Term 3 Newsletter 2024

Principal's Report

Dear Parents, Guardians, and Students,

Welcome to the new academic semester at Cairns School of Distance Education! We are excited to continue our journey of providing high-quality online education to our very diverse community of learners. Whether you're joining us for the first time or are a returning student, we are thrilled to be working with you, wherever you are located across Australia and the world.

Our mission is to offer flexible and accessible educational opportunities that cater to the unique needs of each student. The year 2025 will bring significant enhancements to our service delivery, allowing families and students to access and engage in learning quickly and more seamlessly than ever. Our virtual classroom technology will move to Microsoft Teams in 2025. This move provides ease of access for all and a greater array of supportive apps and functionalities. MS Teams will support interactive and engaging lessons and foster easier connections between students, adults at home and teachers.

We understand that distance education presents its own set of challenges and our dedicated team is here to support you. We encourage you to stay connected with your teachers for any learning support you may need.

Recent events at our school highlighted the great connections between students, families and our staff through spending face-to-face time together. Although it is impossible for some of our far-reaching families, I would like to thank those who were able to travel to attend face-to-face opportunities on our school site. This time together is valuable for all.

Parental involvement is a key component of student success and we encourage you to stay engaged with our school community. I urge all families to engage in virtual parent-teacher conferences, participate in online events and connect with us through our newsletters and social media forums.

Parents often ask how best to support their child’s learning at home.  Supporting early reading at home is critical in developing lifelong learning attitudes.  To support your child's early reading at home, here are some helpful tips:

1. Create a Reading Routine: Set aside a specific time each day dedicated to reading.
2. Choose a Variety of Books: Offer a mix of genres and formats to keep your child interested.
3. Read Together: Share the reading experience by reading aloud with your child.
4. Discuss the Books: Talk about the stories and characters to enhance comprehension.
5. Set Up a Reading Space: Create a cozy and quiet area for your child to enjoy their books.
6. Encourage Writing: Have your child write stories or keep a journal to complement their reading.

Together, we create a supportive and rich educational experience for all our students. Thank you for choosing Cairns School of Distance Education. Let us make this semester great together!

Warm regards
Peter Linnehan

Prep - Year 6 Deputy Principal Report

Welcome back to Term 3!  I hope that all of our families had a relaxing break and students are ready for learning.  We would like to thank our home tutors for all of their support –the partnership between students, home tutors and teachers is vital for successful student outcomes and the wellbeing of our students. 

P-6 Camp Week

Our P-3 camp and our Year 4-6 camp were both a roaring success.  Our students enjoyed being on campus for the P-3 camp participating in activities related to the Olympics and going on an excursion to the Southside Gymnastics club.  It was wonderful to see everyone in their Olympic shirts. Our Year 4-6 students stayed at Daradgee and were very fortunate to have beautiful weather.  A crocodile was sighted on the boat tour and students enjoyed interacting with each other and making new friends.

Co-Teaching

You may have noticed that some classes are co-teaching together.  This means that teams of teachers are working together on planning and delivering creating innovative and engaging lessons for our students.  Teachers are teaching in teams in some year levels and for some learning areas to provide different perspectives, encourage increased student interaction with each other and provide differentiated support for all students using break-out rooms.  Co-teaching will continue and will be refined and improved throughout the year. 

At the end of term 2, we surveyed our students to seek student voice about what they thought about teachers teaching together.  Below are some of the survey results from Year 6 students (click on the image to see the full results):

Term 3 Timetable

The term 3 timetable is up and running.  Year 1-Year 6 have the same break times – 10:00-10:30 for Morning Tea and 11:30 – 12:30 for Lunch.  This provides families with multiple students the opportunity for breaks. 

Below is an overview of each year level and the subjects being taught this term.  Some year levels have more than one teacher due to a number of reasons such as part time teachers, specialist teachers and teacher planning release time for version 9 of the Australian Curriculum.

Prep – English, Maths, Science, Humanities, HPE and Art

Year 1 - English, Maths, Science, Humanities, and Visual Arts (eTeach)

Year 2 - English, Maths, Science, Humanities, Digital Technologies, and Dance (eTeach)

Year 3 - English, Maths, Science, Humanities, Design Technologies, Visual Arts (eTeach)

Year 4 - English, Maths, Science, Humanities, Dance (eTeach)

Year 5 - English, Maths, Science, Humanities, Languages, Design Technologies, Visual Arts (eTeach)

Year 6 - English, Maths, Science, Humanities, Languages, Media and Drama (eTeach)

If you have any concerns, please contact P-3 HOD (Leigh Quirk- lxqui3@eq.edu.au ) or 4-6 HOD (Kendall Jones – kjjon1@eq.edu.au ).

New Courses – version 9 Australian Curriculum

As we transition from version 8.4 of the Australian Curriculum to version 9, you will notice a difference in our QLearn courses.  The current new courses, which are only digital and design technologies for this year, have been created to provide students with all of the curriculum in the course.  This is very different to old courses which provide only some of the curriculum in the course and the rest of the curriculum as Independent Learning Materials (ILM booklets) for home tutors to work through with their child.  There are a number of reasons for the development of these new courses:

1. Students can access all of the learning materials online and can go back and review key learning at any time.
2. Increased student interaction through online platform functionality.
3. Learning will set up in an explicit lesson structure – Let’s Review, Let’s Learn, Let’s Practice, Let’s Remember.
4. Additional support for home tutors will be available with all of the teaching online for home tutors to help support their child.
5. Reduction in printed materials as they are quickly outdated and difficult to update effectively.

