10 November 2017

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Welcome to Week 6

Good to be Back

It’s wonderful to be back at school after being on sick leave for the past three weeks. This leave was unexpected, but required, as I needed to undergo a major surgery. But I am back and fighting fit once again.

I share this with you, because during these past three weeks, and the couple leading up to the surgery, my family and I had a lot of information to process and decisions that needed to be made quickly. I believe those unexpected moments give you great opportunity to stop and evaluate your priorities, what you do, how you do things and what you want from each day.

Spending that time with my family was one of the best forms of medicine. It also made me incredibly grateful. Also knowing that I was coming back to a school that has such great staff, students and community made the recovery easier.

Coomera Springs Shout Out

At Coomera Springs we have staff that go well above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that we have the ability to provide fantastic learning opportunities for our students, as well as the opportunities to engage in many different extra-curricular activities.

We have a wide range of activities across the year that sit within the 5 pillars of development that we believe in. These are: Academic, Cultural, Sporting, Digital Citizenship and Community.

We share a lot of these activities, the enjoyment, the participation and the successes on our school Facebook page. So, if you have not yet liked this page, I highly recommend that you do.

Just in the recent weeks we have had students participate in the Queensland All Schools Touch Football Competition, Music Count Us In, National Day at Surfers Paradise, Battle of Beersheba Commemorative Event, Pimpama State Secondary College Maths Olympiad Competition and the Merrimac SS 2017 Debating Competition. This is to name but a few of the extra-curricular alone.

We also provide multiple pathways to learning opportunities within the classroom curriculum. One of our strongest programs is the 1:1 iPad program that is offered to all students across Years 1-6. We have two main entry points into this program, being in Year 1 and then in Year 4. However, students also have the opportunity to enter into this program at any other time.

With the main entry points being in Years 1 and 4, this operates under a three year program. Over the years our delivery of this program has evolved and become far more sophisticated, streamlined and tightly managed to ensure that we are providing the most relevant program we can.

To date we have approximately 60% of students from Years 1-6 enrolled as 1:1 students. This is a phenomenal number of devices to manage across the campus, alongside all school owned devices.

Why do we believe that 1:1 learning is a great pathway available to our students? These programs, also known as ‘anywhere, anytime’ programs provide students with the personal, portable devices to enhance opportunities for learning. The devices help schools engage the digital generation by nurturing individual learning experiences.

Preparation for future learning and a digital orientated workforce and world is key to success.

1:1 programs are an element in an international move towards individualising learning. This has the significant potential to increase independence and self-initiated learning in students, and extend their learning beyond the classroom.

If you would like to learn more about our 1:1 program here at Coomera Springs and how you can enrol your child, please do not hesitate to contact either Mr Ben Morris on bmorr133@eq.edu.au or myself on mgill35@eq.edu.au

Parents as Partners

I have often written about the importance of all of our parents working in partnership with the school once you enrol your child here.

We very much appreciate the support that is shown, not only in the fun events, but in the learning that occurs each and every day. As a school, we work hard to include many different opportunities to be a part of the learning and to feed in to what is happening at our school.

The one area that we have found that causes the greatest level of angst, and at times aggression from parents, is when it comes to behaviour management and the need for punitive consequences to be put in place. This is an area that we work hard on in a large school environment. So, when a child is involved in a situation that requires either redirection or at that more pointy end - a consequence, we communicate this with our families. We are always happy to discuss concerns with parents, but not in an aggressive way. I accept that not everyone will always love the final decision made, but our processes are clear and follow the clear guidelines set out in the School’s Responsible Behaviour Plan.

Next year we will be reviewing aspects of our School’s Responsible Behaviour Plan and I invite and encourage our parent community to be a part of this process when it comes around. This will be advertised clearly in our school newsletter, so keep an eye out as it will be during Term 1.

An Enormous Thank You to our P&C

Our P&C Executive, and the many volunteers, have worked tirelessly this year to ensure they provide wonderful fundraising opportunities and community events for our school.

Each year they continue to excel themselves in what they do, and the latest event – The Coomera Springs Colour Run was no exception.

What a team and what a great event for our students.

Saying thank you for what they do simply does not seem enough. Having been in education for the many years that I have (it’s over the 20 year mark now), I can honestly say, we have an extremely committed band of ladies working hard for our school.

