1 June 2022

Newsletter Articles

Important dates

Tuesday 7 June – Thursday 9 June - Clontarf Top End Cup Camp (Katherine) Year 7,8,9
Thursday 9 June - 9am & 4pm – Principal’s Tour (ring the front office on 89 522 333 to book/register your interest)
Thursday 9 June – Last Day of Term for Students
Friday 10 June – Staff Learning Day, No School for Students
Tuesday 13 June – Queen’s Birthday Public Holiday
Tuesday 14 June – Interschool AFL Day – Ross Park Oval
Friday 17 June – Interschool Athletics – Rhonda Diano Oval
Friday 24 June – Last day of Term 2

From the Principal

Werte!

We had our school review last week. The school review was conducted by an ACER lead reviewer Ron Bamford and other NT Principals from across the Territory. They spent 3 days in our school interviewing staff, students and parents. I would like to share some of the commendations found in the report – these are the things that are recognised as excellent practice.

“The high morale of the staff is shown through a shared passion, commitment and dedication to each other and their drive to improve the learning outcomes for all students.”

“The school has developed an instructional model to drive teaching across the school and has resourced ‘Coaching’ to support the common understanding for planning and shared pedagogies for teaching.”

“Staff at Centralian Middle School have a strong understanding of student wellbeing and cultural safety and express the need for and demonstrate respectful and caring relationships with students.”

We will now start to develop our four-year strategic plan with our parents, our students, and our staff. Information about these sessions will be advertised soon – if this is something that interests you, please get in touch!

Reconciliation Week – our Homegroups are Being Brave and Making a Change this week. The challenge is on to explore our local history with a more critical lens – who is memorialised and celebrated in our town’s history and why?

Our Year Level teams are beginning to plan camps for Term 3. We would like to see all students attend the camps as it is an opportunity to create memories and develop new friendships.

Finally, I would like to inform everyone that I will be taking 6 months of Long Service Leave in Semester 2. Simon Rowlands will be returning to CMS as the Principal for this time. Simon has extensive experience as an Assistant Principal at CMS and Bradshaw Primary and most recently was the Principal at Ross Park Primary. We are all excited to have Simon return!

Cassie O’Bree
Principal

Ms Cassie O’Bree

School news and updates

NAPLAN breakfast!

Students that came to school on time during Naplan enjoyed a cooked breakfast every morning, what a treat!

This is how we warm up at CMS!

A friendly game of basketball between the stars Foundation and Clontarf Foundation.

Cooper got his working at heights qualification this week! As a Cert II Engineering VET student he will be doing his block week next week at CDU. Obtaining his white card and working at heights will have him “work ready” to do a vocational work placement hopefully real soon!

VET gives our students amazing opportunities!!

We love seeing our CMS students achieving their goals and chasing their dreams at Centralian Senior College. Congrats, Cooper!

A very cool Centralian Middle School achievement. Brendan from Clontarf bumped into our Year 9 student Asher after crossing the finish line in the West Mac Monsters trail running event over the weekend. Brendan completed the 65km run and Asher completed the 25km which is a massive effort! Asher has a very exciting future ahead of him, incredible achievement.

Year 7

In 7.1 we have been learning about Earth and Space Sciences. We used pizza boxes to make a solar oven for students to demonstrate the power of the sun. The students had to design the ovens themselves, plan and conduct and scientific investigation.

We melted chocolate and made smores then evaluated our designs to see if we could have done even better. It was such a success!

Year 8

This term 8.6 tackled an Aussie classic, Curried sausage, many of the students had stories about how they eat the dish regularly with their families or how their nan cooks it.

They have also been working on their knife skills this week, practising dicing onions and garlic, paying attention to how they are holding the knife and using the claw grip

For Harmony Day, 8.1 went on an afternoon excursion to the temping bowling alley. They had pizza for lunch and enjoyed 2 games of bowls, what a treat!!

Year 9

Year 9 science students have started their unit on Plate Tectonics this term.

This has involved revising what they already know about the Earth's structure and adding in some more details, for example the evidence behind our current theory of the Earth being made of layers.

