Dear mums, dads, carers and colleagues

This past week has been filled with opportunities, excursions, performances, competition and learning.  Year 3 visited Ngutana-Lui, our school soccer competition finished with 2/3J, 4M, 5M and 6K winning their year level tournaments.  Next week we commence cricket.  Mr Raffin, Mr Burrows and a team of teachers give up their lunch break nearly every day to provide these events - and I am extremely grateful to them.  The rugby league teams (with Mr Raffin and Mr Frost) competed at the Titans gala day and represented us wonderfully well.  The senior strings ensemble performed Immortal Gladiator for me this week.  It was, quite simply, the best Year 6 strings performance I have heard across my career.  These are seriously talented young musicians.  Thank you to them and to Mrs Stephenson for their excellent learning.  And meanwhile, the classrooms keep promoting learning.  Check out the Great work the week section of the newsletter for more examples of the brilliant things that our children are doing.  And to top this week off, Trey was selected in the Queensland Hockey Team.  This is an outstanding achievement.  Gosh school is different to when I was a student - and this is a very good thing!

Air-conditioning project (Phase 1) is complete

I am delighted to report that the air-conditioning of classrooms, the iCentre, DigiDesign rooms and our Music Centre is completed.  This is an enormous achievement given the sheer number of rooms that needed to be done.  60 spaces have been completed thanks to the significant contribution of the P&C Association and the Queensland government.  There remains just two blocks to complete - Corporate Services and the multipurpose hall.  With summer fast approaching, this will make an enormous difference for students who will now be able to all work in much greater comfort.

Survey: Student Code of Conduct policy

We have invested heavily across the year in the development of the new Student Code of Conduct that will become policy from 2021.  Every school in Queensland has been expected to generate this.  Once we have some feedback from families, we will upload the draft to the school website so that families can access it.  

So far, the staff, the School Council and the P&C Association have all been offered opportunity to consider the policy.  And now that the draft is getting closer to completion, we would like your feedback - specifically regarding the four key areas of bullying response process, cyber-bullying response process, parent contracts and parent and school expectations.  Please click here to access the survey link.  The survey will close on Thursday 12 November and we will prepare the information for presentation to the final P&C meeting of the year.

Book lists for 2021

Click here to access all of the book lists for 2021. You can order through the school supplier or print the lists and organise your own materials. Regardless of which method you prefer, your children must have these items for school next year. The school does not use communal resources and anything you purchase for your children remains your property and will not be given to other students.

Student Resource Scheme for 2021

The Student Resource Scheme was discussed at the P&C meeting earlier this week. Mrs Porch explained the new government requirements about the scheme including:

• The scheme needs to be reported on at each P&C meeting to show that the school is not profiting from the funds from families
• The letters of explanation need to identify the resources so that parents who choose, may opt to provide their own.
• Opting into the scheme means that families remain in and annual renewal is not necessary.
• Parents can opt out at anytime.
• Payment plans are available.
• The same policy applies to all state primary and secondary schools.

We will be sending these SRS letters to families via email in the coming days. Click here for all the 2021 SRS details.

Gastro alert

Many families will have seen news about the recent gastro outbreak in the south-east corner of Queensland recently.  We have only received word from a couple of families that their child has been affected.  Please notify the school should your child be affected.  

Staff appreciation day

While today is recognised as World Teachers Day, Coomera Rivers is a little different.  We recognise all of our staff on this day each year as it takes a whole team to deliver the outstanding service to our children and families.  We call it Staff Appreciation Day. 

Thank you to the entire school staff - teaching and non-teaching - for your individual and combined contributions to our children, our families and our community.  This has been a 'different' year filled with on-going change, restrictions and anxiety.  Our staff team has done everything it takes to overcome these challenges.  And while we have needed to restrict the number of activities that we undertake, we have still managed to complete all of the significant events that we originally had planned including sports fun days and our musical.  

Thank you sincerely to all of the students and families who recognised the Coomera Rivers staff today.  Your thoughts and gestures of kindness were very much appreciated.  And thank you to the school P&C Association for their recognition of staff as well.  This year the P&C donated coffee machine for each of the three staff rooms across the school.  They also supplied coffee pods and a muffin for morning tea, delivered by the members of the school's Student Council.  Yum!

Important dates

We will keep adding to this list of events as we finalise our plans the conclusion of the 2020 school year.   Please check this list each week and add the pertinent information to your fridge calendars.  

Kind regards

Vic