29 March 2019

Newsletter Articles

Important dates

Thursday 11th April – Youth Health and Wellbeing Expo
Friday 12th April – last day of Term 1
Tuesday 23rd April – first day of Term 2
Thursday 25th April – ANZAC Day

From the Principal

As Term 1 races along, it’s been great to observe and hear about the deepening knowledge and understandings that our students are developing in their subjects. Most students will be demonstrating that learning over the next two weeks in an assessment task in accordance with the assessment schedules distributed at the start of term.

We are continuing our preparations for NAPLAN Online that will take place in Weeks 4 and 5 of next term. We have had a couple of groups in Year 7 and 9 trial the platform and our technology this week to ensure that we will be able to assess all our students without interruption in the testing week. We have unearthed a couple of things relating to our network that have been resolved which made the trial a really valuable process. I’m glad we found these things now rather than in the testing week!

Harmony Day happened recently which is a day in which we celebrate the culture and identity of our community members. This connects with our values of respect and fairness. Our students focussed on the importance of language as a part of culture in their activities with the Alice Springs Language Centre.

A highlight last week was the NT Music School’s Battle of the School Bands regional heat that was hosted at CMS. We had 6 bands perform their original songs and the audience came from 7 schools to support and applaud the Alice musicians. Two of the bands were from CMS – Emozione and Anti Anti Venom. This was their first public performances and they did incredibly well. I’m really excited to see their talents develop over the next few years here. We’ve included some photos of the event later in the newsletter.

We are getting towards the end of the term with two weeks to go. We will be sending home short student progress reports in the last week of term. These are not full A to E reports that outline achievement in each learning area. Rather the intention is that they give you a glimpse of how your young person has started the year at CMS.

The upcoming holiday is only one week long. We need all students back at school on Tuesday 23rd April, after Easter, as this is when learning starts and students often find it difficult to know what is going on if they miss the first lessons in a learning sequence.

Warm regards

Paul van Holsteyn
Principal

School news and updates

Naplan Online Testing

NAPLAN Online (14 – 24 May 2019) is fast approaching and students are familiarising themselves with the different question types and functionality of the online tests. We recommend parents and guardians visit the Public demonstration to experience first-hand the NAPLAN Online test format.

This site also contains information about the move to online testing including a helpful video titled Understanding NAPLAN Online.

The NAPLAN Online Privacy Notice outlining data collection and storage can be found at the following link:

Battle of the School Bands

What a great event! Enjoy these photos.

News from Clontarf

After school Football against Yirara

With another busy week, filled with lots of fun activities we started off with our final and last game of the term against Yirara academy on Tuesday. There was definitely a lot of talent on offer and especially Clontarf spirit was well recognized on the field as well.

Early Morning Training

Following on from that awesome game on Tuesday the fellas still had enough in them to wake up early the next day for our early morning training, where we managed to get 32 fellas to training. Wide World of Sports, a new game the boys all love to play, involves everyone in 4 sports in 1. No one misses out! Now and then we will surprise the boys with a “troopy challenge”, and whichever staff member picks up the most fellas across town (eg. Larapinta/Gillen, Eastside, North side) goes to the Gillen Club for lunch. This week Larapinta/Gillen were the winners of that Challenge getting 12 boys

“Healthy Legends!”

This week young Threse Forbes and Valic Johnson are our “healthy legends” who received a basic check-up. They were awarded a deadly choices T-Shirt and both boys were delighted.

Alice Springs Table Tennis Competition

Every Thursday night six boys get the chance to earn a spot to play in a table tennis comp at OLSH High school, with positive behaviour and over 80% attendance, every Clontarf lad can earn their chance to play. We would like thank Cliffy Karpa, Alan Ah Kit, Damon king for excelling this week.

Year 8 and 9 Leadership Camp

Last Week CMS Clontarf academy teamed up with the Senior Academy at Centralian Senior College for a camp at the Big 4 Caravan Park. Students on this camp selected themselves through efforts in the classroom, participating in Clontarf activities, and improved engagement at school. Three former students enrolled in the program, now in Year 11 at CSC, mentored and participated in all activities, including Ten Pin bowling, swimming at the Big 4, cooking lunch and breakfast, and a mentoring session with Question time “on the couch with Clontarf”.

Coming Up Next Week

• Yr 7 Movie Madness for improved school attendance
• Yr 7 Health Checks on Wednesday morning Lesson 2 and 3
• Alice Springs Table Tennis Competition on Thursday night
• Good Bunch Lunch 100 % School Attendance
• Year 8 Contact Time: Deadly Choices health session

News from Girls Academy

Girls Academy have had a very busy start to the year. We have had a whole lot of different activities/engagement with the girls, such as contact times, after school activities, inductions and events.

To start off the term we held a year 7 sleepover and had a year 8 and 9 induction lunch. The year 7 sleep over was a great way to get to know the new students. We played some fun team building games and watched movies before bed. In week 5 we took year 8 and 9 to the Gillen Club for lunch and enjoyed a meal together. It was a great opportunity to check in with them and remind them of what the Girls Academy program has to offer in 2019.

This year we have started Wrap Wednesdays. Each week we change it up and have a different range of wraps for the girls. These include, chicken Caesar salad, taco mince, cold meats, and we’ve tried lettuce wraps which were a huge hit. The girls love to get involved with wrap Wednesdays, with helping serve, doing the preparation and most importantly eating the yummy wraps.

This term we celebrated birthdays in January, February and this week we will be celebrating March. Each month we have a cake and celebrate all the girls born in that month.

For contact times this term each year level has been focusing on one of our program criteria’s being ‘I am Me, I am Beautiful’. This year Michelle Dhu is with the year 7’s , Aaliyah Fuamatu is with the year 8’s and Kiah Smith is with the year 9’s.

The year 9’s organised an important event for Girls Academy – International Women’s Day. This event was held at Kungkas Can Cook. The year 9s went during the day to set the room up, they also came up with a guest list and had ideas of who they wanted as guest speakers. This year the International Women’s Day theme was ‘Balance for Better’ – our guest speakers that spoke about what they do, how they got there and how they balance home life, sport, family and work. Tracey Brand, Leonie Jones and Ebony Miller were our special guests. We also invited ACM Members Sarah Carmody and Sheralee Taylor. The girls really got involved and listened to these ladies and got very motivated and thinking about what they want as a future.

Community Announcements

Invitation for a dental check-up for your child/teenager

Children/teenagers in the Northern Territory (NT) who are attending school are entitled to free public dental services until they are 18 years old. We encourage parents to have regular dental checks for their children/teenagers to promote good dental habits and avoid the need for management of dental pain.

These services are delivered through school-based clinics, community clinics, remote health centres and mobile services.

Treatment is usually provided by dental therapists and oral health therapists. In some cases, your child/teenager may be referred to a dentist or specialist if more complex/specialised treatment or advice is needed.

You are invited to make an appointment for you child/teen, and other siblings (if applicable) by calling Oral Health Services on:

(08) 8951 6713

Redcentre Sports School Holiday Clinic

Sports vouchers

There is a change to how Sport Vouchers are being distributed this year. Schools are not being provided with vouchers for each student. Rather, families have to apply for vouchers online. Go to:

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