23 August 2022

Newsletter Articles

Important dates

Friday 26 August – Clontarf Camp Year 7, 8 & 9 – Tennant Creek
Wednesday 31 August to Friday 2 September – Year 9 Camp – Ooraminna Station Homestead
Thursday 8 September to Friday 9 September – Clontarf Year 9 Camp
Monday 12 September to Friday 16 September – VET Week for Year 9
Thursday 15 September @ 5pm – AGM Meeting
Thursday 27 October – Alice Can Dance – Araluen Arts Centre

From the Principal

Hello families,

This week we farewell Ms Allegra Vickas from CMS. Allegra is one of our Year 8 Science and PE teachers. Allegra is off to pursue her passion in the professional sporting arena of Muay Thai. I want to take this opportunity to thank Allegra for the great work she has done in her time here at CMS. Allegra’s last day will be on Wednesday 24th August. Mr Cameron Say has joined our team here at CMS, and he, along with Chris Raja, will take over Allegra’s teaching duties and support the Year 8 team.

Speaking of the Year 8 team -Congratulations to all those who attended the super successful Ross River trip. There were many smiles and some pretty tired-looking people on Friday. Camps are such a rewarding time but a little exhausting at the same time. Thanks, Year 8 team. See some photos below of the fun that was had.

Alice Can Dance kicks off this week. Once again, Maddy and Frankie from GUTS Dance will get our students ready to shine.

From GUTS - Alice Can Dance is GUTS’ dance in schools initiative. The only one of its kind in Australia, Alice Can Dance began in 2012 and now exists in all government-funded schools in the Central Australia Region, engaging over 200 young people a year to create, rehearse and perform a large-scale contemporary dance work at The Araluen Theatre. By exposing and educating students in contemporary dance practice we aim to empower young people to realise their full potential through creative engagement, improve learning outcomes in other areas of the education curriculum, promote physical activity and encourage dialogue around teamwork and the importance of imagination.

October 24th-27th - production week and two performances on October 27th

Our Year 9 students will have their second transition visit to Centralian Senior School (CSC) this Wednesday. This is an important opportunity for students to familiarise themselves with the school and staff in preparation for 2023. CMS played host to several primary schools also on transition visits last week, providing them with a similar experience of getting to know the layout here at CMS, which can seem enormous in comparison to some of our primary schools, as well as getting to meet some of the great staff here at CMS. Thank you to everybody involved in the preparation and support of students in Alice Springs.

Finally, the 2022 Centralian Middle School Perception Survey will be open for two weeks, from Monday 15th August to Friday 26th August. This annual survey is available to students, parents and staff and takes approximately 10 minutes to complete. It has been sent several times via our text messaging system, with a link at the bottom of this page. Please take the time to fill this out, as the feedback from this survey helps inform much of our planning for the future.

Please go to:

Parents

Students will complete the survey at school.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me on 8955 2333.

Simon Rowlands
Acting Principal

Mr Simon Rowlands

School news and updates

Looking for Classroom Tutors

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Cross Country Carnival

On Thursday the 11th of August, the whole school travelled to the telegraph station for our Cross-Country Carnival. We had a great day out with our students, celebrating their many talents.

Big congratulations to Earth for winning the first position, Fire came second, followed by water & Air. Also big congratulations to the following champions in each year level:

Year 7:

• Tarynt Stubbs & Skye Pentland
• Zoe Blair & Jacob Briggs
• Clayton baily & Olive Barwick

Year 8:

• Nyakhan Dojiok & Malakai Le Rossignol
• Lara Duncan & Rhys Dash
• Mitchell Pearce & Elizabeth Smyth

Year 9:

• Asher Lenny & Katherine-Jade Summerfield
• Bella foster & Jacob Ross
• Oliver Phelps & Raja Harper

Well done to everyone who participated!

Interschool Cross Country

What an amazing day at the Telegraph Station, congratulations to Asher Lennie and Sky Pentland for winning first place in their age group, Tarynt Stubbs and Olive Barwick for coming second, and Jacob Briggs for coming third.

Year 7

There has been a lot of hard work and learning happening in Year 7 over the past couple of weeks.

