Dear mums, dads, carers and colleagues

May I begin this week's issue by extending our collective best wishes those affected by the bush fires in the hinterland.  I sincerely hope that families and property remain safe and well.  The Year 5 students are studying natural disasters in class at the moment and bush fires are included in their research.  This natural disaster is too close to us.  

This issue is probably the biggest issue of the year so far.  It is hard to fathom just how much happens around our school and for our children.  I won't go into detail about everything in this section but please continue to scroll through the stories below to see both what has been happening this week and what is on the horizon and heading our way. 

Exciting events and achievements this week included:

• Author visit in the lead up to Book Week (Term 4)
• SSC Invitational athletics carnival was awesome fun
• Cluster chess tournament with lots of our players impressing
• ACE project winners
• eSports - Coomera Rivers was the only public school invited to the event that saw the most prestigious and innovative private schools on the Gold Coast come together.  It is very satisfying and humbling to see us recognised alongside these schools
• Year 2 enjoyed their excursion to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. 

Coming events include:

• Parent-teacher interviews (this coming Monday)
• Young Change Agents pesentations (Tuesday evening)
• Sports Fun Days (Week 10)
• Special assemblies (Week 10)
• Book Week (Term 4 Week 2)

P&C conference

Thank you to our P&C executive for attending the annual P&C's Queensland State Conference this weekend.  It is a very full program aimed at developing the skills and knowledge of P&Cs across the state. I learned today that there are 1230 P&C Associations in Queensland with over 24 000 volunteers in schools who collectively raised over 30 million dollars for thier schools in 2018.   Amazing!  

Lights!  Coomera!  Action!

Auditions for our Lights! Coomera! Action event have been running over Weeks 7 and 8 but there’s still a few decisions that need to be made around the senior dance competition. We are hoping to have this finalised this week. Our student councillors have been giving up their lunch breaks to judge these performances and provide each performer with some encouraging feedback. They now appreciate how hard it is to judge these acts and only choose the top 3. However, with the support of staff, they’ve been doing an exceptional job.

Mark these dates in your calendars because we are going to be showcasing the talent of our Coomera Rivers winners and runners up very soon in the following assemblies.

• Lights Coomera Action Runners Up Assembly – Monday 16th September (Juniors 8:30AM & Seniors 1:30)  Students who have been awarded a 2nd or 3rd placing will perform at both the junior and the senior assembly.

• Lights! Coomera! Action – Winners Showcase Assembly – Friday 20th September (Juniors 8:30AM & Seniors 1:30)

Students who have been awarded 1st place will perform at both the junior and the senior assemblies. There is also a special performance by our very own student councillors.

Treasure hunt

This week, avid train spotters will be on the look out for Wonder Woman.  Find her somewhere else in the newsletter and email Mrs Artz with the story title before 4:00pm each Tuesday.  This is what she looks like.  Winners receive a slushie for each child in the family and every entry earns a ticket into the draw to win $25 at the book fair.

Last week readers had to find Captain America.  The lucky winners were:

• Sophie (3L) and Abbie (1S) win the slushies this week.  

Have a great week

Kind regards

Vic

It's getting close to the end of term and while some of us may be feelig tired and ready for holidays, we still have some fantastic students achieving and striving for excellence.  Congratulations to the following students for earning a Student Excellence Award this week.

On Thursday, Coomera Rivers managed to secure a visit from Matt Stanton who is the author and illustrator of the very popular 'How to be a funny kid' series. All students were treated to an entertaining and hilarious session where Matt's main aims are to engage reluctant readers and inspire students to write. Each session was tailor-made for the age of the audience and we've never heard so much laughter emanate from the hall.

Here's a summary of his sessions:

For Prep to 2

Matt ran a session which encouraged students to realise that their imagination is fun. Matt says, "In this session we imagine our imagination. We use it together to create a funny character that no one has ever seen before in the history of the world (drawn on a whiteboard). We read picture books from the Books That Drive Kids Crazy series and the kids leave encouraged that they all have an imagination and that it's fun and funny to use."

