Dear mums, dads, carers and colleagues

It has been a few days of record rainfall for our school and community.  We have measured 210mm up to 9:00am on Friday morning with still more falling.  It may not better the all time rain fall records but it is the most recorded at school since we opened in 2011.  The rain is a lovely sight but does restrict our play times a lot.  You may have noticed the small dam of water in the playground beside the tennis court.  We are currently organising for the drainage to be improved in this and it will be completed shortly.  

School enrolments

Our enrolment capture this year is planned to be held on Thursday 13 February instead of last week.  The department has provided another week to assist school that may have been affected by the Coronavirus.  Today our enrolment sits at 1186.  

Restructure of classes:

Most classes are balanced in number but we will need to make a small restructure in the coming weeks, probably in the junior end of the school.   This will then make all classes below the maximum number.  We will send you the plan in the coming week and any family affected by a change will be informed before any moves are made.  Please keep an eye out for this information so you don't suddenly receive a surprise.

Coming events

There are a number of big events this term that your children might like to be involved in.  

• The colour run will open for sponsorship soon.  
• The first disco for the year (we hold 2) is planned for March 6.  Tickets sales open soon.
• Parent teacher interviews are planned for Week 9
• Two free dress days are coming this term as well.  

We will send home information about all of these events and the respective deadlines in the coming weeks so please check back regularly.

Coronavirus update

I have not received any updates from the department or government agencies this week.  Based on news reports, there are a growing number of cases of coronavirus in Queensland and the number is predicted to rise.  I will be stressing with students and teachers the need to wash hands with soap when required.  You can help by reinforcing this message at home too.  Remember to seek medical advice if you are concerned about the health of your loved ones.  

Good at learning - Good at life

We have been doing some amazing things in classes this week and here are just two of the best!

Congratulations to Mrs Caswell and 4K for maximising the connections made on Twitter and leveraging digital for a learning opportunity. The students in 4K were lucky enough to have Tamara Letter, author of A Passion for Kindness, read Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed to them. This was a wonderful way to introduce the power of kindness and how easy it is to be kind. Tamara also answered student questions about the writing process.

The students in 1D and 4M have become 'buddies' and each week they will be participating in meaningful buddy reading activities. Last year we did a lot of work around enabling our students to rediscover a love of reading.  Buddy reading is a fabulous way to do it.  The younger students have the opportunity to hear another student model reading skills such as fluency, expression, pause etc. Mrs Walsh and Mrs Young  are looking to 'coach' our older students with conversational reading skills so these reading opportunities are very targeted to developing our readers.  Great work teachers!

Sign on to chess club for 2020

Our chess club starts next Wednesday.  Chess club is held after school every Wednesday afternoon in the staff room.  It starts at 2:30 and children need to be collected at 3:30.

There is a small cost for chess club at $1 per week.  This helps to cover the cost of replacing teachers when we participate in tournaments.  Tournaments are an additional cost and vary from $10 to $25 depending on the level of the tournament.  

How to sign on

Click here to email Mrs McMurtrie with your child's name and class.  It also helps if you can tell us if your child is new to the game or has played before.  Alternatively you can call her on 55968333.  

Cultural groups at Coomera Rivers

At our school we believe that every child has the right to learn about, engage with and connect to their cultural heritage.  For some of these cultural groups we are able to coordinate some extra programs and activities.  Offering these for our kids has nothing whatsoever to do with a bias or prejudice as some Facebook posts claimed this week.  We are here for learning and we value ALL of our families enormously.  From time to time we might not say or write things perfectly but I would like everyone to know that our intent is always pure and focused on helping our children.  

Good Start program for our pacific island community

Our school has been given the opportunity to participate in the Good Start program.  The program is especially designed for Maori and Pacific Island children and families. It is an eight week program which runs in each term of the school year (so 32 weeks in total).  The program promotes cultural awareness and healthy lifestyles for our children.  