In history, students have been learning about Ancient Aboriginal Australia. They started by exploring how Homo Sapiens spread around the world, before examining early Aboriginal settlements and experiences. Up next: ancient Egypt! Please don’t be concerned if your young person comes home and wants to mummify you!

In Maths, students have started exploring how we use algebra in our everyday lives and how to solve algebraic equations. On Tuesday mornings, most students are participating in maths groups where they can consolidate early numeracy skills or push themselves by trying something a little more difficult.

We have 24 students from Year 7 participating in Alice Can Dance this year. They had their first dance lesson this week where they explored movement by playing some dance games before learning some unique choreography. It was great to see everyone smiling and having such a good time.

Year 7’s had their first ACD rehearsal with the Guts team. The room was full of energy, lots of amazing dance moves and we are so excited to see how the work unfolds in the next 10 weeks.

Year 8

Camp @ Ross River

From Wednesday to Friday of Week 5, Year 8s had their action-packed camp at Ross River. We drove out on Wednesday morning, full of energy and ready for the next couple of days of adventures. When we arrived we set up camp and got straight into activities, working well together as teams with a bit of healthy competition thrown in for good measure. For dinner, a wonderful group of helpers cooked an AMAZING butter chicken, with lots of requests for second servings!

On Thursday morning we had a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs to fuel us for the walk at Trephina Gorge. We completed the Trephina Gorge Walk and saw some beautiful views, then travelled back to camp where we played some more team building games and did some relaxing out of the heat. That night we had a Talent Show to showcase the amazing talents of some of our students (and staff!), with other campers coming along to watch. We had some impressive dancing, singing, musical numbers, storytelling and a bit of comedy to enjoy. After the show, we had Spaghetti Bolognese for dinner, again cooked by some fantastic student helpers.

On Friday morning it was time for us to pack up camp and get ready to return to school – everyone worked hard together to make sure that the camp was nice and clean, ready for the next group to come along. When we returned to school, we enjoyed a yummy lunch of nachos and fried rice, prepared by Ms. Howie and her team of helpers.

Thank you to the awesome team of staff who worked tirelessly to make camp great for our students!

Maths

Year 8s are starting the Algebra unit this week. To introduce the topic we explored patterns through a construction activity. The magnificent sphinx was quite a challenge but with perseverance and teamwork we managed to make a mega sphinx using 256 smaller ones. Tomorrow we will be exploring rules and how to apply them to solve problems.

Year 9

Year 9 Science

Students have been building on their atomic knowledge. In the last few weeks, they joined model atoms together to create crystal lattices for salt, water ice, diamond, and graphite, and have begun learning about the subatomic particles that make up an atom - protons, neutrons, and electrons - even creating an edible atom.

9.1’s Outing’s with Miss Bree

9.1 has been on various outings to different locations around Alice Springs. We have cooked Roo tail at Honeymoon Gap with our SESO Debbon, explored East Side Mountain Bike Trails with George from Cycling Australia, learnt boxing and gym exercises from Steve at G-Training and admired the beauty of Simpsons Gap. We have enjoyed our outings and look forward to what’s coming up for the remainder of the term.

Reach Foundation Workshop

CMS was very fortunate to have The Reach Foundation hold their powerful workshops with our Year 8 & 9 students. These workshops empower our young people to be their best selves, to think about others’ perspectives and respect themselves and each other. In the words of two Year 9 fellas: “can they come every week?!” Thanks, as always, REACH team.

VET Conservation & Land Management

The crew have continued their work on the hoop garden. The wooden frames have been attached to star pickets and the steel reo mesh has been attached to form the arch. These steps required everyone's help - their teamwork was impressive.

The group has also been working on their theory - they are very close to completing their Written Assessment for the "Maintain the Workplace" unit.

VET Hospitality

On Tuesday last week, the VET Hospitality students went on an excursion to Lasseters Hotel & Casino. This was an opportunity for students to gain industry experience, and to make connections between what they’ve been learning and real-world applications.

