Dear mums, dads, carers and colleagues

We have received an incredible 490mm (nearly 20 inches) of rain this week (since last Thursday) and while our classrooms and covered areas were high and dry, our school grounds are still saturated.  With a few days of sunshine we will be back in business though.  Well done to the staff on managing the past six days without formal breaks for toilets or meals.  It is really easy for cabin fever to set in and it takes a lot of work to maintain a healthy learning culture during these times.  Well done everyone!

Student leadership positions for 2020

On Friday morning we held our first senior school assembly for 2020. However this wasn't a regular senior assembly. This was our Leadership Assembly where we announced and acknowledged our 2020 student leadership badged positions. Students in Year 3 to 5 are given an opportunity to nominate themselves to represent their class either as a student council representative or an Environmental Warrior. Each student is to present a 1 minute speech to their class on why they would make a good class representative and then their peers and teachers take a vote. There were some pretty amazing speeches!

Student council representatives are responsible for taking their class's ideas to Student Council meetings which are scheduled at play breaks. They are also responsible for feeding back discussion topics to their class and a junior buddy class e.g. Free dress day information. It's our class student council representatives that also ensure Guest Teachers and special guests are looked after.

The Environmental Warrior position is a new position for students in this year level and it will be their role to support their class become more environmentally aware of their eco footprint. They will work closely with the three Year 6 Environmental Warriors - Reduce, Reuse & Recycle - to form a team of environmental activists and advocates for a greener way to live.

Our Year 6 leadership application process began late last year and finished with 48 students delivering a 1-minute campaign speech to all Year 4 to 6 students. Submitting an application takes great courage. Putting yourself out there to be 'judged' on your skills and abilities can be quite daunting for the fear of failure or rejection can be quite real. Our leadership assembly provided an opportunity to recognize all 48 students who took this courageous step in delivering a speech, especially given public speaking is one of the greatest fears known.

A massive congratulations to all students who earned a 2020 badged position however our message to all students was clear, you don't need a badge to lead. We can all be leaders.

Year 3 leaders

Year 4 leaders

Year 5 leaders

Year 6 leaders

Good at learning

Prep O were engaged in a variety of ways to identify their alphabet letters this week. Lots of concentrating and practising a wide range of skills here!

This week Prep M and their buddies in 6W were amazing at applying some Conversational Reading strategies together. This is another great example of our Year 6 students leading without a badge.

2M and 2A have been scientists learning about mixtures and solutions in M.E.S.H (Maths, English, Science and HASS). They began the unit with a characteristic potion bottle.  They then mixed colours in science with paint and skittles, wrote a recount about what we did and found, and then graphed our favourite colours. Students investigated microscopes from a simple water drop to our app on iPad microscopes. They put on their science lab coats and goggles again - this time in the kitchen - and mixed up some chocolate chip cookies.  Their challenge then was to work out how to share the cookies between the 2 classes, then the 3 groups in 1 class and then between all the people in each group.  Some awesome mathematics involved here and they were wondering how many cookies each person should receive.

Day 13 numbers

Our effective enrolment to start the school year is 1187 students in Prep to Year 6.  We are a very big primary school and I must say that our organisation and structures help make us feel much smaller.  

Restructure plans:

In the next week we will be restructuring a few of our classes to make sure that all classes are below the maximum number of students.  Parents of any student affected with a move of class will be notified by paper note BEFORE any moves are completed.  Teachers are always very careful when recreating effective class lists and selecting students who best fit the new class.

School leaders visit Pimpama SSC

Ruby, Zack and Hannah joined both Mrs Artz and I as we represented Coomera Rivers at the Pimpama State Secondary College leadership induction ceremony on Thursday.  It was great to see our past students continuing to be successful at high school.  Congratulations to them and their mums and dads.  The day will be remembered for the deluge before, during and after the eceremony.  The rain was absolutely torrential.  It was a shoes off walk to the car - even using the covered walkways - and it was great fun.  

