28 December 2020

Newsletter Articles

Important dates

5pm Thursday 5th March – School Council Annual General Meeting

Thursday 5th March – Clontarf Year 7 Sleepover

Friday 6th March – Swimming Carnival

Wednesday 11th to Friday 13th March – Clontarf Year 8/9 Tennant Creek Camp

Thursday 19th March –Year 7, 8 & 9 Clontarf Cricket Carnival & Sleepover

Friday 20th March – Harmony Day and Battle of the School Bands

Thursday 9th April – Youth Health Expo

Thursday 9th April – last day of Term 1

From the Principal

Dear families

The term is well on its way and I am impressed with how students have developed relationships with each other and staff and have settled in to their learning. Learning at CMS involves a diversity of experiences, and this newsletter includes some photos of that range; from our swimming program, to recycled arts, to dissections in Science and visiting museums and art galleries.

Next Thursday (5th March) the Centralian Middle School Council will hold its Annual General Meeting at 5pm in the Library. School Council is a group of parents, staff and community members who provide governance to the school to ensure that we are providing relevant and engaging learning experiences to all of our students. The Annual General Meeting is typically a short meeting to review the year that has past and determine who is on the Council for the coming year. I encourage you to join us for this meeting, and consider joining the Council for the year. Being on the Council is not a big job; we meet once a month for around an hour and there are few responsibilities outside of this. We don’t have a strong focus on fundraising like many primary school councils.

Next Friday (6th March) we have our Swimming Carnival at the Town Pool. This is typically a really fun day with a combination of race and novelty events. Families are encourage to join us for part or all of the day. Its also our first House competition for the year, and House Captains were recently selected to lead their House on the day.

Warm regards

Paul van Holsteyn
Principal

School news and updates

Student leadership

We have selected our House Leaders over the last fortnight. Congratulations to the following students for taking on this important responsibility.

These students join our School Captains and our Student Representative Council in our Student Leadership program. Our School Captains were selected last year and our Student Representative Council members will be selected over the next fortnight.

Our School Captains are:

• Jamilee Ashenden
• Meredith Cook
• Jeremiah Daniels
• Ahnika Lennie
• Shanaya McAdam-Bray
• Cheydon Tuifua

Swimming Carnival

All year levels have been participating in a Swimming and Water Safety program in Health and Physical Education lessons. Its been great to start the year with a swim each week during the hot weather!

Next Friday 6th March we have our Swimming Carnival. This is the culmination of our Swimming and Water Safety program and our first house carnival for the year. The day will involve a variety of race events plus novelty events and it usually has a really fun feel.

Family and community members are invited to join us for the day or parts of the day. We will commence at the pool at 9am and conclude at 2.15pm.

Families provided consent for students to attend the Swimming Carnival on the same form as for the Swimming and Water Safety program. If this form has not been returned, students will not be able to attend the pool and will stay back at school for the day. Further, students need to have completed the Water Safety Proficiency Assessment during the Swimming and Water Safety program. If they have not done so, they will not be able to enter the pool during the carnival, regardless of how good a swimmer they are.

Students will not be dismissed from the pool unless a guardian arrives at the pool to collect them not later than 2.15pm.

Maintaining a Healthy School

There has been an increase in families bringing fast food into the school for their young person’s lunch, including McDonald’s and KFC. We aim to maintain a healthy school under the Department of Education’s Healthy School policy. Under this policy fast food is not permitted so will not be passed on to students. Please bring healthy options in to school, or you can bring in money for your young person to spend at the school canteen.

Soft drinks are also not permitted at school. If students come in with a soft drink, it will be removed from them and if unopened they can pick it up from the office at the end of the school day.

The news from Girls Academy

Girls Academy - Week 4 update and up and coming events for Week 5

Year 7 Induction for new Girls Academy participants - 19/02/2020

Girls Academy staff took the Year 7 Girls to the Alice Springs Aquatic and Leisure Centre (Town Pool) on the 19/02/2020 for the annual induction day for the new participants of Girls Academy at Centralian Middle School. We spent the afternoon swimming, playing team and relationship building games and ate a nutritious lunch. Sam and Will from the AFL NT came down to the pool and provided some information about umpiring courses to be able to complete and earn some money on the weekends.

Mental Illness Fellowship NT (MIFANT) Contact Time Visit - 17.02.2020

Jenny a Coordinator from the MiTrack Program came up to the Girls Academy room during our Year 8 Contact Time and spoke about Mental Health and services that are available in Alice Springs and online. Year 8 Girls were also introduced to affirmations and how to use them on a daily basis.

Melbourne Football Club Gala Day - 20.02.2020

On the 20/02/2020 Girls Academy attended the Melbourne FC Gala to participate in a challenging and enjoyable inter school competition that encouraged our girls to build relationships with not only our academy but also other schools, facilitate teamwork and develop communication and leadership skills. From this gala day, students will be selected to start training to try out for the Central Australia region to represent Central Australia in the 2020 Michael Long Cup (Under 14’s and 16’s).

Araluen Arts Centre - 21/02/2020

The Year 9 Girls Academy Girls and staff attended the Araluen Arts Centre during contact time on the 21/02/2020. We viewed three exhibitions.

Masters of Innovation - Aboriginal artists from Central Australia are great innovators who draw on deep cultural knowledge to create artworks that break new ground using a unique artistic language. This exhibition provides an avenue to experience the evolution of the modern Aboriginal art movement and its extraordinary strength, energy and innovation.

