The traditional custodians of the land on which we walk live and learn - the Bullongin, Koombumerri and Yugambeh speaking peoples - and their Elders past, present and emerging.

Dear mums, dads, carers and colleagues

It has been an eventful fortnight with the relaxation of COVID restrictions, a class restructure and a sereve weather event that saw the school closed on Monday and Tuesday and then only open on Friday for children of essential workers. 

It has been a challenge to keep up, and I have greatly appreciated the lengths that everyone has gone to in order to successfully solve these challenges.  I would also like to extend our prayers, thoughts and best wishes to everyone affected by the flooding.  

Class restructure

The restructure finally took affect on Wednesday (as Monday & Tuesday saw schools closed).  It was very smooth thanks largely to the wonderful work of staff and the support of parents.  Well done to everyone involved.

Covid restrictions have changed

Last week, the Premier announced the easing of COVID-19 restrictions in Queensland, including the statewide mask mandate.  These restrictions take affect from 6:00 pm tonight (Friday 4 March).  

Face masks

From 6:00 pm tonight, face masks will no longer be required to be worn in schools for students, parents and staff.

* Face masks will still be required on public transport, and in hospitals, disability care, prisons, aged care, airports and planes.  

Staff, student, parent and volunteer restrictions

Excursions, assemblies, camps and visitors to schools

Our school can also resume activities such as assemblies, indoor group activities, excursions and school camps. 

For further details will be available soon on the Queensland Government COVID-19 website.

COVID cases at school

There are still cases of COVID reported to me that affect our school and community.  

Uniform blitz starts this Monday

As I indicated last issue, we will begin to enforce the student dress code at school.  Your children need to be in full and correct uniform each day.  Students who do not meet the code will receive sanctions.  Nobody wishes for this to be implemented so please ensure that your children are in correct school uniform.  If there is a problem on any given day, please contact your child's teacher for an exemption for that day. 

While the responsibility for providing uniforms for children remains with parents, the school will do all we can to help and support our families.  If you are experiencing difficulty with supplying uniforms for your child, please contact the ladies in the school office.  We have some stocks that we can provide to your children.  You just need to request them.  

If your child receives detention for incorrect uniform, it is the parent's decision to not comply that places them in this situation.  

Shoes for school

You will recall from enrolment induction that your children will need two different pairs of shoes for school - one formal set and one sports set.  Both sets of shoes need to be all black.  This is not new information to anyone at our school.  Once again, if you are experiencing difficulties providing these, please contact us.  

Tutu day was last Tuesday

With the once in a lifetime date occurring last Tuesday - 22.02.2022 - we decided to celebrate.  So we wore tutus to recognise all of the 2s in the date.  Thank you to everyone (staff and students) who joined in.

Wet weather

We have just experienced a week of incredible rainfall.  This has led to flooding and dangerous conditions in our community.  And at school, while the rain may have stopped, the condition of the grounds will take a few days to recover.  

At school, wet weather also means that we have what we call 'Wet Lunch Breaks'.  This means that full outside play opportunities are not available to children due to the conditions.  In some instances, it is possible for there to be no outdoor play whatsoever.  It can become a challenge to be inside the one room with 25 children for an extended period of time.  My sincere thanks to our staff who managed this across the past fortnight and to the students who endured these restrictions so well.

                    

Kind regards

Vic

Well done to these amazing learners!

Class	Students
1/2Mc	Milani and Tia
2A	Indi, Lizzy, Melah and Elle-Avieve
2B	Indiana
2F	Makaea and Elijah
2S	Ryan and Myla
2T	Eliveen, Avraj, Ohana & Saxon

               

Class	Students
3B	Livie
3/4C	Demi
3WH	Kendall and Zavier

                 

Class	Students
4C	Dakoda and Kodey
4K	Harlan
4P	Brock
4W	Elsie, Thilini, Rachel, Archer and Emmeline

                 

Class	Students
5B	Lily
5EN	Dazerel
5LN	Tiara and Archer
5M	Alana
5W	Caleb, Paige, Cooper, Brianna, Rylee, Ellie, Eva, Eli, Harper, Memphis and the Emerald Crew

               

Class	Students
6C	Hayden & Pippa
6K	Henko
6W	Kobe & Dakota

           

Learning about working in the pandemic

Last week 2T was visited by a nurse who works at GCUH. Mandy spoke to our class and explained what she does at work to support the community when they are not well. Mandy also expressed the difficulties she and her colleagues have experienced working through a pandemic.

All of the students showed empathy and compassion for Mandy and her team, and wanted to do something to thank the doctors and nurses who have been working tirelessly to keep us healthy and safe. The students decided to write letters to thank them.  We also delivered Kit Kats so they could have a 'break' on us.

               

Caring about others

Showing kindness and compassion to make the lives of others a little better is just one of the character traits that we work hard to develop at school.  Well done to the Year 5 students from 2021 who were recognised this week for their support of the Kmart wishing tree appeal.

          

Colour explosions

2A are loving their science at the moment.  They are learning to identify and describe the physical change in materials when they are mixed together. This week, they experimented with mixing milk and food colouring together, and observed the changes when we added dish washing liquid. It became a colour explosion!

         

Learning about collaboration is important

Collaboration is a difficult but essential skill to develop.  Developing it can be fun though!

Chess coaching begins NEXT Wednesday afternoon.  We have engaged a professional coach to join our three chess staff, to stretch our players even further - This is why the cost has risen this year.

Children will be able to attend:

• Weekly chess coaching and
• Up to five tournaments across the year (additional registration costs are involved)   

Our chess club has space for 40 students so please register soon.  

