Dear mums, dads, carers and colleagues

Well done to our students and staff on a wonderful Term 3, filled with solid work and many highlights and notable achievements. I am especially pleased that our school community has remained well (Coronavirus free) and for this I am tremendously grateful. I do not know what will happen in this space but, as you know, I am determined to do my best to keep everyone safe and well.

Term 4 will be another busy end to a school year – mostly because we are concurrently wrapping up 2020 and planning 2021. There has been a change to the final week of school and we will provide a term planner to all families next term in Issue 32 (Week 2).  This will include swimming carnivals, graduation, annual awards assemblies, excursions, musicals, sleepovers and more.

Facebook

Because we have not been able to have families share in the activities at school we have begun to utilise Facebook more often.  The response to this has been extremely positive and the parents and friends of the school have appeared very happy with what we have shared and how we have shared it.  

I am wanting to do this more often so families can share in the excitement.  I will always tell families in advance of our intention and families will always have the opportunity to opt out.

The next big event for our school that will appear on Facebook is the Sports Fun Days which will be held in Week 1. 

• Wednesday - Prep and Year 1
• Thursday - Year 2 and 3
• Friday - Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 including the presentation to the winning house.

Book Week dress up day (16 October)

Homework in 2021

The P&C has asked the school to review its homework policy - which we are glad to do.  We will be seeking parent input via a survey and will use this information to frame how homework will look in 2021.  We will send the survey home in Issue 32 (Week 2).

School Resource Scheme 2021

We have been organising the School Resource Scheme for 2021 and will present it at the P&C meeting on Tuesday 20 October.  It will cover the resources that your children will need for the school year.  This year saw the resources total $120 for the year.  Next year will see prices increase as businesses increase their prices.  

Important information to know:

• The school makes no profit on this scheme.
• The school will never charge families for items that should be provided by the school - such as library books.
• The school will present a profit & loss statement to the P&C each meeting to show families that the funds are being directed to where we all agreed they would go.
• The scheme costs may vary from one year level to the next as we use different resources.
• You will be able to supply your own resources should you wish but you will end up paying twice as much.  We save families as we can make bulk purchases.
• High school schemes will cost between $250 - $350 annually.  Our school will be much less than this.

ACE project at PSSC

Last week 10 students represented our school at the ACE program at Pimpama State Secondary College.  

We all enjoyed ourselves and had so much fun we represented our school with pride. We were respectful to all, and we tried our best when competing against the other team. We had to use playdough to decorate a cheese cake and make our cheesecake look the best.  The goal was to convince people to buy our cheesecake.  Unfortunately we lost but we used perseverance to keep pushing ourselves to new limits and at the end of the day our group received a certificate for being the kindest, hardworking and respectful group.

This is all of us in a team meeting

The first day we went to the ACE program we had to take a lot of photos, but it was ok, because the next day we would see all the photos that were taken. Thomas was the photographer if you didn’t know.  The first thing we did was look at a cheesecake and then we had to talk about how we can make it look more interesting and delicious. The ideas came out so fast we had filled up the whole page of paper. Then it was morning tea. For morning tea we had juice boxes fruit and wedges. Then we went back to the library to do more research and design.  We had 30 minutes to plan more ideas for our slogan and what our products were to be called.

The second day was so fast and hard for our whole team.  As soon as we got there we all had 1 hour before morning tea.  We had to have our slogan ready, our video done, our poster done and our design done - all before 12:30pm.  

At 10:30 it was time for morning tea this time we had juice boxes fruit and fairy bread.  Then at 11:00 we headed back at the library.  Everyone was rushing to get the design finished because we only had one hour left.  But then the teacher said we had 25 minutes left to finish our whole product.  Everyone was stressing out and trying to finish everything at once.

So after all the hard work and teamwork in the excursion I think I can say we all had a great time and would love to do it again. I would like to say thank you to all of the people who helped run and participate in the ACE program.

( by Ataahua - 5C)

Plans for 2021

We have actually begun our plans for 2021 and across Term 4, we will frame what our 2021 school year will look like.  

Classes for 2021

Teachers will soon start to form the classes for next year.  The best advice I can provide parents is to leave the construction of the 2021 class lists to the teachers as they will have a completely unbiased view of how children will work together best.  If you have concerns about next year, please consult your child's current teacher.  

Moving schools next year?

If you are planning to move schools for next year, please email Mrs Finch so that we can complete the necessary transfers for you.  

Enrolments for 2021

We have less than 50 spaces left across our school for next year (Prep to Year 6) - including some out of catchment spaces.  Please tell friends who may be interested in joining our school community to get in quickly because these spaces will be filled by mid-October.

End of year announcement

During the week, the Director-General announced that the final two days of the regular school calendar will become student free days.  On top of this, he has approved special leave for staff as well to thank them for their wonderful work across the year.  This means that our school calendar needs to be re-designed.  Look out for the revised calendar in Issue 32 of the school newsletter. 

