CSDE Weekly eNewsletter, Week 3, 10th February 2023

Our School Values

Mission: Supporting every student to reach their highest potential

What's been happening?...

Prep Rockhampton

Our prep students have made a great start to their first year of schooling. In the first weeks of prep, the students and their home tutors have set up their learning spaces. Hugh from Rocky Prep is showing off his new classroom space.

We have also adjusted to learning online on the computer. Jessica, Hugh and Macy are showing off their letter ‘t’ made out of playdough in their phonics class. 

In English, we read Hunting for Dragons. Keira from Rocky prep was very excited to read about dragons and draw her own.

Prep Emerald

Prep has been enjoying reading books and looking at the main character in stories. They are also practicing their sounds and number writing.

Time Capsule Opening

Do you now anyone that was in Year 7 at CSDE in 2012? 

On Thursday 30th March, CSDE will be opening a time capsule that was placed by Year 7 students in 2012.  If you know anyone that was in Year 7 at CSDE in 2012, please let them know that they are invited to attend the Emerald Campus on this day. 

Year 4 Camp 2023

Year 4 Camp invoices were emailed home to families this week for those that have indicated that they will be attending. Please check your spam folder if you have not received the invoice and contact the school asap if there are any issues. 

Please note key dates if you wish for your child to attend the Year 4 Camp at Cooee Bay including the day excursions to Rockhampton Zoo, Kershaw Gardens and Capricorn Caves:

• All forms  should have now been returned to administration at administration@caprrocksde.eq.edu.au

Save the Date - 2023 Regional Shield

Rockhampton Campus Prep Vision Screening

Rockhampton Prep Familes, please see email sent home for further information.

Emerald Campus Prep Vision Screening

Emerald Familes, please see email with booking link that was emailed on the 5th February 2024.

Visit by Registered Nurse for Free Prep Vision Screening

Good vision is important for a child’s educational, physical and social development. Vision screening checks for common eye conditions that may impact your child’s ability to see and therefore impact their learning and development.

A Registered Nurse will be visiting the school on/between 14^th March 2024 to conduct vision screening for children in their prep year. Your child does not need a Medicare card in order to participate in screening.  If you wish to have your prep child participate in this free vision screening program, please complete a consent form by 7^th of March (online). Online or paper consent forms are available and will be distributed to you. Parents do not need to be present for screening, however if you would like to be, please contact the school to arrange this.

If your child’s vision is screened, you will be advised of the results in writing. If a vision concern is found, you will receive a phone call from the nurse to discuss referral to an eye health professional for further assessment. If a vision concern is identified and your child requires glasses, eligible health care card holders may be assisted with free basic glasses through the Spectacle Supply Scheme.

Participation in vision screening is not compulsory. If you do not wish for your child to participate in screening, please complete the consent form and indicate that you wish to decline screening.

If you have any questions, please contact the Primary School Nurse Health Readiness Program on 1800 687 372.

STEM Inventors Challenge

Gladstone | Free
 
Over the course of seven weeks, students will develop an innovative solution to protect or restore Queensland’s unique biodiversity. Students will have the opportunity to showcase their innovative and creative ideas and, in doing so, help protect Queensland’s native animals, plants and ecosystems for the future.
 
The Challenge is open to students in Years 7 to 10 from schools in the Gladstone region, working in teams of between two and five students.
 
Teams will submit a Project Logbook (supplied at the start of the challenge), documenting their ideas through each step of the design process, along with a three-minute presentation identifying the challenge and proposed solution. 
 
Launch event
Students can attend a one-day intensive workshop on Wednesday 26 OR Thursday 27 April 2023 at STEM Central, CQU Gladstone, or students can commence the challenge in their own classrooms from Wednesday 26 April 2023.
 
Further details about the Challenge can be found in the link below. 

LEARN MORE AND REGISTER

Secondary Scoop - Senior Schooling & VET

Our Secondary Student School Captains are proactive members of the school community and important participants in modelling our school values of accountability, integrity, resilience, respect and positive relationships.

It is very exciting to see our Captains commence the Secondary Student Council, bringing together our secondary school students to actively participate and coordinate student initiatives.

2023 Secondary Captains are:

School Captains:                               Alexander Pedersen and Blake Miller

Vice – Captains:                                William Spires and Talon Leeman

Wattle House Captain:                   Dudley Young

Banksia House Captain:                 Phoebe Humphries

The CSDE School Community wishes our 2023 Secondary Captains every success in their leadership journey and facilitating the Secondary Student Council.

