Dear mums, dads, carers and colleagues

Gosh - the winter weather certainly arrived in force this past week.  Wednesday was a very chilly day with the westerly wind making things quite uncomfortable outdoors.  Despite the cold, the opportunities for our kids continued with Year 4 attending Tallebudgera and Prep visiting Sea World on the first ever school excursion.

And next week will see more things happening at the school.  Be sure to check the calendar and class SeeSaw.

Preppies visited Sea World

Our Preppies went on their first ever school excursion this week when they visited Sea World.  The excursion was part of their current units of work and they just loved the seals, dolphins, smelly penguins, cool jelly fish, huge stingrays and my personal favourite, the sharks.

Thank you to our staff team who planned, organised and ran the excursion so that everyone had a safe and memorable day.  Special thanks to the mums, dads and grandparents who also helped supervise.  A job well done.

Helicopter to visit (Wednesday)

The Pacific Air Show is being held on the Gold Coast on the weekend of August 16-18.  It was an enormous event in 2023 and this year will be just as great.  One of the promotional events the air show runs is a competition for students, where the prize for the winner, is a flight to school in a helicopter. This year, one of our students, Ella (5V), has won the prize!

The helicopter is scheduled to land on the school oval at 9:00am on Wednesday 24 July.  Arriving 30 minutes after the start of the school day will give us time to organise classes to view the event. The oval will be marked out with a landing / exclusion zone (30m radius) and classes can view from these safe positions. We will do a practice at some point this week so we can see where the sun is positioned so we can organise the best vantage points for students.

The helicopter will land, wait for passengers to leave the exclusion zone and the take off again. No other children will be near the aircraft. Once we watch the helicopter depart, we will all return to class for the day.

Media and permissions:

As this is an external promotional activity (supported by the school and Department), there will more than likely be television and print media joining us.  There is a strong likelihood that the media will take crowd images as well.

We assume that all families are supportive of this so:

• If you give consent you need to do nothing further.
• If you DO NOT CONSENT to the possibility of your child being included in these images, please email BOTH Mrs McMurtrie and your class teacher as soon as possible. These students will still view the helicopter landing, but we will stay separate from the main group to avoid being filmed or photographed.

Joining us?

Families are very welcome to join us to view the event. Please follow the directions of staff and always remain outside the exclusion zone. You are welcome to take photos as well.

Respectful relationships lessons at school

Across the next eight weeks at school, all students will be involved in learning about the Protective Behaviours and Healthy Relationships curriculum. We will be teaching and reinforcing to students the importance of making decisions to enhance their health and safety.

All content and activities are directly from the Australian Curriculum, are age-appropriate and is presented by staff, free of discrimination, and mindful of the wonderful diversity that exists in different relationships and families.

If you are happy for your children to participate, nothing is required of you as we will be automatically including all students in these lessons.  However, we respectfully support parent wishes to withdraw their children from the program should they wish.  We ask that parents complete the 'Opt Out' form that was sent home earlier this week and return it to school before the due date.  Please contact your child's teacher should you require more information.

Public speaking coaching sessions start next week

Is your child is interested in competing at the AB Paterson Public Speaking Competition on 2 September this term.

The dates of the competition are:

• Year 4 - 6 Heats
  • Monday 2 September
  • Times to be advised 
• Year 5 – 6 Finals
  • Tuesday, 3 September
  • Times to be advised (Normally late afternoon)

• The year 4 section is not a competition but students who participate receive valuable experience in public speaking.
• We can offer unlimited spots for Year 4 speakers however, there is a cap of five spots for each of Year 5 and Year 6 competitions. This means that we might need to conduct a selection process that we have called a ‘Speak-Off’. It will be through this process that the successful five students will be selected.

Speaking times are:

• Year 4: 2 minutes
• Year 5: 4 minutes
• Year 6: 5 minutes
      

Thursday afternoon preparation and coaching sessions

We will be working with Mrs Hardwick (our school coordinator of this competition). Given our passion for public speaking and experience in this area, we are offering Thursday afternoon FREE coaching sessions:

• Venue: Staffroom
• Time: 2:30-3:30pm

These free sessions are not compulsory, but we are offering these to help our speakers fine tune their speeches and delivery, in preparation for the AB Paterson competitions. If you would like to access these sessions, please email Mrs McMurtrie with your child’s details (including how they will be going home at 3:30pm). 

We will send home paper letters with interested students containing with more details about the competition.

