As 2021 draws to a close, I would like to extend my appreciation to all our community for your ongoing efforts in supporting our wonderful school throughout the year.

Special thank you to Sam Neville and Governing Council as well as Candice Doman and parent volunteers for their support with school initiatives. Fundraising initiatives, including the 'Colour Fun Run', have been expertly planned and well received.

Despite ongoing challenges, we were able to maintain our great improvement and provide quality learning opportunities and experiences for our students. It is also with a mix of pride and sadness that we say farewell to our graduating Year 6 and 7 students as they embark on the next stage of their learning at high school. We wish them all the very best for the future and look forward to hearing about their achievements as they continue their learning journeys.

We now enter a new phase of improvement planning with the new Site Improvement Plan 2022 – 2024. After consultation and negotiation with staff and Governing Council, and alignment with our External School Review directions, we have developed the following challenges of practice:

LITERACY/WRITING

If we analyse student writing skills and differentiate teaching accordingly, we will increase achievement. This will challenge will support us to focus on carefully monitoring student achievement, making adjustments to teaching accordingly.

NUMERACY

If we consistently differentiate learning opportunities, with a focus on problem-solving and productive struggle, we will increase achievement in mathematics R-6. This challenge will guide us to provide students with the skills and opportunities to practice problem-solving and fluency with increasing confidence within their mathematics.

THINKING

If we intentionally use questioning, feedback, and reasoning to develop student critical and creative thinking skills we will increase student achievement in all subject areas. This challenge will focus on enhancing our skills in questioning to better understand student thinking. Opportunities for reasoning and feedback will provide students with accurate information with which to determine the next steps for learning.

We would like to say thank you and farewell to the following staff members who will be leaving our school at the end of this year.

Vanessa Hiser has been at our school for the past 4 years working in the Upper Primary team with our Year 6 and 7 students. Next year Vanessa will move to Heathfield High School as a Yr 7 teacher. With her flair for Literacy and a passion for Mathematics, we feel sure she will be highly valued in her new position. We thank her for the many contributions made to our school including support with Dance Night and an ongoing commitment to Environment and Sustainability education.

Anna Macintyre started at our school as an SSO focusing on stretch and challenge in mathematics. Shortly afterwards she won a teaching position and has continued to develop her capacity to successfully meet student needs each year. Next Year Anna will be moving to Aldinga Payinthi College in her first permanent position. Anna has made a huge impact on learning for her students as well as contributing to our reconciliation action group. We wish her every success in the future.

It is with mixed emotions that I leave the Coromandel Valley School Community where I have worked for the past 14 years. I would like to thank the community for its ongoing support over the years, it has truly been a pleasure to work in such a vibrant learning community. I leave with treasured memories and am very grateful for the opportunities I have had to learn alongside fantastic families, sensational students and amazing professionals. I look forward to exciting new challenges at Colonel Light Gardens Primary School.

Coro Picnic and Singalong - Tuesday 7th December 

Coro Picnic and Singalong is an opportunity for our community to join in an evening of music and singing. Please bring a rug or chairs, a picnic dinner and find a spot to enjoy this event, on the school oval. The canteen will be open for drinks and iceblocks from 4:45 until 5:30 pm

Families are invited to book two tickets (per family) from the Eventbrite link below. Current students and children under 5 will not require a ticket. All adult attendees will need to COVID scan in and also scan in their Eventbrite ticket upon arrival. There will be school staff at three entry points to support this process; Frank Smith, Trevilyan Court and the school driveway entry.

The singing will end at approximately 6:30 pm and we are asking that all families leave the school grounds by 7 pm.

We look forward to bringing our school community together for this event and hope you can join us. 

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/coro-picnic-and-singalong-tuesday-7th-december-tickets-217320119327

We will make any unbooked tickets available to the community on Monday 6th at 9 am should families wish to bring more than 2 adults.

2022 Classes and Reports

On Wednesday 8th students will visit their 2022 classrooms, and in most cases, meet the teacher they will be having next year. Student reports will be sent home that afternoon.

Final Day Assembly - Friday 10th at 1 pm 

For families of students who are leaving our school, we would like to invite one adult per student to attend the final assembly on Friday 10th December at 1 pm, where our graduating students will speak and receive a book kindly donated by Parents and Friends. 

