15 February 2018

Newsletter Articles

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

SCHOOL EVENTS

The year has certainly started off with a bang, with a couple of very significant events already taking place.

On Thursday of week 2, we held a meet and greet afternoon for all of our Year 7 parents. We were very pleased to have a number of parents and students join the staff for a free BBQ, with a chance for the students to introduce their teachers to their parents, and for everyone to put a “name to a face”.

On Tuesday of week 3, our school held our 2018 Investiture ceremony. This ceremony saw all of our Year 12 students and our elected leaders for 2018, recite a pledge regarding their leadership, and receive their leadership badges.

All leaders have the special task this year of helping to ensure that “The Charleville High Way” is the way that they and all of our students enact their time at Charleville State High School. This involves helping to maintain a positive learning environment for all students and consciously display the behaviours and values deemed important at Charleville State High School.

Thank you to Mr. Sebastian Kohli, our Senior Schooling Head of Department, and Mrs. Sabrina Goodingham, for their work in organising both of these very enjoyable events.

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS

There have also been a number of students already heading off for a variety of sporting trials to attempt to be selected in the Southwest/Darling Downs regional sporting teams.

A group of softball students headed off at 4.30am last week to travel to St George, where they ran into some very wet playing conditions. Four of our players have been selected in the South West team to travel to Toowoomba to participate in the next level of trials. Congratulations to Ashtyn Shearwin, Mary Williams, Mackenzie Ross and Matilda Vaggs.

Then at 5am on Wednesday last week, another group of students travelled to Roma to participate in the Boys basketball and soccer trials. Congratulations to Jeramhel Mazo and Isaiah Shillingsworth for their selection to the next level for basketball, and to Jake Collins for his selection in the soccer.

A very special thank you to Mrs. Kristyanna Creedon, Ms Jenna Andreatta, Mrs. Jenny Peacock, Mr Dan Baeck, and Mr Barry Wastie, for their tremendous efforts in taking these students away. They are very long days, and their efforts just reinforce the amazing staff we have at Charleville State High School.

Friday 9 February was our School swimming carnival. This was an outstanding day, with some extremely impressive performances taking place on the day. The most pleasing aspect of the day was the support that the students showed for each other, particularly students who weren’t necessarily the best swimmers, but who were out there having a go.

Congratulations to Tobruk, who were the deserving winning house on the day. Thank you to Mr. Lines for his incredible work in preparing, organising and running the carnival on the day.

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Bangarra Dance Company Auditions – Thursday 22 February.
• Beyond Broncos Launch – Tuesday 27th February.
• School Photos - Tuesday 27 February 10am, School Hall.
• QRL Development Team visit – Tuesday 27th February
• Vikki Wilson Visit – Tuesday 22 February
• Petro Civoniceva visit – TBA
• Brian Kerle, Darryl White, Kelly McKellar visit -TBA

We are very lucky to have some very exciting visitors coming to the school over the next two weeks.

The Bangarra Dance Company will be attended the school on Tuesday 22 February to hold auditions with students to find 16 lucky students that they will work with in the coming months to develop a dance reflective of the local indigenous story. We are very lucky to be having the dance company coming to our school, as they will only be working with 3 schools in total this year.

We will also have Vikki Wilson, Netball legend, coming out to do skills and motivation sessions with our students again this year. She will be here on Tuesday February 22, and we will be endeavouring to have her work with as many students as possible in her time here.

We are also expecting a few other legends to be visiting the school as well, including Petro Civoniceva (Rugby League), Brian Kerle (Basketball), Daryl White (Australian Rules) and Alison McKellar (Hockey). Again, we will be trying to have as many students as possible listen to and learn from these legends when they arrive at the school in the near future.

Exciting times ahead!

Matt Samson
Principal

Deputy Principal Senior Schooling Report

Bangarra Rekindling Program

Charleville State High School has been fortunate enough to be one of 3 schools in Australia to be part of the Bangarra Rekindling Program for 2018. To be involved in this program students must register to be included in the introductory day and audition on Thursday 22nd February 2018. Permission forms have been distributed and must be returned by Friday 16th February 2018. If your students has not received a permission form, please collect one from the front office.

Swimming Carnival

Congratulations to all the students who came along and participated in the Swimming carnival last Friday. It was a wonderfully colourful event and the whole school embraced the Hawaiian theme. Below are just a few photo’s to highlight this enjoyable event.

