21 August 2020

Newsletter Articles

Important dates

Friday 21st August – Interschool Athletics
Monday 24th August – School Council Meeting
Thursday 28th August – Year 9 Transition visit to Centralian Senior College
Friday 28th August – Athletics Carnival
8.30am and 5.00pm Wednesday 9th September – School Tour for prospective families
Wednesday 16th September - Centralian Senior College Information Evening (5.30pm – 7.30pm)
Friday 25th September – last day of term

From the Principal

Dear families

We have had a fantastic couple of weeks at CMS. Students in many learning areas are completing assessment and demonstrating their knowledge from the first half of the term. This is the point when the learning really comes together and ‘clicks’, and students can start to reflect on the applicability of the learning to other contexts and situations. On top of this, there have been many opportunities for students beyond the classroom, such as Alice Can Dance, the Year 9 VET program and the work around creating a message that was photographed from a satellite as a part of National Science Week.

Thank you to all of our families who participated in Learning Conferences last week. The format was changed from previous years to minimise COVID risk, and with the changed format we had more families participate in conferences than in previous years. These conferences are such an important opportunity for the student, teacher and family members to come together and celebrate the learning that has been achieved, discuss any challenges and set goals for the remainder of the year. While we had a formal Learning Conferences period, families are invited to contact the school at any time if they would like to discuss their young person’s learning.

We are now seeking feedback from students, family and community members and staff about how we are going as a school. Students and staff are completing surveys while at school; we ask families and community members to complete the online survey, link below. We use the information that we obtain from these surveys alongside other school performance data to celebrate what we are doing well at and improving, and to refocus on areas that we need to improve. These surveys are the first stage of our strategic planning process for 2021. The survey does not take long to complete so please put aside 10 minutes to provide us with your valuable insights.

Next Friday we have our Athletic’s Carnival and there is further information in the newsletter about this. Families are invited to join us for the carnival, but there are a number of COVID requirements that we need to meet to please read the information in the newsletter carefully.

Warm regards

Paul van Holsteyn
Principal

School news and updates

We want YOUR feedback!

We are currently collecting feedback from families, students and staff to help us understand what we are doing well and what we need to refocus on.

Family members – please complete our short survey:

Athletic’s Carnival

We are excited to be holding our Athletic’s Carnival on Friday 28th August at Rhonda Diano Oval in Braitling. Students have been developing their skills in PE classes over recent weeks and they are ready to demonstrate their skills!

We will bus the whole school across to the oval in the morning and events will run throughout the day. Students should wear House colours and need a water bottle, hat and sunscreen. Students can bring lunch or purchase lunch from the canteen which will be operating. Please note that our regular healthy school policy is in force so don't bring take away or fast food for your young person as they will not be able to consume it.

Families are welcome to join us for the day. We are very aware of COVID-19, so if you are attending please be aware of the following measures:

• Only attend if you are healthy, are not awaiting the outcome of a COVID test and have not been in a COVID hotspot over the last 14 days.
• Please check in with staff as you arrive. We will ask you to sanitise your hands and also we will record your attendance in case we need to contact everyone who was present.
• Please remain physically distant from our students and other family groups.
• If we determine that you are not acting in a COVID-safe way, we will ask you and require you to leave the event.

As it is a whole school event and part of our core teaching and learning activities, we are not obtaining consent forms for students. If you do not with your young person to participate, please contact the school.

Transition visits

We were delighted to welcome our future students from Braitling for a transition on the 12th August. They completed a science lesson with Ms Chapman. We will have all Year 6s from our government primary schools at CMS in the next three weeks. Here are a few photos of our future scientists!

Year 9 – Term 3 – Hospitality Class

First assessment day - Staff room sandwiches

Today was a real test for the students in many different aspects of the hospitality industry. They had pressures coming from all angles, from serving, to ensuring they were gauging non-verbal feedback accordingly and problem solving any issues, to rotating through different job roles on the fly as they were directed and needing to assist their co-workers to adapt to their new roles. The pressure which was imposed on the students through the rush of staff coming in and ordering their Club Sandwich with alterations every now and then, really gave them a true experience of what it is like to work in the industry with that layer of trying their best to keep what they were preparing consistent and up to standard. I’m so happy and very proud of how well the students did today during their assessment task.

Once again, thank you for allowing the students the experience and opportunity to use their skills in such controlled environment that is good for them to grow and learn more.

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy!

Year 7 - Enrichment program

As part of National Science week the students in the year 7 Enrichment program created a giant selfie to be seen from a satellite. The satellite went over the NT on Monday the 17th August. The students decided to create a horizontal version of the CMS sign. Once created out of recycle paper, the giant letters were placed on the grass of the bus interchange. To complete the activity, the students have shown dedication, giving up a lot of their free time to accomplish this project.

Well done everybody!

Year 7 - Maths & Science

This week our 7.5 students learnt about ‘classification of living things’

To help with understanding this complex subject, their task was to classify different types of lollies into several groups based on characteristics. Students thoroughly enjoyed taking their science class outdoors, as per using lollies, well what a great way to learn!!

In the meantime, students in 7.1 have made their own terrariums while studying ecosystems. They learnt about the role of producers, consumers and decomposers. Hopefully these terrariums will live for years!

Year 7 – Spanish

Students in Year 7 Spanish have been learning all about school and subjects. Take a look at some of the work they've been doing!

