Dear mums, dads, carers and colleagues

The rains have passed but the ground remains saturated.  Fine weather across the weekend will see this improve.  Next week sees our Year 6 students off to camp at Emu Gully and our Year 5 students get to catch up on their beach safety excursion that was postponed due to the wet weather a few weeks ago.

We sent the school drone up to check out the school after the rain and the photos were great.

The final day of school for Term 1 is this coming Thursday.  We will resume school for Term 2 on Monday 19 April at 8:25am.  The first fortnight back will be busy.  While we will have a few long weekends, we will also conduct our ANZAC service, run our school cross-country carnival; (Prep to Year 6) and hold the school disco.

Kind regards

Vic

Well done to these students on earning an Excellence Award this week.

Prep and Year 1

Year 2

Year 3 and Year 4

Year 5 and Year 6

Mathletics champions

Good at learning - Good at life

Strong citizens help others

2D & 5W would like to thank the Coomera Rivers community for their generosity and support with donations. The Boots for One and All Community ship donations to remote Indigenous Communities and their aim is to 'bridge the gap' and ensure 'no mob is left behind'.  We do this through ensuring these communities have access to appropriate and safe sporting equipment, in particular footy boots!  Nobody likes to run around a bumpy oval in bare feet after all!

Click here to see their recent interview and learn more about the charity.

If anybody would like to learn more about what our charity is about, a copy of our recent interview is here.  We will continue our donation drive throughout the next term, thank you again!

Strong citizens help others #2

Special Delivery:  2A and 2W's learning partnership with Paradise Lakes Care Centre is underway!  This week, the Paradise Lakes carers were excited to receive the first letter and gifts from our students.  The Year 2 letters were beautifully written, telling their 'buddy' about themselves and asking questions in return. They even gave them pencils to write back with, along with hand made bookmarks. 2A & 2W are hoping to learn all about how technology has changed over time by posing questions to their buddies.

We are all excited to see how this learning partnership develops.

Strong citizens help others #3

Archer from 5L has been taking action to help others. He gives up many of his first play breaks to take a Year 1 buddy for 'Conversational Reading'. His buddy's teacher, Mrs Davies, has been very impressed with Archer's dedication and enthusiasm. He is kind and patient with his buddy, while helping him improve his reading comprehension. They have even developed their own handshake!

Buddies reciprocate   

After spending some time getting to know their 3GN buddies - their interests, their friends and their families, 5C & 3GN have been working together on narrative writing in Term 1.

The Year 5 students used their knowledge of their buddy to write a narrative with them as the main character, with the story centred around a shared interest.  This week, they read and shared the stories with their buddies, through Book Creator.

The student reactions were priceless. Our Year 5 students felt a sense of pride and accomplishment. A real sense of purpose in their writing was evident, when watching their buddy's reaction. Their Year 3 buddies felt excited that they were the main character in the story. A couple of boys were delighted in the fact that they scored a goal in soccer and helped their team to win.

The Year 3 students have been motivated and engaged as well, knowing that they would be writing and publishing their story for their Year 5 buddy. The students planned a narrative that they thought their Year 5 buddy would find interesting.  This week after editing, they published on Book Creator and added images and text too.

There were lots of happy faces and feelings of accomplishment!

VIP book launch

Congratulations to 3/4WH on their exciting book launch this week. Year 6 students, parents and other staff members thoroughly enjoyed being entertained by some fantastic stories. The students were clearly proud and excited to share their published narratives in a purposeful way - just like real authors!

Natural disasters

Year 6 have been investigating natural disasters in Science this term and this week we caught some students using their new knowledge and understandings to develop solutions for those who are affected by these natural disasters.

These experiences were fabulous examples of students leading and designing their own learning. They were creating solutions which were linked to real world problems.

The importance of patterns

Being able to see, use and understand patterns is a really important skill for young learners, as they develop not only their maths concepts but also their reading skills.  Prep O have been mastering patterns this week in class.  Great work kids!

Wakakirri 2021

Congratulations to the members of our Wakakirri team. We were given some new information on Thursday 25/3 afternoon and have unfortunately had to shrink our team size. Therefore, we now have a large waiting list. Families who have received their congratulations letter, please keep an eye out for your invoice which will be sent out next week.

While the new changes to the event have had quite a significant impact on our previous communication, please know we are at all times trying to find work-arounds. Our only other option is to cancel our involvement altogether and we know that this would prove to be more disappointing for all of us. We sincerely apologise for these last minute changes but they are completely out of our control.

If you have any questions, please email Mrs Blyth .

Busking

Our busking performances have been well attended and the performances have been extremely impressive - especially given the fact that most students have had just eight weeks of lessons.  

