February 2016
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FEBRUARY 2016 PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE Taking every opportunity that comes your way It has been a great start to the term and already I can see many students taking the big steps to grow their potential. Every experience, every success, every failure builds our ability to grow. Action fuels fulfilment, unpacks experiences and provides colour and texture to our lives. I challenge all students to set a goal of refining and improving one area of their subjects every week. Striving for your best will inspire others! Schools are places that successfully manage a huge number of individual students…1100 in fact here! We endeavour to build self‐regulation in students and the skills it takes to work cooperatively in the real world that is defined by boundaries and rules. Work Health and Safety is a modern boundary to protect all people at work and school. Thank you to the vast majority of parents who have supported our shoe policy. We are very grateful. As a school we have set our standard and you have ensured that your child understands the need to have the correct footwear. We appreciate that you have successfully negotiated this decision with your child. Having boundaries on the small issues makes negotiating the big issues much easier. Mr Paul Tracey Principal FROM THE COLLEGE PRINCIPAL On Friday 5 February Callaghan College staged its DATES FOR YOUR DIARY Annual Presentation Day at the University of Newcastle’s Great Hall. The College presented 221 26 Feb Campus Swimming Carnival Parent Teacher Interviews awards to students from across our three campuses 1 Mar that represent Callaghan College. Together these Years 7 and 9 Parent Teacher Interviews campuses educate over 2400 students and the annual 2 Mar awards celebrate student achievements academically, Years 8 and 10 vocationally, culturally, in citizenship and in sport. 9 Mar Year 7 Immunisation Here are just a few of the highlights from across the 21 Mar Year 6 Expo College in 2015: 25 Mar Good Friday Callaghan College was named as one of the Top 28 Mar Easter Monday 40 Innovative Schools in Australia by The Educator magazine. Our College was one of only 8 April Last day of Term 1 three government secondary schools in NSW to 26 April Staff return for Term 2 receive this award. This continues our success 27 April Students return for Term 2 of 2013 when Callaghan College was named in the top three in the world in 21st Century 10‐12 May NAPLAN Years 7 & 9 Learning by Pearson Education; A team of Year 12 Students from Callaghan College Jesmond campus won the 2015 Australian schools STEM Video Game Challenge. The winners were announced at the PAX technology convention held in Melbourne where more than 1500 teams entered the competition. This event is regarded as the best of the best for school students due to the difficulty in producing a marketable product. Our student’s developed a game app, Dolphin Dive, which was made available for the tens of thousands of convention guests to download and play, before being judged as the national best by a panel of industry and university experts. Increased enrolments in all campuses – we have the largest 7‐10 campus in Newcastle & Hunter with approx. 1100 students at Wallsend Campus; and this year there will be 800 students in Year 11 and 12 at Jesmond Senior Campus for the first time in twenty five years! One quarter of those students come from schools outside Callaghan College which means Callaghan College is increasingly becoming the college of choice for local and senior enrolments. Callaghan College Jesmond Senior Campus is the largest government school provider of School Based Apprenticeships and Traineeships in NSW and an innovator in Vocational education. In 2015 Jesmond Senior Campus established their own Hairdressing salon for trainees, initiated a course in Horticulture in conjunction with Newcastle trees; and in 2016 Callaghan Jesmond is offering to students a VET subject ‐ Cert III Aviation Remote Piloting, which teaches students how to fly drones. This is the first and only course of its kind in Australia!! Our two 7 ‐ 10 campuses volunteered to be a part of the first round of the state‐wide School Excellence Framework validation process and came through with flying colours. In this way Callaghan College has helped set the standard of excellence for all other NSW schools. In 2015 every campus of our College established and trained Junior Aboriginal Education Consultative Groups to provide indigenous students with a stronger voice in their learning, AND We trained Aboriginal students from 11 of our 15 partner primary schools in leaderships skills; The second year of our College Outdoor Digital Media Festival saw about 2000 people attend in a huge display of community support in 2015, nearly double the turnout of our initial year in 2014 and the weather