Dear Parents/Caregivers,

We hope you had a relaxing and enjoyable holiday. Welcome also to the new families and students who joined us this term Tayla, Vinnie, Freya, Brock, Alex, Sam and Millie.

We are very happy to be sharing our first Newsletter with you in this new format. Eventually our website will also be reconstructed in a similar format. The benefits include a calendar which will accurately reflect a range of school events and quick links to locate all required school information. As Term 4 is very busy, please check in on the calendar for required information and do give the office a call if you cannot locate what you are looking for. 

Congratulations also to Karen Hayes who has won a permanent position working in our Front Office area. I'm sure you will all agree she is a valuable addition to our team.

Liz Pelling

Congratulations to all of our Yr 3, 5 and 7 students for excellent results in this year's NAPLAN testing. Results for NAPLAN were sent home to families late last term and reflect the hard work of students and the excellent learning programme provided by school staff. If you have any queries about results please make an appointment to speak with your child's classroom teacher. 

Overall 37% of our students achieved in the highest bands for Numeracy and 49% of our students achieved in the highest bands for Reading. Both of these results reflect an improvement from 2017 results.

Reminder that the school will have a Pupil Free Day on Friday 9th November. On this day staff will be analysing school and student data to determine priorities for our site improvement plan.
OSHC will open for bookings please email coro.oshc517@schools.sa.edu.au.

Below is the watermarked proposed Materials and Services school fees for 2019.

The Governing Council Finance Committee have recommended not to increase our fees from 2018.

The 2019 fees have been recommended to Governing Council at the meeting on 11/9.

If you would like to ask any questions or comment on the fees we invite you to do so through the Governing Council Chair, Andrew Wright andrew.wright@senet.com.au , the Treasurer Heidi Hillier hhillier07@gmail.com or to our Principal Liz Pelling liz.pelling867@schools.sa.edu.au 

In line with our Sunsmart policy, during term 4 all students are required to wear a school hat when outdoors. Please make sure your child has an approved school hat to wear at school. In addition to this staff have sunscreen available for use in the classroom and will remind students to apply.

In week 2 of term 1 next year we have been asked to host a group of Korean student teachers at our school.

We are looking for anyone who is interested in hosting an adult student in their home. You will be reimbursed for hosting the student.

This does not have to be a school family, it can be grandparents or someone you know. If you are interested or know someone

who may be interested please let me know by email, sue.matthews799@schools.sa.edu.au .

Thank you

Sue Matthews

English and Writing

Last Term 13 students from Years 3-7 participated in an English Competition and 7 students from Years 3-7 participated in a Writing Competition. These are national assessments conducted by the University of New South Wales. These students were awarded certificates of achievement as well as information rating their performance with other students of similar levels across South Australia and the Northern Territory. They did our school proud and we congratulate them for their efforts.

Thanks

Chris Gully

At the end of last term I was fortunate to attend a conference and hear an amazing speaker by the name of Susan McLean. According to her Bio, Susan is “Australia’s foremost expert in the area of cyber safety and was a member of Victoria Police for 27 years. Susan established Cyber Safety Solutions in March 2007 and this has grown to be the most highly respected and in-demand cybersafety consultancy in Australia.”

Susan gave an excellent, informative, and somewhat scary (as a parent of two teenagers!) presentation about Cyberbullying, Online Grooming, Problematic Internet use and Gaming Issues, Sexting and more. Her website has a range of no-nonsense, practical downloadable fact sheets that I highly recommend every parent read:

http://www.cybersafetysolutions.com.au/fact-sheets/

There is also information about a program called Family Zone, a cyber safety platform that can be used at home:

http://www.cybersafetysolutions.com.au/family-zone/

I am also currently reading one of Susan’s books, “Sexts, Texts & Selfies” which includes case studies of what children get up to online, and clear and practical guidelines on how to help them navigate and use the internet responsibly and safely.

If you have any questions or need any assistance in this area, I’m happy to meet and share the resources that I have.

Jenni Forder (PCW)

Jenni.forder365@schools.sa.edu.au

As part of the Festival of Music, some recorder students took part in an excellent foyer concert on Sunday September 23^rd at the Festival Theatre. A number of parents and friends supported the performers.