Below is a draft timeline for when the new version 9 QLearn courses will be uploaded:

Prep – Year 6

2024 – Digital and Design Technology

2025 – English

2026 – Maths and Science

2027 – Languages, HPE, The Arts and Humanities

NAPLAN for students in Years 3, 5, 7 & 9

NAPLAN 2024 Individual Student Reports are expected to be released in mid-August.  Once these reports have been sent to the school, we will mail out each child’s NAPLAN report.  Only students who participated in NAPLAN will receive a report.   The NAPLAN report consists of four levels for each test:

• Exceeding: the student’s result exceeds expectations at the time of testing. 
• Strong: the student’s result meets challenging but reasonable expectations at the time of testing. 
• Developing: the student’s result indicates that they are working towards expectations at the time of testing.
• Needs additional support: the student’s result indicates that they are not achieving the learning outcomes that are expected at the time of testing. They are likely to need additional support to progress satisfactorily.

For additional information, please see https://nap.edu.au/naplan/results-and-reports/proficiency-level-descriptions

Seeking Support

Just a reminder about the process if you require advice or support about your child’s learning or wellbeing.  If you are seeking support for your child’s learning, please email or phone your child’s class teacher.  If you are seeking support that is outside the teacher’s role, such as extensions, exemptions or wanting to discuss additional support for your child, please contact the relevant HOD (P-3 Leigh Quirk, Year 4-6 Kendall Jones).  For highly confidential or complex issues, please contact myself Lurelle Hodge Prep-Year 6 Deputy Principal via email - DeputyPrincipal@cairnssde.eq.edu.au or phone the school and I will endeavour to contact you as soon as possible.

We look forward to working with your child and yourself this term to ensure a smooth and productive term 3.

Kind regards

Lurelle Hodge

Year 7 - Year 9 Deputy Principal Report

We are excited to welcome you to a new term at Cairns School of Distance Education. Our dedication to enhancing curriculum, teaching and learning continues as we strive for excellence and equity by valuing our partnership with parents in this educational journey.

Potential resources to support parents

Balancing the roles of Home Tutor and parent is challenging but crucial for student success. Setting clear expectations and fostering a growth mindset are key. The student planners and the PERMAH resources that are included throughout are a great place to start. You may wish to explore the concept of GROWTH further at Mindset Kit  (https://www.mindsetkit.org/ ). For time management and organization, consider digital tools like Cozi Family Organizer, OurHome, Picniic, FamCal, Flayk.

Celebrating our learners

This term, we are proud of grade 9 students, Scarlett, Layla, Niamh and Roisin, participating in the Young Researchers Program at the State Library of Queensland alongside grade 10 student Finnlay. Their stories of inquiry and excellence will be shared soon.

Current, future and global learning

We encourage all students to actively participate in live lessons whenever possible, as this engagement is crucial for a comprehensive educational experience. Our online platform, Canvas is in its second year and has been instrumental in delivering engaging curriculum. Looking ahead to 2025, we are gearing up for a shift from Collaborate Ultra which is no longer supported as our Department’s enterprise solution to Microsoft Teams. Teachers of classes trialling Teams have told us that it has enhanced our virtual classrooms.

We encourage parents to start investigating the responsible use of AI tools, which can be powerful allies in learning when used ethically. For students there are way too many to even suggest where to start. For personal research I use a simple 4 step approach before writing anything:

1. Record ideas: To get my ideas down I use GitMind**
2. Research: I still use Google Scholar to start, recently I have started to use, elict.ai and litmap to expand the resources I refer to.
3. Secure the source document: Once I find a good article I use my State Library of Queensland membership to access the full article in ebooks and journals.

Global Citizenship and Digital Literacy

We are preparing students to be global citizens by promoting global learning and digital literacy. I encourage both parents and students to join the State Library of Queensland, students can use the school address when filling out the membership form. State Library of Queensland (slq.qld.gov.au)

Share Your Stories Your experiences enrich our community. Tell us how distance education has shaped your journey by emailing Leigh Howser & Nadine Kent at -StudentEngagement_yr7to9@cairnssde.eq.edu.au

Note of Caution Apart from PERMAH, Outlook and SLQ, other resources mentioned are not endorsed by Cairns SDE. Exercise caution and protect personal details when exploring new online tools.

Kind regards
Kirk Findlay

Year 10 - Year 12 Deputy Principal Report

Senior Secondary and Connect:

Thank you to our Senior Student Leaders who have been co-presenting our Senior Assemblies in Term 2. Students in Years 10, 11 and 12 have had the opportunity to listen to and ask questions of a number of guest speakers over Semester 1 pertaining to Career Pathways and a number of sessions with JCU Future Student Advisor, Roberta Vieira on a variety of topics.

Year 10 – Senior Education and Training Plan (SET Plan):

In Term 3 we will be focused on SET Planning and Senior Pathways Interviews for each one of our 267 Year 10 students with their parent/carer. An information flyer was emailed out to all Year 10 parents in Term 2 with important date claimers and can be accessed here for your reference: Senior Pathways Flyer. Senior Secondary Assembly was split in Week 1 with Year 10’s having the opportunity to engage with Head’s of Department and Senior Teachers on subject specific talks as they plan for next year. It was great to see so many students attend the live session and take advantage of asking questions of our staff. If you missed this – check out the recordings in the CSDE Student Space – Collaborate Ultra from Tuesday 9 July Assembly.

Student and Parent Information Sessions

Students and parents have the opportunity to attend an online information session for current Year 10 students intending on continuing into Year 11 in 2025 including Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE), and Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR). If unable to attend, these sessions will be recorded.

Students: Tuesday 16 July during Connect lesson at 10:00am via QLearn<Student Space<Collaborate Ultra

Parents: Wednesday 17 July or Monday 22 July 2024 @ 6:30pm AEST via QLearn/Student Space – Collaborative. Lessons were recorded and are available from: QLearn – Student Space – Collaborate Ultra – Recordings. Once you click on Collaborate Ultra – click on the 3 horizontal lines in the Menu to show the recording options.

