28 March 2023

Newsletter Articles

Important dates

Wednesday 5 April – Interschool Swimming Competition
Thursday 6 April – Last day of Term 1
Friday 7 April – Good Friday Public Holiday
Friday 7 April to Friday 14 April - Mid Semester Break
Monday 17 April –Staff learning day
Tuesday 18 April – First Day of Term 2 for students

Werte, Hello!

We’ve nearly come to the end of Term 1 – already! It’s been a busy few weeks, and it’s great to see our students settled into their routines and their learning as we near the end of term.

Undoubtedly, one of the main highlights of the past few weeks was our school Swimming Carnival on 10th March. The participation and sportsmanship displayed at the carnival was outstanding, and a wonderful day was had by all. Congratulations to Air for their convincing victory in the house competition, and a huge thank you to our P.E. teachers for organising the event. Let’s keep that house spirit going for the Athletics Carnival in Term 2!

On 8th March we celebrated International Women’s Day; a number of our girls were fortunate to attend the Women in Leadership panel at the town council which featured our own Miss Steele-Park. Thank you to STARS for hosting an IWD morning tea, where we acknowledged all the incredible women who work and study within, and support, our school and wider communities.

Our NAPLAN testing has finished for another year. These tests are important for measuring growth in literacy and numeracy both for individual students and for the school as a whole. Thank you to all students who gave every test their best effort, and to staff who helped facilitate these tests and provided breakfast for hungry tummies on testing days!

Progress reports will be sent out at the end of term and will give you some information about your young person’s attendance, effort, and behaviour in their classes, and how successfully they are meeting our school values. If your address has changed recently, please contact the front office on 08 8955 2333 so we can ensure your young person’s report reaches you.

Our final day of school for Term 1 is Thursday 6th April. Term 2 will commence for students on Tuesday 18th April. We would like to thank our students for their hard work this term, our families for their support, and our staff for their dedication to all our young people’s education and wellbeing.

Katharine Adams
Senior Teacher

School news and updates

Whole School Professional Development Days

The NT Public Sector Non-Contract Principals, Teachers, and Assistant Teachers’ 2021 – 2024 Enterprise Agreement now states that compulsory professional learning and development days occur:

• One day before students commence the school year.
• On the first day of the second, third and fourth terms.
• On the last day of Term 4 of each year

This means Monday, 17th April, will be a student-free day. Students return on Tuesday 18th April from holidays.

Recruiting Classroom Tutors

Our wonderful classroom support staff are an essential part of helping our students succeed - and we need more! No qualifications required; flexible hours available; an amazing, supportive workplace and excellent young people! Sound like you? Get in touch!

Swimming Carnival

We such a lovely time at the Alice Springs Aquatic & Leisure Centre. Thank you to Mr Druce, Mr Raja and Ms Steele-Park for organising the event. Mrs France did an unreal job on the BBQ. A massive congratulations to those who participated on the day and to Air who this year came first in the swimming this year, followed by Earth, Water and Fire. Here are some images of the day.

Fresh Start Reading Program

Our Fresh Start Reading Program has been running all term. We have seen huge improvements across the school with student reading. Well done to all the students who have worked hard to build their decoding skills and progress through the Fresh Start Modules.

Year 7

English & geography

Students in Year 7 have started their new Geography unit on Place and Liveability. They have been exploring different types of data and have practiced making column graphs using smarties. Students have also been working in small groups to write a letter to the mayor to request an ice cream shop for Alice Springs.

In English, we have started a new unit on poetry. So far, students have experimented with acrostic poems, blackout poetry and haikus. I think it’s safe to say we have some modern day poets on our hands!

Science

Year 7 science students have finished learning the basics of measurements, variables, writing a testable question and writing exact instructions - now they're designing they're own experiments!

Art

During Art contact time with Mr Lee, year 7 students are learning the craft of raffia basket weaving.

