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

Email: Centralian.middle@education.nt.gov.au
Phone: 08 8955 2333
Fax: 

13 December 2018

Newsletter Articles

Important Dates

Friday 21st December – CMS office closes for break
Monday 14th January – CMS office re-opens for 2019
Tuesday 29th January - First day of school for 2019
Friday 15th March – Student Free Day

From the Principal

Dear families

Inconceivably another year has passed. Over the past fortnight we have been celebrating the accomplishments from the year and preparing to farewell another group of students. I encourage you to head across to our Facebook page (link at the bottom of this newsletter) to see some of the photos that we have posted.

Our pre eminent celebration is of course our Presentation Night. Thank you to all of the families that joined us for this celebration of learning. Many deserving students were recognised for their consistent application to their learning and embodiment of the CMS values of respect, responsibility and fairness.

At our presentation night we also announced our 2019 School Captains. Congratulations to Dolly Bohra and Jace Moldrich who are our School Captains and Abraham Lennie and Nikkiah Tommy who are our Vice Captains. Huge thanks to Jessie Woolford, Tusiga Salei, Seraphina Newberry and Tony Nguyen for their leadership in these roles in 2018. There are multiple opportunities for other students to join the Student Leadership program with House Captain and Student Representative Council positions to be decided in Term 1.

Teachers have worked hard to assess learning and complete reports. They are being mailed home today so you should receive them early next week. These are important documents to read, reflect on achievements and identify areas to refocus efforts on. For those continuing at CMS in 2019, we look forward to working with you and your young person to continue pushing the learning forward.

Yearbooks have been provided to students yesterday. If anyone did not get a yearbook, call in to the office to pick up another copy.

As well as being a time of celebration, the end of the year also has some sadness as we prepare to farewell another group of students. Our Year 9s are going across to Centralian Senior College next year and we wish them all of the best as they continue their learning. We deeply enjoyed the Year 9 evening event that happened on Monday – it was incredible to see the men and women that they have become dressed in their finest clothes.

We are also farewelling a small number of staff who are going on to other adventures next year:

  • Monica Russell is returning to Victoria to live and work in Ocean Grove.
  • Troy Russell is going on to Newcastle with his partner.
  • Lauren Michener is staying in Alice Springs but taking up a role at the Central Land Council.
  • James Dodd, having completed his teaching qualification this year, is taking up a position at St Phillip’s.
  • Kathryn Howitt is taking 6 months leave to look after her father.
  • Fiona Hunter is going to Darwin for 6 months to settle her daughters into the SEDA program at Casuarina Senior College.

The holidays are upon us and I sincerely hope that you enjoy the time you have together as a family, be that in Alice Springs or beyond. Below in this newsletter is information about getting ready for 2019 as well as information about school holiday programs.

Merry Christmas.

Warm regards,
Paul van Holsteyn
Principal

Getting ready for 2019

Please note this essential information to ensure you are ready for 2019.

It’s time to enrol!

If you haven’t enrolled at CMS or Centralian Senior College yet you need to do so ASAP. If you know of a young person who is joining the school in 2019 please check to see that they have enrolled. Forms are available from the Front Office which will be open until 21/12/18 and then re-open from 14/1/19.

Uniform sales

We are open for uniform sales from 10am-3pm from Monday 14th – Thursday 24th January. No uniforms will be sold on Friday 25th January.

The government is again providing a $150 back to school payment which can be spent at the school to help with the purchases of uniform, stationery and swimming costs.

School Council has set the 2019 Parental Contribution amount at $100 per student. You will be asked to pay this when you come in to purchase uniforms.

2019 School Handbook

The 2019 School Handbook has been finalised. You can access it below or pick up a copy from the office.

CMS Events and Announcements

We want your uniforms!

If you have uniforms that you have grown out of or no longer need, please donate them back to the school. We will use them as loan uniforms next year.

Polly Farmer Follow the Dream

Follow the Dream (Polly Farmer) students participated in a Microbit workshop in Week 7. Microbits are tiny programmable computers which can be coded with something simple in seconds – like lighting up its LEDs or displaying a pattern, to more complex functions such as robotics. Students coded their Microbits to count steps (like a FitBit), play musical tunes when connected to a speaker, and to send messages to each other's devices. Everyone gained an appreciation for how some of these functions can be used in toys, robots and a variety of devices around the home.