Assessment: There have been quite a number of year 10, 11 and 12 students who have outstanding assessments for Semester 1. In the current system, all assessment must be attempted otherwise students risk NOT being given credit for the semester of study which may affect their eligibility for a QCE. The Cairns SDE Year 11 and 12 Assessment Policy is located on our school website: 2024 Years 11-12 Assessment Policy

Requests for Extension: forms were updated on the website at the end of Term 2 for single subject and multiple subject extension requests. The new multiple subject form is to assist parents and students who may encounter an exceptional circumstance (eg. requiring surgery or unexpected extended illness supported by medical certificate) where a number of subjects are impacted. Please ensure that as per our policy, students must attach evidence of work completed with the extension request. If no work has been attempted leading up to the due date, then it is highly unlikely that an extension will be granted.

Please note that the following situations that are of the student’s or parent/carer’s own choosing (e.g. sporting & performance competitions trials/auditions & training, religious activities/reasons, holidays) are not eligible for consideration as per the QCAA guidelines. Students should negotiate to submit their work before the due date.

Additionally, the submission time for all assessments has been updated to a 2:30pm AEST timeline for the commencement of Semester 2 2024 (see page of 8 of Assessment Policy). If a student does not submit by this time on the due date they will be allocated a N result. The QCAA is steadfast in regards to schools compliance with timelines.  This new timeline allows teachers to check for student submissions during the school day and provide any support if the student is experiencing difficulties with the submission. It is important to communicate early with your teacher if you are experiencing difficulties – do not leave it to the last minute!

Year 10 Work Experience: Our inaugural week of Work Experience for Year 10 students in Term 2, Week 10 provided a number of students with hands on experience in a range of industries. Thank you to those students who provided photo’s and recount’s of their experience. We look forward to providing the same experience for the 2025 cohort of Year 10’s. Huge thank you to Ms Susie Rankine who coordinated and assisted families with accessing Work Experience in their area.

Senior Celebration Week: Term 4, Week 7 (11 – 15 November 2024)

Following on from a 2023 survey of Year 9-11 students and parents, we are trialling the Senior Camp week in Term 4, Week 7 this year and combining with the Senior Presentation Awards. Thank you to Ms Sam Preston – Year 12 Student Engagement HoD, who has been working with senior students through assemblies, to put together what looks to be a great week for our Year 10, 11’s and 12’s. Whilst some activities are still being confirmed, the itinerary is taking shape:

Monday 11 – Wednesday 13 November:

Camping at Echo Creek with indoor and outdoor activities

Thursday 14 November:

Presentation Awards Ceremony at The Reef Hotel Casino (5:30pm – 6:30pm)

Year 12 Graduation at The Reef Hotel Casino (7:00pm – 11:00pm)

Friday 15 November:

Island/Reef trip

Student Wellbeing: “Working together at CSDE to move from anxiety to Resilience in Learning” - presented by Carolyn Alchin and Beth Keane, this link takes you to a padlet of resources located on our school website for parents and carers to support their young people find success.

This resource provides information and current research to support our families who encounter challenges that are faced by people who suffer from anxiety.

Positive Behaviours for Learning (PBL):

The PBL committee has been hard at work this year alongside our Student Leaders and our parent representative to develop resources for our 2024 Foci after a collaborative review in 2023.

Cairns SDE Positive Behaviours for Learning Matrix

QATSIF: The Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Foundation offers scholarships to Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander students who continue with their studies in year 11 and 12 each year. To be eligible, students must have 85% attendance or higher and achieving a C or higher in every subject and a C or higher in all subjects for Behaviour and Effort for current Year 10/11. Scholarships for 2025 are currently open to current year 10 and 11 students and close on 1 August 2024.  Please see Ms Katie Thomas kditt6@eq.edu.au for an application form and/or further information. 

Senior Presentation Awards:

This year the Presentation Awards ceremonies have been split to align with Senior Secondary and Primary/Junior Secondary end of year finish dates.

Thursday 14 November 2024:      Year 10, 11 and 12

Thursday 5 December 2024:        Prep – Year 9

Student data will contribute to determine the recipients for the following awards for full-time students:

Positive Behaviour Learning (PBL) Awards:

• Responsible Award - 5 or more OneSchool Positive Behaviour records for being responsible
• Respectful Award - 5 or more OneSchool Positive Behaviour records for being respectful
• Resilient Award - 5 or more OneSchool Positive Behaviour records for being a resilient
• Global Learner Award – 5 or more OneSchool Positive Behaviour records each for being responsible, respectful and resilient
• Mid year enrolments – 3 or more as above

Commitment Awards:

• Grade Point Average (GPA) of Effort results 4.5-5.0 for Semester 1/Term 3 reporting

Academic Award of Merit:

• GPA score of 4.0–4.49 for Semester 1/Term 3 reporting with no N’s, E’s or D’s for any subject

Academic Award of Excellence:

• GPA score of 4.5-5.0 for Semester 1/Term 3 reporting with no N’s, E’s or D’s for any subject

Top of Subject Award:

• Student who has achieved the highest result in each subject for Semester 1/Term 3 reporting

The following Awards and Bursaries are open for student nomination:

Kind regards
Tanya Findlay

By Students - For Students

An inside look into the meetings of your student leaders.

Hello everyone!

The CSDE Student Leadership team meets every week of our school year to discuss and develop ideas of how to support and engage students across our P-12 cohorts.  This term, we also welcomed our new OLC Student leaders. We’re very excited to share our plans and ideas for the school, but first, perhaps you’d like to meet us all!

