Dear mums, dads, carers and colleagues

We have received an incredible 490mm (nearly 20 inches) of rain this week (since last Thursday) and while our classrooms and covered areas were high and dry, our school grounds are still saturated.  With a few days of sunshine we will be back in business though.  Well done to the staff on managing the past six days without formal breaks for toilets or meals.  It is really easy for cabin fever to set in and it takes a lot of work to maintain a healthy learning culture during these times.  Well done everyone!

Student leadership positions for 2020

On Friday morning we held our first senior school assembly for 2020. However this wasn't a regular senior assembly. This was our Leadership Assembly where we announced and acknowledged our 2020 student leadership badged positions. Students in Year 3 to 5 are given an opportunity to nominate themselves to represent their class either as a student council representative or an Environmental Warrior. Each student is to present a 1 minute speech to their class on why they would make a good class representative and then their peers and teachers take a vote. There were some pretty amazing speeches!

Student council representatives are responsible for taking their class's ideas to Student Council meetings which are scheduled at play breaks. They are also responsible for feeding back discussion topics to their class and a junior buddy class e.g. Free dress day information. It's our class student council representatives that also ensure Guest Teachers and special guests are looked after.

The Environmental Warrior position is a new position for students in this year level and it will be their role to support their class become more environmentally aware of their eco footprint. They will work closely with the three Year 6 Environmental Warriors - Reduce, Reuse & Recycle - to form a team of environmental activists and advocates for a greener way to live.

Our Year 6 leadership application process began late last year and finished with 48 students delivering a 1-minute campaign speech to all Year 4 to 6 students. Submitting an application takes great courage. Putting yourself out there to be 'judged' on your skills and abilities can be quite daunting for the fear of failure or rejection can be quite real. Our leadership assembly provided an opportunity to recognize all 48 students who took this courageous step in delivering a speech, especially given public speaking is one of the greatest fears known.

A massive congratulations to all students who earned a 2020 badged position however our message to all students was clear, you don't need a badge to lead. We can all be leaders.

Year 3 leaders

Year 4 leaders

Year 5 leaders

Year 6 leaders

Good at learning

Prep O were engaged in a variety of ways to identify their alphabet letters this week. Lots of concentrating and practising a wide range of skills here!

This week Prep M and their buddies in 6W were amazing at applying some Conversational Reading strategies together. This is another great example of our Year 6 students leading without a badge.

2M and 2A have been scientists learning about mixtures and solutions in M.E.S.H (Maths, English, Science and HASS). They began the unit with a characteristic potion bottle.  They then mixed colours in science with paint and skittles, wrote a recount about what we did and found, and then graphed our favourite colours. Students investigated microscopes from a simple water drop to our app on iPad microscopes. They put on their science lab coats and goggles again - this time in the kitchen - and mixed up some chocolate chip cookies.  Their challenge then was to work out how to share the cookies between the 2 classes, then the 3 groups in 1 class and then between all the people in each group.  Some awesome mathematics involved here and they were wondering how many cookies each person should receive.

Day 13 numbers

Our effective enrolment to start the school year is 1187 students in Prep to Year 6.  We are a very big primary school and I must say that our organisation and structures help make us feel much smaller.  

Restructure plans:

In the next week we will be restructuring a few of our classes to make sure that all classes are below the maximum number of students.  Parents of any student affected with a move of class will be notified by paper note BEFORE any moves are completed.  Teachers are always very careful when recreating effective class lists and selecting students who best fit the new class.

School leaders visit Pimpama SSC

Ruby, Zack and Hannah joined both Mrs Artz and I as we represented Coomera Rivers at the Pimpama State Secondary College leadership induction ceremony on Thursday.  It was great to see our past students continuing to be successful at high school.  Congratulations to them and their mums and dads.  The day will be remembered for the deluge before, during and after the eceremony.  The rain was absolutely torrential.  It was a shoes off walk to the car - even using the covered walkways - and it was great fun.  

Student's hair at school

All students with hair that is long enough to touch their shoulders need to wear their hair pulled back from their face.  This helps greatly in managing head lice.  This can be done in a number of ways but the simplest is a hair tie.  Girls need to wear NAVY coloured hair ties and boys need to wear hair coloured ties.  This does not apply on school photos day as many mums like their children with their hair out for photos.  

Have a great weekend

Kind regards

Vic