Dear mums, dads, carers and colleagues

Many parts of our hinterland have been affected by bush fires across the past fortnight and it’s been an anxious time for these communities.  The weather has not been kind and has often worked against emergency services as they work to protect life and property.

A number of our staff - and I am sure extended families of our school - have been directly impacted by the bush fires - either through the evacuation instruction or damage to property.  On behalf of everyone in the Coomera Rivers community, our thoughts go out to each and every one of you as you work through these challenging times.

I would also like to acknowledge the outstanding work of our emergency services personnel for their tireless efforts over the past week or so.  While we hope that the worst conditions are behind us with a cool change continuing to move through, there continues to be a number of active alerts in place and it is clear that only rain can extinguish the many bush fires completely.  Let's hope this happens soon.

Highlights of this week

You will be able to read about some of the significant achievements we accomplished this week later in this issue.  I am so proud of how students and staff at our school represent and promote us and what we stand for.  Congratulations to:

• Parent-teacher interviews  (Just over 400 conducted)
• African drumming shows (These were VERY popular)
• Young Change Agents
• Year 4 public speakers at the AB Paterson competition
• iEducate representatives.  3 staff presented at the Department of Education conference
• Get Your Geek On! students and staff.  This was a massive event with 90+ teachers and school leaders joining our school on Friday.

Important events for next week

• Lights! Coomera! Action! Runners-up assemblies (Monday)
• P&C Meeting (Tuesday evening)
• Senior Sports Fun Day (Wednesday)
• Junior Sports Fun Day (Thursday)
• Lights! Coomera! Action! Winners Showcase assemblies (Friday)
• Last day for Term 3 (Friday)

Lights Coomera Action assemblies

NAPLAN 2019 Results

The school has recently received the results from the National Assessment Program in Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), in which Year 3 and 5 undertook in May this year.

This year was the first year that Coomera Rivers students completed the assessments of Reading, Language Conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and Numeracy online. Year 3 students completed the writing assessment on paper whereas our Year 5 teachers completed the Writing assessment online. Feedback from NAPLAN Online showed that students engaged well with online assessments. One of the main benefits of NAPLAN Online is tailored (or adaptive) testing, where the test automatically adapts to a student’s test performance. The test presents questions of higher or lower complexity, depending on a student’s performance. To get an idea of what the online assessment looks like, visit the public demonstration site at www.nap.edu.au 

A paper copy of your child’s individual results will be sent home with them in the next few days.
The report shows your child’s achievement in comparison to:

• the state average;
• the range for the middle 60% of students; and
• whether your child has achieved the ‘national minimum standards’.

When reading these results it is important to keep the following in mind:

• This is only one set of tests that was completed 4 months ago, and our teachers use many assessment tools to assess their students throughout the year.
• The tests complement the class teacher’s assessment of literacy and numeracy, and the class teacher also assesses other aspects of literacy and numeracy.
• There is no pass or fail.

The data that is generated from students completing these assessments will be analysed and used by the school to evaluate current curriculum programs and will help guide future school planning.

If you have any questions about the results of your child’s NAPLAN results please contact your child’s teacher.

Evacuation practice

We completed our evacuation practice on Wednesday and set our best time for the year to leave classrooms and all be accounted for.  6 minutes and 25 seconds from the start of the signal to the all clear is very impressive indeed.  Well done everyone!

Social media

There has been quite a bit of misinformation floating about on social media recently regarding an issue from another school.  In my opinion, the Department of Education has managed the actual incident well and I have been informed of the parts of the incident that may impact on our community and school.  I believe whole-heartedly that the information provided to me by my supervisors is completely accurate in every aspect.  The information that I have personally read on Facebook is not correct, in some instances it is quite exaggerated and in a few instances it is completely false.  

Every member of the Coomera Rivers team is committed to making our school environment as safe as possible for our children.  We would never deliberately, carelessly or recklessly do anything that would compromise this.  Not ever.

Our school and its students have done nothing wrong and in fact, have had nothing whatsoever to do with what occurred.  However, as part of a public education system, we are obligated to help families where we can - and we are - and our commitment to a safe environment is steadfast.

If you would like any of your concerns clarified, please contact Mrs Jenkins (Click here to email or call 5596 8333) and she will help you coordinate a time to meet with me personally.  You can really help our school and our children by:

• remembering that our school IS a great (& safe) place for your family and
• not contributing to the gossip and innuendo on Facebook.  

Treasure hunt

This week, avid train spotters will be on the look out for the Power Puff Girls.   Find them somewhere else in the newsletter and email Mrs Artz with the story title and your childrens' names before 4:00pm each Tuesday.  Winners receive a slushie for each child in the family and every entry earns a ticket into the draw to win $25 at the book fair.  This is what they look like.  

      

Last week's slushie winners:

• Riley 2MC
• Abbey Prep S

Kind regards

Vic