LONGREACH SCHOOL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION Email:admin@longreachsde.eq.edu.au

 Phone: 07 4658 4222Fax: 07 4658 4200

My how this term has flown by. It is during these busy times that we sometimes feel that things have become too muchfor us to handle. We may even at times lose sight of what is important to us. It is at times like these that we need tomotivate ourselves to reach the goals we originally set out to achieve. It is important to remember that motivationcomes from within – people motivate themselves. When motivating yourself remember the following six elements.1. Positive thoughts motivate2. Enjoyment motivates3. Feeling important motivates4. Success motivates5. Personal benefit motivates6. Clarity motivatesI trust that you do not lose sight of your goals and personal aspirations. At school we use the image of a “flourishingflower” to remind us of the various important aspects that make for a successful organisation.

QUOTE

PrincipalBobby Harding

BUSH TELE 2020

“You are only as big as the dreams you dare to live. Jessica Watson

TERM 1 2020ISSUE 23/4/2020

Excellence in Education for Isolated Families

PRINCIPAL'S NEWSFLASH

DEPUTY PRINCIPAL'S REPORTTerm 1 has certainly passed by at a rapid rate. Home Tutor Workshop seems so long ago. Fortunately we were able tomanage a few scheduled field events before COVID-19 took over our lives. Our school musical, ‘Robin and theSherwood Hoodies’ is underway. I’ll dedicate my space in this issue of the Bush Tele to discuss it.

AUDITIONS & CASTOn the 1st January 2020, I emailed, by request, the ‘RATSH Audition Pack’ to our school community. Students went about learningtheir lines for their auditions, practising to all members of the family, including the pets, and finally submitting their auditions. WHOA! 86 auditions were submitted!!! That is 52 more than 2018. It was a colossal task for the team of 5 judges, viewing andreviewing and reviewing again the auditions to ensure we had the ‘right fit’ for each role. Congratulations firstly to ALL students whosubmitted an audition and further congratulations to the 45 students who were selected in the cast. Many were of an outstandingquality with costumes, props, backdrops and assistant family cast members. The script has been sent to all cast members this week. On air rehearsals will commence immediately after the Easter holidays. Time and day to be confirmed. MUSICAL TEES & POLOSAll students’ musical t-shirts have been distributed now. The orders for the school community musical polos with the school musicallogo have been ordered and will arrive Term 2.

Deputy PrincipalRachelle Moore

CHORUSAll students in Prep to Year 10, who are not inthe cast will be in the chorus. The chorusplays a huge role in the musical also. Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 will have 2 songs anddances to learn and perform as part of themusical while Year 3 and above will have 3songs and dances to learn and perform.

Kind Regards, Bobby Harding

‘Musical Dances DVD’ will be sent out to families after the school holidays. Due to a delay in field services and face-to-face events, dueto COVID-19, Home Tutors will be expected to help teach their students the required dances via the DVD. I will be choreographing thedances and dancing onto DVD for you. By the time students come in to minischool and the school musical workshop in Term 3, thedances must be learned. Stage transitions and directions will be the focus in the face-to-face sessions in Term 3 not the teaching of thesteps. The musical song book and CD will be sent to families this week. Enjoy learning the songs and dance together at home.Wishing you all a safe and very healthy Easter. May you all enjoy the company of family and spending memorable moments together.

Kind Regards, Rachelle Moore

HEAD OF DEPARTMENT

Literacy strategies are evident in unit plans to support the teaching and learning of literacy and cognitive skills.100% of students are explicitly taught the literacy and cognitive skills of assessment in all unit plans. Reading program is evident in the lower school with teacher aide on-line support lessons.