Thank you to the many parents who are becoming more active in volunteering your support. You have no idea how much easier you make these events and it’s great to see that community spirit getting stronger.

Have a wonderful week!

Martine Gill

Are You Leaving Us at the End of 2017?

If you know that you are not returning to Coomera Springs State School in 2018, please let the school office know (this does not include our Year 6 students transitioning to high school).

Award Ceremonies Date Saver

This year’s awards ceremonies will take place on Monday 4th December. This year there will be two separate celebrations, Years Prep- 3 and 4-6.

Years 4-6 Award Ceremony: 11:20am
Years P-3 Award Ceremony: 1:30pm

Final Roll Call

Final roll call is an important event in our school calendar where we officially say farewell and offer best wishes to our Year 6 students transitioning to high school. This year’s final roll call will be on the 6th December at 11:30am in the school hall. Following the ceremony, the Year 6 cohort will take advantage of the occasion for photo opportunities with parents and extended family.

Why does our Australian Curriculum have, Technology Cross Curricular General Capabilities?

The Australian Curriculum, which is our teachers’ professional ‘bible’ of what to teach, requires our students to develop their Information and Communication Technology (ICT) General Capabilities across all learning areas. ICT capability involves students learning to make the most of the digital technologies available to them, adapting to new ways of doing things as technologies evolve and limiting the risks to themselves and others in a digital environment.

Preparing students for their future, not ours

When today’s students leave school, they will enter a world that is vastly different to the one we entered after our schooling, even if it was just 10 years ago. Nearly every job today requires some knowledge of digital technologies.

Technology has infiltrated our homes as well as our schools. In 2016, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that, on average, a household in Australia has six internet-connected devices. If there are children under 15 living in the house, that number increases to seven devices.

This increased technology use at home is changing the way we think about technology users and the way in which we should be teaching technological skills. Today’s students have varying abilities with technology, but each student needs ‘digital fluency’ so they can take advantage of new ways to learn and future work opportunities.

Changing global demands for workplace skills

This increased engagement with coding comes in response to the fact that today’s students will be seeking work in a globally-connected, digital world.

As the average job becomes more collaborative, more global and perhaps more transient, there is a clear shift in the types of skills that are being sought by companies around the world.

These skills might be considered ’new’, however many have been discussed since the beginnings of Greek philosophy. They are often interchangeably labelled, ‘21st Century Skills’, ‘Enterprise Skills’ or ‘Soft Skills’, and usually include creativity, communication, collaboration and critical thinking skills (the 4C’s). As relevance of these skills in the workplace increases, so too does the need for students to learn how to use the 4C’s to be successful.

The inclusion of ICT skills and increasing digital literacies in schools is not about creating a generation of computer programmers. It is about ensuring that every possible door is open to our students when they leave education to enter the workforce. Education needs to prepare students for their fast-changing, unpredictable and exciting futures.

Coomera Springs has always been a digitally rich learning environment. We incorporate many tools to build our students ‘Enterprise Skills’- laptops, iPads, Mac Books, Bloggies and interactive whiteboards. The latest tools in our digital tools box are Spheros and Lego EV3s. These robots communicate with iPads via Bluetooth and are operated with varying types of coding platforms. So far these devices have been predominantly used in extracurricular clubs, however keep your eyes peeled and you will start to see them ‘creeping’ into more classrooms in 2018.

(Elements adapted from Coding in the classroom, By Joanne Blannin, University of Melbourne)

2018 Year 1 and 4 iPad Program

The response to our 2018 iPad program has been immense, thank you to those families from Prep and Year 3 with children going into Year 1 and Year 4 next year.

The purchasing portal has been very busy in processing all of the orders. Please remember that if you have returned the EOI’s you are then required to jump on the link below and purchase. The Pre-Christmas deadline for orders to arrive before the Christmas break has now past. The next important ordering cutoff date is the 14th December 2017. Orders placed between now and the 14th December will be delivered and ready for use Day 1, Term 1, 2018. The portal will remain open after that, however delivery will not be day 1 Term 1. There are multiple payment options provided by CompNow and these are all detailed on the website.

Parents who have already placed orders will be emailed by the school and informed where and when the pickup will take place.

Please note: For parents that have already ordered and not yet done so, please confirm receipt of the sales reference number starting 99XXX as confirmation of your order. If this confirmation email has not been received please contact jon.tapia@compnow.com.au to confirm your order has been placed.

