We respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which we walk, live and learn, the Bullongin & Kombumerri people. We pay our deepest respects to Elders resting in the Dreamtime and to the Elders of today, who will continue to care, protect and nurture the Country that we gather on to learn and connect. We feel both privileged, and grateful to now be sharing and caring for the country on which we are living and learning.

Events, dates and times may change.  Please check the school calendar regularly to keep updated.

Term 4

Dear mums, dads, carers and colleagues

Technical issues have prevented me from accessing the attendance data this week but it will be back next issue.  In the meantime, please make school attendance a goal for your children - unless of course they are ill.  And speaking of illnesses...

Influenza at school

Unfortunately we have had several cases of Influenza A reported to school - Prep has had a majority of the cases. Influenza (or the flu) is a highly infectious virus that affects the nose, throat and lungs and spreads easily from person to person.

Flu is not the same as a common cold or COVID-19, and it can be a serious illness. For some people, such as young children, the elderly, and those with underlying medical conditions, the flu can cause serious complications.

Please click here for more information on signs, symptoms and treatments and as always, if your children are ill, please keep them at home.  Remember to consult your doctor should you be worried.

Changes to annual awards for 2025

The annual awards assemblies are planned for Week 10 this term.  We want to acknowledge the excellence of students across the school at these assemblies, in terms of outstanding:

• academic achievement or
• focus on learning (Effort)

These changes are for Years 3-6 students only and the Prep to Year 2 system will continue as in previous years.

Academic awards requirements

To earn an Academic award, students need to receive three A grades on their Semester 2 report card.  They require:

1. A for English
2. A for Maths and 
3. A in one other learning area

We are here for learning awards (Effort) requirements

To earn a We are here for learning award, students need to receive four A grades for effort on their Semester 2 report card.  They require:

1. A for effort in English
2. A for effort in Maths
3. A for effort in two other learning areas

• There is no limit to the number of awards per class. 
• Students can earn one or both awards.  

We value parent feedback

Our school relies on family and staff feedback on how we can improve aspects of our school.  The current (& recent) feedback surveys include:

Crusaders Cafe survey

We are working hard to make the cafe a vital part of school lunches for families.  To help us continually improve, we  would appreciate your feedback.  Please click here for the survey.  

2025 School Uniform survey results

Thank you to all families who took the time to share their feedback in our recent 2025 School Uniform Survey. Your input helps us ensure our uniform expectations and services continue to support both students and families.

Key Findings

1. Clear communication: 100% of respondents agreed they understood our uniform expectations on enrolment, reinforcing that our induction and communication processes are effective.
2. Family compliance: Interestingly, 18% of respondents noted they do not always ensure their child meets the dress code requirements, despite agreeing at enrolment.
3. Quality and value: While 75% of families are satisfied with the quality of our uniforms, only 42% felt the items represented value for money. The primary concern raised was cost. However, a comparison with other local schools confirmed that our pricing is consistent with public school uniform suppliers in the area.
4. Shoe policy: This year we asked families to provide feedback on whether they would support a move to one formal shoe option – a full black leather upper jogger. The results were very evenly split, with close to a 50/50 divide between keeping the current policy and considering the single-shoe option. This point was discussed in depth at the most recent P&C meeting with the decision to not make changes at this time.  This was based on there being no clear mandate to make changes at this time.  The current policy on shoes remains in place for 2025.
5. General appearance expectations: A large majority of families indicated they are satisfied with the jewellery, body piercing, haircut, and general appearance expectations outlined in the Student Dress Code. Of the few who expressed dissatisfaction, most noted concern that expectations are NOT consistently upheld by families, pointing to issues such as non-school jumpers, excessive jewellery, and non-compliant hairstyles.
6. Uniform provider: Over 90% of families reported being very happy with the service provided by The School Locker as our uniform supplier.

Next Steps

The school and P&C will continue to:

• Reinforce and uphold expectations around uniform and general appearance.
• Monitor pricing and service through The School Locker to ensure families are receiving fair value and quality.
• Keep the community informed should there be any future considerations regarding shoe policy or other aspects of the dress code.

We thank all families who participated in the survey. Your feedback is invaluable in ensuring our uniform standards continue to reflect our values and support our students to present themselves with pride.

Around the school this week

I have been honing in on reading this week and have been impressed with the prep explicit literacy blocks, Year 2 Read-Write-Inc and before school Story Time.  Well done to the teachers who facilitate and lead these lessons and activities.  

Kind regards

Vic

Please:

• Wear a RED shirt on free dress day on 31 October
  
  
• Make a Gold Coin donation to the Daniel Morcombe Foundation.  We will collect the donations at school.