WHEN:  After school on Wednesdays 2:30 - 3:30pm

VENUE:  Staffroom

COST:  $4 per week (Invoiced by term)

REGISTER:  Please email Michelle or phone the school on 55968333 to register your children

We are holding a free dress day to support the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence.  This is our KINDNESS DAY and it starts with you.  So join in the movement and bring your best kindness.  

Date:  Friday 18 March

Theme:  Wear ORANGE

Representative Sport

Broadwater Swimming Carnival

Congratulations to Cooper, Zahra, Mylah, Remmy and Roxy who competed at the 2022 Broadwater Swimming carnival. They all did their best and we are very proud of their efforts.

Well done to Zahra and Cooper for progressing to the South Coast Regional swimming carnival.

Broadwater Basketball

Congratulations to Kiahna, Kiani, Leah, Tiyahn, Jordan, Memphis and Tumoana who will be trialling for the Broadwater Basketball team next week.

Broadwater AFL

Congratulations to Remmy, Roxy and Harmony, they will be trialling for the Broadwater AFL team next week.

Broadwater Trials next fortnight

Kokoda training 

We have started our 2022 Kokoda campaign and will have our first weekend training on the March 12. We began with a beep test all of your students did an excellent job and pushed themselves.  Well done to all who were involved.

Choir

Thanks to an ease in restrictions this year we are allowed to start choir again! ? Our choir will be a combined year level group from Grades 1-6 and will rehearse on Friday at 2nd Break with Mrs Blyth in the Junior Music Room near the cafe, all are welcome. (We will start something up for Prep later in the year)

Musical OR Wakakirri

This week years 5 and 6 have voted for their preferred performance opportunity for 2022.  As a Musical is a HUGE commitment for our Arts teachers (and they are at Coomera Rivers for fewer days this year), we are gauging interest to make sure that students would prefer that to a Wakakirri. Stay tuned for the results!  Either way rehearsals will take place on Tuesday afternoons beginning term 2.

Instrumental music

Junior and Senior Strings are off to a brilliant start this year and Mrs Blyth is loving her Mondays working with these students. A special shout out to Thilini, Arabella, Mayari, Emma, Frankie T, Frankie G, Megan, Eila, Landon and Mrs Zander for giving up their break time to come and help out the beginner strings. ?

Mr Owen's beginner groups have been super enthusiastic to get started on their instrument journey and Senior band has kicked off with an awesome first rehearsal this week.

Classroom music

Year 1s have had great fun this week playing some rhythmic patterns on instruments to some Encanto songs and singing and playing Doggy doggy where's your bone.
Year 5 have used Mrs Blyth's new music staff to revise their Music staff knowledge. Which rhyme did you use as a child? 'Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit/ Elephants Great Big Dirty Feet/ EGBDF are the lines of the treble clef. They also used their aural skills to identify instruments and tempo (speed) in a choir performance of Toto's Africa.

On Thursday morning before heading to class we thought it would be a good idea to sit down as a group to brainstorm some tickled pink and green for growth to help gather feedback to help improve our OSHC service and also give our students more input into what they want to do with their time at OSHC. All students sat together with their friends and came up with some awesome ideas! This was such an effective way to involve our children and for them to give us more ideas of what they would like to do at OSHC. We love hearing your suggestions; so please let us know!

Happy Families premium account available to our families

Our P&C has invested in the emotional support for our entire community this year and has engaged Dr Justin Coulson to share his expertise with us. 

You may have seen Dr Coulson on television. He talks regularly about parenting, education and psychology issues for The TODAY Show, The Project, Studio 10, Mornings, The Daily Edition and Parental Guidance.

Families have FREE access to his Happy Families website. The P&C has paid the 12-month account membership for all of our families. You are welcome to access it when you wish.

The link to access your FREE Happy Families account can be found here.  Further details can also be found in the flyer below.   If you have any questions, please contact the P&C.

Is it time to update your family portrait?  

If it is, well then we have the fundraiser for you!

For a $20 donation to the P&C, you will receive 20 minute photo session and a 10 x 13 portrait of your family.

In addition, you can, at time of viewing your images, secure additional poses and copies at some REALLY discounted rates. They even have payment options!

That said, purchasing additional images is NOT a requirement of this special $20 family photo promotion. You can simply come along and have your​ photo session and then, at time of viewing, select the image you would like to receive for your donation. There is absolutely NO obligation to purchase any additional images.

What a wonderful way to update your family portrait for just $20!

This would make a GREAT Mother's Day present!

All the details on how to book can be found on the flyer below. The photo shoot will take place on Saturday 26 March. For more information please contact the P&C.

Thank you to our families for their wonderful support of our Cookie Dough Fundraiser.

883 tubs were sold! Massive effort! 

Cookie Dough delivery will be Thursday 31 March

We will advertise collection arrangements closer to delivery date.

of P&C Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting of the Coomera Rivers State School P&C will be held on Tuesday 22 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 15 March.

A general meeting of the association will be held directly after the AGM.

Get your Sport House colours ready!

With Sport Fun Days scheduled for the last week of Term 2, now is time to start thinking about those house colour accessories!

Our sports house shirts are made of a breathable fabric, have a collar for sun protection, school logo and, most importantly, your house colour and name!
Orders of these shirts will open via Flexischools today and, to allow production of the shirts in time for Cross Country, orders need to close on Wednesday 18 May at 4pm.

We have included below the size chart to assist with sizing for your orders. This chart is also accessible from the Flexischools site when ordering.

If you have any questions, please email the P&C.