Year 9s are also learning about Alfred Wegener and his crazy idea of continental drift. Students have used his evidence (continent shape, rock types and fossil patterns) to rebuild the ancient continent of Gondwana. Gently heating ink has shown us the pattern of convection currents - and the idea that these can be strong enough to move entire continents.

Next we'll be looking at what happens at the plate boundaries, and how this impacts us globally.

VET Hospitality

In Year 9, CMS students have the option to participate in VET courses a day a week onsite. Here’s our Tuesday Cert I Hospitality students whipping up delicious club sandwiches for staff, under the guidance of Trainer Scott and Miss D. We’re so pleased to be able to offer our students alternative learning pathways like VET - skills for life!

VET Conservation & Ecosystem Management

The VET Land Management program is hitting its strides.

Students have been potting-up seedlings and planting out their young plants - a big thank you to Kaz and the Westside Community Gardens for letting us use their site for these plantings! A highlight was potting up chrysanthemums for Mother's Day. With a focus on their theory work, many students have now completed their "Support Nursery Work" unit (and others are very close).

Students have also been visiting different sites to see 1) businesses are run with the environment as their tourism drawcard - a shout out here to Standley Chasm - the work you've done since the floods is nothing short of amazing and 2) how different habitats have plants that are adapted to these locations, and ways we can keep them protected. We have enjoyed visiting special places like Emily and Jessie Gaps, Simpsons Gap etc. This will lead into our unit on "Support Ecological Restoration".

Our students should be commended to their commitment to this program.

Stay tuned - there will be a second intake into this program, starting next semester.

For more details, please email jacelyn.anderson@education.nt.gov.au or contact the school.

Leadership Event

On Friday the 20th of May, the CMS Student Leadership Team ran activities with the team leaders and SRCs from three different primary schools. There was 27 students from Ross Park, 18 from Braitling and 5 from Sadadeen. The session was run by our leadership team and Miss Katie from BeMe Physical Education. We ran different activities including ice breakers, Hula Hut Throwdown and Blind Drawing, and were provided with a heathy lunch from the Year 9 VET Hospitality students. We learnt many skills including teamwork and communication and many more. We made great connections with the primary students and had loads of fun.

By Olive & Chloe

Stars Foundation

In Stars we’ve kept our focus on living healthy lifestyles and practicing positive wellbeing.

Our Year 7s and 9s put together various Thai dishes such as Pad Thai, San Boy Chow and more. As always, the girls did an awesome job, and we were surprised at how easy it was to make these delicious meals on a budget!

The Year 7s then continued their work with Miss Katie from BluEarth in her wonderful Be.ME Movement program, and the Year 9s grabbed the opportunity to spoil their special person for Mother’s Day by gifting them different self-care items and a handmade card! It was very special to see so much effort put into them, and we hope you enjoyed what the girls created.

After missing three contact times due to public holidays, we finally caught up with our Year 8 girls! We had so much fun taking them to the Desert Park. The weather was perfect and we were able to connect with the girls about school, extra-curricular interests and also what is planned for the rest of the term.

It was great to see all students trying their best with their NAPLAN tests! We were able to cook up a delicious pancake breakfast for the whole school and we hope the students enjoyed having that extra boost of energy before a big day of tests.

Lastly, the girls showed they understand the upcoming Reconciliation Weeks theme “Be Brave”. Their enthusiasm, zeal and courage had Tiara, Lara and I proud! #CMS #Stars

Clontarf Corner

BASKETBALL

Our friendship with the St Philips College basketball program continues this year, with Clontarf playing after-school against St Philips. Boys from all year levels in our academy continue to play in true Clontarf spirit and enjoy the competition, comradery, and challenging duels.

EMPLOYMENT ON THE HORIZON

Our year eight and nine boys have been attending after-school Clontarf resume-building sessions. A special mention to these young men for actively seeking work. They remain motivated in taking steps to develop their employment portfolios. As a result, a few of our academy members have interviews with our partners from Target next week.

During our early morning training we have our friends from NTAFL delivering AFL umpiring sessions for eight of our interested academy members. These young men are on the hunt to secure work in the local CAFL competition as boundary and goal umpires.

THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE WORM (CLONTARF MORNING TRAINING)

It’s not easy waking up at 5.45 am to be ready for a Clontarf pick-up at early morning training. A huge congratulations to the fellas who continue to lead by example in this space. Clontarf morning training is based around inclusiveness, leadership, learning new skills, and course.... FUN! And who could forget those warm cooked breakfasts.

We've had a range of training this term already, including AFL, morning hikes up Mt Undoolya, and Wide World of Sports (5 Sports). If your son is enrolled in Clontarf and wishes to be picked up for training, please contact the front office, where you will be connected with a Clontarf staff member.

CLONTARF HIT THE TRAILS

Week two this term Clontarf was invited by our friends from AusCycle to attend the inter-school mountain bike event at the Telegraph Station. Eight of our academy members "selected themselves" through their attendance at school, completion of work, and positive behaviour, to represent our academy. Our fellas posted some brilliant times, completing 9.8km (two laps). Great effort boys, we are extremely proud of your efforts.

WELL-BEING & LEADERSHIP CAMP

Twelve Clontarf members from year eight ventured out 80kms from Alice Springs to explore the Ellery Creek Big Hole, which cuts through a gorge in the West MacDonnell Ranges.

The soft creek sand made for a great platform for a game of marks-up, the fellas set up into teams so if the ball hit the ground, it was team vs team. Once most of their energy was zapped, we headed over to the beautiful waterhole to skip some rocks, Sylvester Presley managed to get a massive 20 skips from one rock. We also checked out the tiny fish that were swimming around.

Before nightfall, Jahkye Furber cooked up some amazing Beef Burgers for the group, while most of the fellas were eating Jack Butcher got the campfire roaring for sitting around yarning and making s'mores. After all the s'mores were demolished, the fellas got into their swags for the night, the following morning we set out to explore a bit more of the beautiful site we were at with a hike along the dolomite walk which took us along the base of McDonnell Ranges and through the smaller hills.

Week 5 15 of our students from Clontarf ventured out-of-town on a Wellbeing and Leadership camp to Standley Chasm. The camp consisted of a range of activities, including leadership teams for meal preparation, cooking, and cleaning.

An "amazing race" leadership style quest was enjoyed by the fellas at the Desert Park, where the group split into teams to navigate their way to various attractions around the park, then record their findings. Students then reported back to the group with some descriptive results. "Wilson", our Clontarf academy Mascot from Castaway (the movie) joined along for the camp as our "plus one!" Wilson has been with the academy for six years and has travelled from coast to coast in Australia. Whilst he's aging slowly, one of the key values he represents is priceless - Respect! Wilson is nurtured with love and kindness on our adventures.

VISIT FROM ALICE SPRINGS MAYOR MR MATT PETERSON

Yesterday students from Clontarf were visited by Mayor Matt Paterson for their national employment week.

The academy members thoroughly enjoyed hearing Mayor Matt's story of growing up, and his employment journey. Students also asked the Mayor about the various opportunities and careers available at the Alice Springs Town Council.

Nathan Woodbury, a year 9 Clontarf member, presented Mayor Paterson with a Clontarf hat after the session as a gesture of appreciation.

The next step for these young men involves completing resumes and job applications for IGA, Kmart, Target, and several local businesses.

"From Little Things, Big Things Grow"

Community Announcements

Nights Markets & Finke Street Party

Alice Springs Town Council’s Night Markets – in the Todd Mall, 5pm to 9pm, Thursday 9 June 2022 – in celebration of Finke Street Party

Ninja Warrior - @ Crossfit Alice Springs

Ninja Warrior Fun comes to Central Crossfit. If you're aged 12-25 years test your skills against our warrior course.

Alice Springs 2022 Beanie Festival

The Alice Springs Beanie Festival is an annual event that brings together people from all over the world to celebrate everything beanie! Come along and find you favourite beanie!

Alice Springs Show

It's Showtime! Come along July 1 – July 2nd and join all the fun of the 2022 Alice Springs Show! There is something for everyone. Why not join in our competitions section, there are hundreds of exciting categories to enter! Wander around the livestock or try your hand and enjoy a ride at Side Show Alley!

Talent Club Australia

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