Indigenous Education Community Meetings

Charleville State High School holds an Indigenous Education Community Meeting once a month. This Committee provides a link for our indigenous community/family to share knowledge, celebrate and be involved in the education of the children enrolled at Charleville State School. If you have a child/grandchild attending Charleville State High School who identifies as ATSI or you are interested in the education of ATSI children in our community then we welcome and encourage you to attend our meetings.

In 2018, these meetings will be held in the school Professional Library, situated in the school office, and will occur on the second Thursday of each month. If you wish to discuss a particular topic please forward your agenda item to jruss336@eq.edu.au prior to meeting day.

Our first meeting will occur this coming
Thursday 15th February at 3.30pm- 5pm.

We look forward to seeing you on Thursday.

Beyond Broncos

Beyond Broncos Charleville Girls Academy launch is on Tuesday 27th February in the Trade Training Centre at 9am. Come and meet former Broncos players and the Beyond the Broncos ambassadors. A light morning tea will be provided.

Young Men’s Group

Charleville SHS is pleased to announce the commencement of both a Junior and a Senior Young Men’s group for our indigenous male students. Robbie Geebung and Gregory Suhan from CWAATSICH Deadly Choices are leading both groups, which will meet once or twice per week, to catch up with our young indigenous men. For more information, please call Jolene Russell at the school.

2017 Year 12 Graduates

Last week, Charleville State High School received our Year 12 Learners Report 2017 (provisional). We are pleased to say that our graduates from 2017 have achieved to a very high standard. A few highlights are:

• 100% of students who applied to go to university received an offer of a place.
• 100% of students received a QCE or a QCIA.
• 82% of students graduated with a Vocational Education Qualification.
• One of our students completed a Certificate IV.
• One of our students completed a first year University subject.

These statistics highlight the fact that Charleville State High School offers our students a high quality education, with varied and flexible pathways to future employment, education and training.

Subject Changes

Subject changes are now closed for the term, unless there are special circumstances.

School Photo’s

School Photo’s will occur on Tuesday 27th February. Senior students are required to wear their formal shirts, with black long pants or black skirts. Photo order packs will be sent out to families on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. If you would like a family photo done, please collect an envelope for this from the front office.

QCE Tracking

Mr Kohli and I are busy closely monitoring our senior students, to ensure they are on a pathway to successfully gain their Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE). If any students need to change subjects to help them toward getting their QCE, they need to see me before the end of Week 2. We will also be organising parent/student interviews with those students who are ‘at risk’ of not gaining their QCE, so we can form an action plan.

Year 10 Work Experience

Beginning in 2018, all Year 10 students will be completing a week of Work Experience, to align with their Certificate II in Foundation Skills for Work (CERT II FSK), which they complete during their Pastoral Care classes. This course teaches students basic literacy and numeracy skills, as well as the skills required to study certificate courses. The course will also give students points toward their QCE.

Work Experience will occur in the last week of school in Term 2 (Week 11). It would involve sourcing over 50 positions for students for 5 days straight, for 6 hours each day. Working hours/times will be negotiated with the employer. These positions do not have to be in this town. Through negotiations with us, students could go anywhere in QLD. They might have relatives in Brisbane or a family property in Emerald, that they could go to for a week of work experience.

Students will be allocated a prospective employer, according to their preferences and then be able to ‘apply’ for this job. They will have to write a letter of introduction and a resume (all done through the Cert II FSK in Pastoral Care), which will be sent to the business. Student will have to present to the business before the work experience for an interview, giving the employer an opportunity to outline their expectations.

If there are any employers who are interested in having a work experience student for a week, from Monday 25th June to Friday 29th June, please contact Ange Vetter at the school on 4656 8888.

The New QCE and ATAR – Parent Evening

On the 5th March, Ms Moller and Mr Kohli will be presenting information to Parents and Students about the New QCE and ATAR. The information session will begin at 5:30pm in the Professional Library inside the Administration Building.

VET News

We have a number of traineeships and apprenticeship opportunities coming up. If your student is looking for the opportunity to be involved, please contact Ange Vetter at the school on 4656 8888.

Cheers
Vanessa Moller

DEPUTY PRINCIPAL JUNIOR SCHOOLING AND STUDENT SERVICES NEWS

WELCOME TO WEEK 4

The first four weeks seem to have passed at a rapid rate. I am so pleased to see our students working extremely hard in their classes and encouraged by the learning that is occurring every lesson.

