14 February 2022

Newsletter Articles

Important dates

Thursday 17 March – Swimming Carnival

Friday 25 March – Battle of the School Bands

5.00pm Friday 11th March – AGM Meeting

From the Principal

Werte!

Welcome to 2022! I firstly want to acknowledge and welcome our new students and their families. We look forward to getting to know you. It's been a challenging start with COVID having a significant impact on all of us. Our incredible team of staff have been working hard behind the scenes to ensure we are doing our best to manage the impact of Covid on our school community. We are taking things day by day, but we are also ensuring that we are focused on learning.

Students must not attend school if they have any symptoms of COVID. Please ensure that if you or your young person tests positive for COVID-19 with a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT)- register your result online using the Rapid Antigen Test Declaration Form. You should upload your results before 8pm on the day you test positive. All students at CMS are required to RAT test to attend if they are a close contact- it is important to let us know this. We have staff that check the status of close contacts each day.

Onto more exciting news- Mr Wellington Pasi is our new Assistant Principal. Mr Pasi has been at CMS for over 10 years and has built excellent relationships with staff, families, and students over this time. Mr Pasi will oversee the implementation of our school wide positive behaviour approach and will consolidate our whole school wellbeing approach. Our Year Level Leaders are excellent teachers and experienced CMS staff members; Emma Forrester in Year 7, Clarence Jeanny in Year 8 and Emily Webster in Year 9. Our Year Level Leaders play a very important role in managing the wellbeing and learning outcomes of our students.

This year we also have two curriculum coaches to assist us in achieving our strategic goal focused on curriculum - Ms Katharine Adams - English and Humanities and Ms Bonnie Chapman - Maths and Science. The curriculum coaches will work with teams of teachers to strengthen assessment practices so that our students can identify where they are at and are challenged to grow and extend themselves.

Our Annual General Meeting will be held on March 11. I would encourage our new and existing families to come along and be part of the school council. We would like you to have a say in developing our strategic plans to improve our school and be involved in our school community.

Did you know that you can email, call, or text us? Our email is centalian.middle@education.nt.gov.au, our phone number is 89 552 333 and our text line is 0459 913 887. Please text, call, or email if your young person is going to be away from school.

Cassie O’Bree
Principal

Welcome to our new staff

As well as welcome new students into the school, we have a number of new staff. We are delighted to welcome the following teachers to the school:

• Emma Pegg – Year 7 English and Humanities
• Gatkuoth Kueth – Year 7 Math and Science
• Marcus Druce – Year 7 health and Physical Education
• Gaby Sidhu – Year 7 Special Education
• Kim Jorre – Year 7 Special Education
• Vicky Howie – Year 8 Special Education
• Vanessa Solefe – Year 8 Special Education
• Emma Hurley - Year 9 English and Humanities
• Harry Mezler – Year 9 Maths and Science
• Allegra Vickas – Science and Physical Education
• Fletcher Dowling – Year 9 Special Education
• Ed Gould – Across the School Music teacher

We would also like to welcome the following support staff to the school:

• Taryn Miller – School-based Police Officer

Introducing our team

School Leadership

Cassie O’Bree – Principal
Wellington Pasi – Assistant Principal

Year 7 Team

Emma Forrester – Year 7 Team Leader

Brad Gill - English and Humanities
Emma Pegg - English and Humanities
Cassandra Harrison – Maths and Science
Georgie Sutton – Maths and Science
Sarah Steele-Park – Health and Physical education
Marcus Druce - Health and Physical education
Gatkuoth Kueth – Maths and Science
Ricky Willis - Maths and Science
Andrew Brown – Special Education
Kim Jorre – Special Education Teacher
Gabrielle Sidhu – Special Education Teacher
Tenneil Wark – Special Education Support Officer
Robbie Smith - Special Education Support Officer
Stacy Vueti - Special Education Support Officer
Jess Milner – Tutor
Tarrant Maher – Tutor
Kate Emery - Tutor

Year 8 Team

Clarence Jeannie – Year 8 Team Leader

Ashleigh Casey - English and Humanities
Al Byers - English and Humanities
Cat Thomson - Maths and Science
Allegra vickas – Science and Physical Education
Vicky Howie – Special Education Teacher
Rajinder Uppal - Special Education Teacher
Junior Lijanga - Special Education Support Officer
Bec Latham - Special Education Support Officer
Bridy Baney – Tutor

Year 9 Team

Em Webster – Year 9 Team Leader
Katharine Adams - English and Humanities
Harry Mezler - Maths and Science
Emma Hurley – English and Humanities
Andrew Weekes - Maths and Science
Fletcher Dowling – Special Education
Vanessa Sofele – Special Education
Barry Georpopoulos - Special Education Support Officer
Nola Hunter - Special Education Support Officer
Siobhan Dermody - Tutor
Daniel Hodgson – Tutor
Demaris De Cock - Tutor
VET Hospitality - Scott Berry – Trainer & Assessor
VET Conservation and Ecosystem Management - Jacelyn Anderson – Teacher & Assessor