Friday 7 November

We are encouraging all students and staff to don their cultural, traditional, or national attire, showcase national colours, or proudly represent their favourite national sports teams. So on Friday 7 November, we will come together to honour and celebrate the rich tapestry of backgrounds that make our school community so vibrant and unique.  

This week our K Pop Choir kicked off their singing sessions by belting ‘Golden’. With Mrs. Ellison bringing the song down to a lower key, students were able to hit those iconic high notes absolutely beautifully. We had so many enthusiastic singers in the music room and look forward to singing ‘Soda Pop’ with any willing students from Prep to Year 6 next week.

A huge round of applause for our awesome Junior Students who snagged the Teacher’s Choice Awards this week! You’ve wowed your teachers with your positive attitude, hard work, kindness, and all-around amazingness! 

You’ve been shining bright in and out of the classroom — keep up the great work and keep spreading those good vibes. We’re so proud of you! 

Award Gallery

Celebrations of Learning

Prep

We were so excited to return to school after the holidays and get straight into our learning! In our Prep rooms we have been loving listening to our favourite Julia Donaldson books. Check out our Gruffalo paintings from the end of last term. Can you spot The Gruffalo in our Book Week dress up…  

 This term we have loved reading Zog and completing a range of activities related to the story. Our students are able to read short sentences, talk about the story and even write a retell! I wonder what Julia Donaldson story we will read next week?  

1S

What a great start to term 4 we are having. In 1S we have been exploring reading and writing narratives. We loved visiting the book fair and were excitedly involved in the book character dress up day. We love to partner read and we are growing our reading and comprehension skills while also improving our descriptive sentence writing. Some of us are now able to independently write a whole retell. We can describe when, where, who, with events in order, along with what the feelings are.

In math we are enjoying creating and continuing patterns, ordering numbers and using skip counting to solve problems. With such a great start to term we know term 4 will be a fun and exciting end to our year 1 journey!

2B

This term Year 2 students are learning to write adventure narratives. This week 2B faced off against a deadly ocean creature in their stories. To help us with our writing goals to use punctuation and write compound sentences, students used gems for full stops and marked correct use of conjunctions with a star sticker. Last week, Amber and her family shared a piece of their culture with us when they created a beautiful rangoli design outside the classroom for Diwali. The students were very interested in this special holiday, so this week we learned more about it and created diya and lantern crafts as part of our science lesson, studying materials and how they can be changed. We also can’t forget Book Week and all the incredible costumes! It’s hard to believe we’ve only been back at school for 3 weeks!  

A big cheer for our incredible Junior students who have smashed the 2025 Premier’s Reading Challenge! Your dedication, imagination, and love for reading have truly paid off. You’ve explored new worlds, met amazing characters, and shown that reading really does take you anywhere! 

We’re so proud of your hard work and enthusiasm — keep turning those pages and dreaming big!

Class	Student
Prep F	Mohammad Ali
Prep F	Caeden
Prep S	Eden A
Prep S	Paddy
1A	Kevani
1B	Kason
1B	Grace
1H	Jahli
1H	Laifa
1H	Charlie
1L	Roman
1L	Gion
1S	Lucas
1S	Violette
1S	Alice
2B	Charlotte J
2B	Lucy
2B	Poppy
2B	Amber
2C	Sean
2C	Miranda
2C	Lola
2E	Raavi
2H	Tessa
2H	Miranda
2M	Evelyn
2O	Eli S

Awards Gallery

Gratitude - Empathy - Mindfulness

The four main pillars of The Resilience Project are Gratitude, Empathy, Mindfulness & Emotional Literacy (GEM + EL).

Have you registered for QParents? 

Here at Coomera Rivers, we encourage all families to register for QParents to help make school communication and administration easier and more efficient for you.

What is QParents?

QParents is a secure online portal that gives parents quick, easy access to your student information including timetables, report cards, payment history, enrolment history, behaviour records and attendance records.

Parents can also use QParents to report future absences, provide reasons for unexplained absences, update student addresses and medical records and pay outstanding invoices.

Coomera Rivers is working towards transitioning to QParents Consent Management for all excursion permissions and consent forms. This change will streamline the process for families by allowing consent to be provided digitally—eliminating the need for paper forms.

How do I register for QParents?

1. Your invitation code (these have been emailed to you - please check junk/spam folders).
2. Your child's EQ ID which can be found on any invoice you have received from the school.
3. 100 points of ID - see below.
4. Go to the QParents website to get started: https://qparents.qld.edu.au/#/landing

Our uniform provider, The School Locker, has advised that there will be a uniform price increase effective from 1 October this year.

They have shared that these increases are unavoidable and are due to rising operational costs.

If your family is in need of any new uniforms, you may wish to make your purchases before this date to take advantage of current pricing.

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.