Students were exposed to housekeeping, bar and front of house areas, and ended the tour with a group lunch at the Juicy Rump. Special thanks go to Krystle Jenick from ISACNT who set up the initial connection between the DoE and Lasseters; and to the team at Lasseters - Michael Hooke (HR Manager) and his Leadership team (Department heads) for their exceptional work in imparting their skills and knowledge to our students.

And, of course, a very big thanks to our VET Hospitality Trainer, Scott Berry, who is always working to expand our students’ experiences and learning. While there, some of our students were able to submit resumes to Michael – hopefully we’ll see some CMS faces working at Lasseters soon!

Clontarf Corner

Alice Springs Town Council Mayoral Morning Tea.

Clontarf students volunteered at the Alice Springs Town Council Mayoral Morning Tea. The young students assisted serving our senior citizens of the community, refreshments, tea, and coffee, with a special thank you from the town Mayor, Mr Matt Paterson .

Our young men also had the privilege of listening to keynote local guest speaker, John Bermingham, who celebrated his games record-breaking run in the M70 1500m event in Tampere, Finland.

Pleasingly, our students from Clontarf have been welcomed back to participate in the Alice Springs Youth Summit later in the term.

Before finishing up, one of our students from Clontarf said "can we do more of these events, I've had so much fun". A heart-warming acknowledgement from one of our future leaders of tomorrow.

Clontarf camp at Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park.

"This is the best camp I've ever been on!" - these were the words from two of our year nine students after returning from a Clontarf camp at Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park last week.

As an incentive for positive behaviour at school, improvement in attendance, and commitment to morning training, 10 of our academy members “selected themselves” on a three-day life-changing journey.

In 2018/2019, Pulteney Grammar School in Adelaide previously hosted our Clontarf academy for football on our end-of-year trips. A group of their students were visiting the Red Centre and were delighted to visit the Centralian Middle School and our academy, with a tour of the room from two of our senior boys. The visit concluded with an indigenous dot painting session from local Pitjantjatjara artist, Emma Stubbs.

Amongst some of the camp activities, our students also hiked the Valley of the Winds walk, enjoyed the sunset over Uluru, and visited the Astronomy show at the Arkani Theatre, where local Voyages worker and former Clontarf Alumni, Leon Althouse kindly gave up his time to speak to our young men.

Our students capped off the camp with a clinic at the local community primary school in Yulara with 26 students.

Visit to Alice Springs Fire and Rescue Service

The fellas in year 8 had the privilege of going on a guide tour of the Alice Springs Fire and Rescue Service, as a workplace visit in an effort to provide students with ideas for future employment.

These visits help encourage our students in considering options for future employment in years to come.

Our students were shown through the Station and were encouraged to ask plenty of questions. Our Academy members really enjoyed the tour and had a chance to test out one of the trucks' fire hoses.

Mason Tilmouth enjoyed the weights room and was challenged by the fire station boss on how many chin-ups he could do consecutively, Mason managed to smash out 10 in a row surprising both himself and his peers.

“From Little Things, Big Things Grow”

Stars Foundation

Hi everyone!

In Week 3 we began our School Girls Footy Competition campaign with a game against Hermannsburg and although they didn’t have numbers, we enjoyed the scratch match. On Thursday we versed St. Philips on their home grounds, the girls played amazingly and we won by 1 point! We’re looking forward to versing Santa Teresa on Thursday 3:30pm at Jim McConville Oval (families welcome to watch!).

Week 4 we had our first ever Stars carnival in Alice where we joined Centralian Senior College, Yirara College, Tennant Creek Primary and High School for a volleyball carnival. The girls had a great time mingling with other Stars members and can’t wait for another carnival!

Our Year 7s have continued their work with Steve from G Training and we couldn’t be happier to see them enjoying physical activity; especially with games we can play in the Stars space! Year 8s had a fun session at Get Physical playing squash and are excited to keep it up for the next couple of weeks before Women’s Health Week in Week 8, where they will have a Zoom session with Swisse Vitamins.