Student's hair at school

All students with hair that is long enough to touch their shoulders need to wear their hair pulled back from their face.  This helps greatly in managing head lice.  This can be done in a number of ways but the simplest is a hair tie.  Girls need to wear NAVY coloured hair ties and boys need to wear hair coloured ties.  This does not apply on school photos day as many mums like their children with their hair out for photos.  

Have a great weekend

Kind regards

Vic

We love celebrating Student Excellence at the office!  Congratulations to the following students who earned themselves a Student Excellence Award this week.

Welcome to 2020 Digi Design.  Tuesday February 11 was Internet Safety Week and students in all Digi Design classes throughout the school have been learning about Internet Safety.

       
Not only did the Digi Design teachers cover the Coomera Rivers iPad rules for iPad use in the classroom, students also have been learning about keeping themselves and their personal information safe.

Here are some top tips for online safety

       
Digi Design in Years 1 and 2

Digi Design in Year 1 and 2 has started with Mrs Benton.

Year 1 students have been using their iPads in Digi Design to introduce themselves to Mrs Benton. They have been using the Pic Collage app and Draw and Tell app to show how we use our iPads safely in class time.

Using the Pic Collage app, students are learning to:

• take a photo of themselves,
• insert the photo into the Pic Collage
• choose a background colour or pattern
• choose the text Aa tool and write their name
• save their work to the photo library

Year One Music

Music lessons with Mrs Zander have begun with a bang! This week we’ve been stomping around the room, trying to see if we can walk on the beat together at the same time and we’ve also had fun playing one of our favourite games from Prep called Kangaroo.

Senior Band Update

This week the year 5s joined the year 6s to create the Senior Band for 2020 and after one rehearsal, Mr Owens reckons it’s the best sounding senior band he’s ever had! Ghostbusters is proving to be a favourite with the students and Defender of Time is a close second. Students are still settling into the lessons routine and have spent the last two lessons working on their two brand new band pieces. Students have also started using Smart Music, an app that gives students the ability to slow down the music and individualise parts in a group setting, which then gives them instant feedback on their performance and helps them improve their playing. It’s a great asset and the students are loving using it!

Year 1-4 Choir is starting next week!

On Wednesday this week, any students from grades 1-4 who are interested in participating in choir can come to the Music Room for the first rehearsal of the year! It’s going to be a great year of music-making so we hope to see you there!

Loving music lessons

Swimming

On Tuesday Harriet, Sophie and Sylas represent our school at the Broadwater District Swimming Carnival at the Southport Aquatic Centre. If they are successful at this carnival, they will go on to represent the District at the South Coast Regional Carnival. We wish them every success and will update their results next week.

     

Rugby League

On Thursday, our school is sending a team to a mixed team to a 9-a-side Gala Day that is being held to recognise the NRL All Stars match being played next weekend on the Gold Coast. Our students get to represent our school, playing against other schools and also get the opportunity to meet and mix with the NRL players. A great opportunity and recognition of our school as a leading school on the Gold Coast in Rugby League.

     

Kokoda

On Tuesday our Kokoda team met in the Hall for their first training - the torturous Beep Test.  We were very impressed with the efforts, attitudes and support for each other. This was an opportunity for students to gauge their current fitness levels and also to measure their improvement over the duration of training sessions.

Basketball

Broadwater District Representative Trials are coming up soon for Boys and Girls turning 10-12 Years of age in 2020 (Born in 2010 or earlier). In order to select who attends these trials, we will be conducting school trials on Thursday 20 February in the school hall at playtime.

     

Upcoming representative trials

Coming up soon we will have trials at school to select students to attend the Broadwater District Trials for the following sports:

• AFL (boys/girls) 24 February
• Rugby League (boys) 25 February

** Students must be born in 2010 or earlier to be eligible for Rep trials this year.

This week we commenced our first session of the Good Start Program that has been offered to our Maori and Pasifika families in the senior school.  The program is an amazing initiative from Children’s Health Queensland.

