21 September 2018

Newsletter Articles

Important Dates

21st September – Year 6 Sports Day at CMS
28th September – Alice Can Dance
28th September – Last Day of Term 3
15th October - First day of Term 4
6th December – Presentation Night

From the Principal

Dear families

We are rapidly racing towards the end of Term 3! We have a two week break this year for the first time ever; I know a lot of people are looking forward to the break to recharge their batteries before capping the year off with an awesome Term 4.

Recently we obtained feedback from students, family members and staff through the School Survey. This feedback helps us to identify what is going well and where we need to continue focusing our efforts to keep improving the school.

The feedback has told us that some of our strongest areas are:

• My teachers expect me to do my best / Teachers at this school expect my child to do their best
• Teacher at this school provide my child with useful feedback
• I feel well informed about what is happening at the school
• Our school has a clear vision and direction for improvement

The feedback has told us that the biggest improvements at the school since 2017 is the way that behaviour is managed at the school.

We will be spending some time unpacking the feedback we have received at our next School Council meeting – 5.30pm Thursday 27/9/18. Any interested family members are welcome to join us for this event.

This week our Year 9s have been participating in Vocational Education and Training at Charles Darwin University. This gives them an opportunity to experience an adult learning model and try out some new skills. Our Year 9s complete four weeks across the course of the year. Have a look at the photos further down in the newsletter.

Next Friday we have around 30 students performing in Alice Can Dance. This is going to be a great event and we strongly encourage you to make sure you get tickets soon.

Warm Regards,

Paul van Holsteyn
Principal

CMS Events and Announcements

Alice Can Dance

Alice Can Dance is on Friday 28/9/18 and we are so excited. We have around 30 dancers who have been working hard all term to be ready for the performance. There are two shows – one at 5pm and one at 7pm. Tickets are on sale now at Araluen.

YEAR 7 DANCERS FIND THEIR FLOW

Last weekend the Year 7 Contact Time Dancers performed in a dry, rocky creek bed in order to explore and communicate the importance of looking after water.

As part of this year’s production of ‘Unbroken Land’ at the Desert Park, the Year 7 Contact Time dancers were asked to create a short, repeating, water ritual dance to portray the theme of the production, ‘water’. This involved walking in a procession down the creek bed, holding aloft copper bowls with lights inside which illuminated their faces, dancing a series of stylized water cycle movements and receiving ‘water’ in the shape of sand which they sifted over themselves like rain. They had been working towards the performance all term and did a wonderful job! Their piece looked at how the water cycle works in our environment, and how we need to be particularly careful with water in the desert because our main water source is non-renewable.

Many of them also performed a piece with GUTS dance theatre, based on the work they did with The Lost Dance Project, run by Frankie Snowden and Madeleine Krenek, as well as performing in the finale.

Being involved in three separate pieces meant that the dancers had a lot of quick location and costume changes and were constantly running around the Desert Park to be where they needed to be! This required a lot of chocolate but they all got there and no one missed a cue or a beat. Well done Jamilee Ashenden, Honey Pearson, Ahnika Lennie, Lachlan Symons, Madison Ashton, Kyani-May Berridge and Dusty Prouse –you worked hard, showed great commitment and achieved a fantastic result!

Natalie O’Connor

Artwork on tabards by Amunda Gorey and tabard design and making by Jen Standish-White

NAPLAN Online

Our school is commencing preparations to move NAPLAN testing from paper to online, commencing next year. These activities are part of a national program to transition all NAPLAN testing from paper to online testing by 2020. Around 40 schools from the NT, including our school, are preparing to transition to NAPLAN Online in 2019, with other schools to follow in 2020.

Some of our Year 8s have been participating in readiness testing. School readiness testing is a ‘practice run’ designed to help schools gain insight into the NAPLAN Online test platform, experience testing and identify any technical issues. The school readiness testing is not a test of the students, but will assist our school to prepare for online testing in 2019.

It is important to note that participation in the school readiness test is not part of the NAPLAN Testing and results will not be released to the Department, schools or students.

For more information about school readiness testing or NAPLAN Online please call the school or visit the link below

Year 9 – VET Week

Our Year 9 cohort has dropped pencils and picked up the tools this week for their third VET taster at Charles Darwin University. Students have been rotating through the courses in a hope that they might spark a desire to follow that pathway when they move into senior schooling. The courses include Music Industry, Hospitality, Auto Car Detailing, Electronics, Conservation and Land Management, Nursery and Hair Salon. Teachers and lecturers have been impressed with the maturity and engagement shown by the students. Take look at some of them in action.

School Based Policing Program

The Northern Territory Government announced this week a new school based policing program.

The program will commence in Term 4, 2018 and will see 10 police officers deployed across the territory to work in hubs of schools. CMS will have an officer based here who will work across our government primary schools and Centralian Senior College.

The purpose of the program is to:

• nurture and build positive relationships between school-based police officers, students, families, schools and school communities;
• assist children traumatised by family violence and other adverse childhood experiences to succeed in school;
• prevent victimisation;
• maintain safe and supportive learning environments;
• reduce youth crime; and
• develop positive attitudes in students and families toward Police and further highlight the value in child attending school every day.

School-based police officers’ role will focus on three key areas:

• being an educator and mentor through delivering programs to support awareness and knowledge;
• being a strategic community liaison – sharing intelligence across relevant agencies; and
• enforcement and safety of student, teachers, and staff in schools.

Community Announcements

Child Friendly Alice

Child Friendly Alice are seeking the community voice from children, youth, parents and community members and hope to undertake the largest community consultation in Alice Springs. The outcomes of this consultation will be communicated via regular updates and a final publication, which we hope acts as the starting point for a shared action plan.

Do you want to be involved?

• Join our facebook page ‘Child Friendly Alice’
• Sign up for the Child Friendly Alice Fortnightly Update
• Send us your thoughts and ideas
• Promote the survey to family, friends and colleagues

Complete the survey:

For children /youth, go to:

For adults, go to:

School Holiday Calendar

School holidays are just around the corner! Check out below some of the local events for young people to take part in over the holiday break.

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