Dear mums, dads, carers and colleagues

Three headline events this week showed the depth of opportunity and talent at Coomera Rivers this week.  Our Wakakirri troupe performed wonderfully well to a packed house at the Logan Entertainment Centre last Tuesday night.  Their story line of Step up and don't sloth off saw the 105 performers show how kids can step up and help mum to make daily lives more effective.  Thank you the large team who supported the troupe with costumes, props and management.  Super job.  Special thanks to our music team (and support teachers) who coordinated this opportunity.  And thank you sincerely to the parents and families who came along to show their support.  Well done to everyone.

In sport this week, Keagan, Zharnae, Mitchell and Eden competed at the South Coast track and field carnival.  I was very proud of their efforts and representation of our school.  Congratulations to them.  This week also saw Abbey compete at the national diving championships.  Her results are shown below and were simply outstanding.  Well done to our athletes.

And of course, the Community Fair saw thousands of community members enjoy a day of fun - rides, performances, games and more - to support our school.  Thank you to everyone who attended.  Congratulations to the most amazing P&C team in the land on what was an incredibly successful event for our school as well as our community.  I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to the staff team who invested to assist in stalls and various support roles across the day - especially the chilly dunk tank.  It was a true team effort.  

This week:

This week we will see Year 4 heading off to camp (Wednesday to Friday) and Year 3 are on excursion, attending Ngutana-Lui in Brisbane as part of their learning program.  This is always an incredible experience.  We also have more childcare centres visiting us to transition their Kindy kids to school and are conducting our first Maori and Pasifika Islander Parent Information Session at 2:45pm this Tuesday in the school staff room.  Thank you to Vicky Rose from the Nerang Neighbourhood Centre for their assistance.

Swimming lessons (Term 4)

We will be conducting swimming lessons in Term 4.  Information will be sent home in the coming week or so.  Please keep an eye out for it.  Only Prep, Year 2, Year 3 and Year 5 students are involved in the swimming program this year.  

Squiggles

Ms Parker and I have started a creative design challenge each week where all children can create the finish of a drawing that I have started.  It is similar to the Mr Squiggle television show from many years ago.  Here are a couple of the highly commended entries for Squiggle 1 and 2.  

Squiggle 1

Squiggle 2

Have a great week

Kind regards

Vic

Congratulations to the following students who were rewarded with a Student Excellence Award this week. The reasons for the achievement vary from student to student however the common element is that they demonstrate excellence in being respectful and safe learners.

What an amazing event for our school and community!  This must certainly be one of the highlights for 2019.  Rides, performances, tasty food, games, music, raffles, fireworks, smiles, laughter and lots of the right noises all added to the wonderful family and community atmosphere.  2019 resulted in records crowds too.  Thank you so much to our awesome sponsors, community members, students, staff and P&C for such a great experience.  

Check out the galleries below for some of the photos from the day.

Is your child's device ready for learning?

We are here for learning and everything we do is focused on achieving this. We utilise the latest technologies and digital pedagogy to support and enhance student learning with the Australian Curriculum.  Our Digital Pedagogy Team and teachers work together to ensure that at Coomera Rivers, everyday, students are engaged in a connected learning environment that promotes digital literacies, problem solving, creativity, collaboration and self-reflection.

To assist our teachers with this, please ensure that your child's iPad has:

• all the required school apps for learning  (For the full list refer to our iTunes U course.  Enrol code ECZ-BBL-YFL)
• a good strong case for protection
• headphones for independent learning opportunities
• a photo of your child or their name as their screen saver
• no passcode so that the teacher or our IT techs can access the device when needed
• automatic App Updates and Downloads turned OFF *New*

* With over 1500 devices on our network we need to find ways to reduce the use of bandwidth to ensure all students remain connected for learning.  Automatic downloads and updates can be problematic and turning these options off can save bandwidth and storage on devices.  Our teachers will be assisting students in turning off automatic downloads on their iPads next week if they have not already done so.  Turning these off does not affect the use of the device at school and school apps can be manually updated from the App Store when required.  
 

Steps To Turn Off Automatic Downloads

• On the Home screen, tap the Settings icon.
• Scroll down the Settings menu and select iTunes & App Store.
• Scroll down this page until you see the AUTOMATIC DOWNLOADS heading. Here, you’ll see four options:
  Music – When turned on, any purchased iTunes music will download automatically.

  Apps – When turned on, any purchased apps will download automatically.

  Books – When turned on, any purchased Books will download automatically.

  Updates – When turned on, updates for any apps on your device will download as soon as they become available.

