Dear Mums, Dads, Carers and Colleagues

This week we have completed the restructure in Years 1-6.  Prep will make their changes next Friday. Thank you to everyone who supported their children with the changes.  They were made simpler because of your assistance.  

New Newsletter Format

We are proud to inform you that we will be producing a new eNewsletter format.  The purpose of moving to this new format is to engage the school community more effectively and provide our families and the community with a more effective and content rich newsletter format that is phone and tablet friendly.  This new format will include videos, image galleries, online bookings, feedback forms, calendars and much much more.

To subscribe, select Subscribe to Newsletter from the menu above and complete the form.

Important dates

There are a few events that are fast approaching.  Make sure you have all the information you need.

• Free dress day  (28 February)
• School disco  (8 March)
• P&C AGM (19 March)
• Parent-Teacher Interviews (26 & 27 March)
• Colour Run (29 March)

It has been a busy week in classrooms this week.  Here is just a snapshot!

Prep:  Fine motor skills are those that involve a refined use of the small muscles which control the hand, fingers and thumb. Little hands need to develop dexterity and strength. The ability to do this is an important step in learning to write.

Check out the concentration of students from Prep S, as they work on developing their fine motor skills.

Year 1:  IC explored the days of the week in maths.  After reading the very hungry caterpillar, they wrote their own version 'The very hungry dinosaur'.  They then shared their creative writing with their reading buddies in 5K.  Reports were that they were very good and some children even said that the stories were funny!

 

Year 3:  Book tastings are a fun, easy way to get kids out of their comfort zones and engaged in new genres, authors, and styles. After all, books are a lot like food—you won’t know if you like something until you try it!

Broadwater District Trials:

Congratulations to the following students who have been selected to attend the Broadwater District Representative Trials for their respective sports:

• Swimming:    Congratulations to Sylas and Cruz for representing Coomera Rivers at the Broadwater District Swimming Trials last Tuesday.  They both represented our school with pride and swam personal best times.
• Basketball:  Eden, Aysa, Dallin, Matthew and Blake.
• Netball:  Lacey, Georgina, Haydn-Lee, Chezaan and Amirah.
• Touch:  Alyssus, Charlie, Kobe
• AFL:  Jordan, Noah, Tayla

This week's trials include: 

• Rugby League Boys 11 Years (Monday),
• Rugby League Boys 12 Years (Tuesday). A mouth guard is required to trial, students can change into a jersey and boots if they wish.
  
  

AFL:

Well done to our AFL coach, Mr Longworth, on a successful first training session with our Coomera Rivers AFL team.  We have a trial match against Livingstone Christian College in the coming weeks.

Running Club:

Great to see students out having fun and doing fitness before school this morning. Just a reminder that running club has expanded to 4 days a week this year. Aerobic (longer distance) training on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Sprint and Power training on Wednesday and Fridays.

Each week this year, I have been updating our families with information about our school’s behaviour expectations. Our school Positive Behaviour for Learning plan is on the school website should you wish to peruse it.  Our school invests most of our time towards teaching and rewarding the positive behaviours that our community wants.

Topics covered

• Newsletter 1 – Swearing and inappropriate / offensive language and gestures
• Newsletter 2 – Managing conflict
• Newsletter 3 - Aggression
• Newsletter 4 – Violence (including threats to others)
• Newsletter 5 – Bullying
• Newsletter 6 - Cyber-safety

Violence

There is never a place at school (or in our community) for violence or threats of violence.  We define violence at school as a forceful physical act that is intended to hurt someone.  It involves striking the head but it is not retricted to this body zone.  It can involve punching, kicking or striking with an object.  It can be initiated or retalitatory in nature.  

In simplest terms, students who display violence towards other students or staff will recieve heavy consequences.  There is just no place for violence. Adults who display or threaten violence towards school staff or members of the community on school premises will be reported to the police.

Thursday 28 February (the last day of February) is recognised around the world as Rare Disease Day.  It is important for our school as we have a number of students who have been diagnosed with some of these rarely heard about conditions.  The impact for these young children is very significant - mobility, cognitive function and outlook can all be compromised.  And all the while, their families are stoicly by their side doing whatever is necessary.