Kind regards

Vic

Congratulations to:

Gallery:

Celebrating learning and achievements

Year 3

Students in year 3 have been working hard on our My Connections topic, ‘goal setting’. This week students had to reflect on their goals from last term and decide on new goals for term 3. They completed a goal box which included a character goal, a learning goal and a personal goal. They were fun to make, and students decorated them to suit their personality.  

In Mindfulness, students wrote down their own definition of ‘mindfulness’ and we collaborated to create a mindful poster. Students chatted about different mindful activities that worked for them and then we practised a range of strategies to build a personal back of mindful resources.  

At the end of last term students in 3S were very busy investigating 3D shapes. For their assessment, students were required to make, compare, and classify 3D shapes using key features. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed engaging in hands-on activities to create their models, using materials such as straws, connectors, toothpicks, and modelling clay.

Year 4

Over the past fortnight the Year Fours have been very busy.  The camp to Tallebudgera Recreation Centre was a highlight where students participated in rock climbing, archery and beach games requiring teamwork.

In Science we have been learning about ecosystems and that all the living things in an environment exist in balance.  We learned about the different biomes around the world, such as rainforests, deserts, wetlands, aquatic environments, etc.  We then picked an Australian biome and investigated what sorts of flora and fauna it contains and how they rely on each other to survive.

In mathematics we have been learning all about fractions and also about perimeter and area.  We had the opportunity to use trundle wheels to measure the perimeters of large rectangular areas in our school.

In our Resilience Project lessons, students explored the impact of showing empathy and kindness, they were introduced to the concept of 'Bucket filling' and filling other people's buckets with kindness.  They wrote kind notes to each other and delivered them to their ‘bucket.’

In English we have been learning about persuasive language devices and in close reading we have been exploring scientific texts about producers and consumers.

Year 4 Day Camp

At the start of the week, the Year 4 cohort enjoyed a day done at Camp Tellebudgera soaking up the sun and sand.  The students stepped out of their comfort zone to participated in rock climbing, archery and beach games. 

Year 5 and 6 Global Goals

Year 5 and 6 students have welcomed many guest speakers, in person and on-line, already this term with many more to come, as they study Global Goals. They are learning to understand and appreciate the significance of people and events / developments and problems, in bringing about change in the world.

AFL lessons for students

Thank you to AFL Queensland for running lessons for our students in their weekly PE lessons last week.  Even the rain and wet grounds didn't stop them as they utilised the hall.

2024 World Skate Oceania Championships and Pacific Cup

Lyla has recently returned from a 9 day trip to New Zealand where she skated for Australia in the 2024 World Skate Oceania Championships and Pacific Cup. Teams competed from across the Oceania Region including Australia, Brazil, Chinese Taipei, India, Ireland, Japan and New Zealand.

Lyla’s results were:

• 6th Espoir Girls Figures
• 7th Espoir Girls Freedance

She had an amazing experience competing internationally and she is looking forward to heading off to Sydney for the National Championships in July where she will represent Queensland.  She is another true talent.

GEM (Gratitude, Empathy, Mindfulness)

The Week 7 home-made meal is

Don't forget to order your Wholesome Wednesday

We our committed to making the Crusaders Café menu one that all of our students and staff love.   

The only way to achieve this is through honest feedback and continual change and, with this in mind, we want to thank those families and staff that have provided their honest feedback. Please trust that any suggestion is being reviewed and considered.

Cafe volunteers needed next week

We are looking for a couple of Crusaders Cafe volunteers for next week.

To sign up to volunteer, simply register on the School24 App - Click on "Volunteer Roster" select "view roster", select "register" under the date you can help and then "ok" to confirm your registration.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

in some extra-curricular opportunities at school

Coomera Rivers is committed to offering our students as many additional opportunities as we can.  Below is a list of the activities on offer this term.  Some are privately provided opportunities held at school but most are run by our school staff.  Most activities are free or very reasonably priced.  Please contact the co-ordinator for more information if you are interested in your child participating.

As you will see, the older the students are, the greater the number of opportunities that exist for them.  This is due to department regulations around competitive sport and other aspects of school.

Thank you sincerely to the staff teams who provide their time and expertise for the students.  I am very grateful for their generous contributions.

Monday

   
Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Please email the P&C at pandc@coomerariversss.eq.edu.au for a TEAMS link.

P&C meetings are a great way to keep up to date with what is going on around our school. The meetings also provide our families with an opportunity to have input and feedback on matters relating to school and community life.  Meetings are open to all families and we encourage families to attend our on-line meeting and contribute to your school community which forms a vital part of your children's educational journey.

We look forward to seeing you on-line at our next meeting.

The school dental van is based at Coomera Rivers.