100% of staff record valid, reliable and consistent entry of student achievement data into school

100% of teaching teams regularly engage in consistently structured data discussions and data cycles

A significant consideration for all schools across Queensland is school improvement. Each year the Principal, in collaboration withtheir leadership team develops an Annual Implementation Plan and School Plan with specific targets and improvement in mind.Sitting hand-in-hand with these documents is the Explicit Improvement Agenda for our school. These are the main areas of focusidentified for improvement at LSODE. It is important, particularly in our setting of distance education that all stakeholders are made aware of these priorities. This year ourfirst focus is around improving and implementing school-wide strategies for literacy on-air and at home. The second focus forimprovement is about consistent collection of learning outcomes data and its use to support individual improvement for students. The Explicit Improvement Agenda is detailed below. I look forward to working with you in these areas as the year progresses. Explicitly plan and teach the literacy requirements of the curriculum and assessment P–10. Reading being a priority.

Systematically collect, discuss, analyse and use data to inform decisions, instruction interventions and initiatives.

data monitoring systems.

with actions that inform school level decisions.

Head of Department Dane McDonald

DANCES & SONGS

This term saw me out and about working with the Western Alliance to ensure we are providing ourstudents with the best education possible. In Week 5, Year 7 teacher Michelle Sieber, Art & HPE teacher Nanette Lomath and I visited CharlevilleDistance Education. This was a great opportunity for our new teachers to not only see how anotherdistance education works and is set up, but a prime opportunity to form relationships with teachers theywork with across the Alliance. They had the opportunity to watch lessons and chat with teachers face toface to get some helpful tips and tricks as well as learn more about our students.

OUT AND ABOUT IN THE WA THIS TERM

HEAD OF DEPARTMENT - WESTERN ALLIANCE

As HOD for the WA, I had the time to check in with staff, from teachers to mailrooms to IT to admin to see how operations across theWA and our three schools were going and offer assistance where necessary. Much like the teachers, the face to face contact is precious in establishing and maintaining positive relationships across the WA so that we can concentrate on our core objective of everystudent succeeding.

In Week 7, Deputy Principals and Heads of Programs from our three secondary schools, met in Brisbane.Our Western Alliance schools are constantly working collaboratively to ensure we provide for our studentsand their needs. There were many items on our agenda, our largest and most important being updating our ILMs (Independent Learning Materials) to ensure our students are being supported with the AustralianCurriculum.

This is a process that our schools have committed to over this year and next to cater for our students and their diverselearning needs. We also had the opportunity to align policies and procedures across the three schools and discuss ideas to streamline procedures for our teachers and staff.

Our time in Brisbane was extremely worthwhile and we thank our Principals for their support of these meetings. Our Primary area as well as the Western Alliance is continuing to strengthen and grow - exactly what our studentsdeserve. Head of Department WA

Peta BatesWarm Regards, Peta Bates

Kind Regards, Dane McDonald

Peta Bates

HOME TUTOR WORKSHOP COLOUR RUN

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

CENTRAL WEST SWIMMINGThe Central West Swimming Carnival was held in Longreach on Friday the 7th of February. It wasso much fun! I saw lots of my friends and had a great time. I learnt how to dive off the blocks as ithelps you get further in your swim.

LSODE had a small but great team, consisting of Ruby, Livia, Jacy, Tyler and myself.Unfortunately, the other half of our team were unable to attend the carnival because they wererained in! Jacy was selected in the Cental West Team. It was a big day and one of the best. I LOVED IT!!!

By Loudy Back Row: Livia & JacyFront Row: Ruby, Loudy & Tyler

LSODE SWIMMING CARNIVAL

8 Years Girls 9 Years Boys8 Years Boys

Champion: AnnabelRunner-Up: Mackenzie

Champion: MasonRunner-Up: Guy

Champion: Topsy tied withGeorgie

Runner-Up: Amelia (Absent)

