Dear Parents and Caregivers,

It was very pleasing to observe the manner in which our students completed this year's NAPLAN testing. This year the majority of our testing was completed online. Although we experienced some internet dropouts on the first day of testing, which was a statewide issue, students were engaged and highly responsive to the new format. Information from NAPLAN, along with other data, will be analysed and use to develop future school directions.

This year staff have been focusing on Critical and Creative Thinking skills to develop a better understanding of how this impacts learning, and foster a range of thinking skills in all that we do. To help us understand our student capabilities better, last week we completed the AGAT test (ACER General Ability test). This test was provided for students Yr1 -7 and was also completed online. The AGAT test results will provide teachers with diagnostic information pertaining to the way that students think through verbal, numerical and abstract problems. 

Both these data sets help us to better understand strengths and areas that we need to focus on. They are a part of the many different ways that staff continually collect information to inform teaching and learning experiences.

Liz Pelling

We have had a lot of inquiries about enrolling at our school and appreciate the response from existing families in enrolling new students for 2020.  To support us with this process we are asking families who have a child starting school in 2020 or know of a family who live in the community with a child starting in 2020 to enrol their child by the end of this term, Friday 5th July. 

Enrolment forms are available on our website or from the front office.

Liz Pelling

Our Kiss and Drop is an area with many students being dropped of and collected each day.  

Please be considerate when using this zone and do not leave your car unattended to pop into the office or to have a chat with another driver. 

After school Kiss and Drop is made difficult when cars line up outside of the school and block the road.  If there is a queue and you cannot get into the school please do not line up on the road, instead please drive around the block and come back. 

As always we are conscious of the safety of students while they are being collected.  We ask parents to reinforce with students that they cross using the crossing walkway in the middle of the area and that they walk to their vehicle on the walk area.  Drivers are to pull to the front parking area available and park in the parking area on the side they have chosen and not park across the walk way.

The council has asked that we remind our school community about the Australian Road Rules around schools. Please take a look at the brochure below.

On May 22nd we held a "Biggest Morning Tea" to raise money for Cancer Research. We invited our volunteers to join us for this event in support of all the work they do for our school to make it an amazing place to be. We enjoyed lovely food, beautiful fanciful crockery and great company.

Throughout this term I am spending time in a number of classes to talk the students about Gratitude.

We have discussed what Gratitude is, the types of things we have to be thankful for, how to exercise our Gratitude muscle, what it means to have an Attitude of Gratitude, and why being grateful is beneficial to us!

In 3J we learnt that begin grateful helps us to be healthier, sleep better, be more generous with our time and money, and have better relationships with our family and friends. We also made a Gratitude Web, connecting us with each other and all the things we are thankful for!

In 1O, we talked about our Gratitude Muscle and how we can make it bigger and stronger. We also heard that, while we can’t always choose what happens to us, we can always choose how we respond. We can choose to look for the good in our lives and practice Gratitude. Then we made beautiful flowers to remind us of all the things we have to be grateful for!

Jenni Forder

Pastoral Care Worker

Back-to-Front Maths is pretty different to how we all learned maths at school.  It uses problem-based teaching, which is a fancy way of saying “if you work it out yourself, then you will understand it forever”.  The idea is to ask kids a series of questions that get them to work out how maths works for themselves, instead of just telling them how to do it.  This creates those “aha” moments that make learning increase in leaps and bounds instead of progressing at a snail’s pace.

Three really important things to try and remember are:

1.    Limit yourself to asking questions and pushing your kids to think and consider options rather than telling them stuff.

2.    Remember that if they give you a weird answer, it is probably a misconception that they really believe.  Try to get them to evaluate their idea and think it through to see if it makes logical sense rather than just telling them that they are wrong.

3.    Memorisation is still really important, but if your child is having trouble understanding a concept then memorisation is not likely to help.  They need to know WHY rather than just doing more of the same.

Are you a bit scared of maths yourself?  Try these simple ideas for making maths part of your everyday life:

Mathematics is often the subject that most parents tend to shy away from, so here are a few simple suggestions for things that you can do at home to improve your child’s understanding of maths.

1. Maths at breakfast: Instead of presenting each child with their individual pieces of toast, present it altogether on one platter. Have each piece cut into quarters and ask your children how many pieces of bread there were originally. For older children, ask the question after a few of the quarters have been eaten.

2. Maths while out for a family walk: Look at the house numbers as you walk up and down a street. Have your child predict the number of the next house. The numbers can go up or down, usually by twos, in either odd or even numbers.

3. Maths while planning your week: Time is one of the most difficult concepts for kids to understand. Try asking your kids to work out how long it is until… (e.g. If we need to be at Grandma’s at 3:00 and it takes 15 minutes to get there, what time do we need to leave?) This is really important to do for days/weeks as well as hours/minutes. For example, “It is Thursday today, so how many days are there until you start school again on Monday?”

4. Maths while shopping: Estimating weight can be really tricky for kids. Why not get them to estimate how much your bag of apples weighs then confirm by measuring it on the scales? Also, remember to talk about price comparisons. For example, if Kipfler potatoes cost $4.99/kg but washed potatoes cost $5.99 for a 4kg bag, how much more expensive would the Kipflers be for the same amount? Estimate rather than calculating exactly (e.g. Kipflers would be $5 for one kilogram, or $20 for 4kg whereas the washed potatoes would cost $6 for 4kg).

5. Maths with pocket money: Giving kids a small amount of pocket money and teaching them to be responsible with it is one of the most valuable things that children can learn. Instead of just having a generic piggy bank, consider using a multi-sectioned container so that the money can be allocated for different things. Our sections are: spending, saving, presents and charity. When your kids ask for a toy, talk about the price in terms of weeks of pocket money rather than absolute dollars. This gives them a sense of the relative cost and will help them to become more money savvy in the long run.