For Year 3 and 4

These sessions are focused more around the Funny Kid series and how to write funny stories. Matt explains, "We talk about how jokes are short stories and how to make stories. We focus on narrative structure, original and funny characters and whole host of creative tools they can use in their own storytelling. We also talk about how to navigate 'getting stuck' and how drawing a story first can be a great way of engaging your creativity in a different way when writing gets difficult.

For Year 5 and 6

Senior students did a similar thing to the Year 3 and 4s but with a slightly older focus. Matt explains, "We look at how we are all creative and you can use your creativity to create whatever path in life that you want. Again, it's built around the Funny Kid series and Matt shows them how techniques he shows them are evidenced within the book. It's has a bit more of a behind-the-scenes look at my practice and career on top of the toolbox nature for Grades 3-4.

What the students thought

We asked the students what they thought and here's just some of their feedback:

Prep A students:
Kayla - I loved it when Matt read us his funny story.
Chorus - The two books he read to us made me laugh so hard.
Baylin - My favourite part was when he drew the characters tummy as a basketball.

Prep K
It was about funny books.
He read us funny stories
We used our imagination to create a new character we haven't seen.
He taught us how to stretch out our imagination.

1C was inspired by Matt Stanton and created their own characters! We then created our own story plots and wrote our first stories about our characters.

2C students:
Lana: He was funny and really creative. He puts in a lot of effort in his day to write his books.
Addison: I like Matt’s books because they are very funny and make me laugh.

2J students:
Matt was very funny. We loved how he taught us how to stretch our imagination and draw a unique character.

4C students::
It was amazing, fantastic and spectacular!
Hysterical!
I would rate it one of the greatest experiences!
The most amazing, the most fantastic, the most great, the most wonderful, the most lovely thing in the world!
Adventurous!
Just outright the most amazing!!!
Interesting!

5M students::
It was funny how he talked about his kids.
It was inspiring.
His shortcuts for writing and tips were excellent.
I want to read all of his books.
It was cool how he signed our books.
It helped with drawing pictures.

We hope your child came home from school truly inspired by Matt and eager to tell you all about his work and stories.  Our school iCentre now has plenty of these books for students to borrow and we're sure they are going to be hot property!

Year 2 students enjoyed a thrilling, jam packed day of exciting adventures at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary this week.  The fun began as we explored the newly constructed Gruffalo Trail.  We took the journey through the deep dark wood and met many of our favourite characters along the way with the new augmented reality app.  The fun led us to our first show, the ‘Big Bang Theory’ Reptile Show, where we saw an array of venomous snakes and reptiles up close. ‘Feather’ the rather impressive Boa Constrictor, was certainly a favourite amongst the children.

Our next stop was Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary's new free flight bird show – WildSkies, which introduced us to the majestic world of flight.  We met many of Australia’s most beautiful species of birds including the largest bird of prey in Australia - the Wedge-tailed eagle, the Australian Pelican, along with colourful parrots and birds of prey.  The children were in awe as these beautiful birds flew wild, skimming our heads.  

Taking in the sanctuary’s natural environment via train and foot, allowed us to see a large variety of familiar and unfamiliar animals from all around the world. Children pointed out the many koalas, Tasmanian devils, dingos, lizards and flying foxes on our train ride to the kangaroo enclosure. We walked through the red-dirt landscape to pat the lazy red kangaroos and then headed to the grassy fields to say hello to grey kangaroos, rock-dwelling brush-tailed rock-wallaby’s, inquisitive emus and sun-bathing crocodiles.  We immersed ourselves in an environment that existed millions of years ago, The Lost Valley. The journey through the ancient super-continent Gondwana allowed us to experience unique and distinctive flora and wildlife.

As we rode on the bus back to school, after our big day of exploration, children were still buzzing from excitement and ready to share their favourite moments of the day with their loved ones.  As studied in Science this year, Year 2 students were able to develop their knowledge of living things and how to care for the environment, by the exciting range of fun and educational experiences at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.  It was a brilliant day!

