23 August 2019

Newsletter Articles

Important dates

From the Principal

Dear families

The learning is in full swing at CMS this term, both in terms of classroom programs and enrichment and extra-curricular.

Some highlights from the last fortnight are the Year 8 camp to Ross River, Year 7 sleepover and astronomy night at the Earth Sanctuary, Girls Academy camp to Darwin, Clontarf camp to Tennant Creek, Play Day with the NT Music School, Alice Can Dance rehearsals and the interschool cross-country carnival. There are so many opportunities for our young people who want to be involved and try something different! I’d encourage you to head across to our Facebook page to see some of the photos of these (and other!) events that are posted there.

On Monday our staff had a day of learning combined with Centralian Senior College and the Alice Springs Language Centre. We worked with Laurayne Tafa to deepen our knowledge of Relationships Based Learning, which is provides a large part of the research base that underpins our instructional model. We also spent a lot of time with teachers sharing impactful teaching strategies. Thank you for supporting us to have this day – we appreciate that it can be inconvenient to have to make other arrangements for your young person.

We have a school tour for prospective families coming up on Thursday 5th September. There will be two tours – one during the school day at 8.30am and one after hours at 5.30pm. Please pass on word of this event to other families who may be interested.

Each year we seek feedback from students, parents/families and teachers about what we are doing well and what we need to refocus on. We are trying to ‘check-in’ with what our stakeholders think and we use this information to help evaluate what we have achieved and prioritise what we need to keep working on. Its now time to give us that feedback. It’s a short survey so please take a moment to let us know your thoughts – the link is below. Students will be completing a student version of this survey at school next week.

Paul van Holsteyn
Principal

School news and updates

We are seeking your feedback

We are currently seeking feedback from parents, carers and family members on what we are doing well and what we need to refocus on. Please complete our short survey. We use this data to review our efforts and plan for improvement.

Staff learning day

Thank you for supporting us to have a staff learning day on Monday 19th August. We combined with Centralian Senior College to deepen our understanding of Relationships Based Learning, which is one of the research bases that underpins our instructional model.

Alice Play Day

Students from CMS joined students from each of the government schools in Alice Springs to participate in a positive Play Day organised by the NT Music School

Alice Can Dance

Our students are again participating in Alice Can Dance with rehearsals well under way. Alice Can Dance is an event in which students from all of the government schools in Alice Springs come together to present a phenomenal evening of dance at Araluen.

Performance night is Friday 13th September. There are two shows – one at 5pm and one at 7pm. Tickets are on sale not from the Araluen Box Office. Ticket prices are $10 Adult; $5 Child; $20 Family of 4; $50 for a group of 10. Tickets sell out so it is worth going to purchase them now.

From the Year 9 Team

How time flies! We are past the halfway mark for term 3 and before we realise it, we will be deep in term 4.This requires some reflection on how we, as teachers, students and parents/carers are going. In year 9 we are excited that so much has been happening in and out of the classroom. Our students have been busy with their text study in English as well as the WW1 study in HASS .In Science, Maths and PE, students have been engaged in learning activities which will make their Year 10 study easy. Transition visits and VET activities are being planned. Clontarf excursions have occurred and students have enjoyed them. Everything being done in Year 9 is to prepare them for Year 10.

This brings us to another aspect of preparing our students for the next important part of their journey. Focusing on the individual student, two critical ingredients are required. These are Responsibility and Respect. Things that come to mind when the Year 9 team sees these words are;

1. Being to class on time in the morning, after recess and after lunch
2. Being resilient in their school work
3. Planning their social and work life around what we believe is critical in their life-EDUCATION
4. Developing social and emotional intelligence.

It is true that it takes a community to mould future leaders. If we ensure these ingredients are present, the Year 9 cakes will all rise! We are counting on the parents and carers, as much as the parents and carers are counting on us as the Year 9 team to discuss the importance of the four issues we believe are going to help our students successfully transition to senior school.

The Year 9 Team

Centralian Girls Academy

Last week Centralian Middle School Girls Academy students joined with students from Centralian Senior College to go on a trip to Darwin to join with academies there.

Students were chosen based on their attendance, engagement and participation.

The trip started Saturday night with a sleepover at the middle school, ready to leave bright and early Sunday morning. We arrived into Mataranka Sunday night, enjoyed a swim at the thermal pools the next morning, then onto Darwin.

