We have had a very settled beginning to the school year and appreciate the ongoing support of families as we navigate COVID-19 regulations. Please continue to avoid entering classrooms unless absolutely necessary. If you are entering a classroom please register using the QR code available on the door. 

Acquaintance evening saw the school abuzz once again, with many parents attending information booths to find out about the many different programs that run at our school. Mat Haslett presented tips for success in the school gymnasium. A link to notes from this presentation is available below. Thanks to everyone who helped out. Thanks for attending class meetings and please contact your child's classroom teacher should you have any further questions relating to learning or routines. 

Coromandel_PS_open_night_2021.pdf

Parent Consultation Group is a new initiative for the school in response to the 2020 parent survey which saw some parents seeking more information about how they can best support their child's learning. We will be meeting termly to explore school learning initiatives, possible information sessions, and school events. These parents will support in collecting information to build stronger connections. We currently have a representative for Reception, Yr 2, Yr 3 and Yr 6.

If you have a child in Yr 1, 4, 5 or 7 and have an interest in supporting this initiative we would love to hear from you. Please email me to register your interest liz.pelling867@schools.sa.edu.au 

All Department for Education schools participate in an external review every three years to explore areas of strength and areas for future focus. Our school will take part in an external review during Wk. 7 on 9th and 10th March. The review will be led by Ms Kathryn Entwistle who will be joined by two review principals Dina Zunis from North Ingle PS and Vicki Stravinski from East Adelaide PS. In addition the new Assistant Director for external reviews, Danielle Chadwick, will observe our review.

Whilst at our school they will interview parents, students and all staff to explore aspects of the following:

• How effectively does the school use improvement planning processes to raise student achievement?
• How effectively are teachers supporting students to improve their learning?
• How effectively does the school leadership ensure a clear focus on improving teaching and student learning?
• To what extent does the school provide conditions for effective student learning?

Please read the attached letter for more information regarding the external review process.

Parent_letter_ER_002_.pdf

We have begun the first year of our new 2022-2024 Site Improvement plan, continuing a focus on Numeracy, Writing and Thinking. Whilst some of our aim is on High Band retention and achievement, the actions detailed in our plan for 2022 will provide opportunities for staff to develop goals with all learners. You can find a copy of our current Site Improvement plan on the school websit,e however the visuals below provide a summary of our challenge of practice, targets and actions for this year.

Here are 27 ideas ranging from breakfast, to car trips, to grocery shopping, to afternoon tea, to pocket money and just about everything in between.

How many pieces of bread did I start with? (see 13)