In Week 8 Follow the Dream students were treated to a fun and imaginative Claymation workshop, hosted by inDigiMob. Students sculpted plasticine figurines that were then manipulated and photographed to produce a Stop Motion animation. The animations produced were absolutely hilarious, included sound effects and music, and were testament to the infinite creativity of our students. The animations were played at the whole school assembly this week.

Year 6 students in the Polly Farmer Maths & Science program had two transition visits in Weeks 4 and 6 to CMS Follow the Dream. During the first visit, students made ‘mucus’ and discovered how useful (and essential!) this is in the body. For the second visit, students had to use their maths skills to scale a cupcake recipe up or down to feed many or a few people, before actually baking the recipe themselves.

Our own students had two transition visits to Centralian Senior College, where Year 9 students will be part of Follow the Dream in Year 10 next year. We had a pizza and pikelet group cook-up and went rock climbing with the senior students, and got to know them in preparation for next year. Students who attended our Cairns excursion this year already had a few friends from our senior Follow the Dream group!

One of our Year 9 students Alyssa Mason has won an Aspire Scholarship for her senior studies at Centralian Senior College next year. The Aspire scholarship is a four-year scholarship targeting students with demonstrated financial need, good academic results, leadership potential and an interest in serving their communities. This scholarship offers financial assistance for students in Years 10 to 12 and the first year of university, should they choose to study at CDU.

Follow the Dream begins again in Week 2, 2019. If you would like to improve your grades, are interested in learning and want to discover some of the exciting career and study opportunities in the wider community, we would like to hear from you!!

Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas and New Year- 2019 is going to be even better!!

Virginia Morley
Follow the Dream Program Co-ordinator

Clontarf

It has been another huge year at Clontarf in 2018. We would like to thank our school staff, parents, and family members who have supported us throughout the year.

Throughout the year we’ve been fortunate enough to see many students in the program grow into remarkable young men, with the potential to succeed in sport, the class room, and importantly as a student of life.

There have been some remarkable camps, activities, carnivals, and excursions that have taken place over the year. Our boys have learned the values of Clontarf and the importance of being engaged at school and working well in the classroom.

One of our great camps was the Kangaroo Island trip we completed recently. Take a look below for some highlights of this trip.

We would like to acknowledge the outstanding achievements of our young men who have excelled in the program, and also pay a special farewell to our group of Year 9’s who graduate and leave to the Senior College next year. We are confident you will continue to be strong ambassadors for the Clontarf program and your school.

“From Little Things Big Things Grow”

Regards,

Tom Clements
Director – CMS Clontarf Academy

Instrumental lessons with the NT Music School

Its time to enrol in instrumental lessons for 2019. The NT Music School provides CMS students with instrumental lessons for clarinet, flute, guitar, percussion, saxophone, trombone and trumpet. Lessons are free although there is a one off $50 registration fee and students need to provide own instrument. This is a great opportunity!

Enrol on the Music School’s website below or by coming in to the CMS office.

Community Announcements

School Holiday events

A calendar of events has been developed for the school holidays, Take a look below.

Fun at the Town Pool

There are lots of activities happening at the Alice Springs Aquatic and Leisure Centre over the break.

Have a look at what’s on in the link below.

ASYASS Resource Centre

The ASYASS Resource Centre at 3 Brown Street is an afternoon drop in space for young people aged 10 – 17 years old. Come in and play sports, draw and make art and unwind in our cinema space and Xbox room. We cook meals, you can help. The Resource centre is open:

  • Tuesdays 5.30 – 9pm
  • Wednesdays 3 pm – 8.30 pm
  • Thursday 3 pm – 8.30 pm
  • Friday 3 pm – 10 pm
  • Saturday 7 pm – 10.30 pm Youth Disco
  • Sunday, Monday Closed.

Facebook

Keep up to date with all our news and updates

Head on over to ‘like’ our Facebook page to keep in touch with school news, highlights and achievements of our wonderful students. We encourage people to like and share our posts.

Please read the terms of engagement before posting comments.

https://www.facebook.com/CentMS/