Students from 7.1 class did some wonderful artwork at school this week. They created beautiful cereal bowls and mugs and completed woodburning art pieces with Mr Lee in their art lessons.

Year 9

9.1 students have a new member called Lucy int their class. She’s been keeping students on their toe with their work, she also loves a game of UNO!

VET Conservation and Land Management

VET have started our industry visits.

We went to the Arid zone Research Institute to see the work they do growing different plants species and reporting the strengths of different varieties in our climate. Our group enjoyed being able to walk through the grapevines and taste the differences for themselves. Students also meet the certificate II and III Rural Operations trainer Danielle Brown, who introduced us to their training program based at AZRI, and two of her students, CMS graduates, Kaedyn and Tara ran the group through pre-checks and starting the blowers (thank you!).

Our group have also visited the Alice Springs Reptile Centre to introduce students to:

a) wildlife identification
b) work safety and first aid with venomous reptiles.

Rex, the owner of the centre, was nice enough to give us a special talk on venom in our Australian species and we were able to see some snakes that he was taking out to a training workshop.

Jacelyn Anderson
VET Land Management trainer/assessor

Stars Foundation

In Stars we continue to focus on our program values of Honesty, Respect, Pride and Commitment and are very proud of our Stars students in how they display them in and out of the class.

In celebration of International Women’s Day (March 8th) our Year 7’s and 8’s were quizzed on all things related to the theme of #EmbraceEquity and Stars! It was a wonderful opportunity to talk about the progress of women’s rights over the years, strong women that we have in our lives and look up to. This also gave us a chance to get a little competitive.

We focused on of our four key pillars, Education, with our Year 9 Stars students and went out for the afternoon to the Museum of Central Australia. Tucked away in the Araluen Arts Centre precinct, the girls spent the afternoon learning about the old missions at Santa Teresa and Hermannsburg as well as the past and current wildlife in Central Australia! It was great to see our students being present and focused during the visit and encourage families to visit the museum as well!

This week all our Stars students are working with Ian McAdam, a local leader in the community, from the Right Tracks Program focusing on teamwork, leadership and valuable lessons navigating life in and outside of school. During these lessons the students participate in team-building games, reflection times to communicate how they worked alongside one-another and quality discussions regarding conflicts, resilience, grabbing opportunities as they arise and not being shame. A big thank you to Macca for working with our students! The work that the Right Tracks Program does in our community is invaluable and we’re looking forward to working more with the team in the upcoming terms.

As we get closer to the end of the term, we will be having lots of fun during our annual easter egg (marble) hunt, and also working with Ibu Darmini, Year 7 Support Staff, as she teaches us how to cook Nasi Goreng (Indonesian Fried Rice) We are so lucky to have Ibu attend all Year 7 contact times and appreciate all the help she gives us.

We’re looking forward to finishing off the term on a high and hope you do too!

Clontarf Corner

What a huge Term it’s been with our fellas at Clontarf Centralian Middle Academy with the lads enjoying camps, trainings, afternoon activities and much more.

The Year 8/9 Engagement Camp was a hit as the fellas hit the road for a trip to Tennant Creek. There the fellas were up bright and early for trainings with our brother Academies, Tennant Creek High School and Tennant Creek Primary School. The lads also had the privilege to learn about Warumungu culture and bush foods from Jerry Kelly at Nyinkka Nyunyu Cultural Centre. When asked about the trip Duron said, ‘It was a good trip – especially the last two days!”

The fellas have also been getting stuck into the AFL 9’s after school with Right Tracks. We fielded two teams over three sessions with fellas from Year 7, year 8 and Year 9 all having a red hot crack against our brothers at Yirara College. Operations Officer, Nicholas Piggot, had high praises for the sessions, noting, "The boys were engaged and enjoyed the session, and loved the chance to show what they had against Yirara".

Employment was the focus for a group of our Year 8’s as we headed to Kmart to learn about the back of house operations and what it’s like to work there. A couple of fellas even had their eyes on jobs!

