25 May 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Welcome to the near midway point of Term 2. Most of your children will be undertaking semester assessment and testing over these next few weeks in readiness to complete the semester report card.

School Vision

It’s important to come back to what the vision of Coomera Springs State School is. Earlier this year all staff participated in a sequence of activities to identify through our school values and motto, what our bigger vision is. From these activities the following vision was developed:

The Coomera Springs State School learning community inspires and motivates all students to discover their futures by making connections that empower personal success and foster lifelong learning.

What is so important about our vision is our continued focus on working as a community to get our students to where they need to be for the next steps in their lives. Your influence, support and contribution is immeasurable and I know I say it often, but you are the single biggest influence on your child.

Parents as Partners in Learning

Following on from my last article in our past newsletter, as part of our 2018 Annual Improvement Plan we have a continued and strong focus on WRITING as well. This focus is on how we explicitly teach writing to our students, and to ultimately improve students’ performance and results in this area. Please see below some tips for how you can actively support the development of writing in your child:

How you can help at home: Support your child with these writing strategies.

By: GreatSchools Staff

Follow these tips to support your child’s writing at home.

Provide a place for your child to write

The area should be quiet and well lit. Stock the “writing centre” with supplies such as paper, pencils and crayons. You can also gather family photos and magazines in the centre that can be used as story starters.

Read, read, read!

The best activity to improve writing is reading. If your child reads good books, he will be a better writer. Reading exposes students to general vocabulary, word study and content-specific vocabulary. Through reading, students see a variety of authors’ techniques that they can use in their own writing.

Encourage your child to keep a reflective journal

This is excellent writing practice, as well as a good outlet for venting feelings. Encourage your child to write about things that happen at home and school. This reflective journal can be used to develop the “senses” of writing. Have your child write about what he saw, heard or felt on a trip or adventure. Provide experiences in your community that will interest your child and spark her writing. Especially encourage your child to write about personal feelings — pleasures as well as disappointments. When reading your child’s journal (only if your child invites you to, of course), share your own feelings and ideas paired with positive feedback about your child’s writing.

Provide authentic writing opportunities for your child

Have your child write his own thank-you notes, party invitations and letters to family. Let your child make the grocery list. Finding a pen pal for your child would make writing “real.” Helping children make the connection between writing and the “real” world will increase an interest in writing.

Be a writing role model

Make sure your child sees you as a writer. Point out times that you use writing to communicate with others. Discuss authentic writing in the community such as articles and letters in the newspaper, on billboards or in written advertisements. Discuss the purpose of the writing and the target audience. When your child writes, you should write. You can schedule a day of the week that you will turn off the television and share your writing.

Start a vocabulary notebook

Teach your child new words each week and encourage her to use them. Make it into a game and give points for using the new words. Your child can keep a vocabulary notebook and get rewarded for the number of new words learned. The words will begin to appear like magic in her oral language and writing.

Ask questions

Always ask your child questions when he writes. Ask specific questions about your child’s writing such as: “How did that happen?” “How did that make you feel?” “Can you tell me more about that…?” “What are some other words you could use to describe…?”

Help your child publish her writing

Share her writing with others, place it on the refrigerator or encourage her to write for kids’ magazines. When your child’s writing is published in a children’s book, she will be on her way to becoming a lifelong writer and author.

School Uniform

As our cooler weather is upon us, we are seeing a variety of jumpers coming through the school gate. At Coomera Springs State School we have an endorsed uniform policy and an expectation that our students will be in the correct uniform each day.

Parents will be notified by the classroom teacher if there is an infringement. One area we have noticed an issue is the mixing and matching of uniform pieces. For example, wearing the formal day shirt with sports shorts. Again, we have distinctive pieces for a particular purpose and your support in this matter is greatly appreciated.

School’s Responsible Behaviour Plan Review

Last term our Feedback Friday session was around the School’s Responsible Behaviour Plan. To provide an opportunity for all families to have some feedback in this review, a survey will be sent home next week via email. If you could respond to this survey (it will be short and simple), that would help us enormously in our review of this document.

10 Ways Kids Involve Parents in Sibling Fights – Parent Article

Growing up I was one of three daughters. I am the youngest sibling in my family and with only 3 ½ years separating all three sisters, we had our fair share of sibling fights over the years. Below is an article that provides 10 things to beware of. I don’t always agree with everything I read in these articles, but they still provide interesting food for thought and sometimes just that trigger to consider.

