for remaining VET courses. VET teachers will provide more information for these workshops to students in certificate-based subjects as these dates approach.

Sarah Jenkins and Christine Ohlson
Secondary HODs

Languages

Japanese Speech Contest, Charters Towers – 2018

The organising committee would like to let students and Home Tutors know that the annual Charters Towers Japanese Speech Contest will take place again in 2018. Details as below:

Date:

Friday, 18th May, 2018. (This is at the end of the NAPLAN testing week.)

Venue:

Blackheath and Thornburgh College, King Street, Charters Towers, in the Library.

Participants:

Students of Japanese from Year 5 to Year 12 are welcome to participate in the local Contest.

Nominations close on Monday, 14th May, 2018.

There is no cost involved.

Timing of the Day:

Primary, Year 5 and Year 6 participants will present their speeches from 9 a.m. Depending on the number of contestants, the timing will flow through the Year Levels to the senior students. There will be more details about this later.

Contact:

Your Japanese Language teacher to nominate.

Please direct questions about the contest to:

Sandy Bogilevu:
Email: sbogi3@eq.edu.au
Direct phone: 47546858

FLIQ

Flexible Learning Initiatives Queensland

FLIQ is an educational program designed primarily for Year 7 – 12 students who are disengaged from mainstream schooling and seek an educational pathway that will lead to further education or employment. FLIQ works in partnership with community based organisations to provide students with educational opportunities to achieve these goals.

‘FLIQ’ (Flexible Learning Initiatives Queensland) is a reflection of the services provided to the students and acknowledges the diversity of the program in its ability to reach and educate students who are located state wide. In 2018, FLIQ students have continued to engage in Collaborate Sessions. Sessions are conducted by teachers for all subjects and include small group, individual and incidental sessions on request.

Tracy Burke
Secondary Teacher in FLIQ

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.

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