CSDE Weekly eNewsletter, Week THREE, Term 4 2023

Principal's Pen

I trust this message finds you in good health and that your students have settled comfortably into Term 4.  As we continue to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of education, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the progress we've made in the past year, thanks to your feedback and support.

Our Annual Improvement Plan (AIP) has remained steadfast in its mission to enhance the overall school experience, with a focus on two critical areas: streamlined communication processes and maintaining consistency in our school-wide expectations. We understand that effective communication is essential in fostering a supportive learning environment, and your voices have guided along the way.

The latest 2023 School Opinion Survey results, have been received and are indeed encouraging:

To summarise this data;

• Listening to You (parents/home tutors): Parents' belief that "This school takes parents' opinions seriously" has risen from 80.4% in 2022 to 84.6% in 2023, marking a notable 4.2% increase.
• Empowering Students: "My school takes students' opinions seriously" also saw a jump from 84.7% to 90%, a substantial 5.3% increase.
• Engaging with Our Staff: There has been a slight decrease in "This school takes staff opinions seriously" (75.3% to 75%), and we are committed to addressing this to ensure every voice in our school community is heard and valued.

In addition, I also want to note the work that is ongoing in relation to improving communications.

To summarise;

• “This school keeps me well informed (Parents)" rose from 83.3% in 2022 to an impressive 90.9% in 2023, reflecting a positive 7.6% increase.
• "This school keeps me well informed about things that are important to my work (staff)" demonstrated a slight but valuable increase, moving from 80.4% to 80.7%, reflecting a 0.3% improvement.

The school finds great encouragement in these outcomes, which validate that our joint efforts to cultivate a more transparent, communicative, and nurturing school environment are indeed producing a positive impact.

I would like to emphasise that our commitment to improvement is an ongoing journey.  Your partnership, support, and feedback are invaluable in our shared mission to support every student to reach their highest potential. As Principal, I'm excited about what the future holds and the positive change we can continue to achieve together at CSDE.

Warm regards,

Amanda Rynne

Returning Resources

Please see below the lists of resources that need to be returned to CSDE by Week 4, in order for us to be able to have these resources ready for students in 2024.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

P&C Newsletter Giveaway!

Winner! 

The winner for  Week 1 of the Newsletter Reader competition, receiving a P&C cap in the mail is.....

'The Harris Family' congratulations.

Week 2 Newsletter Stats! 

Once again a great readability for last week's newsletter! 

Please note the percentage of bounced emails. If you have changed your email address, please be sure to update this with the admin office by emailing: administration@caprrocksde.eq.edu.au

Calendar Photo Competition Winners!

Each year CSDE runs a photo competition for the following years' calendar.

We received some amazing entries this year and choosing the winner was difficult as they were all great.

However, after much deliberations the winners were chosen.

First Place went to the McQuade Family, whose photo will appear on the front cover of the CSDE 2024 Calendar. 

Runner up was awarded to the Raine Family!

Thank you to all who placed entries.

Save the Date - Mini-school

Term Four Mini-school will be held in Week Seven.

There will be excursions, after school discos and art workshops, swimming lessons for primary students, Secondary Swimming Carnival, Secondary Awards and Year 12 Graduation Ceremonies as well as the Year 12 Formal.

The Mini-school Newsletter will be out by the end of this week, so keep an eye out for the link in Cohort announcements and via email.

All permission forms and information for families will be included in the Mini-school Newsletter along with the link to RSVP and upload your completed permission forms.

We hope you are looking forward to a jam packed Mini-school this term!

Mental Health Week

CSDE staff turned up in purple and green today to acknowledge Mental Health Week. Thank you to our Guidance officers Kate and Sharon for all you do to look after the wellbeing of our staff and students here at CSDE.

What's happening in Primary?

Prep Students Working Hard!

Student Spotlight

Year 12 Student Ahrielle

Ahrielle Spencer (Year 12) is a strong advocate for mental health, anti-bullying, and raising awareness around the acceptance of others and their differences. Ahrielle was recently invited to the Wear it Purple Day celebration at Feros Care in Mackay as a guest speaker, helping to build the foundations of an upcoming campaign to create a safer Community for LGBTQIA+ and all Youth, in Mackay.

Following this, Ahrielle was also invited to be special guest speaker at a public Community Event on RU OK Day, where she gave an amazing speech to the Mackay Community about how we can all create positive change, promoting acceptance, where everyone is safe to embrace their differences, and the impact that bullying can have on someone's mental health.