Champion: Leo Runner-Up: Lachlan

9 Years Girls

10 Years Girls

Runner-Up: Indiana Champion: Ruby

10 Years Boys

Champion: LincolnRunner-Up: Noah

champion: Livia Runner-Up: Jaimi

11 Years Girls 11 Years Boys

Champion: Heath Runner-Up: Cooper

Champion: JacyRunner-Up: Riley

12 Years Girls

Champion: DarcyRunner-Up: Sam

12 Years Boys

Champion: MadisonRunner-Up: Erin

Open Girls Open Boys

Champion: WyattRunner-Up Angus

Longreach School of Distance Education held its much anticipated Swimming Carnival on Friday the 14th February. The day kicked off bright,sunny and loud at 8:30am with Boree and Coolibah houses doing their march past around the pool, each screaming louder than a jumbo jettaking off! The day quickly progressed from there. There were four records broken throughout the day, with the first two in the 25 metrebreaststroke by Ruby with 27.1 seconds & Riley with 25.69 seconds. After a delicious morning tea supplied by the P&C and Parents, the 25metre backstroke record was broken by Livia Robertson with an amazing 22.72 seconds. Sportsmanship shone after lunch with students inboth houses teaching those who didn’t know how to swim butterfly so that everyone could enter the event and have a go. The final and mostinteresting record broken that day was by Jacy in butterfly, after getting an impressive time of 21.28 seconds. The race had to be rerun. Thisdidn’t stop her as she proceeded to get exactly the same time again! The student relay was next and what an intense race it was, with Team 4winning by a stroke! Finally the most anticipated race of the day was upon us, the famous ‘Golden Goggles’, where parents and teacherscompete against the students. There were six teams: Dane Wilson’s teachers, Meg Morton’s parents, Joy McClymont’s parents, two Year Sixteams and the Secondary team. The race started with a bang as Joy McClymont raced ahead to take the lead half a pool length ahead of theother teams. Teachers fought back, overtaking Meg Morton’s Parents and into 2nd place and were closing in on 1st place. But it wasn’t enough,as Joy McClymont’s team took the win by a splash. The winning team consisted of Joy McClymont, Wally Cooper, Peter Robertson and PennyHolcombe. After everyone had recovered from the Golden Goggles, the awards ceremony was held. Coolibah had won the march past, but Boreetook out house champion with an astonishing 399 points over Coolibah’s 270. After age champions were announced, it was time to start the longtrip home. I would like to thank Miss Cassin for organising the event, all the parents and govies for bringing their kids along for the week andbringing smoko to share, the teachers, parents and govies who got in to help the little kids swim their races, all the people who timed or helpedwrite down entries, the Coolibah kids who made competition for Boree & anyone who helped out and made this event possible. After an awesome week at home tutor workshop and an even better swimming carnival, I can’t wait for next year. By Erin

NORTH WEST SWIMMING The North West Swimming Carnival was held on Saturday the 22nd of February 2020. I was so nervous to berepresenting LSODE and the Western Alliance at this carnival, but I knew I had encouragement from my friends andfamily, who all wished me good luck. A special shout out to Mum and Dad for driving me through rain and mud tomake sure we got there! As I lined up for my race, I went over my plan in my head: Shallow dive, dolphin kickunder water, emerge, fly and swim as fast as I can! And that’s just what I did when the starter went off! Our heatwas very fast and, while I didn’t get a place, I knew I had swum my very best. By Jacy

Jacy

LSODE SWIMMING CARNIVAL

PARTNERS IN LEARNING

BUSH KIDS

Susan Harrison, the Clinical Service Manager from BUSHkids presenting their book to Bobby, about thestories of their service to remote areas. BUSHkids is a not-for-profit organisation which has been supporting the health and wellbeing of children andfamilies in Queensland’s regional, rural and remote communities for over 80 years.

DONATED VIOLINS

Two violins have been donated to our Instrumental Music Program by Doug Ballard.We are very grateful for the kind donation. These will be available for loan to our students.

DONATION TO INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

Longreach School of Distance Education Instrumental Program is very excited to receive a large donation from Clan Duncan. This will help enormously with our Instrumental Program. Thank you.

THANK YOU CLAN DUNCAN

THANK YOU DOUG BALLARD