Dear mums, dads, carers and colleagues

Another short week this week kept everyone very busy at school.  Next week is NAPLAN week where students in Years 3&5 will be completing their national testing programs.  Thank you to our staff for their wonderful efforts to prepare our children for these tests.  

These tests are not the most important thing your children will do this year.  While the tests focus on literacy and numeracy, they do not test for creativity, grit and tenacity, character and more.  Your teachers however, do make these judgements on what are very important aspects about being a great human.  While I want everyone to do well in these tests, I am more interested in the student report cards which will be sent home in Week 10 this term.

We are a finalist again this year

This week, Coomera Rivers was officially nominated as a finalist in The Australian Education Awards in the Innovation in Learning Environment Design category. It is worth noting that we are the only government state school selected in this category.  Congratulations to us.

 The winners will be announced at a gala function in Sydney in late August.  

The poppet black market

Poppets are a giant fad at the moment and I am sure that your children have been bugging you for one.  As their popularity has risen, some students have started to trade and swap them at school and, I believe, this black market is running hot.  We strongly discourage this and will be telling students that this is not allowed to happen.  

I believe that these poppets are fun and I do not usually mind that students have them.  However, if your children lose theirs at school, it is not the responsibility of staff to become involved.  It is a case of popper beware! 

Play time at school is changing

We are about to embark on the most significant change to our playtime in the past 10 years at Coomera Rivers.  Two things are planned.  First, we are opening our Loose Parts areas to students of all year levels and second, we will also trial multi-age play areas.  While this is a trial, I am really confident that this will be successful.  This trial won't start for a few weeks yet but be ready when your child comes home to tell you about their day.

People will be upset with you if...

Respectful and considerate behaviour in the car park is just so important but not everyone is demonstrating this.  Other motorists will be frustrated and upset with you if you are:

• Double parking in school car park
• Park in the bus zone making it harder for the buses to park
• Leave your car whilst double parked in the car park
• Push into the line of traffic instead of going to the end of the line

Disrespectful drivers are dangerous as well.  Please do not compromise the safety of children because it is convenient for you.

Mother's Day

It was so lovely to see the Prep and Year 1 students show their mums how much they matter.  Year 3GN were also practising their finger hearts too.  Happy Mother's Day to all of our wonderful Mums and Grandmas this Sunday.

Kind regards

Vic