Article by Michael Grose

Sibling fighting is common but not inevitable. Parents can easily become embroiled in the conflict so that they help create the problem rather than solve it. Children usually become quite adept at drawing their parents into sibling fighting. Be mindful of the following ten common ways children involve parents in their sibling disputes:

1. Beware the teller of tales because they can draw you into disputes you don’t need to be in. “Tell Tale children” tend to involve parents in fights and disputes when they don’t need to be. Tales also invite parents to take sides, which may mean a fight stops momentarily. However it will begin again at another time as there may be lingering resentment about you taking sides.
2. Beware the blamers for it is never, ever their fault! Some children will blame other siblings for wrong-doing but will rarely see their side in a dispute. It usually takes two or three to tango so make sure you point out their place in the dispute.
3. Beware the tantrum-throwers as they divert attention away from themselves. Kids who throw a ‘wobbly’ when a sibling even looks at them in the wrong way have discovered a great way to keep mum or dad busy with them.
4. Beware of children’s tears as they can make us feel pity, narrow our focus rather than look at the whole story. A child who comes to you with tears in her eyes and a tale of woe sure knows how to get their parents onside. Empathise but don’t sympathise. And remember that sometimes the child who cries the loudest is the child who caused the dispute in the first place.
5. Beware of children who say that they couldn’t help hitting, hurting or misbehaving. Children always have a choice. They just choose the easy way or a way that suits them a lot of the time. Sibling fighting doesn’t have to happen.
6. Beware of the child who is always, always the victim. Sometimes they revel in this role. Some children, particularly youngest kids, love to play the victim in fights and arguments with their siblings. “He always picks on me” is their catchcry. Don’t give these children too much attention and give them some options about how they can keep away from their siblings if things look likely to ‘cut up rough’.
7. Beware of the child who acts like the deputy sheriff, always giving orders and bossing others around. They can make life unpleasant at home. First born boys can sometimes act like a parent’s deputy and believe it is their job to keep peace on the ‘family range’. They often use methods more akin to the ‘wild west’ than those they would learn in any negotiation skills workshop. Aggression and power is their preferred methodology. Keep a firm eye on these kids and don’t put them in charge of the ‘family range’ too often.
8. Beware the donkey who whines and whinges about his siblings -“Hee Hawlways picks on me!” Give them some ideas about how to deal with their siblings and refuse to be drawn in by incessant whining. Like water torture, whining wears a person down after a while.
9. Beware children who bring home poor attitudes and behaviours that they learned at school or pre-school. You can tell sometimes what is happening in the schoolyard as children can bring home poor conflict resolution skills that they see in the schoolyard. ‘We treat each other well in this family’ is the message!
10. Beware of the home environment that uses power to resolve disputes and conflict. Children will often reflect the ways that the significant adults in their family resolve conflict, so make sure you use the same methods to sort out issues and disagreements with your partner that you want your children to adopt. Children tend to live what they see so make sure they see conciliation and compromise rather than bullying and power. It helps if they see assertiveness rather than aggression. And make sure they see you looking at both sides of the picture in sibling fighting, rather than your side all the time in disputes.

Most of us as parents are as predictable as washing machine cycles. Kids fight and we react tends to be the default mechanism in many families. Rather than react habitually to sibling disputes stand back, take a deep breath and work out first, whether you need to get involved. If you do, then consider carefully how you’ll respond as the parent. Do you guide them to resolve the problem themselves? Do you need to change anything in the environment? Do you acknowledge their feelings? Do you encourage problem-solving? Do you need to step into provide safety? Do you simply needs some peace and quiet? Is there a power imbalance?

When you take an active approach to helping children resolve their fights, you are teaching them a valuable life skill as well as reducing the incidence of fighting over the long term.

I hope you are all enjoying the cooler nights and getting in some great family time!

Kind Regards

Martine Gill
Principal

Coomera Springs Kokoda Challenge – 2nd June

On Saturday 2nd June the Coomera Springs Kokoda Team will be hitting the hills of D’Aguilar National Park (Brisbane) to endure 15km of rugged hills and terrain. We have trained hard leading up to this event and we are feeling super fit. The parents and teachers of those involved are proud of the camaraderie and teamwork these students have showed leading up to the Kokoda Challenge. Best of luck to each student for the big day and thank you to the teachers who have volunteered their time in the lead-up.

