Term 3 Newsletter 2022

Principal's Report

Greetings CSDE community,

I write as we approach the end of another busy term. Much has been going on including the major works on site to upgrade our L and G blocks so that we can accommodate students staying overnight for camps. The building work will also include a new playground and amphitheatre. Completion is scheduled for the end of the year, but it does mean that we will have to host some of our traditional Term 4 Week 9 Celebration Week events off site this time.

My highlight of the term has undoubtedly been attending Mini Schools. At Mt Garnet, Laura and here in Cairns I have had the opportunity to catch up with our students and their families. It was great and I thank all those involved in the planning and successful completion of these events. I wasn’t able to get to the event in SE Qld but our Deputy, Tanya Findlay, led our team and the reports were of another terrific event. They really are critical opportunities for school curriculum work but also for some face to face social development for our students. Well done to all!

I also had the pleasure of welcoming our new Deputy Principal, Lurelle Hodge, to our school. Lurelle accompanied me on my visits to our Mini Schools to get a flavour of the unique school and community that we are. She was impressed and I believe all who met her were equally impressed too.

Also at this time of year my thoughts turn to our Year 12 students. We are a P – 12 school so we support our students’ learning journey all the way from Prep to Year 12 completion. That journey involves all of the phases of school education and I do believe that we are well placed to support transitions such as Year 6 into Year 7 where Primary phase structures evolve into Secondary phase. For the Year 12s who are at the end of the journey, Term 3 is always very demanding. It is great to see them applying themselves to the challenges as the finishing line draws near. Keep going!

Anyway, I will look forward to seeing you all again next term. Our substantive Principal, Andrew Oliver, is continuing to work in Regional Office so I am continuing as Acting Principal.

Have a great break!

Kind Regards,
Chris Rigden

QLEARN

QLearn is the Department of Education’s new online learning platform. It’s more modern and flexible, offering better software integration and greater functionality than previous applications used by the department.

Our school is transitioning some classes to QLearn in Terms 3 and 4 2022 in preparation for delivering all student learning in QLearn by Term 1 2023.

This is an exciting time for our school as this change will enable us to provide more equitable and inclusive digital learning for our students, as well as provide easy access to student learning activities for our parents and carers.

We have a plan in place to enable our school to make the transition to QLearn as smooth as possible, with a number of activities to get our staff, students and our school community ready for the change.

We will be regularly communicating with you so you know what’s happening and what you can do to be ready to make the switch to QLearn.

Celebration Week

It’s nearly that time of year again… Celebration Week. 

In Week 9, of Term 4, we are inviting you all to Cairns to join in our end of year activities and to celebrate all of our students’ wonderful achievements. There will be swimming, the Wipeout, an excursion to Cairns Zoom and Wildlife Dome, Presentation Day, a Community BBQ, and, of course, Sugarworld!

Please complete the Celebration Week Return Form linked below by 2:30pm Friday 14th October (Week 2, Term 4) to attend. Please note that due to planning and staffing requirements, no late forms will be accepted.

Year 12 Graduation Night

​It gives us great pleasure to officially invite all Year 12 graduating students and their families to the Cairns SDE 2022 Year 12 Graduation Celebration Dinner.

We look forward to celebrating our Year 12 student achievements and the end of a fantastic year.

To attend in person, or virtually, please return the RSVP form below by Monday 3rd October, 2022. No late RSVP's will be accepted.

Congratulations Matia!

We are so proud of Cairns SDE student, Matia, who is one of just two dancers to receive a four year scholarship at the Australian Ballet School in Melbourne.

Matia said, 

I have always wanted to train at The Australian Ballet School, it has been my dream for so long. 

Well done Matia!

Creative Generation - State Schools On Stage

Creative Generation—State Schools Onstage (CGEN) continues to give students, teachers and school communities the opportunity to be involved in a professionally produced, award-winning arena spectacular. 

CGEN provides students the chance to acquire new skills by working with some of Australia's leading performers in a world-class venue. For many, it is their first time performing on an arena stage, while for others it is a valuable stepping stone in their career as young artists in the performing arts industry.

This year, CGEN was staged at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on Thursday 14, Friday 15 and Saturday 16 July 2022 and featured over 1700 students from all across Queensland.

Cairns SDE Dance Teacher, Ms Belinda Allen, attended the event along with three of our talented students, JayBird, Declan and Marnie who performed in a variety of art areas.  

JayBird at only 12 years of age was the talk of the show on the electric guitar in the Beatles Band.

Marnie shone in every style of dance as one of the featured dancers.

Declan sang his heart out as part of the massed Choir.

Cairns SDE students also participated in a featured dance item as their studio had been engaged as a creative partner by CGEN.

Ms Belinda Allen said, 

"Our school will definitely be on the lips of many people who went to watch the show and who will watch the breathtaking performances on Television."

Ms Belinda Allen was part of the Teacher stage crew where she helped manage hundreds of students on and off the stage to ensure they made their cue. 

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Mini Schools

Tablelands

We had a wonderful time with our students and families at the Tablelands Mini School in Mount Garnet during Week 4 of this Term. 