The ACE Project is our innovative “think-tank” enterprise experience, which was enjoyed by 48 year 5 students from Pimpama State School, Ormeau State School, Picnic Creek State School and Coomera Rivers State School, 17 year 11 students from Pimpama State Secondary College and 5 student leaders from Griffith Business School. 

ACE represents Adaptability, Creativity and Enterprise.  Modern businesses not only have to adapt to change, but instigate it, to innovate for future success. Creativity is at the heart of innovation, and is the most powerful competitive advantage a business can have. Being enterprising and entrepreneurial involves spotting an unexploited opportunity and using initiative and a proactive approach to make the most of it. To develop these capabilities, the students participated in a two day challenge. They worked in mixed teams to create a new product idea for the Cheesecake Shop.

The teams came up with some fantastic ideas including “cake train” based on the sushi train model, “glow in the dark cake pops” and “edible everything” (packaging, candles, serving utensils) to avoid any clean up or waste after a party! They had an incredible experience which we would not have been able to do without sponsorship from Paradise Point Community Branches Bendigo Bank, Gold Coast Trophies, Tribal Sport, The Cheesecake Shop Oxenford, Griffith University, Councillor Cameron Caldwell and Michael Crandon, MP.

Here's a special recount by two of our students, Abbey and Hannah:

We were lucky to be selected with  8 other students from Year 5 to participate in the ACE Project and represent Coomera Rivers.  This event was held at Pimpama State Secondary College over two days with the purpose being to experience how to run an enterprise and learn entrepreneurial skills.  We were joined by Year 11 students from Pimpama SSC who helped guide us through the activities.

We learned how to use the SCAMPER model to redesign chocolate mud cake.  SCAMPER is an acronym for:

Substitute
Combine
Adapt
Modify, magnify and minimize
Put it to other uses
Eliminate
Reverse

Our group won The Best Video award and The Best Teamwork Award for our edible packaging and utensils – “If you can’t eat it, you don’t need it!”  Overall it was a really fun day and we enjoyed working with students from other primary schools, former CRSS students and most of all, the food was great!

By Abbey and Hannah

Here’s what the rest of our peers thought:

Alexie - I like I got to meet new people and I loved the food expecially the cake!
Oliver P - I liked that I got to make new friends and it was very hands on.
Summer - I liked creating the products and making new friends with other schools.
Sebe - I liked being a businessman and I liked working with my mentors.
Ruby - I loved the food and working with my mentors.
Kade - I liked the writing the pitch and drawing the designs.
Oliver S - I liked making the video and making new friends.
Henry - It was fun winning and eating cake.
Hannah - I enjoyed doing the hands-on activities and using teamwork which is the award my team won.
Abbey - I liked seeing some of my old friends at different schools and getting to know the people at Coomera Rivers.

On Friday, Gardiner Chess came to Coomera Rivers as we hosted the Cluster Chess tournament in our hall.  Pimpama, Coomera Springs and Highland Reserve State Schools all came along and played some quality chess throughout the day, which comprised of 7 rounds of matches.  It was great to see the concentration, etiquette and and sportsmanship showed by all who participated.

Coomera Rivers were lucky enough to have winners in all 3 categories.

• Junior - Taylor from Prep M (only started playing chess in Term 2)
• Intermediate - Oliver from 2H
• Senior - Keagan from 4K

Well done Coomera Rivers and thank you to Mr Burrows, Miss Nic and Mrs McMurtrie for the leadership of our team and the tournament itself.

We were very proud that Coomera Rivers made it through to the semi-finals in one of the divisions missing out on the final by only 1 point.  The sportsmanship and enthusiasm our students showed was to be commended.

The day was not only about game play and sportsmanship, there were many valuable lessons taught to our students about their role as digital leaders of tomorrow.  The 4Rs of online behaviour fore-fronted the session.

4R's of Online Behaviour

1. RESPECT - Everyone is allowed their opinion
2. REASONING - I question things if my mind says no - don't
3. RESILIENCE - I just try not to read into it too much
4. RESPONSIBILITY - I am responsible for what I do online

Mr Steven Window (Cybersafety and Digital Well-being Advocate), encouraged the students to 'Soar with the BIRDS!'

