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Welcome to the end of first term and to our first Newsletter for 2013. It is our proposal to celebrate each term with a newsletter that Showcases student achievement and successful school events as well as impart some information about issues that are important to our school.
Celebrations:
School Song: We are excited with the writing and recording of a school song, “United by Voice”. The lyrics and the MP3 file of the recording are on our website. This will be accompanied by a video that is to be made in June. Thank you to Josh Arnold and the students who had input into the recording and the lyrics while they attended Kick Start Conference! We look forward to hearing the song at all school events in the future.
We welcomed Lisa, Gabby, Chantel and Kathy to our team at the beginning of the year and what a wonderful job they have done to settle in and learn the ways of Distance Education. Dedicated, enthusiastic and amazing teachers are essential to our students learning and to Home Tutor support and the new and the old are blending well and supporting you and your students with their learning.
There is no better way to start the year than with the students and Home Tutors learning together. With Helen Cook, teaching and non-teaching staff and the imported guests such as Raw Dance, Josh Arnold, Robyn Pulman, Geoff Dymock and others, the week was a resounding success. Thank you for your involvement.
Such a wonderful job by the teachers, students and parents who helped out this term at Minischools! I was fortunate to attend two of them and to see the enjoyment and achievement of the students was a pleasure. Thank you to the teachers for their organisation and execution of well-planned weeks! And thank you to the students whose behaviour and involvement is always 100%.
A big thank you to those of you who have persevered and given feedback on the curriculum materials and to the teachers who are teaching the lessons on air! The feedback from Home Tutors has been very positive and when Minischools have taken class teachers out, the difference to delivery has been noted.
We are fortunate to have a very supportive P&C who have given much in time and monetary support over the past year and this term. As departments cut back on school funding, it is unfortunate that parents have to take up the slack to add to the delivery of your children’s education.
Important information:
During the second week of the holidays we are changing from the old telebridge to Optus phone link up. All families will be well prepared with “the how to do this”. This has been our department’s solution to a cheaper way of delivering phone lessons and is already in use in four of the other Distance Ed schools. The main change will be the phone number and a new PIN for each class. Watch for notification of this!
Every Day Counts is a state-wide initiative that aims to assist in improving student attendance at school. It is designed to foster a shared commitment to improving school attendance.
Every Day Counts promotes four key messages:
• all children should be enrolled at school and attend on every school day
• schools should monitor, communicate and implement strategies to improve regular school attendance
• truanting can place a student in unsafe situations and impact on their future employability and life choices
• attendance at school is the responsibility of everyone in the community.
What this means for a school of distance education is that we work with you to help your child complete all of the relevant learning your child requires and that we have evidence of this learning. Student attendance is measured by the return of assessment and send in tasks.
When less than 95% is received this may affect your Assistance for Isolated Children payments.
Our school’s focus this year is onReading, embedding the Curriculum materials, theWestern Alliance(Improved opportunities for Secondary students), and the Parent and Community Engagement Framework and how we can improve on parent support, not so much the engagement!
Next term will see a revamped Cluster Muster with a number of teachers sharing the role of Arts and HPE delivery. For the Home Tutors we are going to have a mix of consultation around the School review (which includes the Parent and Community Engagement Framework), understanding more about pedagogy and teaching, and consultation around Minischool delivery – timing, grouping, attendance and whatever else comes to mind.
I enjoy these sessions immensely and look forward to catching up with as many of you as possible.
Have a wonderful holiday break…you sure deserve it.
Jenny
“Learning is not the accumulation of knowledge. Learning is movement from moment to moment.”
J Krishnamurti
March 2013
Looking back we have had a very busy and productive term. It has been wonderful to see all the progress our students, home tutors, parents and staff have made in these first nine weeks of the school year. It never ceases to amaze me what we can all fit in: Meetings for management committees, a very busy and exciting time at Kick Start Conference and, of course, Minischools.
Congratulations to all the kids who were able to attend KSC this year. I know that each of you had a really enjoyable time - certainly I had a great time learning all about cricket and soccer with the groups of students I helped to supervise. I was blown away by everyone’s creativity when it came to working with Raw Dance and Josh Arnold - to pull together a very professional dance routine and to write three songs including our very own school anthem “United by Voice”. All the children showed a great deal of pride in the school and themselves at this event. Home Tutors and parents who were able to attend also gained a great deal from this opportunity to learn and build networks or reacquaint with friends. Thanks also to our dedicated staff who worked so well together to bring much of this together. Thanks especially to Tam Taylor who, even with a full class load, assisted Helen and me by pulling a timetable together for the staff to work with the students.
Minischools over the past few weeks have been most enjoyable with too many memorable moments to mention. Each Minischool was well attended and supported by a wonderful band of mums and home tutors who worked hard to ensure everyone was well fed and watered! Thanks once again. I appreciated the opportunity to catch up with all the parents and home tutors at the three Minischools I was able to attend. Thanks for your honest feedback around Kick Start Conference and other areas that were raised.
In the final week of the term, our school captains, Fiona Steele, Hugh Watts and Andrea Gilligan, will travel toBrisbanewith me to attend the Leadership Conference. This promises to be a wonderful way for all to finish up this busy term.
Next term we have a lot to look forward to with the inauguralWesternAllianceSecondaryMultischoolto be held in Longreach. I hope that many of our secondary students will take up the offer to attend the Multischool. This will be a valuable opportunity for them to meet their fellow students and new teachers from across theWestern Alliance. In week 6 we will have NAPLAN testing to look forward to. More information around this will be sent to all years 3, 5, 7 and 9 students. Students and parents/home tutors will also have Cluster Musters to look forward to. More information regarding these has been sent from the school.