To recognise our kids I would like to invite our entire school to wear LIGHT BLUE on Thursday 28 February to show your support for children and families who suffer rare diseases.  We are not requesting a gold coin donation for this day - just a united show of support.  Please join us.  

General requirements.  Children need to wear:

• Appropriate, sunsmart clothing
• Shoes that cover their feet.  Joggers are ideal.
• A hat
• The theme colour is light blue but you can wear any shade of blue if light blue is not available.

The Department of Education's Cyber-safety and Reputation Management team will be delivering cyber-safety presentations to our Years 4-6 students during week 5 & 6. (Parents are welcome to attend). Eight sessions will be presented over two Fridays.

• Friday Week 5: 10:00am, 11:00am, 12:00pm;
• Friday Week 6: 10:00am, 11:00am, 12:00pm PLUS 2 sessions during the disco on Friday evening Week 6.

Content covered will include:

• Understanding digital footprints and responsible digital citizenship
• How to protect personal information when creating online accounts
• Cyberbullying and standing up for friends online Account privacy and how to create a strong password
• Responding to negative online content
• How to handle yourself if you're having a difficult time online.

Cyber-safety Presentations Week 5

Disco with a difference - Barn Dance Disco!

Howdy partner!

Come along in your best Barn Dance outfit BUT never fear, whilst there might be the occasional boot scooting boogie dance opportunity, the music will still be that hip, cool and rad stuff the kids think is AWESOME!  Get those cowgirls, cowboys and sheriffs ready to come scoot along to our Barn Dance Disco on Friday March 8.

The Junior Hoedown (Prep to Year 2) starts at 4.30pm and finishes at 6.00pm.  The Senior Stampede (Year 3 to Year 6) starts at 6.30pm and finishes at 8.00pm.

The fair dinkum deadline to purchase your Barn Dance Disco tickets is Wednesday 6 March at 4:00pm - tickets available via Flexischools.

Please refer to the flyer below for all the details.

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.
• We are always here to help. If you would like to attend this event but, due to circumstances, are unable to meet the payment deadline please email the P&C prior to the deadline to request a payment extension.

Nothing better than fun fundraising and what could be more fun than a fundraising School Community Colour Run?

This term, in conjunction with CUA Fun Run, we will be holding a School Community Colour Run on Friday 29 March.

Last Friday your children should have come home with a sponsorship and information booklet that outlines how the program works including how to set up your online fundraising platform and how to order your prizes! We have also included below a Parent Information letter to get you started.

All profits from this event (and all P&C fundraising activities this year) will be invested back into CLASSROOM AIR-CONDITIONING! So please get behind this donation drive, share it with friends and family near and far and help us get this CLASSROOM AIR-CONDITIONING off to a great start!

Please find the important event details and deadlines below:

Fundraising start date: Friday 22 February
Fundraising and online registration deadline: 9am Friday 22 March
Prize orders open: Monday 25 March
Colour Run event day: Friday 29 March
Prize orders close: Thursday 4 April
Prize delivery: Early Term 2

Important - To be eligible to take part in the Colour Run, each student must raise a minimum of $10 AND register online (even if doing the paper based cash only donations) before the fundraising deadline.

Good to know:

• Whilst online fundraising is preferable, families that do not wish to do fundraising online do have the option of a paper based donation. Please refer to the sponsorship and information booklet for more details.
• All students MUST be registered online - even if choosing the paper based cash donation option
• When setting up your online platform the account is set up in the parents name and then you will be promoted to set a “student” account under your parent profile.
• When setting up a student profile you must use the child’s full first name and correct class but you can use a last initial for the surname if you prefer.
• You do NOT have to upload a child’s image to the student profile unless you wish to.

And if you need more incentive to fundraise….

If CLASSROOM AIR-CONDITIONING and rewards are not enough to get you fundraising up a storm we have a bonus promotions on offer that we are sure will help:

• The class, from each year level, with the highest fundraising (per capita) will win the opportunity to have a water balloon fight with Mr Graham, their Deputy and their classroom teacher.

On the day - Colour Run event day information.

• Teachers will confirm what time your class will be participating in the Colour Run by no later than Tuesday 26 March.
• Families are more than welcome to come along and cheer their children on!
• Children participating in the event will need to bring along on the day white or light coloured old clothes to participate in, towel to dry off with and a garbage bag to bring the colour run clothes home in.