Congratulations to: Angus, Cody, Nick, Thomas, Tyler, Flynn, Lyly, Hayley, Lucy and Nicholas”

Jan Booth - Recorder Teacher

SRC Service as Action Groups – Year 6/7 Update

Over the last three terms, the Student Actions Community Group has worked efficiently and collaboratively to help our school become a brighter, happier place. In Term 3, we have worked on a PowerPoint to present to the staff to inform and teach them about Student-Centred Learning, which is a new style of teaching that encourages students to take charge of their own learning. Our second group has been working on re-landscaping the exterior gardens of our school to make them eye-catching and aesthetically appealing. This group has been working really hard to make our school a presentable place. The Community Student Actions final group has been helping younger peers with maths, reading and other tasks. The younger students really value their time with the Year sixes and sevens. In Term 4, we will aim to successfully finish our actions (re-landscaping, helping younger peers, PowerPoint) around the school and set new goals to achieve over Term 4.

Written by Mia - Community SRC Leader

In Term 3 for the Sports Student Action Group we have been running the sport clinics including soccer, basketball and netball. We also have written an email to the Adelaide 36ers to enter into a competition to win a basketball session with the Adelaide 36ers for each class. We also made a survey on SurveyMonkey to send to Mr. Murphy’s class to see how our clinics went for them.

Written by Holly and Tyson - Sports SRC Leaders

The Global Initiatives action group held a cake stall to raise money for our World Vision child Joe. Coromandel Primary School students have been supporting Joe for many years. Now that that Joe has finished his schooling and has a job we have  a new World Vision sponsor child called Maryam. The money from the cake stall that we initially raised for Joe is now going to Maryam so she can start school. We will be sponsoring Maryam until she has finished school and gets a job like Joe. We have been organising to start some global art classes that the Global Initiative action group will be holding. We will go around to different classes and teach them about art from all different cultures. We are hoping to finish organising and start these classes by next term.

Written by Talia and Sarah - Global Initiative SRC Leaders

We, the Arts SRC Student Action Group, have been organising the Talent Show. We have made posters to advertise it and we also made ideas for prizes. By being in this group, we have learnt how to organise ourselves efficiently and to be responsible when learning in our group. When figuring out what to write on the posters we  all contributed to the team effort. We also brainstormed some ideas for the Talent Show prizes based on what year levels will receive them. We have all enjoyed being in this group and hope that people in this group next time will enjoy it like we all have.

Written by Annie – Arts SRC Leader

This term the Wellbeing Student Action Group has been following up our goals from Term Two. Our first group has been finishing making an anti-bullying video that they will soon share to each year level in their classrooms. The second group has been visiting the younger year levels and helping out in the classrooms either by reading with them or setting up fitness games for them. The third group has been working on a growth mindset power point to also share to the younger classes. We are planning a nude food lunch box day for some time next term (date undecided).

Written by Olivia - Wellbeing SRC Leader

This term, the Environment SRC Student Action Group planted native plants around the Year six classrooms. We have been weeding the gardens and picking up litter. Our goals for next term are that we get the Butterfly Garden done up and work together with the Wellbeing Group to organise a Nude Food Lunchbox Day.

Written by Molly – Environment SRC Leader

In the ICT Group, we have set up ways of supporting ways with using ICT.  We are creating a Minecraft account to run a server in the school. Another group is currently making an online canteen ordering system website. Hopefully the website will let you order lunch online instead of putting money in a bag.  We are also exploring the idea of a student Intragram account.

Written by Ethan – ICT Leader

We look forward to continuing our Service as Action Groups next term and hope to successfully complete all of our goals!

The moment that you stepped off the Flying Fox platform the pressure was so intense but there was no turning back, however at the same time it felt like you were soaring through the sky and it was so much fun. Once we pulled the blue toggle towards our butterfly tummies it felt like we had left our stomachs behind and it was awesome.

We liked the canoeing because it was very relaxing and made us feel like we were in space. Making a raft for a race was lots of fun with building and splashing to win. The burger and chocolate mousse was fantastic.

Yr 4's

The year 5 camp was the best camp ever! 

On the first day we went to the Swan Reach Museum for a scavenger hunt and the Yabby Farm where we learnt about the Murray River and how to tell the difference between a female and a male yabby. Unfortunately, the birds had stolen all the yabbies from the dam so we couldn't catch any. 

The next day we went caving and we learnt about fossils and how they were formed. We were allowed to search for fossils in the cave. The best part of caving was finding fossils by torch light. 

Another activity was a boat ride where we learnt about the importance of the Murray River for the environment and the wildlife that depends on it. The highlight of our boat ride was getting to drive the boat! 

We all enjoyed gymnastics and the foam pit. 

One evening we visited The Bend By Night and saw sheep shearing. We even got to have a try at cracking a whip!

One night we did karaoke - the teachers did karaoke too! It didn't go well...Mrs Bryan, Mrs Taylor, Mrs Bentley and Vicky think they can sing! Luckily, Jenne and Matt, our parent helpers, can!

We finished our last night at camp by toasting marshmallows around the campfire.