I hope that each of you has a wonderful Easter break and that the bunny is able to find those of you who have been good enough to deserve a treat next Sunday. Of course, if you will be travelling to visit family and friends, or for any other reason over the holidays, please do so carefully.
On a final note I was fortunate enough to see Cavalia last weekend! It was a fantastic show but for me it also had a great message.
Be patient with those you love. Always, always enjoy the moment and be sure to make it fun!
Cheers Kate
Modification for Years 4 to 7 with regard to using iConnect (Web Conferencing)
Changes will come into effect from Term 2 for Years 4 to 7 students’ access to iConnect. Calendars with hyperlinked dates will no longer be added to On-air Lessons section in eLearn. Creating 100 sessions for two grades and then hyperlinking those sessions to calendar dates can take up to 2 hours to complete.
CSDE students and Home Tutors can either put iConnect into their favourites in Internet Explorer (or Firefox depending on the browser used) or go through the CSDE home page. It is a simpler process for students if iConnect is a favourite. Once in iConnect, search for the teacher’s name and the session/s for that day will appear for students to join.
Instructions for this process have been added to Years 4, 5, 6 and 7 On-air Lessons in eLearn. For example, Yr 4 is as follows:
Open iConnect (hyperlink is active – click and hold ‘Ctrl’ key then click iConnect with your mouse)
Search for your teacher's name (Daunis or Scheerer)
Click on the hyperlink to the session to join the web conference for your lesson
Password: year4
Full name of sessions:
Charleville SDE Yr 4 (Mrs Daunis)
Charleville SDE Yr 4 (Mrs Scheerer
Wow, where did this term go? Kick Start Conference was a huge success - all families that attended not only learnt heaps but had a wonderful time. The students participated in sessions of cricket, soccer, dance and song writing. By the end of the week the students, along with Josh Arnold, had written a school song.
At the presentation on Thursday evening the children showed the parents and staff what they had learnt during the week. They also performed some dance routines along with singing the songs that had been written. When all the attending students performed the school song, along with Josh, quite a few of the adults shed a tear or two.
The Home Tutors attended sessions in CPR, Digital Technology, Support-a-Talker, Strive and Home Tutor/Teacher Interviews… just to name a few, along with a day session with Robyn Pulman, who inspired us all to look after ourselves.
Minischools went well; once again lots of fun was had by all who attended. Thank you to the Home Tutors who helped in the kitchens, keeping everybody well fed and watered.
Have a lovely Easter and break.
Cheers
Helen
Parent Liaison Officer
Western Alliance
Our new Secondary alliance of Charleville, Longreach and Mt. Isa campuses was introduced this year, and anecdotal evidence from parents, students and teachers suggests that the decision to amalgamate has been a very positive one. A very obvious benefit to students has been the increased number of peers to interact with and learn from during the on-air lessons.
Next term students and teachers from the three campuses will meet at Longreach to attend the Secondary Multischool in Week 3. This is not a camp: it will be 3 days of working with fellow students and teachers in a regular classroom environment. It will also give the students a real opportunity to meet their teachers and each other, and to forge strong learning and network groups.
We’ll be staying in purpose-built accommodation provided at the Longreach campus, so no-doubt lots of fun will be had outside of school hours. We’re all really looking forward to this new adventure, and to working together in the future.
Susan Colquhoun– Charleville
School Phones
Is your school phone playing up?
From time to time you may experience some trouble with your school phone during a lesson.
Please don’t just pack up your phone and headset and send it back to the school without talking to our Technician Bill Grant, as there are ways to troubleshoot to find the problem.
If Bill finds that the phone or headset is indeed faulty, he will then arrange for you to return the equipment to the school and send a replacement.
Bill is your “go to guy” if you also need replacement voice tubes or foam ear pads.
Contact details: Phone 07 4656 8908
email: wjgra0@eq.edu.au
Handy hints for better hearing!
Please keep the telephone to the standard that you received it, by keeping it clean all the time, and wiping dust with a slightly damp cloth.
Cleaning instructions for phone and headset.
- Both items can be cleaned using a damp cloth with a little bit of Spray and Wipe or detergent (apply cleaning products to the cloth, do not spray directly on equipment).
- A quick wipe often is the best way to keep the equipment clean.
- Headsets have foam ear pads that can be taken off and washed with warm soapy water then rinsed and allowed to completely dry before putting back on the headset.
- The voice tube on the headset (clear plastic tube) can be slid off and soaked in warm soapy water (disinfectant can be added to kill germs) for about 5-10 mins. During this time blow back through the tube a couple of times to unblock the filter end.
- Rinse the voice tube with clean water and leave to completely dry before reattaching to the headset.
Home Safety
Winter dangers
Winter is cough and cold season. Medicines to relieve the symptoms of coughs and colds are a common cause of poisoning. Store all medicines out of sight and reach of children.
The Queensland Poisons Information Centre does not encourage the use of chest rubs, vaporiser or inhalant fluids to treat coughs and colds, or for any other purpose.
Chest rubs and vaporiser fluids do not have any proven benefit. They can make you feel as though your airways are clearing but this is because camphor, menthol or eucalyptus oil make your nasal passages more sensitive to cold air. Chest rubs and vaporiser fluids do not have a decongestant effect.
The camphor and eucalyptus oil in chest rubs and vaporiser fluids are poisonous and can make children very sick if they swallow them. Each year Poisons Information Centres send many children to hospital after they have swallowed chest rub or vaporiser fluid.
If you think your child has swallowed a chest rub or vaporiser fluid contact the Poisons Information Centre immediately
.Adapted with permission from the Victorian Poisons Information Centre)
The Queensland Poisons Information Centre does not encourage the use of camphor blocks or camphorated oil for any purpose.
Camphor blocks or camphorated oil do not have any proven benefit:
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