Dance Class

COVID has cancelled a lot of things around the world, but it has also created some new opportunities. Today a group of our students were able to participate in a workshop with a dancer from the Sydney Dance Company. What an opportunity!! Thank you Ms O’Connor for making this happen!

Clontarf Corner – Welcome to term 3 - Week 1-4

Morning Trainings

We have had a big focus on organisation for our trainings, which in life can really set you up for success. Most of our sessions have been AFL due to our Red Centre Cup competition and Top End Cup coming up the fellas are really honing their skills and putting their hands up to be selected in either competition.

Week 2 saw our brothers from the Senior school join us for an early morning session, as a way of bringing back some year 10’s that were with us last year, as well as getting our year 9’s to know CSC Clontarf staff for when they progress to year 10.

After school activities

Red Centre Cup – with our first match being a CMS Vs CMS we had a lot of fellas putting their hands up to participate. The selection criteria for this comp is to have good attendance and to also attend our early morning training session. Our second match was against our brothers from the Yirara Clontarf Academy, the Yirara fellas came out very skilled and fit which was matched by our CMS Titans. Great leadership from our newest member in year 9 Ceejay Johnson who showed not only silky skills but also Clontarf Spirit which he was awarded for after the match. We also had the likes of Tyrell Ahmat and Henry Brown showing their skills with the footy and the respect they showed their opponents helping them up after a hard tackle. It shows we have some great upcoming leaders.

Friday Night Footy n Feed – Our first Friday Night Footy N Feed we had a matchup of Essendon Bomber’s taking on GWS Giants, before the match began the fellas were treated to a slow cooked lamb on bread rolls topped with gravy for dinner, Lazarus “Pony” Gallagher managed to pick the first goal kicker out of the group. At the end of the night we watched our fellas well fed, enjoying a game of football in our academy room.

Table Tennis Kings Comp – Last few weeks we have been challenge by our brothers from the Senior Academy at table tennis, with friendly smack talk going back and forth we decided to set up a competition to see who had the better players. To get ready for this we held an “in house comp” to get the fellas use to the game set up and also get in a bit of practice. With some great skills shown from everyone they could only be one winner and that was Clay Satour.

Contact Times

Both year 7s and year 9’s got a visit from the Oral Health Promotion team of Oral Health Services Central Australia. They talked about the importance of brushing teeth daily and just basic oral Hygiene and how it has an effect on someone’s wellbeing.

Emerging Leaders Sleepover

With our year 9’s getting ready to transition to Centralian Senior College, there has been a lot of potential for new leaders to step up and take over. The year 7’s had a chance to learn some leadership behaviours by being on a sleep over that saw them get out and about in the community. The fellas that were selected got to go to the cinema and eat out at the amazing Epilogue! By doing this we were able to show them how Clontarf members act while out in public. Credit to the fellas as they were very respectful and used their manners when they were needed.

“From Little Things Big Things Grow”

Centralian Girls Academy News

Another fantastic fortnight with all our girls who have been working towards achieving their goals in class as well as the Academy. Some really amazing work has been produced by girls in all cohorts and they have been trying their best. At the moment the Café has been a huge hit with girls making their own milos and assorted sandwiches. Even offering Staff to make toasties.

They have also been using the Art House, creating paintings and weaving to use for decorations in our room. The Beauty Corner is a massive hit as well with all girls using all sorts of products. We have been enjoying playing games and watching movies once a week. The girls have even requested hot popcorn and drinks.

Girls Academy Staff have also been present in classroom support for all our cohorts, we are enjoying supporting the students and staff as a whole. Aunty Michelle has joined Art and English classes, Rhianon in English classes and Emma in English, Maths and Humanities classes. This time is crucial in maintaining all our girls on track and giving them the opportunity to shine.

School Girls Football Competition

We’ve had a massive two weeks of Football firstly traveling out with our Senior College to Hermannsburg Community. The scenery and atmosphere was both warming with spectacular views. The girls put on a sausage sizzle for us to enjoy and their hospitality was incredible. We had a great match with our girls coming out second best, but the experience was invaluable to see how the community girls thrive on homelands.

Our second game was against St Philips always a highlight to play these talented girls. We had some more girls from the Senior College come and play which was huge to our girls. They all came together and played well but unfortunately we lost. Great sportsmanship by both teams was great to see and they all relish playing football.

Contact Time

All our girls have been spending time with Katie and Miphy from Blue Earth, talking about role models and who is a role model in their lives. They have also been connecting with friendships and their feelings. It was particularly interesting to see what the girls relayed about who their role models are.

We also watched a movie together with our Year 7 Cohort and it was nice to spend time together, Year 8 have been writing in their journals and Year 9 coming together and sharing ideas about Program Support.

Juice Bar

Aunty Michelle bought her Juicer in to see if the girls wanted to learn about juicing. A great success Year 9 girls made juice for staff and themselves using celery, apple, lemon, ginger, kiwi fruit to name a few. We will look at continuing this venture and creating new drinks for everyone to enjoy.

Cuisine from around the World

We have been celebrating food from around the world for our Friday Feeds and this has been a huge success! We have enjoyed meals from Australia – Hot Dogs, Italy - Pizza, Mexico – Burritos and this week we will be enjoying Indian food and make some delicious Curries.

Keep up the great work girls we are half way through the term!

Rhianon, Emma and Aunty Michelle

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