• The program starts on Wednesday 12 February 2:30 - 3:30pm
• Children need to be collected at 3:30pm.
• There is no cost.
• Please contact the school office for permission forms.

Student leadership

We have been completing the election of student leadership positions this week.  The Years 3-5 are complete and the Year 6 speeches are being held this Monday and Tuesday.  The announcement of positions will be made at senior assembly on Friday morning.  Good luck everyone. 

Best wishes

Miss Marlow has been away this week with appendicitis.  She was operated on late this week and is recovering well in hospital.  We look forward to her return in the coming week or so.  Mrs Shell Kalogjera, has replaced Miss Marlow and will continue to teach 1M until she returns.  Ms Waide will keep families of 1M updated as more news comes to hand.

Have a great weekend

Kind regards

Vic

What an incredible start to the new school year for these students!  As you can see I am extremely proud of their achievements and get quite excited.  Well done!

Learning with laughter and games, a dozen of our senior students commenced the Deadly Choices program on Thursday.  All about empowering people to make healthy lifestyle choices, lesson one of the Deadly Choices program saw our students explore and build upon their leadership skills. The rain dampened the opportunity to engage in traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander outdoor games, however students enjoyed using their creative abilities to work together to solve unique problems.   It was great fun!

2020 Performing Arts Team

Welcome to 2020!! We hope you are looking forward to an amazing year of performances and shows. This year there are five teachers in the performing arts team and together we help guide your children in music making, dance and drama.

All students at Coomera Rivers have a weekly music lesson and learn from two teachers: Mrs Blyth teachers prep, year 5 and year 6 music while Mrs Zander teaches Year 1-4 Music. In semester one, students in years P-4 will have drama lessons – Mrs Blyth teaches prep, year 3 and year 4 while Mrs Benton teaches year 1 and year 2. In semester two, students will swap drama lessons for dance and that is when the fun really begins!!

We also have two specialist instrumental music teachers that visit Coomera Rivers each week – Mr Owens teaches band (so that’s woodwind, brass and percussion instruments) on Tuesdays and Wednesdays while Mrs Stephenson teaches string instruments on Thursdays or Fridays.   

Photo (L-R) Mrs Blyth, Mrs Zander, Mr Owens, Mrs Benton, Mrs Stephenson

Year 5&6 choir

Rehearsals for the Year 5&6 Choir are on at second break each Thursday in the music centre.  

Are you new to Coomera Rivers in 2020 and in Year 3 or 4?

The instrumental music program still has a few vacancies available for students who have only just enrolled this year. If you think your child would be interested in playing either a string or band instrument, please email Cassi Zander and information will be forwarded to you promptly.

New to Coomera Rivers in 2020 and you already play an instrument?

We’d love to have you join our instrumental music program and continue your music learning journey with us here at Coomera Rivers!! Again, please email Cassi Zander - we can’t wait for you to join the program!

Prep Drama/Music

Mrs Blyth and the Preps have had an awesome start to the year! We've been using puppets and have been playing different different roles in songs such as a monkey, the doctor or the Mum or Dad while practising using our singing voices. They've also been using shaker eggs and discovering how to play them loudly, softly, quickly and slowly.

Year 5 Music

The year fives have started the year with an aural focus to their music lessons. They have been identifying different elements of the music by listening such as the instruments they hear, the speed of music, the time signature and style. This week we watched a video by 'Ok Go' who make mind blowing video clips, check them out! Years 5s have also been revising known rhythms on different percussion instruments to some contemporary music.

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.

OzTag

We have some students at CRSS who recently competed at the QLD OzTag Junior State Cup - Noah, Hannah, Scarlett and Seantayne.  Seantayne's team won the competition for their age group, Hannah's team finished 2nd and Noah's (co-captain) team finished 3rd.  We have some very talented students at our school.

• Noah made the QLD Fury side and will play in the Oztag Super Series later in the year.
• Scarlett (age 7) made the QLD Girls U10 development squad.
• Hannah also made the QLD Rebels side for the OzTag super series.