We began with a ‘Fala and Salu Ceremony’ to welcome everybody. The ‘fala’(mat) is our cultural way of bringing people together to talk about important things. The fala is a safe place for everyone to share and is a meeting place of respect, value and importance. The ‘salu’ is our cultural broom that is used to clean the fala for the meeting. We use the salu to sweep away all the issues, wrong attitudes and bad behaviour, so that we can come together peacefully to talk about important things.

This week focused on ‘Healthy Kai, Healthy Life’ where our students shared some favourite healthy foods they enjoy at home and school and the importance of eating a healthy and balanced diet. This introductory session saw lots of excitable students relate some of their culture between home and school which was really great to see.  We are very much looking forward to next week's session.

Back in routine

Now that its week 3 and we have spent the last 2 weeks getting to know all our new OSHCies and the new members of each group .We are ready to get back into routine for homework!

During homework time the children have 30 minutes in the iCentre, this is where we get 10 minutes working on our homework grid, 10 minutes working on either Mathletics, Targeting Maths, Literacy Plannet, Eggy Words or Spelling City and in our final 10 minutes an educator reads to the group.

At the moment the Preps are choosing books from the shelves for the educators to read to them. Some have included THE VERY CRANKY BEAR, CAT IN THE HAT, DO YOU BELIEVE IN GROOVICORNS & ONE FISH, TWO FISH, RED FISH, BLUE FISH. The Year 2 & 3 group are loving Mr Stink by David Williams . Boston from grade 2 said “ Mr stink is really smelly and the book is funny”. Braxtyn from grade 3 said “ He loves how he eats sausage in a funny way and I really enjoy listening to what goes down in this novel’. The 4, 5 & 6 group are taking it in turns to read Ratburger by David Williams to their peers.

Its been amazing to see all the students getting back into their homework routine and learning lots! With the friendships that have formed over the last two weeks its really lovely to see all the students showing each other support when it comes to homework.

We will send home the order forms for school photos once the restructure of classes is completed.  Please mark the photos days (March 17 & 18) on your pantry calendars as the restructure results in a shorter than normal payment window.  Please remember that it is FULL BLUES uniform for all photos.    

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.

Next week we will be sending home our Colour Explosion information.  Get ready for things to get REALLY colourful!

After school activity - Zumba

(Open to all year levels) (Cost involved)

We are excited to offer Zumba classes at Coomera Rivers in Term 1 2020. The class is run by professional Zumba coaches from Cube Sports on Thursday afternoons from 3.30pm until 4.30pm

Program details are:
When - Thursday afternoon 3.30pm - 4.30pm from Week 5 - 8 (27 February - 2 April)
Where - Coomera Rivers Hall
Who - Coomera Rivers Students
Cost - $42

If you would like your child to participate in this fantastic program, please email the P&C to register your interest.  Places are limited and will be allocated on a first received basis, so please email as soon as possible. You will be emailed with the outcome of your expression of interest by the end of business the next school day.

Please note - If successful, a parent must sign their child in at the Hall at 3.30pm and collect at 4.30pm for each Zumba session.

If you would like to be part of the school scheme (& save a lot of money), please complete the SRS form below (Paper copies are available from the office upon request).  Please complete one form per child.

The full payment is due by the 28 February but you can request to pay by instalment or create a payment plan with the Business Manager and this deadline is extended.

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!

Keeping everyone safe in and around the car park is essential.  You can help by:

• Being patient in the Kiss n Go line
• Keep your motor running (after 2:30pm)
• Keep moving forward
• Merge like a zip with the car park line
• Never use the car park space as a second kiss n go
• Never park your car in a No Parking zone or in front of homes or the child care centre next door to the school. 

Patience and courtesy = better safety for our children

Congratulations to Harlan when he met and trained at gymnastics last week alongside Epke Zonderland.  Also nicknamed the Flying Dutchman,  Epke was 2012 Olympic gold medalist and 2013, 2014 and 2018 world champion on the high bar.  What an incredible opportunity and something to remember for a lifetime!