School resumes for Term 4

School resumes for Term 4 at 8:25am on Tuesday 6 October.  I hope that everyone enjoys a lovely spring break.  Keep well and stay healthy.

Kind regards

Vic

Achieving Diamond level for behaviour at our school is an outstanding achievement.  These students are those who can make the right decision - even when the teacher is not watching.  

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Congratulations to students who have wrapped up Term 3 on an absolute high.

Prep and Year 1

Year 2 and Year 3

Year 4

Year 5 and Year 6

Our young learners have been hard at work this week doing some amazing things.  Here is just a snippet of what we managed to achieve.

2020 Athletics Trials

Tuesday was our annual Athletics Carnival. Congratulations to all involved who helped make it such a great experience for our students. The grounds staff had the oval looking resplendent, Mrs Parker did a great job broadcasting the day to the community, Mrs Profke did a thousand jobs to help out as usual, class teachers helped the HPE team to provide a great platform for our talented athletes to shine.

Particularly outstanding were the following athletes who broke records.

New records

2020 Age Champions

Gallery

2020 Sports Fun Days (House carnival)

The Sports Fun Days (SFDs) are scheduled first week back after the holidays. The preps and year one SFD is Wednesday 07 October, years two and three are Thursday 08 October and Years four, five and six are Friday 09 October. The format of the SFDs are all similar, the Students have races in the morning, then rotational athletics/sports activities for the middle session. Unfortunately if current restrictions remain in place, we are not permitted to allow spectators at the SFDs. We will endeavour to live stream some of the SFDs on the P&C Facebook page.

As part of their hour of P.O.W.E.R this term, some of our Year 4 writers entered the national Storyathon creative writing competition. Storyathon is an exciting online event for students to write microstories, where the aim is for every child to develop a passion for writing and storytelling. This term’s topic was, Australia and/or New Zealand. Well done to all the students involved. It was a great opportunity to showcase the creative writing talents of our students, and we are very proud of every entry. A special congratulations to Annabelle, Joshua and Ashley who were selected as finalists. Overall winners are expected to be announced in the coming days.

Hello Coomera Rivers.  My name is Kate Opie and I'm your school chaplain. I live in the local area with my family and crazy dog. I enjoy netball and coach a team at the Coomera Netball Club. I'm a keen gardener and really happy to be assisting with the schools new worm farms and planting out the new garden beds with lots of yummy vegetables and flowers. I work out of the SWAG house with the fabulous Miss Jones and awesome Mr Ken. If you see me around the school, please come and say hello. I'll be looking out for you!

Chappy Kate

Bringing back the Wii

I can definitely remember the Wii as a very popular device when I was a young one! Lately, the children have been loving the Wii set up in the OSHC room. Everyone is so awesome at taking turns and playing fairly!  We don’t have many games, but the children make the most out of what we do have. ‘Just Dance’ is definitely the favourite with the older children, and our younger kiddies have so much fun playing ‘Carnival Games.’  Playing the Wii in the mornings is a great way to pump up the kids and get their energy levels spiking as they copy the dance moves and improve their carnival games skills. Reintroducing the Wii has been a great idea! It’s always such a pleasure and brightens the day seeing the kids having so much fun before school, and also using it as a wind down tool in the later evenings.

The 2020 Year Book is under construction now and, as with previous years, it is going to be a fantastic reflection of a year full of wonderful activities and memories for students to keep for years to come.
2020 Year Book orders are now available to order on Flexischools and the deadline to order is 4pm Friday 23 October. We will only be ordering from the printer the required copies from orders received so please be sure not to be miss this deadline!
If you do require a deadline extension, you MUST email the P&C before the deadline to request one.
* Please note - Year 6 students receive a complimentary copy of the Year Book at graduation (* Conditions apply)

Our Sport Fun Days will be held during Week 1 of Term 4 and Subway Lunch Packs are available to order for these Sports Days.

The cost is $8 and they include a Sub (with your choice of toppings), a cookie (choice of chocolate chip or double choc chip) and a choice of drink.

Our Sport Fun Day dates are:

• Wednesday 7 October - Junior Sport Fun Day (Prep and Year 1)
• Thursday 8 October - Middle School Sport Fun Day (Year 2 and Year 3)
• Friday 9 October - Senior School Sport Fun Day (Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6)

Orders are open now, via Flexischools and close on: (Strict deadlines)

• Sunday 4 October 4pm for Junior Sport Fun Day (Prep and Year 1)
• Monday 5 October 4pm for Middle School Sport Fun Day (Year 2 and Year 3)
• Tuesday 6 October for Senior School Sport Fun Day (Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6)

If you require any further information, please email the P&C.