If you have any questions please contact the P&C.  Happy fundraising!

The Annual General Meeting of the Coomera Rivers State School P&C will be held on Tuesday 19 March at 6:00pm in Corporate Services.

Nominations for the volunteer executive positions are open now and nomination forms can be requested at Corporate Services or by emailing the P&C.

Nominations for executive positions must be returned to Corporate Services with nominations closing at 3:00pm on Tuesday 12 March.

The general meeting of the association for March will be held directly after the AGM.

We have a very special event exclusive to our Prep families – our Prep Scholastic Book Fair.

During this past week, Prep students have visited our iCentre during their library lesson time and have had the opportunity to view the amazing variety of books available for purchase.

As the children browsed through the display of books they discovered that each book is numbered. The numbers are a time saving idea so that children don't have to write the full title of each book they 'wish' to purchase. Your child may have come home with a 'Wish List' with a list of numbers that may not make a lot of sense to you (I'm sure some wish lists will be longer than some!) To help make this 'Wish List' make sense and provide you with a clear picture of what books appeal to your child, we have emailed home a complete list of books housed in our Prep Scholastic Book Fair with their corresponding number and price.

This will help you make an informed decision on whether you'll purchase from this 'Wish List' or not. This is also particularly useful for parents who are unable to make to the Prep Scholastic Book Fair themselves. Payments can be made using cash, eftpos or by filling out your credit card details on the back of the 'Wish List' form. Students can then place their orders before or after school NEXT WEEK (Monday 25/2 - Friday 1/3), during lunch breaks or during their library lesson time. Students who come to school with payment should let their classroom teacher know so that they are given an opportunity to make their purchase and their money/payment method is kept in a safe place while they wait for a suitable time to visit the Prep Scholastic Book Fair again.

Students will not bring home their BOOK orders on the day of purchase. We will endeavour to deliver most book orders on the Friday afternoon of Week 5 (1/3) or in Week 6. Any order that cannot be filled in its entirety, will be held until we can fill the complete order. We expect any orders that we need to make to complete these orders will be received during Week 6 of this term and distributed by no later than the end of Week 7.

We're sure you'll be impressed with the range of books on display and hope that you too get an opportunity to visit the iCentre during our Prep Scholastic Book Fair. The Prep Scholastic Book Fair is open each morning before school at 7:45am until 9:00am and each afternoon from 2:00pm until 3:00pm and will officially close on Friday 1 March at 9:00am.

Prep Book Fair
We will be looking for 2 volunteers daily from 8.30am to 10.30am on the following days to fill orders placed at the Prep Book Fair:-

• Wednesday 27th February - 1 more volunteer required
• Thursday 28th February - 1 more volunteer required
• Friday 1st March - 2 more volunteers required

Cafe
We need assistance from 8.30am to 10.30am in the Cafe on the following days:-

• Tuesday 26th February - 1 more volunteer required
• Friday 1st March - 1 more volunteer required

iCentre Book Covering
Miss Katie has bags of books for book covering ready for collection from the iCentre.

Future Volunteer Opportunities

Barnyard Disco
We will be looking for volunteers to assist at the Barnyard Disco on Friday 8th March. The evening is broken down into the following shifts:-

• BBQ Volunteers - 2 volunteers required from 3.30pm to 5.30pm
• Bread Buttering - 2 volunteers required from 4.00pm to 4.30pm
• Junior Disco Cafe Shift 1 - 8 volunteers required from 4.30pm to 5.15pm
• Junior Disco Cafe Shift 2 - 8 volunteers required from 5.15pm to 6.00pm
• Senior Disco Cafe Shift 1 - 8 volunteers required from 6.30pm to 7.15pm
• Senior Disco Cafe Shift 2 - 8 volunteers required from 7.15pm to 8.00pm

If you are interested in assisting with any of the above opportunities please email volunteers@coomerariversss.eq.edu.au

Induction is NECESSARY

Currently we have a volunteer amnesty period in place until the start of week 7. From week 7 onwards volunteers will need to have completed the 2019 induction and registration process in order to be able to volunteer at the school, this of course includes excursions. So if you have not already done so request an information package on how to become registered for 2019.

Thanks for checking in and keeping up with all that is happening at school.  Have a great week

Vic

Vic Graham

Principal