• To turn these off move the sliders to the left so they turn white.

After School Sporting Opportunities

Last week we have had the team from AFL Auskick at our school doing activities and promoting their after school program (it commenced Wednesday this week). NRL Development Officers have been out this week promoting the League Stars program. It is an after school program commencing Monday 12 August at 2.50pm. Visit leaguestars.com for further information or registration.

     
    
Athletics

Well done to our students, Keagan, Zharnae, Mitchell and Eden who qualified to compete at the South Coast Regional Athletics carnival this week. A remarkable achievement to win at our school carnival, win at the Broadwater District Carnival and compete at the Regional level. It is no surprise that the students who do well are the ones who often turn up to the Running Club, Athletics training and other sporting opportunities at our school.

   

Cricket

Good luck to Chris, Jordan and Oscar who are representing our school at the Broadwater District Cricket Trials next week.

Touch Football

The Coomera Rivers State School Touch Football competition commences next week.  This week we held some “friendly” matches where we trained students to be referees. The competition is open to all classes in Years Five and Six and is conducted at playtimes on the oval.

NRL skills camp

Thank you to the PLAY League Stars who visited this week to take classes through some rugby league skills sessions.  The children absolutely loved the lessons.  

Each Monday morning, our teachers in Years 3 and 4 do an early morning activity session called Move it Monday.  This week they were involved in skipping and they had a ball - starting their day with some fun and fitness.

Well done to Abbey this week on her competition results at the school sports Australia diving championship.  That's right.  These are the Australian Championships.  In her individual event she earned a score of 94.00 and came 7th in 10yr girls and in her synchronised 13-14yr girls (her partner is older) they came 11th with a score 110.58.

The photos is the gallery below seem to disguise the heights and skills involved in the sport.  This is most certainly not a sport for the faint of heart.

She has had an amazing week and is looking forward to beating her score next year.

This week we welcomed nine Year 10 students from Pimpama State Secondary College that chose to complete their work experience placement at Coomera Rivers. The aims of the work experience program are to:

• Increase students’ knowledge, understanding, skills and appropriate attitudes of a specific type of work.
• Help students clarify their employment and career goals.
• Increase students’ understanding and appreciation of general workplace skills, procedures and expectations.

So while pursuing a career in teaching may not be where these students see themselves in the near future, it certainly opened their eyes to what teaching involves.  It really is different to being a student in the classroom.  What was even more exciting was that 8 out of the 9 students who chose to come to Coomera Rivers were past students.  It was wonderful to see how much they'd grown and matured since leaving our classrooms.

Congratulations to Pimpama SSC on a wonderful program and to these students who certainly embraced the experience.

Rebecca, Shontayne, Hunter, Mason, Caesar, Paige, Elisha and Mason (Absent from photo - Caden)

Overcoming obstacles has been our main focus at before and after school care this week. We recognise that this topic is broad and provided opportunities for students to overcome obstacles in a plethora of ways. First and foremost, students were involved in a real obstacle course, where they quite literally overcame obstacles of different shapes and sizes. As they were completing the course, educators encouraged students to persist, push harder and overcome any barrier they may face. Students also found obstacles while playing with construction toys. After focusing on how to overcome the problem, they worked as a team to build a very impressive tower. Of course, we also learned the importance of overcoming any personal and social obstacles too. Educators wrote a quote of the day on the whiteboard outside the OSHC room in an effort to help students become motivated and ready to overcome any obstacle they may face.

Orders are now open.

Each year we offer our graduating class the chance to purchase a signature bear as a memento of their time at Coomera Rivers.  The signature bears are available to order now via Flexischools with orders closing on Friday 9 August at 4:00pm.  If you do require a deadline extension you MUST email the P&C prior to the deadline to request one.

Once the deadline has past, orders will then be arranged and personalised (with class of 2019 school logo) and will arrive in time to be distributed to class late in Term 4 with students offered the opportunity to have their bears signed before bringing them home.

If you require more information please email the P&C.

This year we are once again offering Prep families the chance to purchase a souvenir of their child’s first year of school!  There is a range of different products to choose from to have their individual design made with.

This very important day of the year is fast approaching and, with that in mind, Father’s Day Stall vouchers are now open on Flexischools.

Purchase a voucher via Flexischools between now and the deadline of 4pm Wednesday 14 August and your child will then have a chance to visit the stall, with their class, during the week starting Monday 19 August.

There is an amazing variety of gifts or children to select from at the stall and we love watching the thought and consideration that students take when considering what to purchase for their special person.