Dear mums, dads, carers and colleagues

Welcome back to another school year.  May I send a special welcome to new families of our school community, particularly those families whose children have begun Prep this year.  It truly is a very special time.

Coronavirus update

Late yesterday health authorities provided updated advice regarding the management of the novel Coronavirus.

This updated advice includes:

• anyone who has been in contact with any confirmed novel Coronavirus cases must self-isolate (self-isolation means staying at home and not accepting visitors) for 14 days following exposure;
• travellers who have visited Hubei Province of China need to self-isolate for 14 days after leaving Hubei Province;
• returned travellers who have visited China cannot attend school, childcare or TAFE for 14 days after leaving China including Hong Kong.

If your child falls into any of the above categories, please notify the school immediately upon receiving this email, and take the appropriate action as outlined above.

The Department of Education has been working closely with health authorities in relation to the management of this matter and will continue to do so.  I will continue to provide updates as they come to hand.

Week 1 of school has been a busy one.  We welcomed two returning and three new teaching staff for the 2020 school year.  They include:

• Lisa Barnes (Year 2)
• Louise Landers (Year 5)
• Anna Leese (Year 2)
• Nicole Rafton (Year 3)
• Rachel Sheppard (Prep)
• Charmaine Wynne (Year 5)
• And we also have a new Deputy Principal.

Introducing our new Deputy Principal - Mr Meijboom

Hi, my name is Jason Meijboom and I live locally with my wife and 2 children.   Excitingly, my younger son has started Year 7 at Foxwell State Secondary College this week.  I have worked for the Queensland Education Department in various roles over the past 20 years, having spent my last 9 1/2 years as Deputy Principal at Hilliard State School.

Thank you to the many students and families across the school who have already made me feel very welcome, introducing yourselves and greeting me with a smile, as well as the staff and friends whom I have met and started working with.

In 2020, I will be the Deputy Principal working with Years 2 and 3.  I look forward to getting to know students, staff and meeting many parents, all working together to develop responsible, autonomous and positive learners.  I also look forward to value adding in all of the amazing teaching and learning already happening at Coomera Rivers, including maintaining the supportive and positive school culture that is already established.

While I acknowledge that we are all busy in life, I encourage parents and guardians to be as involved in their child's education as is possible, working with teachers and staff along the way.  My door is always open to parents wishing to discuss their child's progress or anything at all related to the school. I welcome and encourage you to be involved as this is the best way to "learn together" about schooling today.

Know me before you teach me

We also engaged our students in an exciting range of activities this week including opportunities to share school with their mum and dad.  We call the 'Know me before you teach me' .   Following is just a tiny snippet of the enormous range of activities that your children have been involved in this week.  

The Year 4 team this week ran their annual 'Pirate Day' which kicked off with a read aloud by Tara Martin, the author of Cannonball In.  We skyped in with her to hear her speak with the students about being brave and having the confidence to challenge themselves to try something new. After this the students rotated through a variety of activities spending time with every Year 4 teacher. This enables each teacher to start building relationships with the whole cohort.

Prep M's first day of Prep memory, was making their 'Kissing Hand' with Ms Mac. Looks like fun and something families will always treasure!

5M created a spider web, taking turns to share three things about themselves.

A 'friendly' game of soccer for 6F & 6K families.

Know Me As A Writer was a huge hit this week. There was much speculation that I had set up camp on the school grounds because I apparently work so hard.  Seeing the classes engage with the space and hearing the discussions was exciting.  Student work samples are starting to pop up on Seesaw and it is awesome to see the different topics, text types and writing styles. Some of them are hilarious.

Ms Barnes engaged her class in a discussion by posing a series of questions about the space and the artefacts represented. This enabled students to draw out specific vocabulary which they could transfer into their writing.

Staff car park area

We would like to remind our existing families and inform our new families that our staff car park is for the exclusive use of our staff, with the exception of students with complex needs who have been granted access to use the disability parking spaces outside our Student Support Centre. If you feel you require access to this drop off zone, would you please discuss this with Jacqui Walker on jmwal1@eq.edu.au.

Welcome to what is shaping up to be another bumper year in the Health and Physical Education fields for Coomera Rivers State School.  Our team consists of Mr Jason Raffin and Mr Jack Burrows, both full time and Mrs Belinda O’Sullivan (part time).

NRL All Stars

Our school has been invited to attend a Rugby League Gala day on February 20 to coincide with the NRL All Stars match here on the Gold Coast. Our students get to play matches against a range of local schools and mix with some NRL stars.

Broadwater Representative Sport Opportunities

Students turning 10 -12 years of age in 2020 are eligible to trial for our District Sporting Representative team, the Broadwater team. There are Rep teams in a whole range of sports. We will conduct trials here at school and if your child is selected, they will receive an information pack about the Broadwater Rep Sport trials. As each sports trial is conducted, we will notify Parents/Caregivers through this newsletter, on the Sports Noticeboard (located in the Café covered Area) and we also remind the Students in HPE classes. Two Broadwater trials are coming up shortly. If your child plays Baseball or Softball and would like to trial for the Rep team, please see Mr Raffin or Mr Burrows. The Broadwater Swimming Trials are also coming up shortly. If your child is a strong swimmer, aged 10-12 this year and would like to be considered, please send us a list of their events and Personal Best times. Please note, the Trials are held in a 50 metre pool so all times must be at least 50m distances, not 25m. if you have any queries about this or anything to do with Health and Physical Education, please see Mr Raffin, Mr Burrows or Mrs O’Sullivan.

