Dear mums, dads, carers and colleagues

I was delighted with how wonderfully well our students represented us again this week. The Kokoda Challenge, the Young Change Agents, the Pimpama Quiz Bowl and the regional cross-country were held across the week and I could not be more proud of the students and staff involved.   

Free dress day was a success

To celebrate Queensland winning the first state of origin match this year, we held our annual 'That's my team' free dress day.  We collected $1046 in donations and the Student Council will direct these funds to their charities. Thank you to our wonderful school community for their generosity once again.  

We also played our own State of Origin match at lunch time. I learned that the older I get the better I was. Nonetheless, it was a Queensland victory at school too.

Loads of events still to come this term

Make sure that you know about the school events.  June will be a busy month.

• Regional Chess Tournament (11 June)
• Bingo night (14 June)
• P&C Volunteer afternoon tea (18 June)
• Athletics trials Day 1 (19 June)
• Athletics trials Day 2 (20 June)
• Grandparents Day (21 June)
• The Great Debate (21 June)
• Report cards sent home (26 June - Available on QParents from 25 June)
• Last day of Term 2 (28 June)
• And save the date for...

Have a great week and I hope to see many of you at Bingo next Friday night.

Kind regards

Vic

Congratulations to the following students who achieved a Student Excellence Award this week.  Keep up the great work!

It was a cold 8 degrees at Brookfield last Saturday morning when our four Crusader teams took on the Brisbane Kokoda Schools Cup Challenge. There were a few last minute shuffles of our teams because of injuries however our reserves were well and truly prepared to step up because we always saw them as invaluable members of the entire Crusader team.

The atmosphere at the start line was very special and students were urged to take a minute to remember and honour the meaning behind the whole Kokoda Challenge. The idea of the Schools Cup is for schools to form teams that must complete the course together in honour of the spirt forged on the Kokoda Track in 1942; courage, endurance, mateship and sacrifice. Quite different from normal school sport events where teachers cheer from the sidelines, this challenge requires a teacher to join as a member of the five person team. The most challenging aspect of being the teacher for these teams is to keep the group going and to continue to motivate students as their bodies start to fatigue and their minds start to tell them they can't do it anymore. Our students and staff were awesome!

What was supposed to be a 15km track, ended up being a 17km distance and it wasn't because anyone became lost! Our teams took thisdistance in their stride and we are super proud of the achievements on the day.

There were a total of 141 school teams competing on the day. Our results were as follows:

13th - Ms McLean's team - 2 hours 22 minutes
Students: Max, Cooper, Braxton, Alyssus

18th - Mrs Walsh's team - 2 hours 29 minutes
Students: Cruz, Summer W, Haylie, Kayden

23rd - Mr Burrow's team - 2 hours 40 minutes
Students: Cathy, Millie, Lily-Grace, Chezaan

25th - Mr Murillo's team - 2 hours 45 minutes
Students: Hannah, Summer, Zac, Riley

Special mention to our students who were unable to race on the day due to illness or injury: Emily and Audije. And also special mention to our staff who trained with our teams and cheered them on on the day, Ms Wager, Miss King, Miss Stuurstraat, Ms Dare, Mrs Young and Mrs Artz

There was a wonderful sense of accomplishment as students crossed the finish line and received their special 'dog tags'. Families, staff and students then enjoyed a picnic and coffee together which was a really nice way to end the challenge.

Once again, a very special thank you to staff who gave up their Saturdays to train with our students and to families for having their children at all the different training locations at such early hours of the morning.

We'd also like to thank our sponsors at WildEarth and our CRSS student council. We can't wait until next year!

Our Bingo Bonanza night will be held on Friday June 14 - please see full details on the attached flyer.  It will be a night filled with Bingo fun and much, much more!

Your entry price will include 15 games of Bingo, light supper, drink on arrival, lucky door prize and your chance to win one of the two $1000 jackpots on offer! One of these $1000 jackpots is guaranteed to be won on the night! Each round of Bingo has been sponsored by a local business and the prizes on offer will be sure to impress!

We will have drinks available to purchase on the night along with raffles and your chance to be 'In It To Win It'

This is our annual adults only event but to help with the little ones we do have baby sitting available.  To book your baby sitting place please go to Flexischools.

Tickets and baby sitting reservations are available to purchase right now - this event is open to your friends from outside of our school community - simply purchase their tickets through your Flexischools account.  Tickets close on Wednesday 12 June at 4:00pm sharp so start organising now.  We would love it to be YOU who takes home a cool $1000. 

