Centralian Middle School
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56 Milner Road
Alice Springs NT 0870
Subscribe: https://www.cms.nt.edu.au/subscribe

Email: Centralian.middle@education.nt.gov.au
Phone: 08 8955 2333
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18 October 2019

Newsletter Articles

Important dates

Thursday 31st October – Alice Beat Festival
Sunday 17th - Sunday 24th November – Clontarf End of Year trip
Tuesday 19th November – Girls Academy End of Year Awards Night
Monday 25th – Friday 29th November – Year 9 VET
Wednesday 4th - Wednesday 11 December - Polly Farmer Follow the Dream Camp to Tasmania
Tuesday 3rd December - Presentation Night

Thursday 31st October – Alice Beat Festival
Sunday 17th - Sunday 24th November – Clontarf End of Year trip
Tuesday 19th November – Girls Academy End of Year Awards Night
Monday 25th – Friday 29th November – Year 9 VET
Wednesday 4th - Wednesday 11 December - Polly Farmer Follow the Dream Camp to Tasmania
Tuesday 3rd December - Presentation Night

From the Principal

Dear families

Welcome back to Term 4. We hope that you enjoyed the additional time that you had with your young person over the two week break and that everyone is ready to embrace the challenges that Term 4 presents.

While it seems early to be highlighting this, we would like you to mark Tuesday 3rd December in your calendar as this is our annual Presentation Night. Presentation Night is always a wonderful celebration of the achievements of our students over the year. We hope you can join us for this event.

We have mailed out NAPLAN results to families of Year 7 and Year 9 students since our last newsletter. Due to the online testing, the way the results look is different so if you need some help interpreting the results please call the school. A highlight of our school’s NAPLAN achievement is the Writing area, where our current Year 9 students grew 53 points since their assessment in Year 7. This is in contrast to the Australian average growth rate of 36 points and the NT average growth rate of 39. Again, CMS students are growing at a faster rate in writing than NT and Australian students. Writing has been a focus of our improvement agenda for the last two years so it is positive to see these results. Thanks to the teachers that have been working diligently in this space.

Included with this newsletter are Assessment Schedules for each year level for Term 4. Please print these out and put them up on your fridge so that you have at hand an overview of the major tasks and due dates that your young person will be undertaking this term.

Last term we collected feedback from students, families and staff on how the school is going. We were delighted with the number of families who responded – this more than doubled from 2018 – and provides us with rich information about what you consider we are doing well and what we need to refocus on. Some highlights from the survey include:

  • 79% of students agreed that CMS prepares them for their future, a 19% increase
  • 81% of students agreed that they felt ready to start middle school, a 14% increase
  • 79% of families told us that they had opportunities to have a say in the direction of the school and its programs, a 25% increase
  • 97% of staff considered that behaviour was well managed at the school, a 15% increase
  • 100% of staff agreed that the school has a clear vision and direction for school improvement
  • 100% of staff identified that they regularly undertake collaborative activities with their peers, a 15% increase

The survey also provided us with some information to think further about, particularly in some areas where students, families and staff provided us with different information and trends for the same question. We have spent some time unpacking this with staff and will be holding student focus groups to talk through some of the results to get a better idea as to how we can improve in 2020. This is a part of our annual planning work – in Term 4 we consider the different evidence sources that we have in front of us to then prioritise where we will focus our improvement efforts for the following year.

Paul van Holsteyn
Principal

Assessment Schedules

Below are assessment schedules for each year level. Please refer to these to be informed about the key assessment tasks your young person will complete this term in each learning area, including key dates and time.

If you have any questions, please contact your young person’s teacher.

School news and updates

A buzz around public speaking

We have hosted three members of the Western Australia Debating League at CMS this week. They have worked in classes with our English teachers to enhance our students’ public speaking skills as well as co-ordinating formal debates as an extension activity for students who have taken up the challenge.

This is the third year we have continued our partnership with the WA Debating League and we value the partnership because it creates a buzz around public speaking in our community.

Student Leadership Forum

CMS hosted the second Alice Springs Student Leadership Forum this week, with 75 students representing each of the government schools attending for a day of leadership development activities and public speaking workshops. This event was organised by our student leaders, and built on the previous event held at Centralian Senior College in Term 3.

The feedback from students at the conclusion of the event was that they felt more confident as leaders and public speakers and that they had a lot of fun. There was definite interest in continuing these forums in 2020.

Enrolments for 2020

We are currently pursuing enrolments for 2020. We have provided primary schools with enrolment forms for Year 6 students, but if you know of any other families who may be considering enrolling their young person at CMS in 2020, please get them to contact the school.

The earlier we can confirm our numbers, the better prepared we can be to start 2020 with a quality and passionate teacher workforce.

Girls Academy Awards Night

Girls Academy are preparing to celebrate the achievement of students in the program as well as celebrating 10 years of the program. This is a combined night with Centralian Senior College and all families are invited.

Clontarf Corner

Community Announcements

Alice Beat

The Alice Beat is coming up. We have students participating in the band and dancing, and they will join students from all of the other government schools in Alice Springs. It will be a great night – tickets are on sale from Araluen.

Keep up to date with all our news and updates

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