Teachers working across the school

Stone Lee – Visual Art
Julie North – Textiles and Home Economics
Stephen Ryan – Design and Technology
Kaye Pederson– Media and Special Education
Ed Gould – Music
Jacelyn Anderson – VET Conservation and Ecosystem Management teacher
Scott Berry – VET Hospitality Mentor

Wellbeing support for students

Denise Casey – Home Liaison Officer
Jamahl Hayes – Aboriginal Education Worker
Rachel Abbott – Flexi Engagement Officer
Sarah Sarmiento – Counsellor
Laura Higgins – Health Promoting School Nurse
Taryn Miller – School-based Police Office
Mel Dunnage – Authorised Engagement Officer

Administration and school support

Brenda Savage– Business Manager
Dannielle Braun – Front Office
Julia Pearson – Attendance & SAMS Administrator
Tiara Hawea – Executive Support
Carolyn Bindle – Lab Technician
Sandrine Frapier – Library
Daniel Mar Fan – Maintenance

Polly Farmer Foundation

Hamish McLoughlin – Program Manager

Clontarf

Tom Clements – Director

Clontarf year level coordinators/mentors:

Year 7 – Tom Clements and Brenden Verrier
Year 8 – Cheyne Miles
Year 9 – Will Carlile

Stars Foundation Program

Staci Trindle – Program Coordinator
Lara Harding – Program Mentor
Tiara Hawea – Program Mentor

School news and updates

Welcome message from leaders across the school.

Year 7

Welcome to all the Year 7 Students and Families it is fantastic to see all our new Year 7 students engaged in classes and ready for learning each lesson. Despite the current unusual circumstances, we have commenced our learning program with all students participating in the full range of subject here at CMS and demonstrating our school values of Respect, Responsibility, and Fairness.

It has been great to see students making their transition into high school with enthusiasm by forming new friendships and demonstrating focus in their learning. This has been noted by all staff in the Year 7 Team.

If you have any questions, concerns, or would like to chat, please contact your young person’s Home Group teacher or Emma Forrester the Y7 Team Leader.

Emma Forrester

Year 8

A warm welcome to all the students joining us in Year 8 this year! Our Year 8 team is very excited to be working with a group of young people who is already demonstrating their readiness for learning. We invested a lot of time in getting to know each other last week and ensuring that all our students are organised for learning. We also spent a bit of time reviewing our school values of Respect, Responsibility and Fairness.

This week, we have plunged right into our learning programs, and it is wonderful to see how well our Year 8s are engaging in learning activities. In Maths, students have been revising shapes and angles in preparation for our Geometry unit. We took a journey to the centre of the Earth to learn about the structure of our planet, which will then lead into our Geology unit. For English, our students have been demonstrating their literature skills which they will refine through the Novel Study – We All Fall Down. Our Year 8s will also be going back in time as they learn about the Black Death in Humanities.

Despite the challenges of Covid, road closures and short supplies, our Year 8 students have started the term on a very positive note. We are excited for the learning that will take place this year, for the friendship that will grow stronger and the adventures that we will embark on. I encourage families to connect with our Year 8 staff and contact me through the school if there is anything I can support them with.

Clarence Jeannie

Year 9

A big welcome to our Year 9 students – our school leaders for 2022. Although the start to the year has not been what we would have hoped for, with COVID creating disruptions in all our lives, we are so proud of the way our Year 9s have started the year – our classrooms are calm, productive and full of mature young people getting stuck into learning!

Along with classroom learning, our VET programs have commenced. We have around 32 students participating in on-site VET courses in Hospitality and Conservation & Land Management this Semester. We’re really pleased to be able to offer these alternative learning opportunities to our Year 9s. Keep an eye out for information coming home soon about the week-long VET Taster program at CDU, an opportunity available to all Year 9s later in the year.

We have an amazing group of Year 9 teachers this year. We welcome to CMS Ms Hurley, Mr Melzer and Mr Fletcher, who join me, Ms Adams, Ms Sofele, Mr Weekes and Mrs Anderson in the Year 9 teaching team. Ms Steele-Park and Ms Allegra are our HPE teachers, and Year 9s have the choice of Arts electives offered by Mr Lee (Art), Ms North (Cooking), Mr Gould (Music) and Mr Ryan (D&T). Our teachers are wonderfully supported by our tutors Ms Siobhan, Miss Dee and Ms Emma, and Mr G and Ms Nola in the Small Groups classes. We are all looking forward to developing strong relationships with our Year 9s, and supporting all our students to meet their full potential inside and outside of the classroom.