1. Ask them to get out the cups and plates for afternoon tea without telling them how many are needed
2. Ask them to get the right number of pegs when hanging out the washing (e.g. shirts need two, socks need one)
3. Talk about how things are similar and different (e.g. this one is pointy but this one is rounded), and classify the same group of objects in different ways (colours, shapes, “pointy”, “rough”…)
4. With two or three objects, move them around and ask how many there are now. Keep experimenting until the child realises that moving the objects doesn’t make the number change – there are still the same amount.
5. Don’t always count things in a line or from left to right. Try a circle or just a mixed up group. Also, count mixed groups of objects (e.g. a block, a lego man and a ball) rather than always the same things. Mix up the colours too.
6. Give them different sized cups to play with in the bath instead of toys. Pour water from one to the other to compare which has the most.
7. When building with Duplo or Lego, talk about the blocks as “a six block” or “an eight block”. Experiment with ways to cover an eight block with other smaller blocks.
8. Play skittles (six plastic bottles works well). Talk about how many you knocked down and how many are left to get.
9. Share groups of objects or food between multiple kids (fairly).
10. When doing the groceries, ask the kids to collect numbers of items in the shop (e.g. 8 apples)
11. Make “cool high fives” by using some fingers on each hand (e.g. 3 on one hand and 2 on the other). Repeat with other numbers bigger than 5.
12. Cut bread in half in different ways and decide that no matter what shape it is, both halves are the same.
13. Give all the toast for the whole family cut into halves on the one plate (or apples, or other fruit). Ask how many pieces of bread or fruit you started with.
14. Play “what am I spying?” instead of “I spy”: Describe a 3D object that you can see, one clue at a time, while the other people try to guess what it is. (e.g. My object is bigger than the TV. It has smooth sides that are rectangles. It is white. It has two doors on it. It is very cold.)
15. Look at maps of where you are going and let the kids try to follow the map while you get there. Find your street on a map.
16. When another family is coming to dinner ask the kids how many people there will be. So how many pieces of potato will we need if everyone has two?
17. Work out how many pieces of pizza you need for your family and how many pizzas that would be.
    Talk about how likely things are to happen (e.g. it is very likely to rain tomorrow so we had better pack your rain coat). Consider things that are totally made up in their games or that they see on TV too – how likely is it that the dinosaur bones that David Attenborough was just looking at actually came to life and walked around the museum?
18. Get them to budget their pocket money (e.g. have a money box with four categories: spending, saving, charity and gifts). Work out how many weeks it would be before they could buy a certain toy.
19. Get the kids to work out how many minutes there are left until something happens (e.g. how long until your swimming lesson?). Both digital and analogue clocks are great for this.
20. When playing board games (e.g. snakes and ladders or monopoly), use two dice. Let the kids choose if they want to move forwards by both, back by both, or forwards by one and backwards by the other.
21. Let the child work out the logistics for their birthday party (or dinner, or a camping trip etc.) – how many cups, plates, packets of lollies etc. for the guests… as well as the timing (e.g. everyone will be here by 4:00 so we will play games until 4:30 and then serve cake. That will take 15 minutes. Then…)
22. Arrange groups of objects into different arrays (like 12 muffins in a tin vs 12 eggs in a carton). Use existing arrays for calculations (e.g. looking at a wall of shoes in a sports shop, work out how many shoes that represents, calculate how many rooms in a hotel by counting the floors and the number of windows in each floor)
23. Talk about how likely a weather event is to happen and give your surety a numerical measure (e.g. a 50% chance of rain vs a 90% chance of rain according to the weather predictions)
24. Let the kids cook – particularly recipes involving measuring fractions of cups etc.
25. Plan routes on maps. Work out the total distances involved, but also talk about the traffic and whether one route would be faster.
26. When on the highway, estimate how long it would take to get to the next town given the speed limit and distance.
27. Budget and save for holidays or larger items. Work out a payment plan (e.g. washing up is worth $__ but mowing the lawn is worth $__). Get them to figure out how to earn the amount of money that they want. Consider incentives (e.g. every time you save $20 we will contribute another $5) or loans (yes you can borrow the $50 from us, but you have to pay us back $55).

https://www.backtofrontmaths.com.au/articles/parents/homework-tasks-help-make-maths-part-everyday-life

It has been a wonderful start to the school year. I have noticed many children borrowing and reading a huge variety of books in many different genres

Thank you to all those families that have been donating books. With our purchase and your donations our supplies in the library are looking very inviting for our readers.

We try to get the books out onto the shelves quickly, to support students’ interests and reading opportunities. Currently, we are inundated with books that need covering!

If you could spare some time to contact some of our books, we have put together some packs that have approximately 5 books in each and contact with some instructions on how to cover the books. Please email me if you are keen to take a pack home.  I can send a pack home with your child or you can pick one up from the front office.

Thank you for your ongoing support in making our library the best it can be!

Exploring nests in science

Thank you to the families that have donated nests over the past few weeks.  We have used them in science to think critically and creatively like scientists. Students have communicated their ideas about out which bird had built them, made predictions about how many eggs might fit and tried to identify the different material types that were used to construct them.

Eighty Five excited kids packed all their stuff onto the trailer connected to the bus. It was hot on the small white bus. Everyone was shouting and talking about the day ahead of us. Everyone was signing along to the songs. We finally arrived at Dzintari Latvian Camp. We unpacked everything of the bus and put it in our dorms.

 The waves came crashing down in-front of me. The freezing water invited goosebumps onto my wet skin. Suddenly a huge wave was waiting for me to ride it. It formed just in time for me to jump up onto the raging wave.  I jumped up onto the long board like a frog. It swayed me to the edge of the grainy sand. I bounced off the foam board and sprinted back into the icy waves. This was so different to every other school camp.