Please select the following link to access the portal.

1:1 Student iPad Program @ Coomera Springs

Coomera Springs State School 1:1 Student iPad Program is an exciting opportunity for students to become involved with in Years 1 to 6. The Coomera Springs 1:1 Student iPad program continues on in 2018 as a 1:1 student model, rather than a 1:1 class model (pre mid 2016). This means the program supports and differentiates students participating in the 1:1 Student iPad Program in the class they are situated in.

In our current Year 5 cohort for example, we have 3 classes which all contain a number of students participating in the 1:1 student iPad program and 2 classes that have no students participating in the 1:1 student iPad program. We are currently still finalising class lists for 2018, however the number of classes containing student participating in the 1:1 Student iPad Program is looking to greatly increase to the large majority. All students will remain learning from the same curriculum, the Australian Curriculum, however, at times the learning experiences they engage in may vary based upon the learning tools they utilise. While some students may be creating eBooks while exploring narratives, others may be creating a non-digital narrative interactive poster. All students benefit from our excellent teaching staff, and a blended learning environment is yet another way students are catered for at Coomera Springs State School.

The complexity of a growing school, parent requests and departmental requirements, as well as maximising student participation in the 1:1 Student iPad program, makes class composition a very complex task. We have adopted this model to enable the flexibility to ensure classes don’t remain unchanged year after year, reducing the social opportunities of our students. We thank you for your cooperation in this matter and look forward to the wonderful outcomes from blended teaching spaces.

Prep Enrolments and Transition for 2018

We are still taking enrolments for Prep 2018! If you have a little one who is due to start Prep next year (born between 1/7/12 – 30/6/13), please come down to the office to see Robyn, Judy or Ineke for an enrolment pack if you haven’t done so already. We have a program of events happening between now and the end of the year, so the sooner you have your enrolment forms in, the sooner we can include you in the parent emails!

Here is the program of upcoming transition events:

Orientation Days

Week commencing 13/11/17

Future Springers will have the chance to spend an hour in a real Prep classroom with a real Prep teacher while parents are taken for a tour of the school! Parents will be able to nominate a preferred day - more information will be emailed directly to those parents who have enrolled.

Pre-Prep Interviews

20/11/17 – 1/12/17

Admin Staff will contact those parents who have enrolled to arrange a 20 minute interview with one of our Prep teachers. Students will be asked to answer a few questions about themselves as well as demonstrate a few little skills while parents help us out by filling in an electronic survey all about the kids! Students will receive a handy starter pack as a welcome gift at their interview.

We are very much looking forward to working with all of our Future Springers and can’t wait to meet them all! You can help get your child prepared for Prep by encouraging them to be independent (carrying their own bag, putting their own shoes on etc), reading with them as much as possible and having positive conversations about the exciting new adventure they’re about to embark on!

Prep Transitions at Coomera Springs State School are proudly supported by BOQ Beenleigh.

ATTENDANCE IN QUEENSLAND SCHOOLS COUNT

All schools in Queensland are committed to providing safe and supportive learning environments for all students to address their educational needs.

Research shows that in Queensland, higher student attendance is associated, on average, with higher student achievement. Additionally, attending school every day helps children to build social and emotional skills such as communication, teamwork and resilience. Attendance means not only attending school every day, but also arriving at school on time and remaining at school for the entire day.

From our close observations, students who are continually late, often become anxious about walking into a class that is already settled, hence creating a situation where the student would rather not come to school. The risk of missing instructions for core lessons is high and there is often disruption to other students’ learning and settlement when a student enters the class late.

Under the law, you must make sure your child is enrolled and attends school on all school days unless there is a reasonable excuse. Schools are mandated to monitor attendance of students and follow up with parents and caregivers any unexplained absences.

Coomera Springs State School is committed to promoting the key messages of the Queensland State-wide initiative Every Day Counts which promotes four key messages:

• All children should be enrolled at school and attend school every day.
• Schools should monitor, communicate and implement strategies to improve school attendance
• Truanting can place a student in unsafe situations and impact on their future employability and life choices
• Attendance at school is the responsibility of everyone in the community

HoSES NEWS

National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) - Queensland

Countdown Calendars

This year we will be printing A3 countdown calendars to our students if you are interested. These calendars will start on the last day of school this year and will finish on the first day of school next year. Students can use these calendars to cross off each day during the Christmas holidays and prepare for starting a new school year in 2018. If you are interested and would like one printed with your child’s name and their photo as well as their new teacher, please email me on cmcle38@eq.edu.au

News from the PE Department

Save the Date – Years 4, 5, 6 Swimming Carnival

Students in years four, five and six will be participating in the annual Swimming Carnival on Friday, 1st December 2017 at the Coomera Anglican College Pool. All students in years 4, 5 and 6 are expected to attend. Permission notes have been emailed to families. They need to be returned to class teachers by Monday 13th November.