I’m excited to share the year with an amazing group of students and staff. Please get in touch at any time with me, or with your young person’s Home Group teacher, if you have any questions, concerns or if you want to talk about your young person’s learning or experiences at school. We are here to support your young person to be a successful, happy and engaged learner!

Emily Webster

Stars Foundation

Stars Foundation has been providing full-time mentoring support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander girls at schools in the NT since 2015. Stars Program kicked off at Centralian Middle School last year and since then, we have seen outstanding outcomes among our students. Our program is based around four key pillars of personal development:

• Healthy Lifestyles
• Wellbeing
• Employment, Education & Training
• Community, Culture & Leadership

The key to the success of our program are our full-time, on site mentors, who provide the girls with the supported they need to achieve their goals and reach their full potential. Here at the middle school campus, our team members are:

• Staci Trindle – Program Coordinator
• Lara Harding – Program Mentor
• Tiara Hawea – Program Mentor

We are looking forward to providing the highest quality support to not only the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young women, but to all students at Centralian Middle School. If any families would like to get in touch with us, please don’t hesitate to call or drop by and see us.

Clontarf Corner

Welcome back everyone!

We would like to extend a warm welcome to our Clontarf families, academy members, students, and school staff for 2022. We trust you all had a lovely holiday break. Our team at Clontarf are looking forward to supporting our fellas enrolled in the academy, and supporting them in their education journey here at CMS. There will be plenty of positive activities happening at Clontarf this term around are learning pillars of Education, Leadership, Wellbeing, Education, and Sport, so we encourage your child to engage in our welcoming academy environment and get to know our mentors.

Clontarf Foundation Mission Statement:

“The Clontarf Foundation exists to improve the education, discipline, life skills, self-esteem and employment prospects of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and by doing so equips them to participate meaningfully in society.”

Programme Background:

Using supportive relationships, a welcoming environment, and a diverse range of activities, the young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men in our programme develop improved self-esteem and confidence which assists them to participate in education, employment and society in a positive way.

Thanks, Tom!
Director – Centralian Middle Clontarf Academy

Polly farmer Foundation

The Polly Farmer Foundation and CMS would like to invite all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to join the Follow the Dream Program in 2022.

The Follow the Dream program at CMS is designed to assist students to succeed in their education and develop the skills necessary to experience success at school and participate in our community. Academic enrichment lies at the heart of the program, with each student offered literacy and numeracy support, specialist tutoring, personalised learning plans, one-on-one mentoring and practical learning experiences.

At CMS, the program caters for students from Year 7 to 9 and operates on Tuesday and Thursday after school between 3pm to 5pm. Students can join the Follow the Dream Program by completing a permission form that can be collected at the front office.

This year we would like to welcome back Junior (tutoring) and Gary (bus driver). If you are interested in joiningHamish.mcloughlin@stphilips.nt.edu.au

Looking forward to a great year!

Hamish McLoughlin

Community Announcements

Alice Springs Scout Group

Our local Scout Group commences back for 2022 this week. All details in the flyer below.

2022 Youth Recycled Art Prize – stay tuned!

As part of the annual NT Youth Week activities, Council’s Youth Recycled Art Prize offers young people in Alice Springs the opportunity to develop their creative talents, have their work exhibited, and win great prizes – all while learning about recycling. All exhibited artworks are made from recy-cled / reused materials. Prizes are awarded for winning entries, including a People’s Choice Award.

If you’re aged 11 – 25 years, then submit your best ‘waste’ artwork, creating a sculpture or artwork out of reused or recycled materials.

Entries close 1st April 2022!

Opening exhibition on 8th April 2022! Details to come…

Register your interest with the Youth Team by emailing YDO@astc.nt.gov.au

CASH prizes to be won!

2022 Phoney Film Festival – stay tuned!

Alice Springs Town Council’s Youth Programs Team presents the annual Phoney Film Festival (PFF) in July each year – a short-film festival by youth, for youth, featuring 5 minute films shot on smart devices.

PFF includes two workshops designed to help develop key filmmaking skills, in the lead up to the Screening & Awards Night.

The first workshop – delivers face to face tutorials on techniques and strategies for making short films, including storytelling and editing, and will be supported by online tutorials that participants can access independently.

The second workshop – is a drop-in space for young film-makers to seek support and help with problem-solving as they create their films.

Submissions for entries close 1 July 2022.

The Phoney Film Festival screening and awards night will be held at the Alice Springs Cinema, on Thursday 14 July 2022. The judging panel comprises professionals in the film industry who will determine the top three short films.

Sports voucher

Semester 1 2022 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 www.sportvoucher.nt.gov.au, alternatively you can also contact our Sport Voucher team by phone on 1800 817 860 or by email sport.voucher@nt.gov.au .

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.