It is wonderful to see our Year 11 students successfully transition into Senior Schooling and our Year 12 students enter their final year of schooling.  Whether students are aiming to achieve a Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE), Queensland Certificate of Individual Achievement (QCIA) and or an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR), continue to engage with your teachers and peers in your timetabled lessons and strive towards doing your very best.

In Semester One, Year 10 students are studying the Short Course in Career Education. Career Education is a QCAA Short Course which assists and guides students to build on their own interests and into career pathways beyond school that lead to further education, training and/or work. During Mini-school in week 8, Year 10 students will have an opportunity to participate in the CQUniversity Connect Day exploring University and TAFE future pathways.

Year 10, 11 and 12 Students enrolled in Vocational Education and Training (VET) courses at CSDE have participated in the VET Student Induction and have commenced their training areas of Workplace Skills, Applied Digital Technologies, AgriFood Operations, Financial Services and Self Awareness and Development.

Looking forward to working with our Senior Secondary Students in 2023.

Jodie Benfer

HOD Senior Schooling & VET

CSDE Year 7-10 Technology Highlights

The NCSS (National Computer Science School) Challenge comes back in 2023!

Technology becomes more entrenched in our lives and in our work. That’s why we are keen to prepare our student ready for a digital future, coming up with new ideas that can solve problems through technology and automation. But to reach this expectation, we need to start from the bottom up, not top down. Our young generation need to start programming at school, so it becomes as natural as writing or doing algebra. To this end, Grok Academy has played a vital role in improving Digital Tech Teaching & Learning experiences at the CSDE for many years. It works with our teachers to support every single student achieve their highest potential. As Grok is a fully online platform, students can access it from any device with an internet connection (though we don’t advise using your smart fridge 😊).

Then why do we encourage our students to join the NCSS Challenge?

Unlike any other programming competition, the NCSS one teaches student how to program as we go along, rather than expecting our kids to be an expert already. Each week, Grok will release new notes and problems. While the notes teach new coding concepts, the problems challenge them! Students can earn points on all problems right up until the end of the competition.

What is our teachers’ role during the competition?

Thanks for Grok, our teacher can easily see exactly what students are working on in real time with the Live Classroom feature. If it looks like our kids is struggling, teachers can access their work directly from the Live Classroom and leave a message to help get them unstuck. What else? In the Newbies and Beginners streams each new concept is now accompanied by paired problems - two problems both testing the same new concept. Our teaching team may work through the first problem with the class, discuss the new concepts and address misconceptions if any. Students then feel more confident to attempt the second one independently.

What our teachers and students are saying …

“I love how the problems were so creative, and entertaining to read. My teacher was friendly and responded quickly to my queries.”

“I came in with near zero programming knowledge and halfway in, I’m quite confident of what I can achieve.”

“When you throw yourself out there great things happen. Just take this challenge blindly and dive into the world of programming starting from scratch.”

Code Club

Code Club has started up for the year!  Students will start with basic coding in HTML.  If you are keen to join, please email me and I will add you to the email list where you will receive everything you need to join the class and have a BALL!
vxmul0@eq.edu.au

Kind regards, 

Ms Muller

Getting to know you...

Here at CSDE we have a very diverse range of students and families.

We would love to be able to share a small snipit of life for some of our students.

If you would like to share a little about yourself, send through your PowerPoint and we will include some of these 'student stories' in our eNewsletter. 

Guidance 'Go-2'

Cultural Snapshot

Welcome to 2023. This year, we are looking for items to feature in our Cultural Snapshot.

Things we are looking for are:

• Images of your favourite indigenous/cultural artwork
• Images of indigenous/cultural artwork that you have created
• Indigenous/cultural celebration days/events
• Information about your ‘country’ so we can share with our school similar to below if Australian indigenous or information about your culture

As the Darumbal people lived in harmony with their country, traditional Darumbal society dictated their way of living in the belief of “oneness”. They had a complex social system where everyone and everything was related. Their behaviour and obligations were influenced by their worldviews of these beliefs. They had strict marriage laws, gender specific roles and ceremonies.

https://darumbal.com.au/darumbal-country/

Community Announcements

We welcome your feedback