was bad!! Mr Cale Wallace, Head Teacher HSIE at Callaghan Wallsend won a prestigious NSW Premiers scholarship to conduct overseas research this year; and 10 college staff were successfully promoted either within or outside the College. Already in 2016, as a College we have: Confirmed the attendance of World Educational Leader Professor Yong Zhao at our college wide professional learning evening. This is a reflection of the outstanding collaboration with Professor John Fischitti, the Head of Education at the University of Newcastle; and Extended our partnership with the University of Newcastle to include the Conservatorium of Music, which will mean that University trained music students and staff will mentor and train music students from Stage 3 to Stage 6 in our College Bandlink program. This means students from our partner primary schools who participate in the program will be tutored by University musicians and will culminate in a concert at the conservatorium of Music in December this year, where the CEP Bandlink band will perform with the Conservatorium band! Mr Graham Eather College Principal PAST STUDENT SUCCESS Jordan Pasterfield is a former student of Callaghan Colleges Wallsend and Jesmond and former School Captain of Maryland Public School Captain. Jordan has been selected to attend WAPA (Western Australian Performing Arts College) for dance. She is one of 18 new intakes across Australia. A huge achievement. Congratulations Jordan, we wish you well. E GOTCHAS 2016 will again see teachers utilising the school’s E Gotcha reward system. The System is based around a philosophy of catching students “doing the right thing”. Teachers can allocate and E (Electronic) Gotcha which will accumulate throughout the year. The system has proven to be popular with both students and staff and has had a positive impact upon student engagement. During Term 4, a reward excursion will be organised for students based on the number of E Gotchas accumulated. Parents can monitor E Gotchas through the parent Portal. If you would like more information, please contact Mr Marc Unthank, Deputy Principal Year 9. YEAR 9 2016 Welcome back to another exciting school year. Year 9 have hit the ground running and have made a positive start, both in and out of the classroom. Year 9 have over 250 students in the cohort and three fantastic Year advisors in Ms Mel Yorke, Ms Lauren Daniel and Mr Nathan Jones. WELFARE DAY: A welfare day is being planned for Year 9, which will be held later in Term 1. This day will include topics such as responsible and ethical use of social media, maintaining positive relationships, and of course include educational aspects. ELECTIVE SUBJECTS: Year 9 students have started their Stage 5 electives. These will run over 2 years and students have already shown a high degree of engagement with the subjects they have chosen. Several programs and events outside of the classroom have already begun and have proven to be very popular. The SRC has been established and Ms Andrews and Mr Turner welcome students who may be interested in being part of the Student Representative Council. Ms Andrews has also started a highly popular barista course, which teaches students not only the art of making a delicious coffee but also the important aspects of customer relations and good service. Job Quest has again joined CCWC in attempting to provide students with a varied curriculum with several students already taking part in the Wallsend Library E Book program, whereby students assist members of the local community to use and enjoy the benefits of Electronic Readers. 2016 promises to be a fantastic year for all students at CCWC and Year 9 will certainly have large range of academic, sporting and cultural opportunities presented to them. It is my very great pleasure to be the Deputy Principal for Year 9 and I look forward to working not only with the students but also the parent body and wider community to ensure continued success for this cohort. Please feel free to contact me at the school on 49511811. Mr Marc Unthank Deputy Principal Year 9 GATS AT CCWC Once again Callaghan College Wallsend Campus GATS program is up and running for 2016. 7W class of 2016 seem to have settled in and now have their heads down completing a variety of tasks from differing KLAs. The ongoing challenge for this group is to ensure they manage their time efficiently to produce the highest possible standard of work for the tasks provided. Applications for the GATS entry exam for Year 7 2017 can be found on the new Callaghan Website and all primary schools are forwarded information regarding this process. GATs application forms are required to be submitted to Primary schools by Friday 11 March and then bought to CCWC by Friday 1 April. The GATS Entry exam will take place in the school hall on Wednesday 18 May, where all students sitting the exam will be required to hand in a portfolio of work.