Dear Mums, Dads, carers and colleagues

Welcome back to Term 2.  This has been another amazing week where I have been very proud of our children and our school team.  The two school ANZAC services were both poignant and age appropriate as we worked to pass the importance of remembrance on to the next generations.  Then the community march on Thursday saw Coomera Rivers well represented again this year.  Thank you to the families and staff who united for this purpose.  

While we were enjoying Easter vacation, a lot of activity has continued at school.  The OSHC vacation care program was filled with excursions, visits and so much to do for those attending.  The oval and lawn areas around the school have been treated and fertilised - ready for the Term 2 activities.  The hall projector was upgraded to provide a much larger screen size and the lawn area at the front of the hall was re-turfed.  And four more classrooms were air-conditioned.  

Please ensure that your children are in correct and complete uniform each school day.  Infringement detentions will be commencing from Monday.  The focus this coming week will be on correct shoes and socks but we will always assess the entire uniform.  And now that the season is turning towards winter, please organise pullovers and tracksuits before the rush.

If your child is in Year 3 or Year 5 this year, you will need to begin to prepare them for NAPLAN (Starts 14 May).  We are doing what we can at school also.  NAPLAN will be completed on-line this year which means that parents need to peruse the four items in Newsletter 10 about NAPLAN.  Students will need their iPad ready.  Parents do not need to purchase any additional items to the regular school requirements but children will need their device, earphones and the NAP browser app.  It will also be a great idea to attend the parent information session.  Please be ready.

Have a great week

Kind regards

Vic

We captured the essence of remembrance at our two school ANZAC Services on Wednesday - one for the junior school and one for the senior school. Both services were excellent and the solemn respect displayed by everyone was outstanding.  I was just so proud to share the stage with our special guests who left marvelled with the conduct of our children.  Our student leaders led us through the services with excellent explanations of the ANZAC traditions and the very poignant Last Post.  We even had a number of very brave students contribute to the event by leading songs, hymns and anthems.  

Well done to our students, staff, guests, families and our P&C on these wonderful events for our community and congratulations to Ms Waide, Mrs Artz, Mrs Blyth and Mrs Young and the wonderful behind the scenes support team.

From the student's perspective:        I liked laying the wreath for 1C because we had to walk in front of the parents. Hugh wore his great great grandfather's war badges which were special. The sound of the trumpet makes me remember the ANZAC's and I felt sad.  (Ruby 1C)

Our students and staff joined with the Upper Coomera community to further recognise the sacrifices and deeds of the current, returned and fallen men and women who have defended our nation.

Around 20 students and staff proudly marched behind our school banner and then stayed to participate in the service. It was also an opportunity for our students to lay our class and school wreaths from our school service under the Cenotaph. It's heartwarming to see so many school children in our local area participating in these marches. It highlights that our future generations understand and recognise the importance of the day and that there is no danger that the memory and significance of the Anzac spirit is fading.

Thank you sincerely to the families, students and staff who stood together in recognition of this significant part of Australian culture.

As you know, the P&C is focused on raising funds to be used for classroom air-conditioning and all fundraising income will be invested into this worthy cause until such time as every classroom is air-conditioned.  This is a long term project (which started in Term 1 of 2018) with the P&C hoping to raise enough funds to air-condition between 12 to 16 classrooms each year.  

Term 1 fundraising events earned enough profit to air-condition another four classrooms.  These events included:

• The Colour Run - 3 classrooms
• Barn Yard Dance - 1 classroom 

So far we have achieved a total of 17 classrooms air-conditioned. The map below shows the rooms that have been air-conditioned so far.  We won't stop until all classrooms are equiped.

​The latest installations were completed over the Easter vacation and the classes that were air-conditioned this time were 2ES, 2H, 2C and 2W.

We have a target of another 4 classrooms for Term 2 with the Mother's Day Stall and Raffle along with the Bingo Night our main Term 2 fundraisers.  Please support our fundraising activities where you can.

SSC changes:          Mr Bradley finished at Coomera Rivers last term.  We will certainly miss him.  He has been replaced by Janelle Prendergast who began in the  SSC teacher this week.

Leadership changes:          Ms Witham is on leave this term and she has been replaced by Mrs Young.  Mrs Young is an experienced school leader who has been at Coomera Rivers as teacher, Master Teacher and Head of Curriculum across the past few years.  She has also worked as a Deputy Principal before and is very excited to be supporting Years 2&3 classes.  The revised supervision structure at school for the remainder of 2019 will be:

• Ms Waide:  Prep and Year 1 (Email: awaid2@eq.edu.au )
• Mrs Young:  Year 2 and 3 (Email: kyoun110@eq.edu.au )
• Mrs Gatti:  Year 4  (Email: sgatt6@eq.edu.au )
• Mrs Artz:  Year 5 and 6  (Email: wartz1@eq.edu.au )

Each week we will provide families with an insight into our OSHC Service.  This week the focus is on sun safety.