Finally the lads have been awesome at training with big numbers down each Tuesday and Friday. Especially good to see strong turn outs from the Year 7s who have settled into the morning routine really well – all up and ready at 6am for a 7am start! A special thanks to David Thomas from AFL NT for running some fun sessions with our fellas!

Good luck for the rest of the Term fellas!

Polly farmer Foundation

This week Follow the Dream students visited Central Craft Arts Centre on Tuesday and Thursday to participate in a screen-printing workshop. Students screen printed their own designs on t-shirts and tote bags.

We have had a great start to the year with 17 students enrolled achieving 95% attendance and 9 students achieving 100% attendance. Students have enjoyed time cooking, learning about and celebrating culturally significant days, goal setting, discovering their learning and communication style, journaling, committing time to revise work completed in class with tutors and enjoyed science experiments every Thursday.

Lots of exciting things to look forward to in Term 2 including a gardening project, celebrating Reconciliation week with an afternoon session with all Polly Farmer students and lots, lots more.

FTD runs every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, 3 to 5pm and we are still taking enrolments.

Hamish McLoughlin
Regional Program Manager

Community Announcements

Free Youth Concert @ Yipirinya School

ASTC is proud to be hosting a free Youth Concert on Saturday 1 April.

This event is free, however, to keep participants safe, tickets are limited to 700 and all attendees will need to pre-register via Eventbrite, so click here now and don’t miss out!

Alice Springs 2023 Youth Conference

FREE Conference held at Alice Springs Araluen Arts Centre This event celebrates youth voices, especially touching base on empowerment, leadership, vulnerability, mental health and more! Tickets available here

Trans Day of Visibility 2023

Come and join the transgender and gender diverse community of Alice Springs and help the community stand up and say no to transphobia. For details on the event have a look at the poster below.

Nepalese New Year 2080 Celebrations "Unity in Diversity"

NCAS is organising Nepalese New Year. The event will be held at 5 pm on the 15 April at Marian Hall, OLSH College, 95 Sadadeen Road, Alice Springs NT 0870 Entry: This is a ticketed event with a $30.00 entry fee for all adults. Please follow the Eventbrite link for tickets.

Audience: NCAS is expecting over 350 guests and delegates from diverse background Catering: NCAS will provide Authentic Nepalese Dinner with soft drinks, which will be included in the ticket price.

Autism Social Group

A free social group for Autistic young people in Alice Springs. Monthly meetings to connect with others ages 15 - 25 years. See below for more details.

Social Media Campaign – Menzies School of Health Research

Menzies School of health research is running this social media campaign for and with young First Nations people to provide information about living with type 2 diabetes, so that we can learn about what information young people living with diabetes need. Find out more on the following sites.

Facebook:    https://www.facebook.com/youth.t2d
Instagram:    https://instagram.com/youth.t2d
YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/@youth.t2d

If you would like to know more about the project and what we do, feel free to check the website.

Free Autism Professional Learning - Positive Partnerships - Alice Springs.

Positive partnership is offering their Schools and families workshop. See the flyer below for more details.

Alice Springs Public Library

Easter School Holiday Program: 11 – 14 April

Join in the fun with the Library’s Easter School Holiday Program! See flyers attached.

• All activities are FREE
• Including: Try & Fly Drones, Singalong, Robotics and our first ever 3D Printing Workshop!
• Some activities have limited capacity so make sure to book when it’s live! Stay tuned on our Facebook for updates.

Alice Spring Desert Park Explorer

Alice Springs Desert Park is running our Desert Explorers school holiday program. It is a fun and educational activity for children 8-12 years. It will run on the 11th and 12th of April. Further information can be found on our website - Upcoming events - Alice Springs Desert Park

Wellness on Wheels

Mountain Bike Workshops are being offered during the holidays for beginners, intermediates and teens 3-15 years.

Sports voucher

Semester 1 2023 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 the link below, 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.

Instagram

Follow us on Instagram