Running Club

Despite the cloudy weather, we still got out there in the mornings for Running Club on Tuesday, and Fitness Club on Wednesday.  Due to the heat, it is wise to bring a spare shirt to run in and we allow time for students to get changed back into their Blues or Greens before they go to their classroom.

• Connor in 1C was very impressive on Tuesday and he managed to run 9 laps (2.25km).

We have Running Club every Tuesday and Thursday from 7:45 - 8:10.  It is free for all students, parents and teachers but does depend on the weather and oval conditions.

Kokoda

On Tuesday we had our first Kokoda meeting. It isn't too late to be a part of the experience. If you require more information, see Ms Artz, Ms McLean or Mr Burrows.  

Rugby League:  (NRL All Stars Gala Day)

Coomera Rivers is involved in the NRL All Stars Gala Day and has been out training each lunch break.  Good luck to our team and thanks Mr Raffin for his awesome coaching!

Broadwater District Swimming Carnival

Students are encouraged to submit their 50m times to the PE department as soon as possible.  If the times qualify, swimmers will be offered an opportunity to swim at the district carnival in the coming weeks.

Regional Squash Trials

Anyone who plays high-level squash is encouraged to contact the PE department for further details regarding Regional Squash trials.

Basketball Trials

We will conduct a school trial to send students to the District trials for Basketball. This is for boys and girls born in 2008 or 2009.  We will conduct the trials on February 20 at school.

District Golf

Any students who regularly play golf are encouraged to contact the PE team regarding district trials coming up in Week 4.

(Out of school sport opportunities)

We have a just 12 sports vouchers remaining 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. 

Fun, fitness & friendship

Wow, week 2 already! We have loved meeting so many new families this year and have enjoyed watching the new children settle in to the OSHC routine.

This week we have been focusing on building our friendships and getting to know our new students through fun and fitness.  During our active play rotations each afternoon we have been playing games that include teamwork and relationship building.   We’ve made it a goal to play games that ensure we learn our new friends names and interests every day. It’s been so fun running together and playing every day. Homework time has even been all about games this week!

OSHC educators have watched our returning OSHCies teach our new OSHCies our favourite games such as basketball, golden child, fly, skipping and handball. In return our new OSHC students have taught us all something new too. We have so many new ways to get active at after school care now.

It's been amazing to see all the new friendships form while getting fit and to watch our current students guide our new students around rotations and making sure they feel comfortable.

Year 3 will be the first lucky recipient of Woolies Breakfast for 2020 with our first breakfast for this year to be held on Wednesday 19 February.   For full details please see flyer below.  A HUGE thank you to Woolworths Coomera East for supporting this event once again in 2020.

Next Friday evening (March 6)

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 6.

• The Junior Hoedown (Prep to Year 2) starts at 4:30pm and goes to 6.00pm
• The Senior Stampede (Year 3 to Year 6) starts at 6.30pm and finishes at 8.00pm.

Click here to organise tickets on Flexischools.  The fair dinkum deadline to purchase your Barn Dance Disco tickets is Wednesday March 4 at 4:00pm.

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.

School Crossing Supervisors are a familiar sight around schools each morning and afternoon.  Their role in the school community is to ensure that the students and parents who cross the road at the children’s crossing do so in a safe manner.

Children crossing sign:

Children crossing flags are displayed near crossings around schools before and after school hours when children are crossing the road.  

Hand-held stop sign:

School crossing supervisors use a hand-held stop sign to stop traffic and allow children to cross the road safely.

• When the children’s crossing flags are on display, you must stop at the stop bars and give way to any to pedestrians on or entering the crossing (regardless of whether a crossing supervisor is present or not).
• You must wait until all pedestrians have crossed the road and the crossing supervisor has returned to the footpath.
• If you need to stop or park (picking up or dropping of passengers) your vehicle must be no closer than 20 metres on the approach side and 10 metres on the departure side of the crossing. These “NO STOPPING” areas are clearly marked with a no stopping sign.

Remember, road safety is everybody’s business.

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