Stacey Andrews

Upper Coomera State College’s Signature Programs

Upper Coomera State College’s Signature Programs are open for application for Year 6 students entering Year 7 in 2019.

Be one of a select few, to be accepted into these exclusive Academies:

• STEM Academy
• Creative Arts Academy
• Sports Academy

Get in quick. Applications close soon! For more information and to download an application form, please go to:

Alternatively, come and see us at Upper Coomera State College to grab an application pack.

Pimpama State Secondary College - 2019 Year 7 Academy Expo – 30th May 2018

PE Department News

Gala Sports Day - Tuesday 29th May - Year 4, 5, 6

Next week students in years 4, 5 and 6 will compete against Highland Reserve State School and Park Lake State School in a Mini Olympics Carnival. Each year level will be hosted at a different school.

Year 4 – Coomera Springs State School
Year 5 – Highland Reserve State School
Year 6 – Park Lake State School

Students will need to wear: their school sports uniform, hat and their own sunscreen.

They will need to bring: two water bottles, packed lunch and morning tea – NO TUCKSHOP facilities are available. There will be no ordered lunches for year four either as our lunch breaks at Gala Day do not coincide with the normal break times.

Athletics Carnivals – 12th, 13th, 14th June

Coomera Magpies

Mrs Hodder
PE Teacher and Sports Coordinator

Music Department News

Junior Choir Update

Our Junior Choir members are busily preparing for a performance at the Gold Coast Eisteddfod in early August (Week 4 next term). The Junior Choir will be performing two songs at the Eisteddfod, “Little Bird” and “Crocodile”. Further information for this excursion will be sent to the parents of the Junior Choir once the exact date and time of our performance are given to us. If your child in Prep – Year 2 would like to join the Junior Choir (or has stopped attending regularly) please encourage them to come along to the Music Room on THURSDAY at first break! From next week onwards we will not be accepting new or returning Junior Choir members until after the Eisteddfod performance.

Footsteps to Fame

It’s almost time for our biennial school talent competition, Footsteps to Fame! Students will be signing up for individual or group performances in three categories – Singing, Dancing, and Mix it Up (which can include instruments, comedy, juggling, hula hooping, poetry and more). There are prizes to be won in each category for Junior (Prep – Year 3) and Senior (Year 4-6) divisions. Nominations will be taken at the end of this term, with Round 1 heats commencing in early Term 3. If your child has a talent please encourage them to get involved - we can’t wait to see the talent on show!

Music Showcase Evening – Wednesday 1st August

I am pleased to advise that this year’s Music Showcase Evening will be held on Wednesday 1st August at 5:30pm in our school hall. This will be a very exciting evening of music and entertainment. All of our Instrumental Music ensembles will be performing, as well as our Junior Choir, Ukulele Band and Music Centre of Excellence Classes! This is a great opportunity for parents of potential Instrumental Music students to come along and see what the program has to offer. Our whole school community is invited to come along and enjoy some wonderful entertainment – gold coin entry with light refreshments provided!

Music Shirts

Our performing ensembles look amazing in their Music Shirts. If your child is in Band, Strings or Choir now is the time to order your Music Shirt for 2018 – available from the uniform shop for $30. Music Shirts can be worn to school on Thursdays in 2018. Prep parents please be advised that the Music Shirts are available from Size 4 upwards.

Alison Murray
Music Coordinator

P&C News

P&C Meeting

Our next P&C meeting will be held on Wednesday 13th June at 3:15pm in the resource centre next to the library.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Sharon Sharp
P&C President

Uniform Shop

Uniform Shop Change of Hours

The new hours for the uniform shop have now come into effect.

The new days are Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 8.15am – 9.00am. We would like to continue to operate on a Friday but need volunteers for this to happen. If you are available to help for an hour every Friday please email Ange at csssuniforms@gmail.com.

Tuckshop

We are open from 7.30am until 3:00pm for all your breakfast and lunch needs.

Frankie’s Tuckerbox Menu

The tuckshop is open Monday - Friday and offers a range of healthy choice options. Please refer to our Tuckshop Menu for more information.

School Terms for 2018 are as follows;

School Directory

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Community Notices

Grandparents Support Group

Gold Coast Health Oral Health (Dental) Services

The Mobile Dental Clinic will be returning to Coomera Springs State School the week commencing 4 June 2018, please refer to the attached Oral Health Service Provision Schedule for further details.

If you require an appointment before 4th June, please 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 and are eligible to receive Medicare benefits.

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

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