Our Year 9 Stars students are close to completing their First Nation board games with Katie from BluEarth and are excited for the upcoming First Aid Careers Journey talk! On Thursday they were treated with a rewards day for the awesome work they’ve done this year. For their commitment, respect and honesty we enjoyed breakfast in the morning followed by a trip to Standley Chasm. We then had fun at the Alice Springs Golf Club driving range and at The Dustbowl where we celebrated our Program Manager, Staci’s birthday! Happy birthday Staci, we hope you enjoyed your day with us!

Polly farmer Foundation

Congratulations to all of the Follow the Dream students who received a 25th Anniversary Follow the Dream hoodie last term. Students were rewarded with the commemorative hoodie based on their attendance, effort, behaviour and contributing a piece of work that celebrated the 25th Anniversary of Follow the Dream.

For National Science Week, students celebrated by making some fun and delicious science experiments. This year’s National Science Week theme is Glass: more than meets the eye and to celebrate students learnt about how glass is made and also made some edible glass!

Also that week students made their very own play dough which they brought to life by making their own videos using stop motion, students made musical instruments using inanimate objects using Makey-makeys, rockets out and slime out of house hold items. Next week student will learn about bush tukka and investigate some of the schools native plants, students will learn about different Indigenous seasonal calendars and the famous Aboriginal inventor David Unaipon – the Aboriginal da Vinci!

FTD has lots of exciting events this term including a combined NAIDOC session with other FTD schools, a trip to the museum, cooking, rocket climbing, rocket building with Its Rocket Science Adventure for Years 7-9, Indigenous Literacy Day and so much more.

We are looking forward to more Aboriginal students taking up the opportunity to join FTD this term!

B Part of it NT, Study of the Meningococcal B Vaccine

These are two short videos iTalk Studios here in Alice developed to explain the study to young people and families:

• B Part of it NT meningococcal study intro – YouTube

• B Part of it NT meningococcal B study main story – YouTube

School attendance and why attending matters

Community Announcements

Celebrate Book Week & Science Week @ The Town library - Free Activities!!

Celebrating Book Week & Science Week happening @ your library

All Welcome! For more details, check out the posters below

Council Pop up Park @ Snow Kenna Park

When: 26 August
Time: 5:30pm to 8pm
LOADS of family entertainment – activities, a crafts table and a visit from the Arrernte Boxing Academy.
Food stalls – including everyone’s favourite sausage sizzle!
Live music – Mulga Bore, Kodivine & Hard Rock Band.

Alice Springs Athletics Club

Alice Springs Athletics Club, Link up Australia Central Australian Championships 2nd, 3rd and 4th of September.

Indigenous Literacy Day

Proudly presented by the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and hosted by the Sydney Opera House.

Date: Wednesday 7 September 2022

Time: The National Digital Event premieres online at 10.30 am AEST, then will be immediately available on demand. For access to the link go to

Wear it Purple

Wear it purple day is fast approaching visit the link below to help schools in supporting their students from the rainbow community #StrongSafeFabulous is providing a free, online webinar for students - Supporting LGBTIQA+ young people to be safe and be seen.

This practical 60 minute webinar will be hosted by young people from Wear It Purple and is specifically designed for LGBTIQA+ young people, young people with LGBTIQA+ parents, their parents, and allies. It will provide an introduction to some of the important issues young LGBTIQA+ people and young people being raised by LGBTIQA+ parents are facing, and how they can be kept safe and be seen.

The program is open to people across Australia, but note the session is on Thursday 8th September from 6pm – 7pm Sydney time and will be offered via zoom. The session will be recorded and available to view after the event as well, for those who have pre-registered. Please register here for the session.

R U OK? Day

R U OK? Day is Thursday 8 September 2022. It's our national day of action when we remind Australians that every day is the day to ask, 'are you OK?’ and start a meaningful conversation whenever they spot the signs that someone they care about might be struggling with life. For more info go to the link below.

Kids Reading Oz Choice Awards 2022

Every year, young readers from all over The Northern Territory judge their very own literary awards. By voting in the KROC Awards they can reward the Australian children's books that have most inspired, amused, terrified, enlightened and engaged them.

To vote for your favourite Australian authors and Australian books visit the link below.

Voting closes on Thursday 6 October 2022.

Soil Week Australia School Competition

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