Students and Home Tutors took part in a range of activities including painting, outdoor games, soap making, mask making for the Masquerade Ball, minute-to-win-it games and drone flying.

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Cairns

It was great to see our Cairns students and families having fun at Cairns PCYC for Mini School in Week 4. 

Students created insect hotels, potted plants, played ball games, made their own Commonwealth Games medals and went to Cairns Tenpin Bowling. 

Our Home Tutors spent the last day of Mini School creating their own masterpieces with Painting pARTy in Stratford. 

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Peninsula 

In Week 6 of this Term, our staff travelled to Laura Turf Club for our Peninsula Mini School event.

We had lots of fun creating Sculpey bugs, dancing, designing tile art and decorating tote bags.

Well done team!

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South East Queensland

We had three days of fun at the Kedron Wavell Services Centre where students made Commonwealth Games medals, played sporting games, made music using percussion instruments, created insect hotels and had some fun with robotics. 

Home Tutors also had a busy few days doing a Nationally accredited First Aid and CPR course, team building activities, a Painting Party and planning for Community Engagement events.

Students and families finished with an excursion to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary where they got to meet a variety of Australian wildlife in beautiful, natural settings.

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STEAM Workshop

The Term 3 STEAM Workshop was once again a success and all involved enjoyed a valuable three days of fun and learning. It was great to see familiar faces and new students participating and enjoying the challenges together .

Students were given the challenge of building a robot for the VEX IQ and VRC competition which will be held at the end of October here in Cairns. Learning resilience and patience were top of the list as robot building did not always go to plan. But out of this students developed strategies and skills, like learning to drive their robot. After two exhausting days, with completed robots in hand, students participated in a practice (scrimmage) on Saturday at Edge Hill State School.

Two teams participated in the scrimmage under formal competition rules and on the official field. Both teams learnt a lot of valuable lessons and how to co-operate with each other, creating an alliance as they aimed to achieve the highest possible score. They learned that they have a lot of work to do, and how challenging the event is. By the end of the three days, participants are ready for the challenge in October, and are better prepared to face the competition with plenty of enthusiasm.

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Celebrating our Staff

Teacher Aide Appreciation Week

In Week 8 we celebrated Australian Teacher Aide Appreciation Week.  The hard work and dedication of Teacher Aides makes a difference to students, teachers and the school community. Cairns SDE would like to thank our wonderful, compassionate and caring Teacher Aides for all that they do. 

School Support Staff Recognition Week

The celebrations continued in Week 9 for Support Staff Recognition Week. School Support Staff are essential to our schools - without them, education wouldn't happen! Thank you to our amazing team of dedicated and caring Support Staff for all you do for Cairns SDE. 

Parent Liaison Officer News

Bonjour Cairns SDE Families

Wishing you a well earned break and hope that you have plans to do a bit of relaxing, have a bit of adventure, and spend some quality time with your loved ones these holidays.

Gratitude

Recently I have been reminded of the importance of Gratitude. Practicing gratitude has wonderful effects improving wellbeing and enhancing our relationships. Changing your day, ever so slightly, so you notice all those small moments, all the little wins, and acknowledging them will have a significant impact on yourself and others around you. It’s not difficult and it just takes a bit of practice. The more attentive you are to the things which you feel grateful for, the more you will notice is out there to be grateful for!

Here are some ways that you can be more grateful:

• Write down three things at the end of each day that you are grateful for.
• Notice things more closely – touch, smell, taste, hearing and sight – not everyone has the gift of all of their senses.
• Print out some visual reminders to display in your classroom.
• Go through the grateful motions – say thank you and mean it, smile authentically, give cards or letters of appreciation to good people in your life.
• Express your gratitude and share it with others – this is more than just using your manners.
• Promise yourself each morning that you will commit to always be searching for things to be grateful for.
• Take the time to be aware of your surroundings, and all the little things to be grateful for, that are right in front of you.
• Remind yourself to be thankful of others and show it!

Here is a quick video for fostering gratitude with kids using questions around 4 key concepts – Notice, Think, Feel and Do.

Mini Schools

By the time this newsletter is released Cairns, Tablelands, Peninsula and South East Queensland clusters would have had their Mini School events. This year Home Tutors had the option of partaking in a full day First Aid and CPR course. Most clusters’ parents and Home Tutors also had fun getting to know each other over a Painting Party. Some Home Tutors also contributed painted rocks to our Yarning Circle which will be constructed on school grounds soon.

Home Tutor Connect Sessions

These sessions happen twice a term – on Thursdays in Week 3 and Week 7. If you have specific ideas for topics to focus on then please let me know.

Hope you can join us for the next Home Tutor Connect session on Thursday 20th October. Please see details and session link below.

Celebration Week

Next term will bring another exciting Community Engagement event. One of our most popular in-reach opportunities is Celebration Week. Permission forms have been distributed and please get in touch if you have any questions about the week.

Regards,
Clare Macpherson 

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

Meet Our New Staff

Shixiang Chen

Hi, my name is Shixiang Chen, and I am very excited to start my work at Cairns SDE.