Ahrielle served her community proud, speaking up for the future of Youth in Mackay, and being part of a campaign for positive change.

Could the next Student Spotlight be YOUR student's success story?

Secondary Scoop

Secondary Leadership Speeches

Secondary Leadership speeches will take place this Friday, 20th October at 9:00am.

• Secondary Cohort Dashboard - QLearn 
• Join the session at 9:00am

VOTING opens at 9:15am and the link for voting can be found in the Secondary Cohort in QLearn.

Please note, students are the only ones able to vote for Leadership positions.

HASS

I would like to introduce myself as CSDE’s Acting HOD Humanities for the remainder of 2023.  I have been teaching at CSDE for the past six years in the role of Accounting, Business and VET teacher.  I have taken on this role as I am passionate about our school being an eLearning leader with quality teaching practices and curriculum delivery for the improvement of student results. I am looking forward to working with students, home tutors, teachers, families and the wider community to continuously improve teaching and learning at CSDE. Below is some sample work to showcase the amazing efforts our students are putting in to their studies, information about Hass plans for the Term 4 mini-school and a fond farewell to our Year 12 students.

Toni Vines

9 Economics & Business – Shark Tank Assessment

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”, Thomas Edison 

Edison created the light bulb. As an entrepreneur he not only created the electric light bulb but also the phonograph (record player) and had 1,093 patents. Modern examples of entrepreneurs include Steve Jobs (creator of Apple) and Elon Musk (Tesla, Space X, PayPal). 

It is arguable that entrepreneurs are the true drivers of innovation and improved living standards. 

Year 9 Economics & Business students have become innovators and entrepreneurs recently completing their “Shark Tank” Business Presentations.  Students were required to research key business concepts, investigate and describe their business idea including price, packaging, sales channel, target audience and competitive advantage.  They completed a competitor analysis to determine their differentiation strategy and planned and developed a multimodal presentation which they used to put forward their business proposition to the “Shark Tank” panel (their teachers).  Students had some great ideas and were confident speakers in presenting their business ideas in a “Shark Tank” style similar to the popular television show.  Some samples taken from student “Shark Tank” Business Propositions are highlighted below.

Hass Mini-school sessions

Mini-school is on the horizon and the Hass faculty has been busy preparing fun and interesting sessions including “Jeopardy” quizzes and curriculum-based sessions developed by the awesome Hass teachers.  We look forward to welcoming parents and students on the first day of Mini-school at the North Street complex as well as engaging online on the second day with those students unable to travel.

Farewell Year 12 Hass Students

The Hass Team would like to wish our Year 12 students all the best in their future endeavours.  It has been our pleasure to teach many of the departing Year 12 students for several years.  External exams are only a few weeks away and the Hass Teachers have been putting extra effort into preparing our Accounting, Business, Economics, Legal Studies, Modern History, Ancient History and Geography students to be exam ready and feel confident that they will achieve their best results in their final exams.  Social and Community Studies students have been busy completing their final assessment pieces in preparation for finishing off their senior studies. We look forward to farewelling and acknowledging the hard work of all of these students at the upcoming awards ceremony, graduation and formal.

Leaver's Week

During the last week of school for Year 12's (week 7), CSDE will be running a Leaver's Week program from Monday - Thursday.

Each day, Year 12 students will have a special program that will give them the opportunity to not only spend time with their peers, but also gain some valuable life skills. An excursion to the Yeppoon Lagoon, RACQ Docu-drama, rental information session with the Tenancy Skills Institute, Mental Health Mini-mart and Awards and Graduation Ceremony practice at CQU, followed by a special session with Kate Miles the Guidance Officer. Don't forget the Secondary Swimming Carnival, Secondary Awards and to wrap up the week's activities... the Year 12 Formal!

Leaver's week timetable will be available by the end of Week Three.

Lost Property from Camp

Have you lost me....?  I am single... dusty blue.... elastisized around the edges and I fit a bed...

I was also left at Year 7 - 9 Camp and might be missing from a student's bedding stash.

If you have lost your fitted sheet.... please phone the school on 4931 4800!

We have a dusty blue fitted sheet that was left at years 7 - 9 camp.

If this is yours, can you please contact the admin office on 4931 4800 so we can arrange to get it back to you! 

2024 Next Step Year 12 Completers Survey

A reminder that our Year 12 students will be invited to participate in the Next Step Year 12 Completers survey starting in March 2024. The short confidential survey will ask questions about graduates’ activities since finishing school, like study and work.