Activities that the girls enjoyed - an introduction ‘fancy’ dinner, a 5 hour fishing charter, an inter academy team building event with Palmerston senior college and Taminmin, a light football training with NT Thunder high performance manager Eliza Morrison followed by ice baths, then onto Casuarina and Mindil markets for shopping and sunset photos.

The girls really enjoyed the trip - for some it was their first time in Darwin and for many first time doing all the activities in Darwin. Well done to all girls that gave everything a go!

We are now back and ready to hit the ground running. Next week we are heading out to Hermannsburg to play football against Ntaria which will be an awesome opportunity.

We look forward to the remainder of Term 3!

Kiah Smith
Program Manager

Clontarf Corner

What a ripper of a term it has been so far, from getting back into the swing of things at school to driving 500km’s North to Tennant Creek. We have spent time with our brothers at Centralian Senior College as well as helping out around Alice Springs by volunteering at the Henley on Todd and lending a helping hand at the Yeperenye Shopping Centre.

Morning Trainings

This week’s training kicked off with a troopy challenge, with the Eastside fellas winning bragging rights for the week with getting 10 fellas to training,

The fellas really braved the cold and had a great session on Thursday, we ran a football drill as well as a rugby drill and then finished off with a bit of touch rugby, with this new approach we had fellas really getting engaged with the drills.

After training for breakfast Kye Wilton, Rodrick Liversidge and Jaqkaiden Austin helped Damien with the cooking and whipped up some beautiful French toast. While the fellas were all around the table eating, Rhiyzell Lynch was presented with the trainer of the week award for his display of Clontarf spirit and engagement during our training sessions.

After school activities

Henley On Todd - Week 4 Saturday Rodrick Liversidge-Rosas, Alex Lewis and Jeremiah Daniels all put their hands up to volunteer at the annual Henley on Todd, for a couple of the fellas this was a first and to see how big of an event this is, was a big experience for them. Jeremiah was the first to put his hand up and was keen to get in and help out around and get involved with the event.

CSC brothers – Tuesday week 5, we were invited to come and play a handball game with our Centralian Senior brothers. The fellas were all split into two teams, Angas Norman and Cyril Driffen were the captains of their teams, the game was fairly contested with the scores being tied at half time, Cyril tried his hardest to get his team the win by getting to the ball first and busting through the packs but Reese Curtis-Stanton was the back bone for his team keeping his opposition from scoring 6 times and Angas really stepped up and did his part for his team with a casual 47 disposals and 2 goals.

Yeperenye Shopping Assist – During a contact time we had the opportunity to help out at the Yeperenye shopping centre, Dominic Maher, Tristrum Watkins, Lazarus Gallagher, Jai Motteram-Mepstead and Liam Turner put their hands up to help customers get their groceries from the Woolworths supermarket counter to their cars.

Tennant Creek Survivor Camp

In week 4 our year 9 fellas got the opportunity to travel to 500km’s to play a game of football against our Clontarf brothers at Tennant Creek High School, the long drive did not deter our fellas from challenging the well-rounded team that Tennant had to offer. With Brentley Austin as our ruckman we got first hands to the ball almost every bounce, but the Tennant guys were very quick and skilled in the first half of the game as they kicked for goal nearly every chance they had. After a few inspirational words from our skipper Wayne Watts, our guys were pumped and ready. New recruit Aiden Scrutton started our score shots off with a long bomb pretty much from the centre circle. After the game the fellas all got around each other as everyone was spent after a well fought game.

We then checked into the amazing Juno Centre before heading to a well-deserved Dinner at the Tennant Creek Sporties Club, after dinner it was back to the Juno Centre for a few rounds of table tennis before bed. The following morning we were on our way back to Alice Springs to finish our camp off with some rock wall climbing at the YMCA as well as a movie at the Alice Springs Cinema.

Contact times

On the right track with Right Tracks – Our Year 8’s were lucky enough to get a great session from the Redtails Pinktails Right Track Program Coordinator Ian McAdam, he spoke about the similarities of being part of a team in sports to being part of a team at school as well as the work force, which was paired up with a couple of exercise to get the group engaged.

Employment with Bunnings – on Friday the year 9 Clontarf group we able to get an employment visit to the Alice Springs Bunnings warehouse, to explore what happens in and around the warehouse as well as how to seek future employment with them.

Community Announcements

Relationships Australia courses and information

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