School Exercise Challenge

In term one, our main goal was to continue the school-wide exercise challenge that was so successful in 2023. We took the idea and rolled with it and we also added a few aspects to help increase participation. We found that all of our combined steps taken when running and walking took us all the way from Cairns to Warrnambool! An incredible effort from all involved, but the year 11s just pulled through to snag the win.

An exercise themed photography challenge was also organised and some talented entries got a $10 gift card for their efforts.

Student Club Survey

With the intention of improving our student club system, we organised a student survey to determine which clubs were of interest for our students. We received a variety of answers, and we have taken them into account as we organise new clubs for the school! (See more in the “Coming up” segment.)

ANZAC Day

For ANZAC day, we organised a digital ceremony to pay our respects to the soldiers to which we owe our way of life. The student leaders presented the ceremony in each assembly group and we did our best to make the ceremony as good as it could be.  This will become a feature event of our student leadership team in future years.

Cultural Day

This year we developed Cultural Day promotions for our Week 9 Assemblies.  We hope to be involved more in the celebrations next year, especially with the development of online Cultural Day celebrations.

Positive Behaviour for Learning Reels

The student leaders worked this term on a project assigned to them by the CSDE PBL Team.  We produced short reels to encourage positive behaviours for learning.  The team has written, rehearsed, filmed and created PBL resources to be used across the school in a fun and relatable way. We’ll be presenting them at school camp and you will get to see them in your classes next term. Keep a look out for the CSDE PBL Reel Competition launch we will be supporting next term – there will be prizes!

New Student Clubs

As a result of our data collection during term one, we’ll be introducing a host of new school clubs at the start of Term 3! We have worked with the Partnership Team and teachers to create a wide variety of clubs to cater to everyone. These will be available to for all students to join in the CSDE Student Space (QLearn)

Homework Club: Mondays 3:00pm

Auslan Club: Tuesdays 1:00pm

Minecraft Club: Wednesdays 3:00pm & Fridays 3:00pm

Creative Writing Club: Wednesdays 2:30pm

Film Club: Thursdays 2:30pm

Anime Club: Thursdays 2:30pm

Philosophy Club: Thursdays 2:45pm & Fridays at 2:30pm

Sustainability Club: TBA

Art Club: TBA

Next Term’s plans

We will be focussing on STEAM events and developing student events for Book Week and Science Week.  We will also be promoting the BLA Literary Competition, RUOK Day, RFDS fundraising and PBL Reels competition. 

And that’s a wrap…

That’s all for our first instalment of By Students, For Students! We will be in touch again next term with more news.  We’re very proud to serve as your student leaders. Have a wonderful holiday break.

Kind regards 

MacKenzie Buchana(On behalf of the CSDE Student Leaders Team)

Oberon Literary Awards

Congratulation to Oberon who competed at the JCU Cairns Eisteddfod Literary Awards ceremony and received the following awards:

1st L5 Creative Writing - 13 and under 15 years (this was the short story he wrote in term 1 for English with a few small changes)

1st L16 Letter Writing - 13 and under 15 years 

1st L22 Script Writing - 13 and under 18 years 

2nd L11 Original Poem - 13 and under 15 years 

2nd L19 Report Writing/Writing fit a Purpose - 11 and under 15 years 

Highly Commended L24 Speech Writing - 13 and under 18 years 

He also received one of the 4 overall major awards for the literary section of:  Literary Encouragement Award - Senior

Oberon has set himself an impressive record with receiving one of these major awards for the past three years. In 2022 he received the Literary Most Promising Award - Junior, then in 2023 Literary Encouragement Award - Junior and now 2024 Literary Encouragement Award - Senior. With between 300-500 literary entries per year he is quite proud of this ongoing achievement. 

Experiences of Learning at Cairns School of Distance Education

Year 7 – Sean  

My name is Sean. My first year of high school has started off a bit ‘differently’ than planned. On top of moving into an online high school, I have moved countries. I left Australia in January and now live with my family in a small fishing village in Japan, Kada.

My new online experience has been mostly great with kind, helping teachers and funny peers. I do admit getting used to it will take some time, but it certainly won’t be an experience I will forget. CSDE’s approach to learning has been different to what I have been previously taught, but has broadened my understanding of some subjects. I personally love coming to the school and hope to someday meet my teachers and peers in person.

Year 11 – Joshua  

I’ve been in Distance Ed for a number of years, but this is my first year at CSDE.  Year 11 has been a lot more work than Year 10 and that is taking some getting used to. Each school has its own learning platform, but I have found it pretty easy to work with Qlearn, so that has been good. 

I’m in the USA at present, so I don’t get to attend lessons in person, but because lessons are recorded, I don’t miss out on anything.  I like being able to set my own agenda for what I’m going to work on each day, so Distance Ed works really well for me.  I’m really glad to be able to access the Australian curriculum rather than being forced to have to go to an American public school.

Kind regards 

Shannyn McMillan - Head of Department English

Senior Japanese – Future Dreams

In Year 12, Japanese students learn language skills to articulate their future dreams and plans. A few years ago, one of my students named Julia wrote about her aspiration to go to Japan and work in a café, aiming to acquire the necessary skills to eventually open her own café there. Recently, during camp week, I had the privilege of meeting a family member who informed me that Julia's dream has indeed become a reality. She is currently living in Japan, working at a café and soon she will be opening her own café with the support of her family.

私のゆめは日本にひっこして、小さいカフェをえいぎょうしたいです。学校をそつぎょうしたから、祖父母と一緒に住んで、ちかくのスターバックスではたらきたいです。日本のスターバックスではほとんどのメニューはカタカナで書いています。だから、他の仕事より、かんたんだと思います。将来の自分のカフェの仕事のれんしゅうになります。このドリームカフェでは、たくさんのおもしろい本があったり、すてきなおんがくをひいたり、おいしい食べ物をうったりしたいです。将来、私のカフェに来てくださいね。Julia M Year 12 2021

Hearing this news made me so happy for Julia and proud that she has continued to apply Japanese to make her dreams come true.

