Dear Mums, Dads, carers and colleagues

Week 9 was jammed packed at school with great events and opportunities for our students, families and community.  Parent-teacher interviews were very successful with over 770 interviews conducted across the 2 afternoon and evening sessions.  Cross-country filled Tuesday and it was once again Foxwell who proved victorious in the first house carnival for the year.  The weather could not have been better as the cross-country event filled the window between the heat of Monday and the very wet of Wednesday.  And then Friday saw the Colour Run fill the day with nearly all of our children getting really messy with the paint, water and of course, mud!   

     

An incredible achievement:  

One of school team has recognised an amazing milestone.  Congratulations to Mr Frost who achieved 40 years in teaching this week.  This includes 30 years teaching in Queensland and 10 years in NSW.  I have known and worked alongside Mike in schools prior to Coomera Rivers since 2007.  We have served families in a number of schools together and Mike has supported students with the most complex of needs you could imagine without hesitation or complaint.  He has contributed greatly to the students and community across his career in considerable ways and he is very well regarded by students, parents and his colleagues for his dedication and sense of humour.  Although he is reluctant to mention it, he is a talented sportsman having represented South Sydney in the Jersey Flegg Rugby League competition and NSW schoolboys in Rugby Union as a fleet-footed centre.  And while he is enjoying greatly his time in the classroom, his passion is teaching Physical Education, a role he filled for many years in his career.  Congratulations Mike on this outstanding achievement!

There are still a few events to fill Week 10 that many of our children are involved in.  Make sure you have all the information you need.

• Year 6 camp to Emu Gully (Monday to Wednesday)
• Prep Art Galleries (Monday to Thursday)
• Volunteer's afternoon tea (Tuesday)
• Year 4-6 STEM Olympiad at PSSC (Thursday)
• RI Easter Concert (Thursday)
• Prep and Year 1 Easter hat parade (Friday)

Read on for some great photos of events this week as well as what you need to know for next week's events.

Kind regards

Vic

Congratulations to our students who received a Student Excellence Award this week.

Wow!  What a great event.  I had forgotten just how much fun water fights can be.  Thank you to our wonderful P&C for coordinating this event.  The logistics are enormous and this event alone took hundreds of hours to coordinate.  The smiles on the faces of the children and families said it all though and the sense of satisfaction that comes from doing something this special for our community is just so rewarding.  Congratulations ladies.  Thank you also to the staff who were very good sports and didn't mind getting among the colour and smelly mud.  Your contributions added significantly to the day.  And finally a special thank you to CUA, Queensland Cricket, the NRL and Gold Coast Titans and the Wasp Creek Rural Fire Brigade for their very kind involvement in the event to make it that much more special for our community.  Make sure you visit the gallery below to see 33 of the best photos of the event.  

The GCCC has approved the construction of a covered shelter along part of our Kiss n Go. Planning meetings have been held. and the photos below provide an idea of where the cover will be located and what it will look like.  The steel frame and roof sheeting is currently being manufactured and construction is planned to start early next term.  The top part of the footpath (indicated in the picture below) will be closed for about 2 weeks while the work is completed.  This will be so much better for everyone particularly during wet weather.  Well done to our P&C on another great achievement for our school.

“BE QUICK - Limited spots available” 

Coomera Rivers State School is excited to offer two new after-school programs in Term 2 for students in Years 3-6 who are interested in design and technology. The two programs will run on separate days from 2.30pm - 3.30pm and will commence in Week 2.  

Year 5 & 6 : Tuesday afternoons from 2.30 - 3.30pm - $60.00 for the term *FULL*

STEAMIE : Inventing & Entrepreneurship with STEAM - (20 places only)

This Tuesday program is based on the $20 Boss Program.

$20 Boss participants move through a series of phases designed to promote critical and creative thinking. Within the Problem Space learners identify the problem they are aiming to solve through their social enterprises and the positive impact they are seeking to have in their local communities. The Solution Space is where learners design, prototype and test their innovative product or service ideas, in readiness for business trading. Students will be given a $20 budget to purchase their materials to create their product or service.