JUNIOR SCHOOL NEWS

As many of you are aware our school follows the Explicit Teaching Framework (EI). An integral part of this framework is that every student is informed of their Learning Intention or Lesson Objective at the beginning of each lesson. It is the expectation that each student writes the Lesson Objective in their books. As a parent it is recommended that you ask your student to show you their four Lesson Objectives for each day. It would be a great conversation starter for parents to ensure that their students know what the learning intention is and prevents the often short response to the question: What did you learn today? Response: Nothing. By discussing the Lesson Objectives each day it helps the student remember the valuable learning that occurred in their classes.

Our staff are a wonderful group of dedicated professionals. In the past weeks at their faculty meetings they discussed the data already collected on every student. This included their most recent NAPLAN, PAT R and PAT M data as well as Academic data. This data is useful to plan units, lessons and support for each and every student. It is a method of Putting Faces to the Data and valuing each student as an individual.

Junior School

STUDENT SERVICES Team – 2018

DEPUTY PRINCIPAL Junior Schooling- Narelle Webb
GUIDANCE OFFICER- John Anderssen
JUNIOR SCHOOLING HOD – Sabrina Goodingham
JUNIOR SCHOOL YLCs- Daniel Baeck, Kate Jackson
HOSES – Katherine Neucom
MASTER TEACHER- Brooke Andrews
PBL TEAM LEADER- Sarah O,Brien
SWD TEACHER- Amiee Dolman
YOUTH SUPPORT COORDINATOR- Jenny Peacock
SCHOOL BASED YOUTH HEALTH NURSE- Jen Sellin
CEC – Jolene Russell
CAREERS OFFICER- Ange Vetter
CHAPLAIN- Les Penrose
ADOPT AN ELDER- Robbie Geebung
ADOPT A COP- Liv Smith
CWAATSICH
Indigenous Community Partnerships Officer- Deb Csatlos
REGIONAL HOD Behavioural Support (Toowoomba) – Marc and Allison Davis

The Student Services team will oversee the following areas:

• Medical Needs and Plans
• Students with a Disability(SWD) and QCIA
• EAL/D students
• Indigenous students
• Students with additional needs e.g. dyslexia, ADHD, Auditory Processing, mental health
• Positive Behaviour for Learning
• Behaviour Support including support plans and flexible arrangements

STUDENT SERVICES- VISITING SPECIALISTS FOR STUDENTS AND STAFF

• Speech Language Pathologist (SLP)- Natalya Kajewski- based at Charleville State School. Natalya visited CSHS in Week 3. Natalya will also be a frequent attendee at our fortnightly Student Support Committee (SSC) meetings Natalya will present to the teaching staff at a staff meeting giving us valuable insight in to how we can best support our students in the Speech and Language area.
• PBL Regional Co-ordinator: Sarah O’Brien is our new School leader for Positive Behavior for Learning (PBL) She will be trained this month as a Leader.
• EAL/D Support- Anna Batsone has been working in this area to ensure our students who have English as a second language are well supported at our school.
• Immunisation Clinics for Years 7 and 10. All year seven and year ten students have received information and forms to be signed for the immunization program which will commence in March. If you did not receive your form, please contact the main office for a new one. Every student in the school was handed an envelope. If the forms have not been returned our School Based Youth Health Nurse, Jen Sellin will be contacting home to ensure every student as the opportunity to be part of this program. Thank you to the majority of families who have already returned their forms.

READING PROGRAMS SET TO COMMENCE- LEVELLED LITERACY INTERVENTION (LLI) and MULTILIT

Ange Stirton and Wendy Porter will be implementing the Tier 2 reading intervention program (LLI) in the near future. The third level of intervention is another commercial program known as MultiLit (Making Up for Lost Time in Literacy) will commence in week 5. If your child is part of LLI and/or MultiLit you will be notified.

STUDENTS WITH MEDICAL NEEDS

A reminder to parents/carers to notify the school about your child’s health

If you receive a referral form from the school with regard to your child’s medical needs please return them as soon as possible.

SWD STUDENTS

SWD students will have received contact from their 2017 case manager. If you have not been contacted by your child’s case manager please contact the school.