Kudo Sensei

Japanese at CSDE

Recently a past student of CSDE, Miki shared a wonderful recount of her studies.

Learning Japanese through Cairns School of Distance Education in years 10, 11 and 12 gave myself opportunities to learn about specific language patterns, grammar and Kanji characters, as well as Japanese culture and customs. This was very important to me, as I always had an interest in learning high-school level Japanese, however my school did not provide the option to study Japanese as a language. If I did not have this opportunity through CSDE, I would have never received this award!

It was engaging to have my Japanese assessments in various formats - they could be in English, Japanese, in an Essay format, an exam, phone call conversation or a power point presentation. I also found it helpful that the year 11 internal assessments were almost identical to the year 12 assessments, allowing an opportunity for preparation and improvement before external assessment.

While the learning mostly occurred online, I always felt that there was plenty of support and resources available for use. Overall, it was a very fun and meaningful experience, and I would like to thank my teacher, Mr Kenny for the support throughout the 3 years.

Triumph for Olivia and Princeton at Equestrian SEQ Interschool Regional Championships

The Equestrian SEQ Interschool Regional Championships were held this term from the 19-21 April. Our very talented Year 8 student Olivia T, partnered with her horse Princeton and represented our school at the event. Olivia’s outstanding performance led to her being awarded Champion of both classes in the dressage category. This result qualifies Olivia for the State Championships. We are very proud of Olivia and wish her the very best as she prepares to represent our school at the state competition in Toowoomba later this semester.

Student Achievement - Let us know

If your child has an achievement you'd like to share, please send us an email with information and photos regarding your child’s achievement to: marketing@cairnssde.eq.edu.au and it will be shared in our newsletter and social media.

Exciting News from the FNQ Readers Cup: Winners are grinners!

We are thrilled to share the fantastic achievements of our students who participated in this year's FNQ Readers Cup. Our school was proudly represented by two dedicated teams from Year 5/6 and Year 7/8.

Throughout the term, each team delved into the pages of five captivating novels. They met weekly to discuss their insights, interpretations and understanding of the texts. These sessions were more than just book discussions; they were opportunities for our students to enhance their organisational skills, collaborate effectively and learn from one another's perspectives.

Our Year 5/6 team was William S, Pippa P, Maddy A and Rohan L who demonstrated exceptional quick-thinking skills during the 'pop-quiz' questions segment, earning a well-deserved book prize for our CSDE library. This prize is a testament to their hard work and dedication to mastering the material.

Meanwhile, our Year 7/8 team; Oberon B-M, Scarlett H, Charlee H and Harry P, showed remarkable leadership and consistency throughout the competition. Their outstanding efforts led them to secure second place, a remarkable achievement for our first time in that age section of the competition, celebrated with well-earned medallions.

We extend a huge thank you to our incredible support team of teaching staff, Jodie Williams and Fleur Gray and leadership Lurelle Hodge, Leigh Quirk and Kendall Jones. Your unwavering support and encouragement have been instrumental in making this literacy event a success. Congratulations to our students for their dedication, enthusiasm, and achievements in the FNQ Readers Cup! We are incredibly proud of you all and look forward to seeing more of your literary adventures in the future.

Kind regards 

Faith McDonald - Literacy Coordinator 

Prep - Year 3 Exciting News: Our School Olympic Mascot and the Journey of the CSDE Olympic Torch!

We are thrilled to announce that our students have chosen our school Olympic mascot! After a lot of creativity and enthusiasm, the votes are in and our new mascot is ready to inspire and cheer us on. Congratulations to everyone who participated and helped make this decision. Our mascot symbolizes the spirit of unity, sportsmanship, and the drive to excel—values that are at the heart of our CSDE school community.

In other exciting news, the CSDE Olympic torch made its way to Cairns for Camp Week! This journey was a special one, representing the connection and shared excitement of our entire school. The torch travelled through various towns, spreading the Olympic spirit and bringing a sense of anticipation for the school camp.

Check out the amazing pics of the torch's journey! From scenic landscapes to joyful moments with students and staff, these snapshots capture the essence of this unique experience. Each stop along the way added to the story of our shared adventure, culminating in a memorable Camp Week in Cairns.

Well done everyone in celebrating our school’s Olympic spirit. Go team!

#OurSchoolMascot #CSDEOlympicTorch #CampWeek2024

Year 7 to 9 Camp – Mungalli Falls Education Centre

Twenty-three of our year 7 to 9 students and five of our dedicated teachers attended the Annual 7 to 9 Camp at Mungalli Falls during camp week in week 10 last term.

The students engaged in 3 days of nature-based interactive learning, outdoor recreation and team building activities. They participated in a range of activities including:

• Team raft building
• Archery
• Navigating an obstacle course in 2 teams
• Orienteering
• Boomerang painting
• Low ropes
• Abseiling

Our students demonstrated excellent teamwork skills and resilience when faced with some challenging tasks. A good time was had by all.

Kind regards 

Leigh Howser  - Head of Department 7 – 9 Student Engagement

STEAM Camp Wrap-up

Students attending the 2 day STEAM camp in June have new found confidence and success with robotics.

The first STEAM camp of 2024 has wrapped up with participants taking away success at the Sparky’s Robotics Triathlon and initial robot designs for the future VEX Robotics Competitions.

STEAM camp was attended by 16 eager students from year 2-10. Each student regardless of previous experience had a very productive camp and it was smiles all around at the end of the two days.

