Week 6 Friday 15th November

Important dates

Hello, Werte!

What an exciting past two weeks at CMS! Despite the weather warming up, there is a positive energy in the air as students immerse themselves in their learning and extra-curricular activities.

This term we have seen a record number of students receive ‘Merit Awards’ for consistently demonstrating the CMS values of Respect, Responsibility and Fairness. There are plenty of exciting rewards up for grabs over the next few weeks, and we are excited to see as many students as possible celebrating their merit card achievements with Ms. McCarthy at the Gillen Club in week 10.

As our amazing year 9 students prepare to make the leap over to Centralian Senior College, we are excited to begin the process of selecting School Captains and Vice-Captains for 2025. There is no shortage of leadership potential in our year 8 cohort, and we are excited to see them vie for leadership positions. The position of School Captain comes with great honour and responsibility. They are ambassadors for the school and demonstrate an exceptional attendance and behaviour record; show commitment to the school through academic and cultural involvement; demonstrate leadership capacity and have a vision for their position at CMS.

Last week Clontarf celebrated their annual Awards Night alongside Yirara College and Centralian Senior College. It was great to see our families and school community come together to celebrate the achievements of our young men over the course of 2024. A special mention goes to the following students who won awards on the night;

• Attendance Award – Jarred Ryan
• Most Determined – Tarynt Stubbs
• Leadership Award– Joseph Brown
• Principals Award– Cyrus Maher
• Community Award – Jakyle Kelly
• Employment Award– Noah Wilson
• Clontarf Junior Spirit Award– Ziggy Tiltsen-Collins
• Clontarf Senior Spirit Award – Davern Norman

Stars have been busy supporting our CMS girls this term both inside and outside of the classroom. Last week they held a sleepover for year 8 girls, rewarding them for their attendance and behaviour in term 4. The camp involved a range of fun activities and team building opportunities. The girls had an amazing time and came back to school on cloud 9.

Despite the year drawing to a close, our lunchtime activities continue to ramp up. Multi-sports held in the hall on Friday continues to draw a crowd, providing an opportunity for students to learn new skills and compete hard against their peers. Next Wednesday students will have the opportunity to participate in a basketball competition facilitated by Mr. Haack. We have some special basketball talent amongst our students, and we are excited to see them in action!

Can I take this opportunity to remind parents and carers that CMS has a healthy food policy and does not allow students to bring junk food into school or into the classroom. This includes soft drinks and energy drinks. I would like to thank our parents and carers for their support in ensuring students are wearing correct uniform and enclosed footwear. This is important from both a safety perspective and to ensure students are representing CMS with pride.

Thanks,

Dan Lewinski
Associate Principal

New Uniform in 2025!

CMS students will have a new uniform in 2025 after students and School Council voted for a new design. The new polo is royal blue and features artwork by a local artist. This will be accompanied by a royal blue hoodie with the embroidered CMS logo and black shorts or trackpants. We have ordered stock in time for back to school and encourage all students to wear the new uniform next year. However, in Term 1 we will accept either the old or the new uniform as families make the change over.

Around the school

Interschool Volleyball

Centralian Middle School students recently made us proud at the annual Interschool Volleyball Carnival, showcasing incredible skills, dedication, and teamwork! Our teams practiced hard, making the most of recess and lunch breaks to refine their serves, strategize plays, and build team spirit.

Their hard work paid off in a big way, as CMS claimed both 1st and 2nd place! The rest of our teams also shone, with all placing in the top six out of 14 teams competing. Their positive attitudes, excellent teamwork, and smart planning set them apart on the court. Congratulations to our students for showing what dedication can achieve. Their success is a testament to their commitment and sportsmanship—well done!

Year 9 VET

Last week saw year 9s wrapping up their final VET program for the year. Students had a great time gaining valuable hands (and feet) on experience at CDU.

"The best bit was learning new skills, like how to do lashes." — Kaitlyn

Year 7 at work

Year 7 have been using some sweet treats to help them improve the odds of success with Probability being the focus of maths classes early in Term 4!

Lunchtime activities a hit

We're glad to see students have really taken to the range of supervised lunchtime activities we have on offer each day and love seeing our young people getting involved or sharing in some friendly competitive spirit.

Teaching in the Territory Awards 2024

CMS is thrilled to congratulate year 9 teacher Brad Gill whose dedication to his students and passion for teaching was recognised by being named the NT Central Region Secondary Educator of the Year at this year's recent Teaching in the Territory Excellence Awards.

Congratulations also to Julia Pearson (Support Person of the Year) and Kenneth Braun (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Educator of the Year) for being named finalists.

Proposed Sports Development

You may have recently seen in the Centralian Today that the NT government “will pay for a new $15 million multi-sports precinct at Centralian Middle School." School Council is keen to meet with government representatives about how this can be a win-win for CMS during school hours and the community after hours. We will keep you posted as more information comes to hand.

Coming up

Alice Can Dance — Tonight!

Final rehearsals are well under way for tonight's dance spectacular. Yesterday the dance crew headed over to Araluen Arts Centre to have their first run through on the big stage and are looking forward to bringing this year's theme — A World of Emotions — to life for those lucky enough to secure tickets for tonight's sold-out performances. 

We asked some of the dancers how they were feeling after coming off the rehearsal stage today:

"I'm looking forward to people watching us and standing on the stage dancing." — Usaia

"The moves are really dramatic and I love how the lights are. It's anxious!" — Nathan

"Exhilarating! — Julian

Kinda nervous, kinda really exciting." — Rachel

We can't wait to see our young people lighting up the stage!

2024 CMS Presentation Night

We look forward to coming together with our CMS community to celebrate the successes of our students in 2024 at our annual presentation night. Please join us on the 5th of December in the school hall. Supper, exhibitions and performance kick off the evening at 5:30 with the main event following at 6:30.

Stars & Clontarf

Stars

The Stars team have been putting in the hard yards as always, continuing to provide our girls with memorable CMS moments. Please join them to celebrate student success at their end of year celebration next week.

Clontarf

The Alice Springs academies came together at CMS last Wednesday to celebrate the achievements of our young fellas. A big congratulations to all our fellas on another successful year and especially to the Jarred, Tarynt, Joseph, Cyrus, Jakyle, Noah, Ziggy and Davern who each took home an award.

Free internet for eligible families

The School Student Broadband Initiative is a Federal Government voucher system that aims to make at-home internet connection affordable for all families with school-aged children. Eligible families can access free internet until the end of 2025.

Applications need to be made by 31 December 2024.

To apply:

1. Contact the National Referral Centre on 1800 954 610, from Monday to Friday 10am - 6pm (AEDT) or visit anglicarevic.org.au/student-internet.
2. Responding to questions that assess your eligibility.
3. Eligible families will be provided with a voucher they can use to connect to their chosen participating internet provider.
4. Connect before December 31st, 2024.

After School Program Term 4

Facebook

Facebook - Keep up to date with all our news and updates

Head on over to ‘like’ our Facebook page to keep in touch with school news, highlights and achievements of our wonderful students. We encourage people to like and share our posts.

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Community Announcements

NT Sport voucher at the Y (students over 16 only)

Students over 16 can use their NT Sport vouchers to get a 2-month membership at Kilgariff YMCA. Scan below for details.