MOBILE PHONES

We have had a very positive and supportive response from the community regarding the changes to the Charleville SHS mobile phone policy. Year seven students are not allowed to have a phone at school. Years 8 to 12 students are allowed to have a phone in their possession but not use it in school hours. Almost all students have been very responsible and have not used their phones in school hours. Those students who use their phone irresponsibly are required to hand the phone into the office. A parent will be contacted and are must make arrangements to collect the phone. There have been the occasional situation where a student needs to use their phone (contact employer etc). They ask permission from a teacher and within sight of the teacher uses the phone. The same situation applies on school events off campus. A Teacher may give permission for a student to use their phone within the teachers supervision(eg music on the bus). Strictly no social media is allowed.

In 2017 the inappropriate use of a mobile phones was often reported to the school, however the majority of times the mobile phone is used outside of school hours. Please carefully consider your young persons’ best interest and the amount of time they use digital media. I urge all parents to know what your student has stored on their phone, what they receive and what they send.

This year there has been a case of bullying of one of our students from people not attending our school through social media. The parents are to be congratulated on the speed that they were able to manage the situation in a very responsible, kind manner with a positive outcome. This was achievable because the parents were aware of their student’s social media activity and their student felt comfortable in sharing their distress on the situation. Well Done!

Until next time,

Narelle Webb
Deputy Principal

Entrepreneurs Lift Off for 2018

Programming, Robotics and Drones

At the first meeting of Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow club for 2018, an excited and enthused group of Year 7 to 12 students gathered together to look at the plan for the year ahead, and to get their hands on the controls of our amazing camera drone.

This year we will be learning to program using Tynker, a great free app for Android or iOS that lets you command a Parrot Mambo drone to your bidding. We will have 10 of these tiny quadcopters on hand to fly indoors in the first terms, with a range of challenges planned.

Term 2 will see the last of our funding put to use, with 4 FPV mini quadcopters on the agenda. Learning to build, program, fly and repair these drones will take some time, but it will open a whole new world to these students in a the rapidly expanding world of drone racing.

The Club meets Monday afternoons (weather and staff permitting) in E block from 3:15pm, is open to all students, and is free! If you’d like to join the club, just grab a permission from Mr Kohli in E block and return it right away.

What’s Cooking (and Sewing) in the Home Economics Department?

The first three weeks of the new year have flown by, and much new learning has occurred for all (including myself).

With year 8 and 9 classes starting the semester with a Textiles unit, they have been focussing on learning – or revising – the correct procedures to use when operating a sewing machine. They will be using their new skills to design, make and evaluate a simple textile item, which we will be entering into the Charleville show. I know that the judges will be impressed with the student work, and I predict some prizes will be won by several of our class members.

Year 10 Hospitality students have commenced their first unit of competency in their Certificate I in Hospitality course, and have also completed one practical cookery task so far. All students seem keen to learn and participate in class, and some students have demonstrated some very pleasing skills.

Year 11 and 12 Hospitality students are working on a very interesting unit – Gourmet Cookery. Our focus has been on French cuisine, and, while this is somewhat unfamiliar to several students, most have embraced the increased knowledge and skills they are being exposed to. The fact that they are getting to see and taste various dishes has gone over rather well also.

All students have been provided with a semester overview, which outlines what is happening each lesson, and is their guide to when practical sessions are occurring. Please ask you student to refer to this every day, so they know what is happening, and when.

I look forward to continuing to work with the students, and know that we will achieve some terrific outcomes this term.

Sue McDermott

ENG091B English

This term in English, year 9 students are studying Music Video’s. They are exploring the links between song lyrics and images to understand how meaning is constructed through a range of mediums. Students have analysed examples from different music genres including pop, rock, environmental, cultural and political protest songs. It is pleasing to see our students engage with the technical aspects of music video analysis. The assessment requires students to create a multimedia product demonstrating their knowledge of techniques used in a specific music video. Students will describe the elements used to engage and appeal to the audience. Well done to all our students. They are already making significant progress toward achieving their learning goals in this unit.

Wendy Porter

Year 10 Humanities

Term 1 of year 10 humanities have seen students studying the Second World War. While the focus for the unit is mostly around the Australian involvement, students have also come to understand the chain of events that led to the beginning of the war as well as the horrors of the war itself and the Holocaust. No unit of study on World War II in Australia can be complete without talking about the Kokoda Trail Campaign of 1942: an experience which students have come to understand through analysing both primary and secondary sources on the ‘Chocos’ and the fight against the Japanese. From here, students will utilise the skills and knowledge they have learned throughout the term to complete a personal narrative for their assessment. On a final note, it has been wonderful seeing students engage with history in the manner they have done so given students often bemoan having to study humanities!

Daniel Baeck, Teacher