The camp introduced students to the VEX robotics building system. Think of VEX as a type of building system that depending on the age group uses plastic parts or metal parts. Students were given two problems to work towards during the STEAM camp.

One challenge on offer for our P-9 students was to build a robot and code in two days for Sparky’s Robotics Triathlon. This competition required our STEAM camp participants to build a single robot to participate in a robot sumo match, follow a line on the floor and drive as fast as possible. Students had to deal with power vs speed vs reliability. Being too good in any one of those would mean poor performance in one or more of the events. Our two teams participated well on competition day, with Fred and Benjamin finishing first overall and winners of the sumo and line following events. Finn and Zaya were awarded the encouragement award for their second-place efforts in sumo and line following. Our two teams also scored enough points to win the perpetual trophy for best primary school in 2024. A big well done considering most of our participants had not used a VEX kit or coded for VEX before!

The second challenge asks students to build robots to be ready for the VEX regional competitions in October. The VEX competition offers two challenges, the rapid relay for students up to year 9 and the high stakes challenge for years 9 -12. Both of these challenges have three aspects to the competition, driver skills, autonomous (coding) skills and the team challenge. Many participants opted to work toward these challenges. 

Students will be meeting regularly with Mr Rijken via QLearn to demonstrate continued building and refinements of the robots in preparation for the first official practice session for the VEX competition which is happening in September. These students were able to practice driving their robots on the actual fields for these competitions. There is still a lot more refinement of the robots, programming the robots to run without a driver and learning how to drive their machines to a high degree of proficiency is to still come.

We look forward to seeing our STEAM students' progress and return for the first official practice in September during our next STEAM camp.

Kind regards

Herman Rijken - STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Mathematics) Teacher

2024 Cultural Day in Cairns

On the 20 June 2024, amidst an exciting week of school camp and sports day, a group of students and parents participated in a warmly received Cultural Day Celebration at Cairns School of Distance Education.

The day began with a warm welcome from our Principal, Peter Linnehan. Students were then grouped into four age-related teams to enjoy activities such as Music Making, Dance, Painting, Wayang Kulit Puppet making and Food making. Parents had the opportunity to participate in a Tai Chi session with our school Tai Chi Master, Helen and a Chinese Tea Ceremony with our Chinese teachers. The Italian team organized a delightful pizza-making session, demonstrating the hands-on skills of our home tutors. The freshly made pizza from this session was a big hit for morning tea.

The morning tea and lunch, crafted by the teaching staff, could have fed an entire army. The variety of food highlighted the multiculturalism at Cairns SDE. Students, parents and staff enjoyed Chinese dumplings, Japanese sushi, Indonesian nasi goreng, French croissants and quiche, German apfelstrudel and pretzels, Spanish mozzarella sticks and nachos, as well as Italian pizza and spaghetti bolognese. The lunch was complemented with a variety of drinks and beautiful world music.

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Performances throughout the day included Indigenous Song and Angklung Music by P-3 students and Latin and Spanish Dance by Yr 4-9 students, bringing joy and a sense of achievement to all participants. A traditional Filipino song by our teacher Maricar Payumo and the famous Italian folk song "O Sole Mio" by our Italian team concluded the happy events of the 2024 Cultural Day.

A big thank you goes to all the teachers who contributed their time and effort to make the day such a wonderful experience. We also extend our gratitude to all the parents and students for their enthusiastic participation, support, and contributions.

Kind regards
David Zhang – Head of Department Languages 

Our Exciting Participation in National Simultaneous Storytime

CSDE students had the privilege of joining children across the country in the annual National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS). This event is a nationwide initiative that encourages children to engage in a shared reading experience, fostering a love for books and literacy.

The dedication of Mrs Leah Babington, Mrs Jodie Williams and support of our primary teachers to create a memorable and enriching experiences for our students. Collaborate sessions were transformed into vibrant reading spaces, complete with themed activities and discussions. The chosen book for this year’s NSS, "Bowerbird Blues" by Aura Parker, came to life as teachers brought their storytelling magic into each session.

Participation in NSS is more than just about reading a book; it is about fostering a community of readers and learners. Events like these highlight the importance of literacy in our daily lives and encourage a lifelong love for reading. By being part of NSS, our students not only enjoyed a delightful story but also engaged in quality literacy learning that will benefit them for years to come.

We are proud of our school’s involvement in National Simultaneous Storytime and look forward to participating in many more such enriching events in the future.

Kind regards 

Faith McDonald - Literacy Coordinator

Is your family eligible for free internet access?

Families with school-aged children who do not have current internet access at home, may be eligible for the School Student Broadband Initiative (SSBI). To ensure all students have equal opportunity for online learning, the SSBI offers eligible families free nbn broadband access. For more information or to check your eligibility, call the National Referral Centre (Monday to Friday) 1800 954 610 or visit the SSBI website.

Parent Liaison Officer News

Hola amazing Cairns SDE families

You may or may not have noticed that I have a passion for languages. Send me an email if you know the language that I have chosen for my greeting today. Throughout Term 1 and 2, I have had the pleasure of meeting some new families and students however I am really hoping that the many more out there, that we will meet soon, whether over the phone/email or at a Community Engagement event. Please feel welcome to reach out. I am just an email or phone call away and really love meeting new families.

Let’s Connect Days events (Term 1, Week 10)

I was lucky enough to attend both Cooktown and SEQ Let’s Connect Days. I listened and talked to many participating families and heard lots of really good ideas and compliments to pass on to teachers. If you attended any of our Let’s Connect Days across Queensland – in Cooktown, Malanda, Bunya or Manunda, then I hope you had the opportunity to fill out one of our student or parent/tutor/carer surveys. This information was and was carefully considered for the building the Annual Camp Week programs, and our other Community Engagement events this year. 

