16 March 2022

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Note

Welcome to Week 8 of Term 1. The Term is flying past and we are already entering assessment time. This is a period where we know that students can become a little anxious and the school is committed to supporting them to do their best.

As parents and caregivers your support is vital and very much appreciated. Relatively simple things such as being aware of when assessment items are due and having a plan to complete this provides improved clarity for students and reduces the concerns around completing work on time.

Walk-throughs

During week 6 and 7 we conducted walk-throughs to observe the learning taking place in classes across the school. This is always a highlight for myself and the Leadership Team as it provides both validation of the work we are doing and feedback to inform the next steps we consider to continue our improvement journey.

One of my favourite aspects is to see the growth of Learning Walls in class rooms and the development of authentic student interaction with them to support learning outcomes. There is also the corresponding outcome of creating inviting class spaces that encourage learning, inspirational to see!

P&C Membership and Meetings

One of the most important and valuable groups in supporting our school is the P&C. We have a dedicated group who work to provide vital aspects such as parental voice, promoting the school and conducting essential support services like the school tuckshop.

Unfortunately, there has been a delay in conducting the Annual General Meeting as we wait for the return of the financial records from last year. As soon as they have been released to us we will hold the AGM, currently aiming for Wednesday the 23rd of March. The date will be confirmed as soon as possible and communicated via Facebook.

Leadership Update from weeks 5 and 6

I was very proud of the way in which the school remained focused on learning during my time as the Acting Principal of Roma State College. It was a great opportunity for myself in terms of experiencing a different way of working and also seeing some great strategies in teaching and learning. Was equally evident that as a school community we are working hard for our students here at Charleville State High School and our outcomes are something to celebrate.

In closing

Visiting classes and being directly involved in teaching and learning is a highlight for myself and all members of the Leadership Team. It is also valuable to ensure we know what is happening in classes, providing confidence in our curriculum delivery.

I encourage parents and caregivers to take this approach with your children through regular conversation about the learning taking place. Sometimes this can be challenging with very short replies like “School was ok” and with a little more focus on what the learning was you may get a bit more information, maybe not on some days (I haven’t forgotten when my own children were teenagers!). The main message here is that we work together to provide education for children and schools are far more successful as a result.

All the best,

Barry Wallett

Senior School

2022, Term 1 has been incredibly busy after our late start and our year 12 students in General Subjects are soon to have their results for task 1 entered to begin the Confirmation process. After the holidays, the school will submit requested student work samples to the QCAA to confirm the results for these students as we move forward through their year 12 year. While this might seem like a stressful time, the best advice for students is as always to manage their time, look ahead using the assessment calendar, and ensure they are attending classes and completing work.

Easter Raffle

The year 12 students are busy fundraising for their senior formal. A reminder to families that all tickets must be returned to school by Friday March 25. If you wish to buy a ticket and students have run out, you can contact the front office.

The raffle will be drawn on the 30th of March and the winner notified by telephone.

There will be a number of other fundraising events taking place in term 2 and year 12 students will need to work together to ensure the success of these events.

Assessment and Due Dates

With students completing a range of assessment tasks it is important that they remember that the school must comply with QCAA policy. Particularly in regards to due dates as teachers cannot accept work submitted after the due date unless there is an approved extension. For senior students there must be supporting documentation provided to the school in order to support the approval of an extension.

In the case of year 12, any change to an assessment task or date must be reported by the school to the QCAA and these adjustments must be supported by evidence.

Students cannot have an extension for events such as family holidays or computer issues. Parents should access the assessment calendar to ensure students are either at school for assessment, able to electronically submit assignments if they are absent from school, or have students submit work prior to leaving on a family trip. Students need to ensure they are backing their work up on their computer, USB, and emailing themselves or their teacher regularly so that their work is not lost.

Should students or family members unfortunately become ill or other circumstances occur that are beyond the students’ control (such as weather events or pandemics) that prevent them from completing and submitting assessment by the due date, parents should try to contact the school as soon as possible and organise a medical certificate or other appropriate documentation.

Reporting

Parents are also reminded that report cards will be emailed for term 1 at the beginning of next term (week 2). Please ensure that the school has an up-to-date email address for you. Where parents cannot access email, a printed copy will be mailed home. Students and parents may also request a printed copy from the front desk.

Term 1 reports are an interim report providing feedback to parents on how students are travelling. A final semester result will be issued at the end of term 2.

Parent-teacher interviews will be conducted in week 3 of term 2 and while some students will have requested interviews, all parents are welcome to attend. Information regarding booking appointments will be available with the reports or you may contact the school once you receive the report card to book appointments.