Please contact the P&C if you would like any further information.  And of course, profits are directed towards our 2019 air-conditioning goal.

The Pimpama Quiz Bowl is a unique competition which offers primary school students the opportunity to develop teamwork skills, boost confidence, and put their general knowledge to the test. Students work in teams of 3, consisting of a student from each of Year 4, Year 5 & Year 6 student.  Their job was to answer general knowledge questions spanning 10 content areas. All schools in our cluster were invited, with over 20 teams involved.  We sent two teams to the Quiz Bowl this year and I am delighted to announce that Team A took second place in the overall competition.

Scores were close throughout the entire competition and only a few points separated the winners. Both Coomera Rivers teams displayed great sportsmanship and were excellent ambassadors for our school. Well done Michael, Jackson, Noah, Kaysiah, Josh & Imogen.

We believe in students’ ability to create positive change in our community and the Young Change Agents 1 day program is a great opportunity for students to come up with a solution to a problem that their team cares about. Throughout the day students learn the difference between a business, charity and social enterprise, explore customer problems and needs and make sure their solution addresses them.

Last week, selected students in Year 4 worked together in teams to create a community map, practice ideation & design thinking techniques to come up with lots of ideas, share ideas in a visual way with a prototype, and showcase ideas with a pitch play. It was fun, fast and packed with practical entrepreneurship and leadership skills.

Next week our Cybsersaftey Agents I and T have an important message to share with students and they are doing this through the story "The Fabulous Friend Machine."

Popcorn is a highly social chook with friends all over the farm and a vibrant social life. Everyone loves Popcorn. Then, one day in the chook house, she discovers a strange, glowing screen. It says, “Hello!” and she pecks “Hello!” right back. It’s a fabulous friend machine! Before long, Popcorn is spending all her time chatting on the screen with her new best mates and no time playing with her old farmyard friends… The Fabulous Friend Machine is a sweet cautionary tale about what can happen when you spend too much time online and aren’t careful about who you befriend.

Their key messages for students are:

• Make sure you balance screen time with other fun activities.
• Stay on sites that Mum and Dad approve.
• Limit the time you spend on devices.
• Don’t believe everything you see.
• Don’t talk to strangers.

We encourage you to continue these messages at home so our children can use technology in a safe and healthy manner.

We are delighted to tell you that our school will begin trialling Oxford Reading Buddy from next week.

This is a digital reading service to support children’s reading development at home as well as at school.

Oxford Reading Buddy contains hundreds of digital books and book-quizzes all matched to each child’s reading ability. Children can earn badges for good reading behaviours, be coached in their understanding by their personal ‘Reading Buddy’, take quizzes and record all the reading they do. Everything is captured so that your child’s teacher can see how they’re getting on.

Please log in to Oxford Reading Buddy when your child brings home their sign-in card and have a look around. Do encourage your child to use it regularly and discuss what they are reading with them. You might be interested in watching them reading one or two of the Coaching eBooks because Reading Buddy is a good model of how to support and encourage children’s comprehension skills as they read.

Please note: for your child to use this service, their teacher will need to register them as a user. Registering with these providers requires student personal information to be disclosed to the provider of the service. Registration for this includes disclosing the following information about your child: First Name & Initial (of Surname) Year Group, Class Teacher

If you do not wish for your child to use this service please email your child’s teacher to advise them that you do not want your child participating in this trial.

For more detailed information, go to this address and choose:

Parent Support: https://support.oxfordreadingbuddy.com/

T&Cs - https://www.oxfordreadingbuddy.com/terms-and-conditions

Privacy Policy - https://global.oup.com/privacy?cc=au/

Each day at afternoon tea, children usually self-serve a selection of seasonal fruit and the main menu item. This week we have had children asking to serve their peers afternoon tea instead. Allowing children to self serve and serve their peers encourages them to take increasing responsibility for their health and physical well being and promotes a sense of independence and confidence.  While serving afternoon tea children have been observed having conversations with each other about quantity and variety of fruit they would like to eat, as well as encouraging their peers to make healthy food choices.  Our educators encourage these conversations and have extended these conversations by brainstorming ideas for healthy afternoon tea ideas to share.

The Winter Vacation Care program for Coomera Rivers OSHC has been advertised to our families and spaces are filling quickly. Please get in quick to secure your bookings.  Booking requests can be submitted by returning pages 3-7 to the service. Booking request forms will be processed from Thursday June 13 onwards. Families will receive confirmation of bookings after this date.