You will notice that there is a change in focus gradually seeping through into Home Tutor Program at our inreach and outreach events. Therefore, it is very important for you to please provide feedback  and suggestions.

Annual Camp Week (Term 2, Week 10)

Families who attended camp seemed to really enjoy themselves - including the Cultural Celebrations Day and Sports Day.

Feedback | Questions | Suggestions | Enquiries | Ideas | Tips

Think of me as the Home Tutor/Parent/Carer Connect/Support staff member. Please be in touch if you have any concerns or questions. Your first point of call can always be your Connect Teacher, however I am here to help you too; specifically Home Tutors.

Home Tutor Connect Online sessions - there will be changes to these sessions moving forward so please look out for correspondence regarding this. These sessions are online informal opportunities to discuss upcoming events and school requirements or hear from guest speakers.

• Delve into topics relevant to distance education and being a Home Tutor
• Network with other Home Tutors that you have things in common with
  • eg tutoring styles, children’s ages and interests/hobbies, place of residence etc.

This is a community, so we all want to hear your tips and ideas. There is most definitely not one method of learning in the diverse world we all live in, and there is also certainly multiple and diverse ways of tutoring and parenting.

Wishing you all the best for an enjoyable and productive second semester. Reach out if you need anything. 

Clare Macpherson - Parent Liaison Officer | PLO@cairnssde.eq.edu.au | 07 4080 9208

Inclusion Team Update

This year the Inclusion Team at Cairns SDE has moved towards Case Managing students with a National Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD) profile of Substantial or Extensive. Cairns SDE continues to support all students with a disability in an inclusive manner yet there are some students who require more support in their learning journey than others.

Students with a disability at Cairns SDE are supported by a school wide team, not just staff from Inclusion. This aligns with embedding the practice of students learning and achieving alongside similar aged peers, with reasonable adjustments.

The Inclusion Team as of this semester consists of:

Head of Special Education Services - Marg Russell

P-3 Case Manager - Jo Elliott

Year 4-6 Case Manager - Alicia Clark

Year 7 Case Manager - KC Han

Year 8 Case Manager - Anna Holland

Year 9 Case Manager- Mary Whibley

Year 10-12 Case Manager -Rebecca Gibney

If you would like to get in contact with an Inclusion Team member to discuss your child’s disability and your child does not have an identified Case Manager, please make contact with the HoSES Marg Russell via email mcrus0@eq.edu.au

Assistive Technologies trial project

The Open Learning Campus at Cairns School of Distance Education recently won a submission to engage in a trial project with State-wide Assistive Technologies, exploring Immersive Reality for students with disability.

Immersive Reality, including Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) has the potential to enhance learning across many areas of the curriculum for students with a range of diverse learning needs. It enables students to connect with learning that is meaningful to them and expose students to learning experiences otherwise not possible. There may be specific considerations for students with disability in engaging with these technologies and in immersive, virtual and augmented environments. This project will aim to explore applications, considerations, benefits and challenges for students with disability to engage with Immersive Reality hardware and software.

This project will aim to identify education benefits for students with a range of disabilities and how Immersive Reality can be used to enhance learning. Furthermore, the project will explore contemporary hardware, peripherals and applications that can be used to improve learning outcomes for students with disability and diverse learning needs.

The project will focus on the application of VR and MR in the secondary sector and AR in the primary sector. There will be five schools chosen for each aspect of the trial.

The Open Learning Campus will be provided with a Quest 3 headset and access to the Learning and Design Hub VR applications for the duration of the project. The Open Learning Campus will be required to trial hardware and software with target students for 20 weeks of 2024 and provide reports during the trial period.

Thanks to Kirsten Anderson, one of our teachers at the Open Learning Campus for submitting the winning application and managing this project.

Kind regards

Carmen King - Head of Department OLC 

What’s happening in Science?

Two initiatives are up and running in Term 3.

The Sustainability team has now implemented challenges not only embedded in the lesson contents and students notices, but also around the school!

This month the challenge is: Plastic free July…see picture below!

Furthermore, the Wonder of Science Program is back for our Yr 9 Students! Wonder of Science fosters a STEM culture that empowers and increases capability for positive student and societal outcomes via access to high-quality, evidence-based STEM education. Specifically, a culture where all students, their teachers, parents and other community members understand and value the importance and potential of Science and STEM pathways and careers.

Are you in Yr 9? Stay tuned as the Student Experiment you will start in Week 5, it could be your ticket to be part of the Wonder of Science team!

How exciting!!

Kind regards

Enrico Zanzarella - Head of Department Science, year 7 to 12

Education Perfect: new added “shapes”!

Every school year has exciting news and interesting opportunities, but 2024 has certainly seen the Maths Department busier than ever. In fact, Education Perfect (EP), the learning platform implemented at CSDE more traditionally in the Languages department, has now landed among numbers, graphs and shapes!

Semester 1 had a number of Maths teachers involved in exploring this learning tool and its opportunities to be adopted within our current curriculum and beyond. Through collaborative learning and exposure to EP, our educators increased their familiarity and capability ready for a more substantial implementation.

The result of this combined effort are quizzes, revision materials and practice tests prepared for students with the aim of increasing their confidence in some topics that might be complex. Getting involved in these activities not only will help students in sitting their exams with a more positive approach, but it will be like having their personal tutor. In fact, one of the main benefits of EP is the immediate feedback that students receive and suggested tasks that will help the consolidation of aspects in which the level of readiness is not particular high. In addition to all these great features, teachers will be able to monitor students progresses and see exactly where further intervention needs to occur.

So, did you already get involved with EP in Maths? If not, give it a try, you might find Maths not so boring after all.