Thanks,
Cassandra Kohli
Deputy Principal

DEPUTY PRINCIPAL JUNIOR SCHOOLING AND STUDENT SERVICES NEWS

Welcome to Week 8

Learning

How can you help your student at home?

As adults and parents, we want to ensure our children arrive at the ‘right conclusion’. It is tempting to explain everything rather than allowing our children to explore their own thoughts about the topic and putting their ‘Thinking Cap’ on. The simplest ways in which parents can assist in developing a child’s Higher Order Thinking skills, and encourage them to put on their ‘Thinking Cap’, can be as simple as encouraging our children to think about ‘why’, ‘how’ and ‘therefore this means that…..’. For many parents who already do this it is important to understand just how vital it really is to have your student put on their ‘Thinking Cap’ regularly.

At Charleville State High School, we often direct the following questions to students.

• What are you learning?
• How are you doing?
• How do you know?
• How can you improve?
• Where do you go for help?

Parents could use the same questions to start conversations with their students when enquiring on their school progress.

Assessment

How can you help your student through the school year, learning and assessment?

As a parent:

• Know when their assessment due dates are and help plan;
• Ensure they are getting quality sleep;
• Ensure they are eating well;
• Ensure they have some ‘down time’;
• Discuss the four learning objectives they have written for the four lessons they have each day;
• Ensure that regular homework/study is attempted –e.g. going over class notes and ideas each day;
• Ensure they are asking staff for help if they are struggling at home and
• Contact the school if you have any concerns.

Who can support your student at CSHS?

There are many people who can support your student. Below is a list of some options should students not know who to see for help.

Class Teachers

Know who your student’s teachers are. Have a list of emails to be able to contact staff or ring the school to have a chat or organise a meeting. For curriculum matters contact the Head’s of Department.

NAPLAN

Charleville State High School will have year 7 and year 9 students participate in Naplan Online in May, 2022. There is a two-week window where students will sit the tests. Taking the tests online gives the students the opportunity to have the tests catered for every individual student. It is a great diagnostic tool which allows schools more data to analyse programs offered to students.

Harmony Week

From Monday 14th to Friday 18th March, Charleville State High School will be celebrating Harmony Week – a time to celebrate Australian multiculturalism, and the successful integration of migrants from countries all around the world into our community. The message of Harmony Week is “everyone belongs” – inclusiveness, respect and belonging for all Australians, regardless of cultural or linguistic background. A range of community service providers will be visiting the school throughout the week to join in on the celebrations, and provide information and activities relevant to their services and the featured culture of that day. Stay tuned for more information and photos from our Harmony Week Celebrations in the next newsletter!

Beyond Broncos

Wednesday 23rd February saw our first workshop with the Beyond Broncos team. Penny Houlahan, Beryl Friday and Justin Hodges took our Beyond Broncos academy girls for a great inspiring workshop before school. Due to COVID restrictions this workshop was conducted at the showgrounds. Breakfast was served and the girls were returned to school in time for period 1.

Junior Certificate of Education

Students in years 8 and 9 need to be responsible for their own learning and be aware of how they need to earn the points to gain their Junior Certificate of Education (JCE). Brochures are available in the front office if students or parents wish to know more information.

School Uniforms

It is wonderful to see almost every student in school uniform for the start of the school year. The uniform shop is staffed by volunteers, which is open every Tuesday morning.

Attendance

Currently the attendance of many students in the junior school is very good, with quite a few attaining 100% for the year so far. However, there are a few individuals that need support in ensuring that they attend school on a regular basis. At Charleville State High School, our goal is for all students to attend school 92%. Each term letters are sent to individual families whose child’s actual attendance in the junior school is less than 80%. If you ever receive a letter, please ensure that your child attends school every day unless there is a valid reason. If attendance does not improve then the next step in the process of reaching the goal of 92% is to send an official Education Queensland letter requesting an interview to discuss why attendance is at such a level. These letters will be sent out before the end of term.

Reading Program

If your child is part of the LLI program you should have been contacted. At this stage we are focusing on students significantly under the Regional reading benchmark. It is essential that if your child is part of this program that they fulfil all the criteria of the program - otherwise their progress will not be reflective of what could be achieved.

The criteria include 100% attendance (except for extenuating circumstances) and the completion of the set homework. If you have any concerns or questions regarding the program please don’t hesitate to contact the Literacy co-ordinator, Ms Sue McDermott at the school. There is a waiting list to enter the program and therefore students who fail to meet the criteria will be exited so as to ensure the best results for all students who want to improve.