Years 4, 5, 6 Gala Sports Day – Tuesday 14th November

Students will be competing in Netball or AFL at either Southport/Carrara Netball courts or Coomera Sports Fields.

Students will need to wear: their school sports uniform, hat, sunscreen and running shoes – NO Football boots. Students may also bring a towel to sit on while they are eating or resting. They will need to bring: two water bottles, packed lunch and morning tea – NO TUCKSHOP facilities are available at either venue. Please ensure your contact details are up to date with the school office and class teachers

Breakfast is Served at Coomera Springs

We have noticed a large number of students in the mornings either buying unhealthy food options at Hungry Jack’s (Slushies’ and ice cream) or eating their lunch whilst they are waiting for school to begin. We have opened up a breakfast menu to help combat these issues.

Breakfast starts at 7am with cereal, toast, muffins and fruit available as well as juice.

Wednesday is Pancake Day!

Prices as below:

Bowl of cereal (Rice Bubbles, Cornflakes or Nutrigrain) $1.50
Piece of Fruit 50c
2 slices of toast/English muffin with spread $1
Juice $1 per cup
Pancakes (Wednesday only) $2

We are hoping that the menu will increase and we have more special days as we get busier. We are hoping that by offering a healthy breakfast the kids will have a great start to their day and won’t tuck into their lunches leaving them hungry later in the day.

Tuckshop Menu

Please remember that Thursday’s and Friday’s are flexischool orders only.

Volunteers Needed

We are again asking our parent community for anyone who has some spare time to help.

We are needing volunteers to help with:

School Banking (Tuesday mornings)
Frankie’s Tuckerbox ( any time between Mon-Fri)
Frankie’s Fabrics Uniform Shop (Mon, Wed & Fri mornings 8.15 – 9am)

If you can spare some time please contact Kylie at the Tuckshop or the Uniform Shop.

Movie Night and Camp Out!

The movie night is being held on Friday 10th November. We are also holding our camp out on the same night. Activities start at 4:00pm with a 7:00pm movie start time.

Limited tent sites available! $10 per adult and $5 per child includes dinner and breakfast plus fun and games. A fun filled camp night on the school oval. Purchase your spot by emailing coomeraspringspresident@gmail.com or see Kylie at Frankie’s Tuckerbox.

School Directory

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Please click on the link below to receive it via email as soon as it is released!

Further into the Sign Up process is the option for you to choose your association with the school (e.g. Staff, Parent, and Student)

Community Notices

UC Physio

UC Physio offers physiotherapy services including musculoskeletal, paediatric (Babies and children often require specialised assessment and treatment that can’t be effectively assessed unless the clinic is specially set up to look at these i.e. developmental delay, movement disorders and neuromuscular conditions), women’s health (pre & post-natal), neurological, pre and operative rehabilitation and respiratory conditions. We are able to offer a range of exercise programs that improve and maintain physical strength and function.

Level 1, 21 Coomera Grand Drive, Upper Coomera QLD 4209

Phone: 55 618 111 Fax: 55 618 344
Email: admin@ucphysio.physio

Gold Coast Health Oral Health (Dental) Services

****Please note: The dental van is no longer at CSSS, you will need to phone the Oral Health Client Service Centre # 1300 300 850 to make a time to receive a free dental check-up & any follow up treatment required.

To arrange an appointment for your child telephone:

The Oral Health Client Service Centre
Number: 1300 300 850 Monday – Friday 8.00 am – 4.30 pm (Excluding Public Holidays)

Child Dental Benefit Schedule Vouchers are accepted. When your child’s $1000 cap is reached, there will be no out-of-pocket expenses provided your child meets *eligibility criteria.

* Eligibility – All Queensland resident children aged four years or older who have not completed year 10 of secondary school.

Further information on public funded oral health services can be accessed via URL:

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