Franca Barraclough: The Visitors - Is a visual survey of people, paths and stories woven through the sociological landscape of contemporary Central Australian culture, a distillation of poignant local imagery harnessed to give an artistic account of the impacts and influences on desert life. The making of these large–scale photographs involves Barraclough engaging, choreographing and collaborating with a diverse range of local community members in unique, inimitable and.

Greenbush Art Group: Shake, Rattle and Roll - A history of Central Australian Transport by the Greenbush Art Group at the Alice Springs Correctional Centre, pays tribute to and interprets the history of transport in Central Australia. Early transport created a paradigm shift in desert regions, enabling the expansion of settler colonialism, ‘opening up’ the continent’s interior, creating cultural complexity and irrevocably changing the way people live, travel and engage with this country.

Alice Springs Aviation Museum - 24/02/2020

The Year 8 Girls Academy Staff and Girls attended the Aviation Museum. We learnt about the history of aviation in Central Australia and viewed the planes and devices used to make it possible for planes to run in Central Australia. Some of the girls tried their hand at flying a plane on the small simulator.

If parents and or carers of Girls Academy young people would like to speak with Girls Academy Staff, please feel free to do so by calling Emma Stubbs the Program Manager on 0497 777 248, we would be happy to chat about your young person and support them in any way we can.

The Clontarf Corner

Welcome to the first addition of the 2020 Clontarf Corner, as we welcome new students, new CMS school staff, as well as Pietje Span who joins the Clontarf team from Yirara Academy.

We started the term with a variety of activities like, bubble soccer, health checks, resume building, special guest speakers, football, and more.

MORNING TRAININGS

With a range of 22-36 fellas waking up each Tuesday and Thursday morning, we have had a vast range of sports set up, from Wide world of Sports to a relaxing morning swim at the Alice Springs Leisure and Aquatic Centre. Each morning we have had our Master Chef, William “Billy The Kid” Atkinson cooking up a delicious breakfast to send the fellas off to class.

Congratulations to trainers of the week so far:

• Billy Atkinson
• Robert Kenny
• Aesha Saylor

AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES

After school activities are a great way of getting to know the fellas while having fun. The activities we plan are mainly based on what is going on around the school, the Clontarf Pillars or any team sports to promote leadership, Clontarf spirit, and respectful and fair values. The activities we ran this week were:

• Bubble Soccer
• NBA Basketball competition
• Football vs Yirara academy

YEAR 7 INDUCTION CAMP

On Thursday the 13th of February, 26 lads took part in our Year 7 induction camp. This was to show our newest members how The Clontarf Foundation operates and what the boys can expect over the coming years.

We had a full two days ahead of us so we left at recess time to get to the movies – the boys were extremely excited to see the first screening of Sonic the Hedgehog in Alice Springs. After the movies, we went back to the Academy room for lunch then straight out to Simpsons Gaps to walk and explore.

We came back from Simpsons Gap at 3:30pm and were greeted by Tennant Creek and Yirara Academies for a Tri-match of AFL, which everyone loved!

After the games, we raced back to the Academy room again to have showers and get ready for dinner. For dinner, we had pizzas at Epilogue in the Todd Mall provided by the lovely staff.

Once dinner concluded, we went back to CMS to get ready for bed.

The next day we were up early for a pancake breakfast with the Tennant Creek Academy. Once we finished breakfast, we were off to the Alice Springs Town Council Lawns for a Barbeque. We thought it would be a great idea to set up there and give away free sausages, and water to whoever was in the area. We had service provider representatives from K-Mart, Coles, KFC, Transition Support Unit, Tangentyere, Chamber of Commerce, Alice Springs Town Council – this was a huge success and a great opportunity to show the providers what Clontarf also does. We also ran three game stations for the public to engage with our boys, such as a handball target, and kick the ball in the barrel competitions. We ended up giving away around 250 sausages to local families and general public.

Once we packed up everything up we were off to the Alice Springs Golf Club to try our swing at the driving range – all of the lads tried their best with some hitting the ball way past the 125-yard line.

CONTACT TIMES

Year 7: have been working on their Clontarf engagement, Clontarf values, Camp preparation and just getting to know the staff, the Clontarf space, and other academy members.

Year 8: Re-engaging with the program, Resume building and figuring out what the fellas would like to do when they are older. The year 8’s also had David Miles (2010 Clontarf Alumni and a Northern Territory Police Officer) come in who spoke about his journey since leaving school.

Year 9: Re-engaging with the program, Resume building and figuring out what they would like to do later on in life.

Here is a few pictures of what we have been up to

Some happenings

Our Year 7’s spent some time salvaging materials at the tip shop for their recycled art sculpture. projects.

Our Year 9’s have enjoyed (or maybe not!) dissecting brains in science.

To celebrate Pancake Day we held a pancake eating competition, the person to finish their pancakes first was the winner. A group of Year 8 students spent Lesson 5 cooking 60 pancakes to use in the competition.

Community Announcements

Mountain Bike Event @ the Telegraph Station

Saturday 29 Feb 4.30-6.30pm & 7.00pm-7.00am “COME ‘N’ TRY DAY” and St Phillips College 12/6/3 hour Enduro 2020. Ride in a team of 4 pairs or individual. Kids and families welcome.

Sports voucher

Semester 1 2020 Sports vouchers are now available. Parents and carers will need to apply online each semester by going to the following website:

Please note if the details of the young person are already on the system, a voucher will be available to print or save straight away, if the details are not found by the system a voucher will be sent to the email address you have provided within 7 days.

More information is available at the link below, alternatively you can also contact our Sport Voucher team by phone on 1800 817 860 or by email sport.voucher@nt.gov.au .

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