Friday's morning showers were not all that gloomy!

Dear mums, dads, carers and colleagues

Just five school days remain in this term so please make sure that your children at at school each day, on time, ready to learn.  The past 45 days have been - unique.  Routines and expectations have returned and restrictions are slowly reducing.  Even when the restrictions are removed completely, we will maintain some of the practices that we have enjoyed or have seen to add value to what we do.  We have found gate duties to be very demanding in terms of time taken in the week but the positive has been spending short moments with so many families each morning and afternoon.  I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing family faces each day and having a brief chat - and losing so many games of scissors - paper - rock.  

And despite the incredible level of interruption to the term, we have still managed to maintain some of the key aspects of what we do.  For instance... 

Diamond promotions

Next Monday and Tuesday, teachers in Years 3-6 will be awarding behaviour promotions to students in their classes.  At Coomera Rivers, we classify our student behaviour levels into three categories - Emerald (C), Sapphire (B) and Diamond (A). These gemstones represent the three school colours as well. The highest level of personal behaviour is Diamond and it is difficult to achieve. Diamond level students epitomise the qualities to which we want all children to aspire. These are the children who represent the school with pride, focus on their learning, ensure that their conduct is impeccable, maintain their service to others and have other regard their leadership at school with admiration and their social interactions are highly respectful. 

Normally we would have a special assembly to celebrate these promotion  achievements and the deputies, teachers and I would proudly present students with their Diamond badge. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has prevented this.  So this time, we have decided to do a reverse announcement.  Normally we keep the awards a secret to students and we share the surprise with parents.  But this year we are telling the students and the surprise will be for the parents!  So students will be presented with their Diamond Badge and certificate on Monday and Tuesday next week and mums and dads will find out when they get home.  

As parents, you have played an enormous role in supporting your child to achieve Diamond status, so we really want to include you in this celebration. While we have presented the badge and certificate, the deputies did not pin this badge on your child’s uniform. This is an honour that we want to share with you.  So on Tuesday or Wednesday morning, please pin the badge on your child’s uniform so that they can wear it with pride to school the next day. It is worn on the opposite collar to the school embroidered badge.  AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, can you please take a photo of you and your child (wearing their badge) and email it to me at vgrah1@eq.edu.au so that it can be shared via the school newsletter later that week.  

Different coloured Diamond badges show 4 levels of achievement

Some students in Year 6 are receiving their fourth Diamond level badge. Some in Year 5 will have earned their third and some in Year 4 will have earned their second. To recognise the significance of these achievements, we have created a colour coded badge system. The original Diamond level badge remains in place then we will progress to Green, Navy and Gold.

School opinion survey

Parents and carers are invited to participate in this year’s School Opinion Survey and have a say about schooling during the COVID-19 lockdown. You are also given the opportunity to provide feedback about our school more generally.

Participation in the survey is anonymous and you are encouraged to take this opportunity to have your say. The survey form has been designed so that it can easily be completed on a computer or smartphone.

The online survey will be available until Friday, 17 July 2020, and should take less than five minutes to complete.  To access the survey, please click on the link below or copy and paste it into your web browser:

Click here to access the parent survey

Please contact the school if you have any questions about the survey.

mySpeak finals

We judged our mySpeak finals this week and announced our 2020 age champions.  The calibre of public speaking is very strong and to win the age champion at our school is prestigious.

All students involved in the speaking program received their certificate today and winners were also awarded a medallion.  

The 2020 mySpeak age champions are:

Hair at school

Please remember our school requirements for student hair.  We encourage students to be conservative, neat and well-groomed.

Please note:

• Hair that touches the shoulders needs to be pulled back neatly from the face.
• Bands, ties and ribbons need to be navy or lime for girls and hair coloured for boys.
• Hair colours (except for sports days) are not allowed
• Tracks, mohawks, rat's tails or combinations of these are not allowed

Students may receive uniform infringements should their hair not reflect the code requirements.  Please contact your child's Deputy Principal should there be something you need to discuss.  I recognise that every family has been made aware of the dress code requirements (including hair) when they attended enrolment induction.  The code has not changed in this regard.

School photos

School photos have arrived and should have been taken home by now.  Please contcat the school office if your child did not receive their photos.

Have a lovely weekend

Kind regards

Vic

Congratulations to this week's recipients of our school Excellence Awards.

Prep and Year 1

Year 2 and 3

Year 4

Year 5 and 6

There have been so many students doing some amazing things in learning this past week.  Congratulations to:

This week the Year 1 students have been creating a drama in drama. The students have been busy making headband costumes to go with their chosen character from The Three Little Pigs.

They spent their drama lesson acting out their characters and remembering their lines.

Episode 5 (Disney) and 6 FINALE singers have been revealed.  The Arts team hopes you've enjoyed playing along at home

This week was the third round of tennis between the PE Teachers, Indy (6C) and Scarlett (6L). Our Year 6 students are showing the teachers how much practice we need to do in order to be on the same level as them, but it is still great to see them showcasing their skills to our school. Well done and thank you also to the helpers during the game.

Earlier in the year, Scarlett and Indy competed in the 2020 Inter-school Primary Doubles Championships - a tournament for all Gold Coast Schools. The team was undefeated winning their way through to the final where they played Coomera Anglican College. In a close match, the girls won 6-4 and took home trophies for themselves and the school.  Awesome work girls.  Their families and friends are extremely proud.

Limited places for this free holiday online workshop so parents will need to enrol their daughter as soon as possible. 

School holidays are just weeks are away, so we are excited to announce now is the chance you have been waiting for...

Virtual Academy for Enterprising Girls workshops that you can join from anywhere in Australia.

We’ve partnered up with Young Change Agents to bring our exciting Enterprising Girls workshops right to your home this school holidays. All you’ll need is a device, a good internet connection and excitement to create new things.

By securing your exclusive spot in our free virtual holiday program in just one day you’ll be a bonafide Enterprising Girl with a plan for their first social enterprise business.

At the one day workshop, you’ll work alongside 40 girls aged 10-18 as you design your own business.

Places are extremely limited so enrol today.

Can't wait to see you there!

Enterprising Girls Team x

Click here to enrol in the winter holiday workshop program

Workshops will be held on:

• Tuesday, 7th July, 2020
• Wednesday, 8th July, 2020
• Thursday, 16th July, 2020

Each day will start at 9:00am and finish by 3:30pm.

        
Academy Campus open 24/7

If none of these dates work for you, we are also online over at our free Academy Campus.  Click here to head to the Academy where we will take you through the program step by step whenever suits you.

How are you feeling today? Maybe green, or red? Yellow? Blue? Relating your feelings to a colour probably doesn’t make too much sense to you, but it definitely does to us at OSHC. Recognising how we are feeling is the first step to managing our own behaviour and choosing to make good choices.  Of course, making a positive choice rather than a negative one is our main goal.

If a child is feeling green it means they are good to go; they are calm, ready to learn, content and proud of themselves. If children explain they are feeling a little yellow, we recognise this as them beginning to feel overwhelmed, frustrated or anxious. When children are feeling red they are extremely heightened with emotions of anger where they may be yelling, throwing things or aggressive. We aim to manage children’s feelings and emotions as early as we can, so they don’t get to the red zone where they are unable to make a good choice. Understanding that we all have bad days allows for the blue zone. If a child is feeling blue, they may be exhausted, sad, sick, hurt or bored.

When we can understand our own feelings, we are able to manage our choices well and work using strategies to get ourselves back to feeling green. Ask your wee one at home how they are feeling today!