Dear mums, dads, carers and colleagues

Welcome back to another school year.  May I send a special welcome to new families of our school community, particularly those families whose children have begun Prep this year.  It truly is a very special time.

Coronavirus update

Late yesterday health authorities provided updated advice regarding the management of the novel Coronavirus.

This updated advice includes:

• anyone who has been in contact with any confirmed novel Coronavirus cases must self-isolate (self-isolation means staying at home and not accepting visitors) for 14 days following exposure;
• travellers who have visited Hubei Province of China need to self-isolate for 14 days after leaving Hubei Province;
• returned travellers who have visited China cannot attend school, childcare or TAFE for 14 days after leaving China including Hong Kong.

If your child falls into any of the above categories, please notify the school immediately upon receiving this email, and take the appropriate action as outlined above.

The Department of Education has been working closely with health authorities in relation to the management of this matter and will continue to do so.  I will continue to provide updates as they come to hand.

Week 1 of school has been a busy one.  We welcomed two returning and three new teaching staff for the 2020 school year.  They include:

• Lisa Barnes (Year 2)
• Louise Landers (Year 5)
• Anna Leese (Year 2)
• Nicole Rafton (Year 3)
• Rachel Sheppard (Prep)
• Charmaine Wynne (Year 5)
• And we also have a new Deputy Principal.

Introducing our new Deputy Principal - Mr Meijboom

Hi, my name is Jason Meijboom and I live locally with my wife and 2 children.   Excitingly, my younger son has started Year 7 at Foxwell State Secondary College this week.  I have worked for the Queensland Education Department in various roles over the past 20 years, having spent my last 9 1/2 years as Deputy Principal at Hilliard State School.

Thank you to the many students and families across the school who have already made me feel very welcome, introducing yourselves and greeting me with a smile, as well as the staff and friends whom I have met and started working with.

In 2020, I will be the Deputy Principal working with Years 2 and 3.  I look forward to getting to know students, staff and meeting many parents, all working together to develop responsible, autonomous and positive learners.  I also look forward to value adding in all of the amazing teaching and learning already happening at Coomera Rivers, including maintaining the supportive and positive school culture that is already established.

While I acknowledge that we are all busy in life, I encourage parents and guardians to be as involved in their child's education as is possible, working with teachers and staff along the way.  My door is always open to parents wishing to discuss their child's progress or anything at all related to the school. I welcome and encourage you to be involved as this is the best way to "learn together" about schooling today.

Know me before you teach me

We also engaged our students in an exciting range of activities this week including opportunities to share school with their mum and dad.  We call the 'Know me before you teach me' .   Following is just a tiny snippet of the enormous range of activities that your children have been involved in this week.  

The Year 4 team this week ran their annual 'Pirate Day' which kicked off with a read aloud by Tara Martin, the author of Cannonball In.  We skyped in with her to hear her speak with the students about being brave and having the confidence to challenge themselves to try something new. After this the students rotated through a variety of activities spending time with every Year 4 teacher. This enables each teacher to start building relationships with the whole cohort.

Prep M's first day of Prep memory, was making their 'Kissing Hand' with Ms Mac. Looks like fun and something families will always treasure!

5M created a spider web, taking turns to share three things about themselves.

A 'friendly' game of soccer for 6F & 6K families.

Know Me As A Writer was a huge hit this week. There was much speculation that I had set up camp on the school grounds because I apparently work so hard.  Seeing the classes engage with the space and hearing the discussions was exciting.  Student work samples are starting to pop up on Seesaw and it is awesome to see the different topics, text types and writing styles. Some of them are hilarious.

Ms Barnes engaged her class in a discussion by posing a series of questions about the space and the artefacts represented. This enabled students to draw out specific vocabulary which they could transfer into their writing.

Staff car park area

We would like to remind our existing families and inform our new families that our staff car park is for the exclusive use of our staff, with the exception of students with complex needs who have been granted access to use the disability parking spaces outside our Student Support Centre. If you feel you require access to this drop off zone, would you please discuss this with Jacqui Walker on jmwal1@eq.edu.au.