Another level of reading intervention is a commercial program known as MultiLit (Making Up for Lost Time in Literacy). If your child is part of LLI and/or MultiLit you will be notified.

Student Services

Bullying is an ongoing misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that causes physical and/or psychological harm. It can involve an individual or a group misusing their power over one or more persons. Bullying can happen in person or online, and it can be obvious (overt) or hidden (covert).

Bullying of any form or for any reason can have long-term effects on those involved, including bystanders. Single incidents and conflict or fights between equals, whether in person or online, are not defined as bullying. However, these conflicts still need to be addressed and resolved. Online bullying (sometimes referred to as cyberbullying) is bullying carried out through the internet or mobile devices. Not all online issues are bullying, you can learn more about cybersafe issues, including online bullying.

I would like to remind our school community that students are available to make anonymous reports via the stymie website linked below to report any such issues.

Currently Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) staff are planning explicit lessons/activities to address the RESPECT aspect of the Learning Expectations at Charleville State High School in term 2.

MOBILE PHONES

We have a very positive and supportive response from the community regarding the Charleville SHS mobile phone policy. Year seven, eight and nine students are not allowed to have a phone at school. Years 10 to 12 students are allowed to have a phone in their possession but not use it in school hours. A Teacher may give permission for a student to use their phone within the teachers’ supervision. Strictly no social media is allowed during school hours.

The inappropriate use of mobile phones is occasionally reported to the school. As the mobile phone is used outside of school hours we recommend that you contact the police if you have concerns.

As responsible adults, 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/electronic devices, what they receive and what they send. There are some very useful apps that can be used to assist parents in monitoring their child’s data.

Internet Use

At Charleville State High School students are to use the school’s internet for educational needs only. Games, even at break times are not allowed. I also encourage parents and carers to actively supervise their child’s internet use at home. The excessive use of online gaming is not supporting students to become Learners who are resourceful, flexible, creative, mindful and intercultural competent global citizens. There has been numerous research on the amount of screen time a young person should have before it affects their wellbeing. Parents need to monitor carefully their teenager especially when they are in contact with others online. Phones and ipads etc should not be in the bedroom prior to sleeping. It is evident that a number of students have disturbed sleep patterns and consequently affects their ability to concentrate at school.

STUDENTS WITH MEDICAL NEEDS

A reminder to parents/carers to notify the school about your child’s health. Students with ongoing medical needs should have an ACTION PLAN (eg asthma and anaphylaxis) supplied to the school.

Students who need to carry medication in their bags need to complete a medication form (collect from office). Eg Epipen, Ventolin.

Until next time,

Narelle Webb
Deputy Principal
Junior Schooling

Literacy Links

There is no doubt that being literate is important, not just in school, but in real life as well. We continue to focus on the importance of reading and reading comprehension in 2022. Writing sensibly, accurately and with increasing complexity is a major focus this year as well.

2022 WEEKS 6 - 7

All classroom teachers will be using Directed Reading and Thinking (DRTA) strategies to improve student understanding of assessment tasks. They will be using modelled exemplars to assist students to know exactly what needs to be done in order to be successful across all subjects for term 1. A key component of this is students’ abilities to write robust sentences using effective conjunctions. A conjunction is a word that joins two simple sentences together to make a complex, and interesting, sentence. While students seem confident using ‘and’ to join simple sentences, our focus over the next couple of weeks is to make written work more robust using words like ‘but’, ‘because’, ‘so’, ‘although’, ‘yet’, ‘however’, ‘even though’, ‘if’, ‘before’ and ‘after’.

As each individual KLA has specific writing styles, there is an almost endless amount of ways in which these conjunctions can be used to make student writing better.

How can parents support their child’s literacy?

• Liaise with your child’s teachers to find out term topics, assessment requirements, weekly homework tasks;
• Provide a quiet area, away from distractions, for your child to complete reading and writing homework activities and assessment tasks;
• Monitor reading/writing homework; encourage your child to give his/her best effort;
• Ensure that your child completes homework, or revision of class notes, every day of the week;
• Read with and to your child (listening to them read out loud is fantastic);
• Talk about what your child is reading (What is happening? When is it happening? Where is it happening? Who is involved? How do you feel about the events or people involved? Why is the reading important?)
• Support your child to complete homework neatly, accurately and using complex sentences.
• Challenge your child to use joining words other than ‘and’.
• Get your child to read any book, magazine or newspaper and find the joining words – you could even make it a scavenger hunt!
• Ask your student to read their writing OUT LOUD, taking notice of punctuation. If it doesn’t sound right, it needs some editing.