• Block
• Ignore
• Report
• Don't feed the trolls
• Share it with a responsible adult

Thank you to the sponsors of the day Nvoke Future Learning and Flaktest Gaming and St Hilda's for hosting such a successful event.  Click here to see the Channel 7 news story.

1C and 1ME held their own Father's Day afternoon last week. Dads, granddads, uncles, brothers and mums all came to enjoy a range of activities, celebrate learning and spend some quality time together. A lovely afternoon was had by all.  Thank you to the teachers for opening their classrooms to our families.

Shiver me timbers, the prep precinct was overrun with pirates a plenty on Thursday morning, as teachers, students and fathers donned pirate regalia to celebrate Father's Day.  From walking the plank, to making pirate hooks there was plenty of activities to keep the scurvy crew entertained. 

Check out the gallery below.

The tension was high as year 5 and 6 Mathletics finalists battled it out on stage to take the honour of Mathletics Live winner on Thursday. Mathletics representative Trish Durham helped Mr Graham hand out the winning medallions to Kade from year 5 and Mackenzie from year 6.

Touch football competition

Our CRSS Touch competition has been running along smoothly. Students are loving the challenge, as well as playing their friends. Not much longer to go!

Running / Fitness Clubs

Tuesday and Thursday mornings:  Students are completing the hard yards to increase their general fitness.  It is great to see a heap of staff involved as well.

Wednesday morning:  Students have been participating in different fitness games to keep them active and energised before they start school in the morning.

Friday mornings:  Students have been showing off their skipping skills, whether it be individual skipping or group skipping, they are all enjoying their morning fitness.  Amity from 4F stated that 'It was enjoyable because it was fun.  I got to skip with my friends and I learned how to do the Criss-Cross. '  

Remember, it starts at 7:45am and finishes at 8:15am.  It is free and everyone is welcome to join.  

Hockey premiership   

Congratulations to Trey in Year 5. His Hockey team won their Grand Final on the weekend, Trey sealed the win with the final goal of the match. He is in the U15 final this weekend. Good luck!

Our annual Sports Fun Days (SFD) are in Week 10. There are 2 separate days.  

• The Senior (Years 3-6) SFD is on Wednesday 18 September.
• The Junior (Prep – Year 2) SFD is on Thursday 19 September.  Presentation to the champion house is on this day as well.

The general timetable for each day is outlined below.

National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) afternoon tea and information session

We would like to invite you for afternoon tea on Thursday 12 September 2019 in the staffroom at 1.30-2.30pm. We will have a representative from NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) joining us who will be able to answer any questions you may have.

Please click here to RSVP

We look forward to seeing you there. 

On Thursday 5^th September, 35 of our students attended an invitation only athletics carnival at Runaway Bay. Supported by 8 of our staff, the students impressed us all with their athleticism and returned to school adorned with a huge number of place ribbons. The staff were incredibly proud of these students and the effort and stamina that they displayed on the day, despite being hot and quite exhausted. Congratulations to all staff and students involved. Check out these photos and a video featuring our students, from My Gold Coast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqVDIIh2dcA

Important information for Coomera Rivers parents regarding changes to Individual Curriculum Plans for 2020.

The Department of Education has released a new Individual Curriculum Plan (ICP) policy which may affect your child. You may read the policy document here: https://education.qld.gov.au/curriculums/Documents/individual-curriculum-plan.pdf

Our review will be factoring in the key recommendation that students with an Intellectual Disability may continue with either a partial or whole year ICP. Students who do not have an Intellectual Disability may be able to access whole year level ICPs however this decision will be reached through consultation with teaching staff and families. 

Consequently, we wish to advise our families that our school is required to review all students’ current ICP plans and some plans will need to be changed. These changes may include either implementing a whole year level ICP or for some students, the decision may be to focus on targeted intervention programs and have no ICP in place. 