6. Maths with plastic bottles: Skittles is a great way of helping kids to become solid with their number understandings. Setting up 6 plastic bottles and rolling a tennis ball at them is a great way to spend an afternoon. My little kids love yelling out “I knocked three down, I have three left!”

Have lots of fun making maths part of your everyday life.

Tierney Kennedy – Back to Front Maths.  Taken from: https://www.backtofrontmaths.com.au/daily-teaching-help/parents-portal

On the 13th of May the two year 6 classes went to Arbury Park outdoor school for our camp. We were there for three days and we did loads of outdoor based activities like orienteering, land care, bush survival and lot of other fun things. During land care we found out that the native plants are important for biodiversity and the quality of the water. They taught us how to respect wildlife and look after the land. We also learnt about water and how important it is to keep our water usage low. It was a fantastic camp, we learnt a lot and we all enjoyed it.

Amy

Yr6

Tuesday Coffee Chats

Starting this Tuesday 4th June between 2-4pm in the St Johns parish hall during school terms.

Famiies are welcome to come in for tea or coffee in a comfortable place while you wait to pick up your children.

You are welcome if you want to chat or just to enjoy a quiet place.

Any questions please ring Di on 0417 569 970.

Coromandel Valley Parish

Do you have an up to date Asthma Action Plan?

With the weather cooling down for Winter, it’s more important than ever that you have an up to date Asthma Action Plan.

Having an Asthma Action Plan has been proven to:

• Reduce the chance of needing to go to the hospital or for an urgent doctor visit
• Improve lung function
• Reduce reliever medication use; and
• Reduce the number of days off work or school due to asthma

If you don’t have a plan or need a new one, we want to make it easy for you.

Grab a template Asthma Action Plan from our website and make time to work through it with your doctor today.

Jenny Tucker

SSO – First Aid

Due to the wet and muddy conditions our spare clothes are running low.  If your child has borrowed any clothing can you please return them clean to the office.

We are running low on spare pants in particular for both boys and girls in sizes 4-6.  If you have some old ones that you would be willing to donate to the school, please drop them in to the office.

Well done to all of the Cross Country runners who competed at the District Carnival at Belair National Park.

10 year olds: Euan 

11 year olds: Hunter, Harry, Luke, Claire, Hannah

12 year olds: Nathan, Jake, Danielle, Amy, Claire

13 year olds: Danny, Rhiannon

At this carnival students run a challenging 3km course (2km for the 10 year olds) up and down hills and over a wide variety of terrain, including grass, mud, gravel, dirt, and asphalt trails.

Our team has been training hard on Monday mornings for the past couple of months and were well prepared for the challenge.

Congratulations to Hunter who placed 4^th in his age group and Danielle who finished 6^th in her age group. Hunter and Danielle have now been invited to represent Southern Heights District at the State Championship event at Oakbank Race Course next month.

All of our runners showed great effort and should be proud of their achievements. They had a fun day and didn’t let the rain dampen their spirits.

A big “thank you” to parents for transporting children to the event, helping with organisation and supporting our students. Thanks also to Kiera for assisting with finish line marshalling in the rain throughout the day.

A special mention to Hunter and Danielle who went on to compete at the State Day.

Mr De Lyster

PE Teacher

Congratulations to the following girls who successfully made the Southern Heights netball team:

Eden, Daniella, Bianca, Caitlin, Alana, Chloe and Alyssa.

Congratulations to the following boys who successfully made the Southern Heights football team:

Sam, Kody and Finn

On Wednesday our knockout soccer team played their round one matches against Braeview and Flagstaff Hill.

Coromandel Valley defeated Braeview 7-2. Flagstaff Hill also comfortably beat Braeview, so it came down to the final match between Coro and Flaggy.

At full time it was a 2-2 stalemate, so the boys played an extra 5 minutes each way. No goals were scored so it went to a penalty shoot-out. Unfortunately, we lost the shoot-out and so won’t move to the next round.

The boys played valiantly though and with good sportsmanship.

We look forward to next year’s competition.

Bernie De Lyster

PE TEACHER

School soccer at Coromandel Valley is off to a fantastic start this season. We have registered four teams with the Southern Districts Junior Soccer Association and we are really impressed with how well our teams have been working together from the outset.

A warm welcome to our new U8 team and families and welcome back Coach Rob Nadin (Charlie’s dad)! We hope you are enjoying yourselves so far.

Our U9s had a head-start this season as Blackwood Primary invited us to a ‘friendly’ on Saturday 11 May and they have had some great matches already. It is exciting to see how this team is continuing to develop their skills and confidence under the calm guidance of Coach Dave Merritt (Tyler’s dad).

Our U10 team is our biggest team and they are working hard and learning to adapt to a full-size pitch. Enormous thanks to Coach Paul Cocks who started the boys this season and who has volunteered countless hours already marking the pitches at Frank Smith Park. Welcome back Coach Richard Thiele (Lukas’ dad) who will be taking over from Paul for the rest of the season.

Finally, we are delighted to have joined forces with Belair Primary to form a Coromandel-Belair United Seniors team! As we were both low on numbers, this last-minute idea from Belair has been paying off in spades. We welcome five players from Belair and are lucky enough to have two coaches – Sally Smith (Matilda’s mum, from Belair, and also a Coro old scholar!) and Morgan Chris (from Coro), who is very kindly volunteering his time even though he doesn’t have a child playing. We truly have a wonderful community.

Our sincere thanks to our team managers Taryn, Nikki, Brianna and Geoff for their work behind the scenes each week, and to Lisa Kemp who worked with us and volunteered many hours of admin before the season started.

Jessie Wildenauer & Judy Schober

Soccer Coordinators