Years 3 & 4 : Thursday afternoons from 2.30 - 3.30pm - $60.00 for the term

This Thursday program has a LEGO Focus.  30 students only will choose one of the following groups to join.

1. LEGO Masterbuilder : Creative lego engineering challenges. Different challenge each week.

2. LEGO Robotics : Creative robotic design challenges using LEGO We-Do. Different challenge each week.

3. LEGO Animations : Creative stop motion animation. One term, one animation.

To register:

Go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dream-design-innovators-club-term-2-2019-tickets-56540501161

Use the password: CoomeraRivers

Select one program for your child

Please register using the name of your child and class (eg: Molly 5T) and use your own email address.

Parents will be invoiced $60 per participant after registration

Permission forms will be sent home via students to finalise registration

Please note: that the listed 'free' amount on the registration page is not accurate - this is simply the default price on this free version of Eventbrite

Numbers are strictly limited and payment is required before participation can be confirmed.

Materials will be purchased in advance so once the program has commenced, no refunds will be possible for non-attendance as we can't start new students part way through the programs.

Cross Country:

Congratulations all students on what was a fantastic Cross Country Carnival on Tuesday. The students espoused our values of “fun, fitness and friendship” beautifully. The winning house this year is Foxwell, followed closely by Pedley, Colman and Siganto. The Age Champions for each year level / age group are:

       
Prep – Paxton and Kahlia
Year 1 – Callum and Allira
Year 2 – Aaron and Mila
Year 3 – Jack and Remi
9 Years – Zac, Judd and Harriet
10 Years – Keegan and Amity
11 Years – Gabriel and Chloe
12 Years – Braxton and Emily

The Cross Country race records are listed below. As this is the first year of a new course for the Preps and Year 1 students, all winners established a record.

House points update:

Netball:

Congratulations Chezaan for her selection in the Broadwater District Netball team. Her team competed at the South Coast Regional Netball Carnival this week.
     

Hockey:

Congratulations to Trey, Natahlia, Chloe and Spencer who were all selected in the Broadwater District Hockey team this week.

Our 2019 Kokoda Crusaders have now been selected. These students will represent Coomera Rivers in the Kokoda Schools' Cup in June.  Teams are made up of 4 students and 1 staff member and while we haven't finalised the team formations, our next training sessions will be focused on deciding on the best mix for each team.  Coomera Rivers will enter 4 teams this year however our team is made up of 16 students plus 4 reserves.  Reserves are very much considered part of the 2019 team regardless of whether they race on the day or not.  These reserves are still required to attend all training sessions and become the support crew on the day if they don't end up racing.

This Saturday morning our Crusaders braved the rain yet again and completed a 2 hour training session at the Currumbin Border Track. This week they were joined by Mr Murrillos friend, Scotty Page who came in to not only give the students a pep talk but he also offered the students a Q&A session before their training. Scotty runs for Wild Earth and has some pretty impressive sporting achievements. These include:

• 4 x 96km GC Kokoda Challenges
• 2 x Ironman Triathlons
• 1 x Ironman Half Triathlon
• 3 x Coastal High 50km Trail Races
• 3 x Road Marathons
• 1 x Winner of the 30km Brisbane Kokoda
  

Something else Scotty shared with the group was that he is going to re-open a 230km horse trail that was first shown to his family by the aboriginals in the 1800's.  Horse-riding has been banned and abondoned due to government bureacracy for the last 20 years.  The only way Scotty is allowed into these sensitive areas is on foot and unassisted.  He estimates there are 50 river-crossings and it will take him 4 days.  What an inspiring story for our students to hear and a great role model for them to meet.  We are extremely thankful for WildEarth's support and sponsorship of our Kokoda kids.

That very important day of the year is fast approaching and, with that in mind, our Mother’s Day stall vouchers are now on sale on Flexischools.

Purchase a voucher via Flexischools between now and the deadline of 4:00pm Wednesday 24 April and your child will then visit the stall with their class, during the week starting Monday 29 April.

There will be an amazing variety of gifts from which children can select that special gift for their mum.  We love watching the thought and consideration that children take when considering what to purchase for their mums and grandmas.