Please note there are limited spaces in our vacation care program and bookings are processed in the order they are received, so please return your completed paperwork as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

At the P&C meeting last week, some changes to OSHC policies were made and these will directly impact Vacation Care bookings.  The policies are:

• 2.14 Bookings and Cancellations:  All fees associated with routine and casual bookings, should the child not attend care due to illness or for any other reason, shall be required to be paid in full. CCS will apply in accordance with allowable and approved absence provisions.
• 3.5 Excursion Policy: All children are required to wear a Coomera Rivers OSHC excursion shirt for the duration of each excursion. Excursion shirts are available for pre-order via the vacation carebooking form each term at a cost of $15.00 per t-shirt. Children who arrive on excursion days without the Coomera Rivers OSHC t-shirt will have one provided to them, and the $15.00 fee will be added to the family account.

How do these policies impact Vacation Care bookings?

• Once the service has confirmed your vacation care bookings, all bookings are final. If your child does not attend a booked session full fees will be charged including any associated incursion/excursion fees.
• All children attending excursions with Coomera Rivers OSHC must wear the OSHC excursion t-shirt. These can be pre-ordered via the attached form. If your child arrives on an excursion day without the required t-shirt, one will be given to them and a $15.00 charge added to your QikKids account. Please use the pre-order option to ensure your child receives the appropriate sized t-shirt.

Regional cross-country

Well done to Amity (36th) and Keagan (8th) on their very mpressive results at the regional cross-country last week.  I am very proud of their achievements.

Running Club

Love seeing more kids coming down to keep their fitness up at Running Club, especially during these cold mornings.  The Year 5 Team have been encouraging their students to attend Running Club as part of their homework. Sounds like an easy way to get it done!

The CRSS State of Origin

Game 1 drew huge crowds down to the CRSS Cauldron. Teachers and students represented their state in an entertaining and tight contest. Obviously, the mighty QLDers came away with the win, taking the first game 4-2. Thanks to everyone who came down to cheer for your state.

CR Athletics Days

Before school, during lunch times and in PE Classes, students aged from 10-12 have been participating in our Track & Field events to try and qualify to compete against fellow students at our Athletics Days. They will he held on Wednesday 19 June and Thursday 20 June.  Families are welcome to come along to watch the competition.

CR Rugby League gala day

Good luck to our Rugby League teams competing at the Titans Gala Day next Thursday.  We love giving opportunities for our children to represent our school.  

Inter-school Sport (Week 2 - again)

Unfortunately, last week's Inter-school sport was postponed until Monday, 24th June.  It will commence this Monday. See the attached draw for details.

Siba Soccer is back at Coomera Rivers in Term 3.  The program starts on 24 July.  Click here for details.

Pizza Pizzazz - 19 June     

It’s just around the corner! All ensembles have been working hard and cannot wait to show off their talent. Don’t forget to bring a rug or some chairs and have the night off cooking - there’s pizza, donuts and coffee on sale that night!

Concert 1: Hawaiian Notes

• All String Students, Prep and Year 1 Choirs.
• Students arrive 5:45pm, Concert time 6:15pm - 6:40pm

Concert 2: Supreme Quavers

• All Band Students, Year 2/3/4 and Year 5/6 Choirs.
• Students arrive 6:15pm, Concert time 6:45pm - 7:10pm

Beenleigh Eisteddfod - 22 July

Year 1 Choir, Year 2/3/4 Choir and Year 5/6 Choir students will have received their information note this week. Please can you return the permission slip and pay the bus fare as soon as possible as the performances are in week 2 of Term 3. Any questions please email your child’s choir teacher.

Gold Coast Eisteddfod

This year GCE will be taking place in Term 3 Week 5 ( for strings) and Week 6 (for band).  Information notes will be sent out in the next few weeks but please mark the dates on your calendar.

We are looking for help in the Cafe, particularly early in the week as illness has started to take its toll on our regulars.

Woolies rewards, Grandparent's day, Bingo night, Banking and Containers for Change are all keeping our generous volunteers busy.  A very big thank you to all.

Cafe:

• Monday 10th June: 1 Volunteer needed
• Tuesday 11th June 2 Volunteers needed
• Wednesday 12 June 1 Volunteer needed

Woolies earn & learn rewards:

• Tuesday 11th June: 1 Volunteer needed 8.30am-10.30am. Staff room
• Wednesday 12th June: 1 Volunteer needed 8.30-10.30am. Staff room

Bingo night:

• Friday 14th June: 2 Volunteers needed 12.00 - 2.30pm. P&C office.