It was terrific to see the number of parents and carers who attended last night’s Meet and Greet Evening with staff and teachers. This was a great opportunity to build positive relationships with your child’s teachers and to find out about the learning expectations for each of the subjects. If you missed this evening and would like to contact your child’s teachers you can either ring the school to make an appointment or contact teachers directly via their email.

Communication

Communication with our parents and carers is vital to keep you informed about what is happening in the school or with your child. Our main form of communication is via the School Stream App. This allows alerts and messaging to go out to all families keeping you up-to-date with all events that occur. The School Stream App also allows you to report absences through ‘Forms’, access the school newsletter, teacher’s contact details, the canteen menu, year level information and upcoming events. If you are already a member though another school, you can simply add Dripstone Middle School. Instructions to access School Stream are available in this newsletter.

Welcome BBQ this Friday

This Friday we are hosting a Welcome BBQ Breakfast for all students and staff from 7.30 to 8.30am. This is to help encourage all students to attend school every day and on time. All students who attend on the day will go into a raffle for a $100 Casuarina Gift Voucher for each year level. Please help support your child getting to school every day, on time.

Reading to Learn Project

In primary school, students are often taught the skills and strategies to read which is foundational to all learning. At Dripstone Middle School we continue building on our students comprehension readings skills and strategies so that they can effectively Read to Learn in all subject areas. As part of the Reading to Learn Project we have focused on reading and have seen great improvement in our student results. Our focus is on helping all learners no matter what their starting point is. To complement this approach, all students have been requested to explore with and engage in Wider Reading both at school and home. By increasing reading a variety of different types of materials students become more proficient readers. This year we will focus on improving writing skills as well through the use of Journals as part of their Homework requirements.

Learning about Darwin’s History

Yesterday we had a group of students from Year 9, STARS and Clontarf attend the 78th Anniversary of the Bombing of Darwin Commemorative Service. It is important that our students are learning about our local history and events that have shaped the Darwin and it’s community. Please check out our Facebook page for our new video.

Cyber Safety

Our local School Based Police Constables will be running Cyber safety Sessions for all students over this term to increase their awareness through the ‘Think U Know’ Program. This will lead up to us all thinking about how we can take action for the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence on Friday 20 March (which is also Harmony Day). Students need ongoing reinforcement of safe online practices. We encourage all parents to become familiar with the risks of online social networking sites such as tic tock, Instagram and Facebook by visiting this website https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents where you can read the latest information and watch webinars to help keep up to date as informed parents and carers. Here is an example of what you can learn:

Teenagers 13-17

Talk about cyberbullying before it happens and discuss strategies that you are both comfortable with, so they know what to expect if they do report concerns to you.

Encourage them to use privacy settings on social networking sites and restrict online information to viewing by friends only, and to be careful about who they accept as friends.

Recommend that they avoid responding to negative messages and actively block and report abusive people to social media services or website administrators. Encourage them to tell you, or another trusted adult, about such incidents and to take screenshots of negative messages for reporting. Hold the saved messages for them so they don’t have to view them again.

Make sure they are aware of the advice about cyberbullying particularly targeted at young people.

Student Voice and Leadership

Providing our students with leadership opportunities is important at Dripstone Middle School. Students have currently been requested to nominate for positions as either School Ambassadors, which is part of the NT Learning Commission, or the Student Representative Council by next Wednesday 26th February. Please encourage your child to participate in this leadership opportunity.

Are you a Defence Force Family?

Dripstone Middle School has been successful in obtaining funding for a Defence School Mentor for the 2020 school year. We would like to introduce our DSM Kristine Rushforth, who is available Tuesday to Thursday to assist students from defence force families in all aspects of school life. If you or your spouse is a full time serving member of the ADF then please get in contact with Kristine to discuss how she can assist your student. Funding for the DSM program is based on enrolment numbers, so please ensure you notify Kristine that you are a defence family to ensure ongoing support can be offered to current and future defence force families.

Email: kristine.rushforth@ntschools.net

Year 9 HPE

The Year 9 Health and Physical Education class got a visit from Ira and Layla from Headspace to support their learning in the Health and Wellbeing unit. Students learnt more about local services who work with young people who need extra support during difficult times. There was also a big focus on mental wellness and what we can do to improve our mental health. The session was fun and engaging with physical challenges and a dance off. Big thanks to Headspace for working with our students.

Year 7, 8 and 9 Greek Excursion

24th June until the 10th of July.

Students will be traveling to Greece and spending time in Athens as well as some of the Greek Islands. Students will visit historic landmarks and museums as well as enjoying the traditions and culture of the country.