Running and Fitness Club

Running and Fitness Club commences next week. On Tuesday and Thursday mornings before school from 07:45, we conduct a Running Club where students of all ages can join in and run laps around our oval. We also encourage any parents or teachers to join in.  This year we will be giving out monitoring and rewarding students that achieve distances and milestones in their total laps run. There will be medallions presented to students who achieve their goals.  Running Club is coordinated by Ms Cindy McLean.

Similar to Running Club, on Wednesday and Friday mornings at 07:45, we will be conducting Fitness Club activities on the oval for any interested students and parents.  Students of any age can join in. There will be a variety of activities including basic body weight exercises, skipping, invasion games etc.

   

Kokoda Challenge

Students 10-12 years of age, born in 2010 or earlier, are invited to come to an information session in the hall at 12.45pm on Tuesday.

Fair play sport vouchers (Out of school sport opportunities)

We have a number of sports vouchers to provide families who qualify (Children in financial need who do not have access to a valid Centrelink Health Care Card / Pensioner Concession Card or families in financial need who cannot apply directly due to internet/computer access issues, language/cultural barriers).

To request a voucher, please email Mrs Jenkins.  Voucher numbers are limited.   Mrs Jenkins will email the voucher codes to successful applicants. 

We are excited this year to again offer an opportunity to our Year 5 & 6 students to be part of the Coomera Rivers Esports Team.

Along with many other state and private schools we have joined the new national competition The Fuse Cup. The Fuse Cup competition provides students with a face to face, safe, competitive & challenging esports opportunity while also promoting Digital Wellbeing, Inclusion and Values.

The Coomera Rivers Team will train one afternoon each week with additional practise at lunchtimes (optional). The team will collectively select a smaller team of 4 to represent Coomera Rivers at each of the 3 Gold Coast finals, one each term. A state and national final will be held in Term 4 if we are lucky enough to make it!

Training will be on Thursdays 2:30 - 3:45 starting in Week 3.

Expressions of interest for Term 1 are now closed. Students who registered will receive information packs next week and we look forward to welcoming them to the opening of the competition on Thursday.

Do you need help setting up your child's device so they are ready to learn in 2020?

Our eLearning team are available to assist you setting up your child’s iPad and answer any questions you have about the CRSS myLearn program. New and existing families are welcome to come along.

Please register for a time by completing the short survey below.   Next week we have times available on Tuesday and Thursday.

Click here to register for a session

Welcome back to all of our special OSHC families! This week has been a week of firsts for all of us and we want to thank you for your continued understanding and trust. We have some brand new students who are making their way into the big wide world of Prep and other year levels around Coomera Rivers. Their happy spirits have not gone unnoticed and have helped this transition to be a positive one. We are also especially proud of our year one students who are tackling the responsibility of walking themselves from OSHC to their classrooms and then from their classrooms to OSHC in the afternoons. They are doing an absolutely fantastic job of becoming independent!

With a new year, comes lots of new opportunities. One that we have seen flourish at OSHC this week has been friendships. It’s great to see kids excited to see old friends and make new ones too!

Starting a student bank account

The team from the Commonwealth Bank will be on site to open school banking accounts on Wednesday 5 February.  

Banking resumes

Wednesday is School Banking day and we resume banking starts on Wednesday 12 February (Week 3).  

All volunteers must be registered and inducted to now volunteer.  This is a legal requirememt.  This applies to school activities, excursions and events.

Volunteers are such an important and valued part of Coomera Rivers given that their participation strengthens and improves classroom learning, programs and school activities. We are asking parents (and grandparents) to consider if they have any free time that they might be willing to use volunteering at our school.  As little as half an hour every couple of weeks or so is enough to make a HUGE difference. Even if you are not available during school hours to help out - we have volunteering jobs that can be done from home after hours!

For full details please refer to the We Need You flyer below. If you would like more information, or to request a 2020 Registration and Induction form, please email volunteers@coomerariversss.eq.edu.au .

We look forward to seeing you volunteering really soon!

The dental van is currently at Coomera Rivers and is offering free dental check ups for all students, even if you don’t qualify for the Child Dental Benefits Schedule! This means every student can have a free dental check up and all general dental treatment done in a facility conveniently located at our school, thanks to the Queensland Government. We are a service that only treats children, so we are accommodating to the extra time some children need.

The dental van is at our school until April 13 so book in now as appointment slots fill fast!  Ring 1300 300 850 to book.  Click here for more information. 

The Surfside website for school travel has been updated and parents can utilise this to plan their children’s journeys.  Click here to go to the site.   If you have any queries or concerns please contact Customer Service on (07) 555 22 700