13 December 2019

Newsletter Articles

Important dates

Monday 23rd December - CMS Office closes for break

Monday 6th January - CMS Office re-opens for 2020

10am-3pm Monday 20th – Thursday 23rd January – CMS open for uniform sales

Tuesday 29th January – First day of school for 2020

From the Principal

Dear families

Inconceivably it is the end of another year. Presentations and celebrations have wrapped up, reports went in the mail yesterday and we spent today cleaning and moving the school around preparing for next year.

Thanks to all of our families and community members that joined us for our Presentation Night last week. It was a great evening in which we celebrated the achievements of our students and farewelled our Year 9 students. We have included numerous photos of the night on our Facebook page so head on over to see and download photos of your young person.

We are farewelling a number of staff at the moment. From our teachers, we farewell and thank Mr Ben Balmer who has secured an Assistant Principal role in Victoria, Ms Cat Stone who is returning home to South Australia, Ms Addie Grant who is moving to Tennant Creek and Ms Stef Farr who is moving to Darwin. We also have a couple of changes in our Academy programs: Ms Kiah Smith is moving to the Girls Academy program in Kalgoorlie and Mr Schaylen Parai is moving to the Clontarf program at Yirara. Amongst our tutor staff, we farewell Ms Anne McGown, Mr Bo Clarke, Ms Shaquille Swan and Ms Lily-Joy Hampton. These staff have had a significant impact on our students’ experiences and achievements and we thank them for this.

For 2020, our Team Leaders will me Ms Laryssa Montgomery in Year 7, Mr Simon Rowlands in Year 8 and Mr Dominic Fecteau in Year 9. Ms Michelle Pinto will continue in her leadership role focussing on Inclusion. We have developed draft class lists but we do not finalise these until next year as we tend to have significant numbers of new enrolments over the break.

We wish you all of the best for the Summer holidays. For those departing, our best wishes go with you as you continue your learning journey elsewhere. For everyone else, we are looking forward to seeing you back at school on Tuesday 29th January.

Paul van Holsteyn
Principal

School news and updates

Uniform sales

We will be open for uniform sales from 10am to 3pm Monday 20th to Thursday 23rd January. There will be no uniform sales on Friday 24th January.

Our uniform and stationery prices have remained the same as this year, as below.

Students are required to have a bag and a hat, but these do not have to be from CMS. For shorts and pants, plain (no logo) navy shorts or an appropriate length are also acceptable.

Additional to uniform and stationery, parents will be asked to pay a parental contribution of $100 and a swimming fee of $50.

The government is again providing a $150 Back to School Payment which can be spent at the school to help with costs at the start of the year. This can be used for everything apart from the parental contribution. The Back to School Payment will be available in the office when you come to purchase uniforms.

Ready for VET Hospitality

We are offering a VET Hospitality program on site to our Year 9 students next year. The program will run one day a week with a Department of Education trainer. We’ve been fitting out the kitchen and it is ready to go for the program. We are very excited for the learning opportunities that this will provide our students.

Additional to the Hospitality program on site, Year 9 students will also participate in the VET program at Charles Darwin University.

Colour Splash 2019

We had a great celebration filled with water and colour on Tuesday. Here are a couple of the highlights.

Koala pouches ready to go

Our Year 7 Textiles students have been making koala pouches to send off to assist koalas injured in the bushfires that have ravaged much of the eastern states. They have now posted 40 lined pouches! A great effort. Hopefully the pouches will provide some relief to injured wildlife.

Staying safe over the break

We wish all of our families a safe and rejuvenating break.

Sometimes holiday breaks can be hard for some people as normal routines stop, they might not see as much or their support network or other events happen.

Below is a list of agencies available to provide support to our young people and families at any time, including over the break.

Clontarf Corner

The end of the year has had no shortage of engaging activities going on at Clontarf, like Super trainings, NRL carnivals, guest speakers, basketball games and 16 hour drives to Darwin.

Morning Trainings

In Week 7, during our usual Tuesday and Thursday training sessions, Centralian Senior hosted a super training with guest from Chifley Senior and Endeavour Academies. A great morning with a lot of skills and plenty of laughter’s. Training was followed by and amazing taco breakfast helping the fellas to start the day with lots of energy. Kavahn Rodger took out the CMS Clontarf spirit for the morning with his leadership in his group as well as his willingness to get everyone involved with in the drills.

Darwin End of Year Camp

For our end of year camp a group of Year 9 students got treated to a well-deserved trip out of Alice. The journey involved a 16 hour drive up to the Top End where the fellas saw the sights and experienced what Darwin has to offer. The trip started with a visit to FlipOut to bounce out some of the energy built up from the drive. The fellas put on a show on the basketball trampolines by taking each other on in a game of H.O.R.S.E, and who could go the quickest up and down the trampoline mats.

The following few days were spent feeding fish, seeing the jumping crocs, shopping, going out for dinner, swimming, playing basketball at the Wave Pool and going on a cruise . Litchfield Park was a winner with their relaxing waterholes as well as beautiful scenery. Once the activities were done, the fellas were ready to begin the journey home to Alice Springs.

Community Announcements

School holiday activities

There are plenty of activities happening in Alice over the break.

Free Youth Squash & Fitness Sessions during school holidays

Kmart Wishing Tree Appeal information.

Keep up to date with all our news and updates

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