At OSHC and school, we recognise the importance of promoting sun safety all year around.  In Australia, the UV index is particularly high, even during winter.  Therefore, we ensure our children are being sun smart daily by applying sunscreen and wearing their hat whilst participating in outdoor play.  To compliment this, we have been talking with our students about the effects of UV radiation and highlighting the fact that even though we cannot see it or feel it, the dangers of UV radiation is still prominent.  You will see all teachers and educators wearing a hat outside and using sunscreen so that we set the example we want for our children.

At OSHC, we provide a free SunSmart app which allows the children to check the daily UV rating. They can then record this on the Cancer Council SunSmart poster which is displayed in OSHC room. We like to use this as an opportunity for our older children to demonstrate peer-lead teaching by guiding and supporting our younger students.

Busking starts May 6:          The arts team wishes to apologise for another date change to busking but due to one of our staff having to attend a funeral on their group's scheduled day, we have had to push busking back a week. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.  We hope to see you there from 2:00pm each afternoon next to the Cafe.

• Monday 6th May- Public Holiday
• Tuesday 7th May - Junior Band and Year 2/3/4 Choir
• Wednesday 8th May - Senior Band
• Thursday 9th May - Junior Strings and Senior Strings
• Friday 10th May - Year 1 Choir and 5/6 Choir

New instruments:          Thanks to our Prep Art Gallery and the generous support of our families, we have put the money raised towards some new instruments to use in our music lessons. We will send some photos with them being put to use in the next newsletter! Thank you again.

Representative sport:          On Wednesday Natahlia, Chloe, Trey and Spencer were at the Gold Coast hockey centre proudly representing our school at the South Coast hockey trials.   All four players trialled well and Natahlia, Trey and Spencer were selected in the South Coast team and Chloe was selected as a shadow goal keeper.  They now travel to Townsville in June for the state championship and to compete for a spot in the Queensland teams.

Good luck to our cross-country team this Tuesday when they compete at the Broadwater Schools district carnival at Runaway Bay.  Thank you to Ms McLean & Mr Burrows for leading the team.

Burleigh Heads provided a picturesque training location for our Kokoda Crusaders this Saturday morning. Our students and teachers were up before sunrise to complete our first training session since the holidays. We thought Easter eggs and no training over the break might slow the session down a little but it proved to be quite the opposite. Our students really pushed themselves, completing interval training at the Burleigh Headland and then jogging on to complete the circuit around Burleigh Hill. The hills and stairs made legs burn going up and the challenge was to run back down the hills with jelly legs. It was also nice to hear members of the public cheering our kids on.

A really big thank you to Mr Burrows who ran the session while Mr Murillo was ill and to our other staff who continually give up their Saturday mornings to train with our students. The actual race day is getting closer however we're sure, under the guidance of our dedicated staff and the students' commitment to being at our training sessions, the Coomera Rivers Crusaders will be more than ready.

Thank you to our sponsors at WildEarth.

Students in Years 5&6 have the opportunity to represent our school in a range of sports this term.  The inter-school sport season is planned to start in late May and team selection processes are underway. Coomera Rivers is able to compete against a lot of other school teams in our district and we have already established a reputation for outstanding sportsmanship and competitive skill winning a number of premierships.

Year 5&6 teams will be able to participate in four (4) ‘half day’ carnivals, with two (2) games to be played on each occasion. The scheduled days for sport are May 27, June 3, June 10 and June 17.  Notes are being sent home very soon.  

The Assisi netball season has recently commenced and unfortunately two teams have had players withdraw, leaving them short of the required players.  The club desperately need three players born in 2009 and one player born 2008 to 2007.  No experience required.

Anyone interested can contact Scott on 0466187893 or at  scottandkatetucker@gmail.com .

Spirit tennis again is offering a free trial lesson so everyone can experience this great sport obligation free. Your child will learn a sport for life while having a blast with our game based learning methods. You will also notice improvement in your child’s concentration and listening skills, as well as general coordination.  Spaces are limited so call now and don’t miss out!  Call Johnny on 0416011378.

See you on the tennis court.

Johnny Stamenovic
0416011378
International Coach - 20 years experience - Gold Coast Coach of the Year 2016

On Wednesday 15 May we will have the team from the Commonwealth Bank on site to open school banking accounts for students.

A huge thank you to everybody who pitched in during Term 1.  Your help was greatly appreciated.  We still need a bit of assistance with a couple of things.

Mothers Day Stall

• Tuesday 30th April - 1 Volunteer 8am - 11.30am
• Wednesday 1 May - 3 Volunteers 8am - 11.30am
• Thursday 2nd May - 1 Volunteer 8am - 11.30am
• Friday 3rd May - 3 Volunteers 8am - 11.30am

Any time you could provide to us would be fantastic.

Cafe

• Monday 29th April and Monday 13th May - 1 Volunteer needed from 8.30am.

Volunteer's afternoon tea

• Please lock away June 18th for our term 2 Volunteer afternoon tea.  Official invitations will be sent out in a few weeks.