Kind regards

Laura Ridolfi - Head of Department Maths

Humanities year 7 - 12

Students have completed Term 2 studies with some outstanding results. In Years 7-8 students study different aspects of Humanities including History, Geography, Civic and Citizenship, Economics and Business. Year 9 and 10 students are beginning to select those Humanities subjects which most interest them. A reminder to parents that History in Years 9 and 10 is offered for only one semester; we have had some queries from parents asking why their child is no longer enrolled in History in Semester two when they were in Semester 1.

Senior student numbers have remained high for Humanities subjects this year. We are currently awaiting confirmation of results for Term 2 results for our Year 12 students. The Confirmation process sees samples of student work reviewed by QCAA - appointed Confirmers in order to determine if results awarded by class teachers meet QCAA standards.  Please check with your Year 12 child in a week or so once results are finalised.

Kind regards

Deborah Thomas - Head of Department Humanities

English Department year 7 – 12

The English department have been busy bees as always this term, working hard to create engaging curriculum and getting to know all of our wonderful new students.

Version 9 (V9) – Australian Curriculum (7-10)

Since last year we have been mapping and planning for implementation of Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum at CSDE in 2025. This has involved lots of exciting discussions about how we can level up our units to create enhanced engaging content and more innovative course materials and lessons, so that we can continue to cater for all of our unique learners. In doing this we have also spent considerable time upskilling in inclusive pedagogical practices and using the concepts of Universal Design for Learning to create assessment and build our learning experiences around this:

"Think about the power in creating the supports and access for all students to be successful. Leaving no one behind, this is Universal Design for Learning". (Moore, S. 2016)

In our weekly V9 meetings there has been nothing but enthusiasm as the creative and passionate English team have discussed and re-designed assessment items for 2025 and began planning for the inclusion of a range of new resources. Watch this space as we continue this journey throughout the year.

New Senior Syllabus Implementation 2025

Our senior English teachers have also been hard at work participating in professional development leading towards the delivery of updated units and assessments in year 11 2025, when our new syllabuses will commence. In General and Essential English, there are no huge changes to the curriculum, however the changes that have been made reflect feedback from English educators state-wide (including us), and we are happy that changes to objectives in the curriculum will further support our learners.  

Another exciting piece of work that the team is pouring their skills and passion into is the completion of writing and building units in QLearn for Literature, which we are super excited about being able to offer to our year 11 students from 2025. 

Events - Cairns Tropical Writers Festival

This year we were absolutely thrilled to participate in the Cairns Tropical Writers Festival schools’ program. As many of our students do not live in Cairns, we were granted access to sessions and given permission to film these so that we can share the knowledge, tips and tricks and writing activities from published authors and poets. Joel McKerrow (Poet – look up his work he is wonderful) even delivered an entire session to camera just for our students. How lucky are we!

We were also thrilled to participate in Craig Batty’s creative writing session and we now have lots of new activities to share with our students to ‘unleash’ their creativity in writing.  Videos and activities will be shared with students from years 9-12 through Qlearn course materials this year.

ETAQ May Conference – Digital Landscapes

On 11 May Laney Hepburn and Bec Wood attended The English Teachers of Queensland seminar on Digital Landscapes at the University of Queensland.

This half-day seminar explored the exciting sphere of digital learning, which at Cairns SDE (CSDE) is our passion.

Technology, like curriculums and literature, is ever-changing and ever-developing and it’s crucial that we continue to embrace the challenges and opportunities placed upon us as teachers so that we can continue to deliver engaging and innovative teaching practices, not just at CSDE but across the state. To that end, Bec and Laney presented a very well-received workshop to teachers and leaders from across Queensland on how the English department at CSDE has embraced QLearn as our primary platform for delivery, showcasing what we are doing at the forefront of digital learning.

This workshop showcased the benefits of an interactive study guide in sequencing and delivering digital learning; explored how to digitally flip a classroom and how to differentiate in an online learning environment; and presented how we best use the capabilities that QLearn affords, including feedback and marking efficiency and differentiation with SpeedGrader, as well as inclusive features such as immersive reader.

Creative Writing Opportunities

This term we advertised the Cairns BLA Literary Competition and have already received a slew of student imaginative stories from across Years 7-12.  We would like to encourage even more students to enter.  For whilst we can only choose two entries from each age group to submit on behalf of Cairns School of Distance Education, we will be holding our own CSDE Literary Competition and will be awarding further prizes at the end of next term. To enter students can email their imaginative fiction to fstoe1@eq.edu.au by 2.30pm Friday 16 August.

From the start of the term, the CSDE Student Club – Creative Writing Club will be a place to share and build creative writing skills for all year levels.  This club will meet on Wednesday afternoons from 2:30pm on the CSDE Student Space. We hope students will join us to become the writers of our future.

That’s a wrap for us at the moment, but we look forward to sharing more exciting news and events with you soon.

Kind regards 

Shannyn McMillan – Head of Department English

Felicity Stoetzel – Head of Department English

INSTALLING SZapp

Cairns School of Distance Education now has a school app - SZApp.  Schoolzine’s SZapp mobile application is a fantastic way to stay up to date with all of the latest news and calendar events.  The App is free and available for Android and iOS devices.

CSDE Facebook and Instagram page

Did you know we have a Facebook and Instagram page? Follow us for regular updates, news, photos & more.

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/cairnssde 

Instagram:  #cairnssde

Advertising in the CSDE newsletter

If you would like to advertise your business in our school newsletter, please contact Jude Dawson, Schoolzine Advertising Accounts Manager, on 5414 2363, 0432 538 927 or email jude.dawson@schoolzine.com.au or contact our school office and we can pass your details on for them to contact you.