Graduates can expect to be invited to the survey via a letter from the Minister for Education or an email or phone call from the Queensland Government Statistician’s Office on behalf of the department. Please check your contact details are correct with your school and your learning account by logging into the student portal at https://myqce.qcaa.qld.edu.au/

We appreciate your participation in this important survey as it helps our school improve our senior services for future students. For more info visit www.qld.gov.au/nextstep.

What are valid exam conditions?

With the Exam Period looming, it is important that all Home Tutors take the time to ensure they are providing valid exam conditions for their students. So what are valid exam conditions? 

Please see the document below to ensure you are supporting you student to achieve their best results. 

Secondary Swimming Carnival

The Secondary Swimming Carnival will be held on Wednesday 15th November, during Mini-school.

Location - Rockhampton Southside Pool - 2nd War Memorial Aquatic Centre

Time - 9:30am    Parents to drop students to the pool

Finish - 12:00pm  Bus Transport for students back to Conference on North.

Students will be required to RSVP and complete the permission form to attend the Carnival

RSVP's due by Wednesday 1st November 

RSVP Link:  https://capricorniasde.schoolzineplus.com/form/29 

Nominations are due by Wednesday 1st November and should be emailed directly to Mr Murray Harch on mharc4@eq.edu.au 

Work Experience - Term 4

Guidance 'Go-2'

Cultural Snapshot

2023 CSDE Award Nominee

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Student Awards Night is a night where our community celebrate the achievements of our First Nation Students. Run by Darumbal, this night allows schools to acknowledge their appreciation of the students that have flown the flag for their school with respect, hard work, effort and dedication that they have put in throughout the year.

Below are the categories that students could have been nominated in. Only grades 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12 were able to be nominated.

This year, the staff at CSDE, nominated a year 10 student for the Citizenship Award. This student has worked hard at always engaging in class, being inclusive and encouraging of his peers and working hard to produce his best effort in every class. This student achieved straight A’s in his semester 1 report card, attends Mini-School, VET cluster days and engages in many other extracurricular activities. This student always participates with enthusiasm and leadership.

The CSDE Citizenship Award nominee for 2023 was:         Elijah Sarra, well done!

Opportunities

Simpson Prize Competition

Eligibility
Students must be in either Year 9 or 10 to enter.

Previous winners are ineligible to apply, however previous runners-up are welcome to apply again.

2024 Simpson Prize Question 

‘Commemoration of the Anzac tradition has widespread support in Australia despite different historical interpretations and debates about the nature and significance of the Anzac legend.’

To what extent does your own research support this view?

A link to the 2024 Simpson Prize Question and Sources is:

The Simpson Prize 2024 | Australian War Memorial (awm.gov.au)

Instructions

To enter the Simpson Prize you must respond to the question using the Simpson Prize Australian War Memorial Source Selection and your own research.

You are encouraged to discuss and respond to the question from a variety of perspectives, individual and national, using a variety of sources.

You are expected to make effective use of a minimum of 4 provided sources.

Up to half your response should also make use of information drawn from your own knowledge and research.

Word and Time Limits for Entries

Essay word limit: 1200–1500 words, not including supplementary information such as a contents page, references, bibliography and appendices.

Audiovisual Presentation word and time limit: No more than 10 minutes, accompanied by a written explanation of up to 400 words.

Closing date
5.00 pm Friday 3 November 2023.

Submitting entries
Please go to How to submit entries.

Note: Students who submit winning entries for this year’s Simpson Prize question will participate in Simpson Prize activities in 2024.

What's on in your Community?

Sports Person of the year award 2023

CSDE annually acknowledges the sporting achievements of a Primary and Secondary Student, who has excelled throughout the year at the end of year awards.

The presentation of the Sports Person of the Year Award goes to the student who has accumulated the most amount of points throughout the year in their various sporting achievements. 

Parents are asked to advise the school throughout the year of the sporting achievements by completing this online form. Scores are based on events, the level of the event (district, regional, state, national etc) and the students placing within those events. You will need to complete the form for each individual acheivement. Do not place all acheivements on the one form.

At the end of the year, points are collated, and the winner announced.

Information to note: 
* School sports are what counts for CSDE Sportsperson of the year.  Students are recognised for their achievement in other non-school fields; however, these achievements are not part of the accumulation of points towards the CSDE Sportsperson of the year. 

* You should list the highest level that your student has represented in that sport, noting that the points are only entered if the student represented, and not if they were selected and did not attend. 

*  Unfortunately, camp-drafting, is not a recognised school sport and so would not apply for Sportsperson of the year.

We welcome your feedback