I strapped on the steel black helmet. I hopped in the cockpit of the green cart named ‘The Hulk’. “Go” she yelled. The race started. I felt my teammate pushing the back of my cart around the donut shaped track. We span around the circle and I drifted around a bend. We paced to the pit stop and swapped positions with our other teammates.

Bang! The shot banked in off the backboard of the basketball ring. I got my friend out in a game called bump. “Dinner time” called Skye. We all rushed to the entrance of the dining room and grabbed our water bottles. We all speed walked to our table to try and get a good seat. Dinner was build your own burgers. We finally got called up. I got to the front of the line. I chose chicken burger and made it like a ‘Chicken Royale’ from Hungry Jacks.

We woke up on the final morning of this camp. We had to pack everything up but I had planned ahead and packed up the day before. I dashed to the basketball court and got a ball and was shooting around. The instructor made us put everything on the trailers we headed off to our final activities and went to the beach. We had the ‘Beach Games’ and our team didn’t do very well. We had wraps for lunch. We ate our lunch and headed back to school.

Jackson

The Coro Chess Club continues to run on Mondays at lunchtime in classroom 2M.  The Chess Club is free and is open to all ages and abilities.

Learning chess has many benefits, including improving memory, logic, planning, pattern matching, perspective and focus, as well as providing an opportunity for developing decision making, creativity and sportsmanship.

At the end of each term, the school has an opportunity to take part in Interschool Tournaments, with the Coro team competing against other schools in the southern area.  There is a fee for taking part, and competitors need to have mastered ‘check mate’ to take part.   The tournament for Term 1 will be held on Tuesday 6^th April (week 11) – consent forms will be available from Chess Club and Reception as of Monday 22nd February.

David Shaw

Hats

All children attending OSHC must bring a SunSmart hat. We go outside for free play every day after the children have had afternoon snack. When the UV is 3 or above all children and staff must wear a SunSmart hat. Those that don't bring a hat to OSHC will have to play on the blue courts under the shelter until the UV is under 3.

Ceased enrolment

If you receive a letter or notification from Centrelink that states, your enrolment with Coromandel Valley OSHC has ceased this means your child/ren have not attended the service for 14 weeks. When your child/ren attend again after 14 weeks and the week has ended, you will need to log onto your MyGov account and confirm the enrolment. This will then activate your subsidies.

Absent from OSHC

Please notify OSHC if your child is not attending. This can be done by texting or calling the OSHC mobile 0408824686.

Signing in and out

Please ensure you sign your child/ren in and out of the service via the Ipad. If you have any trouble with this just see one of the Educators for help.

Dennis Shanahan

Director

If you require facilities whilst on site please use the toilets in Admin or the single toilet down near the oval next to Japanese between the student toilets.

The Woolworths Discovery Garden has returned for 2021.  There are 24 herbs, vegies, and flowers to collect.  Please consider donating any surplus or unwanted seedling kits to the school for students to grow for our school vegie garden.  Donations can be taken to the front office.

Any other donations of potting mix, watering cans, or any other useful items will be gratefully accepted. Thank you

What is the Learning Assistance Programme?

The Learning Assistance Programme (LAP) is a student-centred volunteer-based mentoring programme designed to assist schools to implement one-to-one learning that supports, guides and enriches the wellbeing and learning outcomes of their students.

It focuses on the wellbeing, academic, social and emotional needs of students through the powerful and positive contribution of mentors.  The LAP Program has been running successfully at Coromandel Valley Primary School for many years and there are benefits for both students and volunteers.

Could you be a LAP volunteer?

LAP mentors come from all walks of life with differing experiences and talents. They may volunteer for LAP because:

• they have a genuine concern for other people
• they have a particular interest, talent, skill or language they wish to share
• their own child or someone they know is involved in the Programme
• they enjoy meeting new people
• they want an opportunity to learn more about the school through community involvement

If you’re interested in becoming a LAP volunteer please phone the front office or email jenny.tucker37@schools.sa.edu.au

Guitar and Ukulele lessons are available at school, during the school day. Held with a fully qualified teacher with 20 years experience. There are a limited number of spaces available for new students to enrol.

Lessons are held in groups of three students. Half an hour, once a week.

Years 3 -7 only. Phone 0419 825 517 Alison Hansen or contact your schools front office.