Creating literate children is a team effort; be part of the Charleville team.

Chappy’s Corner

Hi everyone! If I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting you yet, I’m Michael Holt, the new Chaplain for Charleville State High School, Charleville State School and Wyandra State School. I am really happy and honoured to be in this role and look forward to getting to know as many people as possible and having lots of fun with students at all three schools.

My background is that I have 28 years teaching experience, across Qld and NSW. I have taught every year level, From Year 1 to Year 12, at least one year in my career. I grew up in Chinchilla so I am completely aware of life in a country town and I hope to get involved in the local community.

A Chaplain’s role is, put simply, to help students with any issues that they might not feel comfortable talking to another adult about. I am not a counsellor and it is not something that we do. If there is an issue that needs further attention we refer the student to the relevant person and/or notify the person or agency that is in the best place to help.

A bit of a misunderstanding about the role is that we are here to promote the Christian faith within the school. This is not the case. While I am employed by Scripture Union, the partnership with Ed Qld is that we don’t openly discuss Christianity or our own faith. If a student asks a question about Christianity then I am able to answer but I am not able to openly start these conversations. A chaplain’s goal is to foster positive, trusting relationships with students so that they have another adult to talk to if the need arises.

Please remind your child/children that there are plenty of toasties available before school and at first break. We also have CWAATSICH here on Friday mornings making pancakes. Get in early!

All the very best. I hope to meet you soon.

Michael Holt
School “Chappy” Chaplain

Harmony Week:

This week, for Harmony Week, we celebrate and recognise Australian multiculturalism, and our local multicultural community. The message of Harmony Week is “everyone belongs”. It is about inclusiveness, respect and belonging for all Australians, regardless of cultural or linguistic background. These core values are engrained in Charleville State High School’s 4B’s and 4V’s, and we, as a school community, wholeheartedly believe that “everyone belongs”. Throughout the week, students can choose to have their photo taken with a mate for our Harmony Week photo wall, which will be on display in C Block.

Did you know?

• Nearly half (49%) of Australians were born overseas or have at least one parent who was.
• We identify with over 300 ancestries.
• Since 1945, more than 7.5 million people have migrated to Australia.
• 85% of Australians agree multiculturalism has been good for Australia.
• Apart from English, the most common languages spoken in Australia are Mandarin, Arabic, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Italian, Greek, Tagalog/Filipino, Hindi, Spanish and Punjabi.
• More than 70 Indigenous languages are spoken in Australia.

(From ABS 2016 Census Data.)

Harmony Week Photography Competition:

This year for Harmony Week, Katie (YSC) is running a photography competition: students will be offered the opportunity to enter this competition via student notices, where they are challenged to capture an image around our community which they feel represents the idea of diversity and the message of Harmony Week: “everyone belongs”. Photos must be emailed to Katie at kmcle234@eq.edu.au by Monday 21st March, and will be judged by an external panel of community members. A great prize pool is up for grabs, and the winning entry will be submitted to the Harmony Week website, with the chance of being published!!

Bullying. No Way! Day: Friday 18th March

 

Please join us in supporting the National Day of Action (NDA) against Bullying and Violence on Friday 18 March 2022. This year, we celebrate 12 years of action for Australia’s key bullying prevention initiative, with the theme, Kindness Culture.

The National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence is an important day in our school calendar as we join schools across Australia to say ‘Bullying. No Way!’ Together we can make a change - everyone has a role to play for bullying prevention. The NDA promotes school, parent and community partnerships to build safe and supportive learning environments.

This year’s theme, Kindness Culture, plays an important role in bullying prevention, and promotes inclusiveness, respect and community belonging – what a fitting end to our Harmony Week celebrations! On Friday, to recognise and celebrate the NDA and promote a Kindness Culture within our school, we will be encouraging staff and students alike to write messages of kindness in their form classes, and creating a kindness wall in their classrooms. Our wonderful tuckshop ladies will also be selling special ‘Kindness culture cupcakes’ at first and second break.

Beyond Broncos

A great morning with the Beyond Broncos team. Our girls had a workshop with a focus on leadership, culture and resilience. Charleville State High School is proud to continue the four-year relationship we have had with Beyond Broncos who support the girls in their education.

CLEANER – CASUAL

If you are interested in casual cleaning at Charleville SHS please contact Jillian Bussell on 4656 8888. You must have a current Suitability Card from Working with Children (Queensland’s Blue Card system).

We have casual hours that will be available in 2022 with possibility of permanent hours in 2023.

KEY DUTIES: Contribute to the efficient and effective operation and environment of the school by providing a high level of cleaning support.