Dear mums, dads, carers and colleagues

The past term has been unique.  Never before have I witnessed anything like it.  The very real threat of the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in home learning programs - a first for primary schools in Queensland.  Our families were just amazing in their courage and determination to keep learning programs in motion and school staff were brilliant in their planning and implementation of these programs.  Our programs were extremely successful and nearly all families reported that teachers provided awesome programs and support for them.  And of course, our children showed wonderful resilience in their capacity to manage so much change to routines and learning styles.    

Next term will see

Cultural programs returning.  With some restrictions easing we are pleased to be welcoming back some of our popular cultural programs - Deadly Choices and Good Start resume in week 2, term 3.

Deadly Choices permission forms have gone home for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in Years 3 and 4, plus students in Years 5 and 6 who have not yet participated in the program this year.  Please return permission forms in Week 1 next term.

Good Start will resume after school on Wednesday afternoons and we would like to welcome back all our families who were previously involved.

Sport is resuming but restrictions and conditions will apply.  This means that we are able to play in some sports against other schools in our district and begin some sports at school as well with touch football starting in Week 1.  

I will provide a fuller picture of changes at school once the Premier has announced the next easing of restrictions on July 10.  

Good at learning - Good at life

There have been so many wonderful deep learning opportunities across the school this week.  Here is just a sample of some of the wonderful work that is developing creativity, character, compassion and empathy.

     
The Year 6 students have been writing narratives this term. BUT ....... students were given total choice regarding their work. They chose their stimulus, they chose their topic, they had full control over the direction of the story, they chose how their story would be supported by visuals, and they chose how they wanted to present and share their work. 100% student driven learning. On Wednesday, the students presented their works as a gallery walk and invited me into their class. We watched video presentations, we read books, we listened to speeches, we read comics and we even listened to narrated Minecraft videos which told a story.  This was a wonderful way to spend my morning.

Miss Reid shared a story with her class around an organisation which she volunteered with in Cambodia.  The Year 5 students were intrigued so she organised for a Skype session with the ladies from Heartprint House. The students did their research online and learned more about Heartprint House so they could develop and pose questions.

Watching the students ask their questions and their reactions were sincerely heartwarming. Every student in 5R deepened their understanding of empathy and compassion. 

The message from Heartprint House was:

Every time you do something nice for people is like you leaving a handprint in their heart.

School resumes

School starts back on Monday 13 July at 8:25am.  

I hope that all of families enjoy a wonderful winter vacation break.  And despite the restrictions beginning to relax, it is absolutely vital that we remain vigilant so that we remain on top of the pandemic.  Please sustain your hygiene standards and maintain social distancing outside of your immediate family. 

Stay well and look after each other.

Kind regards

Vic

At Coomera Rivers, we classify our student behaviour levels in Years 3-6 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 very difficult to achieve. Diamond level students epitomise the qualities to which we, as teachers and parents, want all children to aspire.  These are the children who represent the school with pride, maintain a strong focus on their learning, ensure that their conduct is impeccable, maintain their service to others and have others regard their leadership at school with admiration and their social interactions are highly respectful.

Congratulations to these very dedicated students and their very proud families.

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Prep and Year 1

Year 2 and 3

Year 4

Year 5 and 6

A brilliant last week of school for these amazing kids!

We were excited to be able to finish off our Term 1 Esports Competition with a modified finals event this week.  The top 10 players from Term 1 competed in time trials to battle it out as the Coomera Rivers State School Mario Kart Champion.  The times were so close with only seconds between each place. Congratulations to Jasper from 6D for winning this event.  He raced around the Mario Kart Stadium at super speed finishing three laps in under 2 minutes.

A big thank you to all the Esports team members.  The values of The Fuse Cup - strength, integrity, inclusion and teamwork continue to be demonstrated at all times. We are looking forward to kicking off Term 3 with The Fuse Cup playing Rocket League - a fast paced car racing soccer game! This will begin in Week 2.  More information will be provided to the team in Week 1. 

The FUSE Cup provides school students with a face to face, safe, competitive and challenging esports opportunity while also promoting concepts such as Digital Wellbeing.  With the holidays approaching it is appropriate to remind our children to SOAR with the B.I.R.D.S to keep themselves and others safe online.

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HAPPY LAST WEEK OF TERM!!!!! Have you got your vacation care bookings in?

What a crazy, eventful and uncertain few weeks on par with the rest of the world. All the kids here have shown an amazing amount of flexibility, creativity and resilience as things have slowly and steadily returned to “normal” here at OSHC. As the number of OSHC attendees has steadily climbed back, we mixed up the rotation styles and finally found our new rhythm. To ease the transition and bring a bit of normalcy back to daily life we’ve ramped up the OSHC favourites (as per request) like creative drawing, dodgeball, handball, skipping and chilly-morning-movie time!

I think we are all ready for the last week of school, which means a bit more flexibility with free play after rotations. The kids have been seen (and encouraged) to be seeking into their imaginations to make sense of the world; a few of the girls have made a club in the stadium, which means a lot more bonding time for some of the girls that don’t usually hang out. The boys have been going CRAZY for Lego lately! Lots of kid’s meetings and question circles to help us discover how to help our kids make meaning in this uncertain phase. The overwhelming answer? “WE WANT VOLCANOES” (watch this space). But a big focus on free drawing, with a focus on drawing things from the real world.

During homework time, the older girls used their creativity and imagination to make up new games each day, encouraging each other’s growth day-by-day. Active play has also had a few creative spins this week, with some of the younger kids playing ‘snake’ with the skipping ropes and using the vortex, which they love (especially after figuring out that if they can throw the vortex hard enough, it makes a loud whistling sound)!
Lots of imagination going into drawing and craft this week too!

As we draw closer and closer to holidays, we can definitely feel the excitement building. Do you have any creative projects planned for the break? Maybe it’s the perfect weather to build a cosy pillow fort and have a family movie night. Stay tuned for our Vacation Care adventures!