The school has recently had 13 students - Daniel, Eunju, Ewan, Finn, Jackson, Jake, Kane, Lachlan, Maggie, Micah, Nathan, Nicholas & Sebastian - competing across 3 separate interschool chess tournaments.

Our first competition was in the Hills Zone, where Coromandel Valley finished in 3rd place, winning the Bronze Medal.   Finn and Jackson, who are both only in Reception, were competing in their first tournaments, and both boys did well to win games, including a victory over Year 6 for Finn, and Jackson being awarded the Fair Play award for the day.   Daniel and Kane were best placed from Coro, finishing in equal 4th place out of 50 competitors, with 5 wins from 7 games.  Of our 10 students competing, 6 either set new or equalled their previous personal bests. 

Our second event was at the very strong Southern Zone Tournament.  After being in the top 3 places for the first four rounds, we struck some harder competition and eventually slipped to 5th place, which is still a great result against some very good chess schools.  Congratulations to Daniel, who was once again the best of the Coro players, finishing in equal 14th place of 71 competitors on 4.5 wins from his 7 games, and to Maggie, who was playing in her first tournament.    Of our 11 players, a further 5 personal bests were recorded, with the lowest score being 3 wins - a fanstic team effort.

Finally, Eunju, Maggie, Micah & Helena travelled to Burnside Primary School, for a girls only competition. Burnside Primary School dominated the tournament with 26 out of a possible 28 points, but the fight for the remaining medal places was very close, 3 schools very close all day.  Unfortunately, Coromandel Valley just missed out on a medal, finishing 1 point behind 2nd place and 1/2 point behind 3rd place.  The girls played really well and all set new personal bests.   Eunju was our highest placed competitor, finishing in 6th place on 5 points.

Congratulations to all of our players for representing our school so well. 

Huge thanks to Kerry Coghlan, Opal Greenwood, Natalie Fleming, Andrew General & Alicia Melbourne for assisting with transport and enabling our students to take part - without your help it would not have been possible.

The Chess Club continues to meet on Monday lunchtimes, and anyone is welcome to come along. It would be great to see some new faces.

David Shaw

About 240 parents, carers and grandparents attended the JP Dance Showcase performances on Tuesday 25th September. 

 Some of our new 2019 reception students also attended from Blackwood Community Centre and Coromandel Valley Kindergarten 

 All Reception to Year 2 students showed their creative skills as risk-takers, performing in front of a very lively audience. 

 Here are some comments from some of the students after the show:

"I felt great actually talking in front of everyone. I felt happy that both mum and dad were able to watch and dad didn't have to go to work." Archie. 1/2 OC

 "I liked watching all the performances. I felt really good about performing in front of people." Ami 2N

 "I Enjoyed talking in front of the people at the concert." Amelie 2Z

 "I liked dancing." Kahdah. RM

 "I liked going on the stage and dancing. " Lucy RM

 "I liked dong the clap in our dance." Anissa RM

 "I liked waving my arms. " Leila RM

Shirley Williams presented these colourful rugs, knitted by our weekly knitting group, to Blackwood Kindergarten at our Monday assembly.

A big thank you to Keith, our talented Groundsperson,  who combined hard work and creativity in the holidays to produce a new nature play area for our students to enjoy. Already students are planning ways to enhance their play with natural materials.

            

Beacon is a local charity that assists families in our community. Every year they give out Christmas hampers to those in need.

On Friday 16 November, we are asking the Coro community to donate items towards these hampers. We would appreciate if you could send non-perishable food items (eg long life milk, pasta, rice, tea and coffee, breakfast cereals, museli bars, pasta sauces, tinned fruit and fish etc) and / or Christmas foods (mince pies, chocolates, puddings etc) to school on that day.

There will be a small prize for the class that brings in the most items, and the class that brings in the most Christmas items!

Thanks in anticipation!

Sarah and Talia on behalf of the SRC Global Learners

Girls Year 6 -7 SAPSASA Basketball Sate Championship Day

On the 20^th September the girls Year 6-7 SAPSASA Basketball team competed in the State Championship day at Pasadena Stadium.

The team was made up by Paige, Lauren, Holly, Leya, Molly, Bianca, Chloe& Indi.

They played 7 games in total throughout the day. Winning 4 by a big margin and losing 3 games by 2 goals or less.  They proved to be competitive all day.

Super proud of all the girls, was a great team effort.  They did themselves and the school proud. Amazing contribution and school spirit on and off the court.

They were an absolute pleasure to coach.  

Special thanks to Kylie Mueller and all the parents that came to support the girls throughout the day. Megan for helping score all day.

Nicole Brusic

Coach