Please note, we will make the ICP decisions based on our professional judgement of your child’s learning skills and strengths, and through close consultation with families. 

Below is a list of Case Managers that you may wish to contact directly to discuss any questions you have arising from the updated ICP policy changes due for implementation from  2020 onwards. 

 Learning Support (STLaNs)

• Years 2-3   Samantha Fischer
• Years 4-6   Jody Ward

Student Support Centre (SSC)

• Year 2   Tracy Voce
• Years 3-5   Valen Dyson
• Head of Special Education:  Jacqui Walker

In Week 4 of this term, we will be holding a parent information session where you are welcome to discuss these changes with us and gain further clarification. We will provide more information about this session via the newsletter and email.   

Thank you very much for your support and working in partnership with us.

Thank you to the P&C executive who have given their weekend to attend the annual conference in Brisbane.  I was privileged to be able to spend the day alongside them and hundreds of other dedicated executive volunteers who were encouraged to consider the needs of their communities through a different and innovative lens.  Our very own P&C President, Corina Profke, was asked to perform the duties of Returning Officer for the AGM and she also addressed to members attending.  

The speakers who presented today included:

• Tania Plibersek (Shadow Minister for Education and Training)
• Madonna King (Award-winning journalist,  ABC radio presenter, author and commentator)
• Professor Matt Sanders (Founder - Triple P Positive Parenting Program)

Other sesions today included:

• Leading OSHC businesses
• Managing emerging cyber risks
• Accessing grants

As you can see, the work of P&C Associations is far from fundraising.  You may not realise this but all members of our P&C executive are volunteers.  

At OSHC we are lucky enough to be surrounded by our friends every morning and afternoon we attend. To ensure our students develop into caring members of the community, this week we focused on interacting with care and respect. Our students were provided with opportunities to empathise and express concern for others, as well as, create their own spaces in ways that promote group interactions and meaningful play. It was delightful to recognise the compassion our students have and watch them interact with their friends and peers with care and respect. Whether this was done by playing with the dollhouse, a game of basketball or playdough, students showed interest in their friends and being a part of the group. As always, students are encouraged to express their emotions, thoughts and perspectives constructively, although, this had a greater focus this week. We are sure this behaviour will stick and add to the respectful nature of OSHC.

Coomera Rivers Outside School Hours Care is now taking bookings for our Spring Vacation Program.

Vacation Care bookings are open to ALL primary school students including students that do NOT attend Coomera Rivers.

Vacation Care bookings are also open to our families that do NOT use the before and / or after school service.

There is no minimum number of days that you need to attend - just book for the days you need.

Bookings for primary school aged students are encouraged so please share with friends and family that may be looking for an exceptional school holiday care option.

The details of the upcoming program are attached - the program document (on page 8) also includes a ready reckoner that shows an estimation of families out of pocket expenses for our Vacation care days after your Centrelink CCS is applied. Please note that this is a guide only. CCS benefits vary, and benefits for multi-day bookings will depend on approved activity hours. Please contact our Service Director for a personalised quote.

For bookings or further enquiries please contact us:

Phone: 5596 8377
Mobile: 0455 968 377
Email: croshc@coomerariversss.eq.edu.au

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 a lay by option!

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! To book and pay for your session visit Flexischools to reserve your time slot.

The photo shoot will take place on Saturday 26 October with bookings close at 4:00pm Wednesday 23 October.

For more information please contact the P&C.

Next week we're heading into Week 9 of Term 3! We have another quiet week next week however if ad hoc jobs come up we will send out an email request for help as usual.

    
Cafe:

We always welcome new faces to join in with our friendly cafe team. If you're interested in helping out or giving it a go between now and the end of Term 3, please let me know. Term 4 will also surely require some new helpers so if you have any mornings free, we'd love you to put your hand up!

    
Volunteer Afternoon Tea:

THE GREAT BAKE OFF!!

Tuesday 10 September at 1.30pm in the Staff Room

Come sample and judge the goodies provided by P&C and school executive teams.   Please RSVP to me if you would like to attend.