I started my career as a teacher assistant at St Andrew's Catholic College, Redlynch in 2005, after teaching in China for two years. I later worked as an IT Support for a few years before I started teaching Chinese at Bentley Park College. After spending half a year at Bentley Park as a beginner teacher, I went back to St Andrew's as a Year 6-12 Chinese teacher in 2011 and was appointed as Head of Languages P-12 from 2018. 

I like to play the guitar during my spare time (despite my wife's complaints). I also have a passion in sports cars and general aviation. I look forward to meeting my colleagues here at Cairns SDE.
 

Kyalea Young

My name is Kyalea Young and I am new to Cairns. Originally a Queenslander from Kingaroy (please no Sir Joh or peanut jokes). I began travelling around Australia but only made it as far as Darwin.  Twenty-six years later and after 20 years of Secondary Teaching in Darwin, I have relocated to Cairns with my family. We are seeking a new adventure and a slightly cooler existence (did I hear laughing???). 

I love teaching, especially all forms of Visual Art from Painting to New Media Arts. My passion is Film and in particular Editing and my gift to students has been helping them gain top results, providing work in industry and supporting wellbeing. I am keen to develop new career knowledge and experience in distance education and will need your help to do so.  I would also like to foster new friendships and ‘Cairns-ness’ so if anyone needs a deck hand for boating, sailing, watersports etc etc... let me know. Looking forward to meeting you all. 

Natalie Ingles  

Hello! I'm Natalie, I've relocated from Perth and am loving Cairns. I drove in a caravan across this great country with two charming kids who are now on EBay. I've been a teacher now for 20 years (can't believe it's been that long!). I am looking forward to my time here at Cairns Distance Ed. The Induction Day was fab! I met so many lovely people and look forward to meeting many more. 

Parents and Citizens Committee

P&C News - Term 3 2022 

Hello to the Cairns SDE Community,

Another term, another newsletter. How to sum up the term in a few hundred words, without being too boring? Just edit over Term 2’s newsletter item and save as Term 3! Hands up, be honest, who actually reads the P&C news? Well…you do!

By the time this newsletter is published the winner of our 50/50 Cash Raffle to celebrate 50 years of our school will have been drawn. Congratulations to the winner of the cash pool prize, whoever that may be, and thank you to all the incredible people who have supported the raffle by purchasing tickets and sharing it far and wide. Profits will support Cairns SDE Legacy projects.

We are very pleased and excited to announce that our P&C has received an incredible $19,000 disbursement from Milboe Ltd as part of proceeds from the 2022 C2K Cairns to Karumba Bike Ride. We are in awe of the amazing work the Milboe Committee, C2K Coordinator, volunteers, riders and community do each year to support the Bike Ride and our P&C. Thanks again team for an amazing job this year – Every Child – Every Chance – Every Rider!

You can donate all year to C2K and purchase merchandise by visiting https://c2kbikeride.com.au

Who’s looking forward to our annual Celebration Week being held from 28^th November to 2^nd December 2022? This exciting week will kick off with the swimming program at Tobruk Pool, followed by an excursion to Cairns Wildlife Dome, Presentation Day and the Year 6 Graduation Celebration and Community BBQ. The week will round off with the final day at Sugarworld which is funded by our P&C. My kids and I are looking forward to the much-valued engagement opportunities that this highly anticipated and important week provides and most of all to catching up with classmates, teachers, and friends. Thank you to our school for the incredible effort they always put into these vital community engagement events.

On a final note, I would like to thank everyone who turns up to our P&C meetings – staff, parents, and community. Your support and contributions are always valued. It is so important that our school community - particularly parents and carers - have a voice, and the P&C is vital to ensuring that voice is heard and considered by the school and ‘the powers that be’. Many decisions of the school must be endorsed by the P&C and it is through the P&C that issues are heard, and improvements are made, which supports your kids’ time at our school. In the words of Bob Marley: “Get up, stand up, Stand up for your right”!

Have a great holiday break and Happy 50^th Birthday Cairns SDE!

Thank you!

Judith Eriksen

President

50th Anniversary Merchandise

Join us in celebrating our 50th Anniversary by purchasing some new merchandise. 

We have a range of goodies available including a coffee keep cup, tea towel, show bag, coffee mug, stubby cooler, 2022 calendar, water bottle and tote bag. 

All proceeds go towards student projects. 

Get in quick before stock runs out!!

Merchandise can be purchased via the Qkr! App. 

Simply follow these payment instructions:

1. Download Qkr! App
2. When prompted, ensure location services are set to 'Allow while using app' OR Search for Cairns School of Distance Education
3. Add Profile and complete details
4. Select 'Cairns SDE Merchandise'
5. Items are visible to add to cart
6. Select pick up or delivery option
7. Payment Method – credit card ONLY. You can then View Receipt. 

Items for Sale

General News

QParents

QParents is a secure, online portal that has been created by the Department of Education to provide parents of Queensland state school students with 24-hour access to their child's information.

The portal allows you to securely access information about your child, including school reports, and communicate directly with your child's school.

For more information and to download the app, please visit the QParents website below.