Last Tuesday's busking for Junior Band and Year 1-4 Choir was washed out, so it will now be held on this Tuesday 30 March at 2:00pm in the Cafe shed.

Respresentative trials and matches filled the calendar these past few wet weeks.  Well done to these your athletes on their achievements.

Young barbarians

Congratulations to Si'u and Colten who competed in U12s QLD Barbarians Rugby XV tournament over the weekend.  Their team, the U12s Qld Barbarians Maroons were competition runners up after a tough final, losing by one try to the U12s Queensland Barbarians Blue team.

Congratulatiuons also to Noah who also played strong rugby with his team the U12s Queensland Barbarians Black too.

Hockey trials

Well done to Indiah on her performance at the ditrict hockey trials this week. Indiah has only played hockey in a team for 2 games this year. She was in a junior development team last year but didn’t play much due to COVID19.

The competition was fierce with lots of experienced players and while she wasn't selected for the district team this time, we are all very proud of her commitment to her sport.  

A great swim

Congratulations to Cooper on his wonderful swim at the Queensland titles this week. Despite being very nervous, he won his heat and ended up 27th overall. This is an incredible achievement and we are all so very proud.  

With NAIDOC week fast approaching, the South East Region Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander team will be conducting a region wide NAIDOC Art Competition open to all P-12 students enrolled in a South East Region school.

Our OSHC kitchen was very popular last week as we offered the children to help Miss Rae in the kitchen with baking two of our delicious afternoon teas! Miss Rae loved having some kitchen helpers!

James was our first super excited mini chef to get in the kitchen, put on his gloves and help mix up the cookie batter. After James headed to the kitchen, Dakota followed, with Jaxson close behind. Kendall and Savannah decided to also lend a helping hand with our special Shamrock Cookies for St. Patricks Day. The cookies were absolutely delicious! There was none left over at all! Our children had another chance to help Miss Rae on Friday with a scrumptious raspberry and coconut slice! Again, James was the first one in there! Kendall and Indie quickly followed behind.

At OSHC we love to involve the children in everything we do ? We love to watch them grow into capable young adults and help build their life skills, even if it’s as simple as making their own toast (which the preppies LOVE to do)! Helping Miss Rae in the kitchen will continue throughout the year, with hopefully more and more children joining in on the morning fun!

Hoppy’s Car Wash at Pimpama has an amazing offer for our families (and their friends)

For just $20 you will receive three Ultimate Car Washes valued at $25 each. Total value $75!  Limited vouchers available.  Orders are open now via Flexischools.

Hoppy’s Car Wash Pimpama is donating all proceeds from the sale of these vouchers to our P&C Association.

Please see terms of use below.

1. Vouchers must be used in order- 1, 2 etc
2. Same vehicle must be used for all washes
3. Valid for date range May, June & July 2021 only. Strictly no extensions.
4. Large vehicle surcharges apply – from $2
5. Excess dirt / bug charges may apply – from $5 bugs, $10 dirt
6. Vouchers not exchangeablefor cash
7. Can be used at Hoppy’s Pimpama only
8. Only one voucher booklet per registration

At the recent P&C meeting the members discussed the School Banking program and the significant reduction in active bankers within our school community.

The meeting determined that there was not currently adequate demand for this service to continue to be offered.

As a result of this decision, School Banking will not retrun for the remainder of 2021 school year.

School Banking has been a part of our school community since 2011. We woudl like to take this opportunity to thank the Commonwealth Bank for thier partnership and for provding this opportuntiy to our famileis throughout the last 10 years.

Please email the P&C if you have ay questions.

Tickets on sale now

Come along in your best fluro gear and leg warmers and join us at our 80’s Disco to be held on Thursday 29 April.

Whilst there might be the occasional moon walk, the majority of the music will still be that hip, cool and rad stuff the kids think is AWESOME!

Junior hipsters (Prep to Year 2) starts at 4.00pm and goes to 5.30pm with the Senior groovers (Year 3 to Year 6) starting at 6.00pm and finishing at 7.30pm.

Ticket sales now open on Flexischools and the footloose deadline to purchase your 80’s Disco tickets is Thursday April 22 at 4:00pm.

If, for any reason at all, you would like to attend the 80's Disco but can NOT meet the payment deadline, please email the P&C BEFORE the deadline and we will be able to assist. Unfortunately, once the deadline has passed no further tickets will be available.

PLEASE NOTE - Please take special notice of the information, on the flyer, around senior students NOT to be at junior disco and junior students NOT to be at the senior disco as well as the requirements for signing in and collecting students, as refusal on the night of the disco may offend.

Please find below some important information for our Year 6 students and families to explore regarding upcoming information evenings, excellence programs and enrolment procedures from our local feeder high schools, Foxwell State Secondary College and Pimpama State Secondary College.