You may reserve your seat via the Eventbrite link below.

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/final-assembly-friday-10th-december-tickets-219749525747

Any unbooked seats will be made available on Wednesday 8th at 5 pm should families wish to bring an additional adult to this event. This event will be live-streamed.

A reminder that school will finish at 2:10pm on Friday 10th December.

We would like to acknowledge the great achievements made by all of our Year 6 and 7 students this year. It has been rewarding to celebrate a whole range of skills throughout the year in many different curriculum and sporting areas.

Last week our student Community Leaders; Brianna, Elliot, Daniel, Hannah, Levi and Ariana proudly presented the learning that they have been involved in this year around 'Powerful Learning' to the school leaders in the Mitcham Hills Partnership. They confidently shared the video that they made as well as the tips they have been sharing with students around how to become a more powerful learner. By having clear goals and success criteria, they were able to share evidence of the impact they have made upon other students. A very big thank you to Eve Hooper who has facilitated the partnership SRC this year as well as working closely with our students.

Emergency Management Directions

On November 16, the Commissioner of Police, acting in his role as the State Coordinator responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, announced the Emergency Management (Education and Early Childhood Settings Vaccination) (COVID-19) Direction 2021.

Under this Direction, COVID-19 vaccinations will be mandatory for all people who work or volunteer at our school, except those who have a medical exemption endorsed by the Chief Public Health Officer. This includes:

• All of our staff and contractors
• Anyone who visits our schools/preschool/children’s centre for work purposes
• Our Governing Council members
• All volunteers and parent helpers (people who assist with reading, camps, excursions, canteen, fundraising etc).

Under this Direction, all of the above-mentioned people must receive at least 1 dose of a Therapeutic Goods Association (TGA) approved COVID-19 vaccination and a booking to receive a second dose by 11.59pm on 10 December 2021, which is the last day of term.

The Direction does not apply to students, parents dropping off or picking up children, attending parent-teacher interviews, events or similar, as long as they are not working or volunteering at the event and COVID safe measures are followed.

More information about the Direction is available on The Department for Education website: https://www.education.sa.gov.au/

The lesson started with an explanation about the history of omosubi. Mr Yamamoto gave us a demonstration on how to make it and different ways to make it, we could use the little tools that were there or our hands. We had the choice of Mayo Tuna and Teriyaki chicken, unless you had a food requirement. We made as many as possible or at least until the rice ran out. Each class spent the entire time enjoying cooking and talking about what they put in their Omosubi. One thing I can say is that they were delicious.

Brianna M 6/7VH

As part of our Culture and Understanding unit of inquiry our year 6/7's had a Japanese cooking lesson where they made Omusubi (Japanese rice balls). Students enjoyed making their omusubi with teriyaki chiken and tuna mayonnaise inside it. Great work everyone!

Mr Yamamoto

Japanese Teacher

Great excitement this morning in the Year 5 rooms! The stalls looked sensational, the customer service was excellent and the products were high quality. We sold out in record time!

Year 3 and 4 students were interested in how we made the products and were heard saying how creative they thought we all were. Customers complimented us on our quality control and our choice of colours.

We learnt so much during this unit of inquiry including: how to budget, what attracts customers, how market research is useful, how to plan to minimise waste, and how to work well together.

After paying our investors back, profits will be donated to charity. Thank you to everyone who made this market a success ?

This term, the Year 3 classes were invited to join volunteers from our neighbouring church group to participate in a wreath making activity to support our current Unit of Inquiry: Traditions. 

The learning focus of our Unit of Inquiry: Traditions, is built around the central idea that traditions connect people and reflect culture. Our lines of inquiry explore how people are connected through traditions, how traditions reflect culture and expressing ideas and beliefs through the Arts.

The program was facilitated by volunteers from the church community and has involved a group of 10-12 students attending the event each visit over this term.

At the conclusion of our program, we look forward to sharing our wreaths with the community in a culminating event which will take place at the church from 3.30pm on Friday the 3^rd of December.

Dan Johnson, Kate O’Driscoll, Maria Drakos and Mike Shaw

 Thank you to all the families who supported our school Book Fair. This was the first time our school had hosted one in many years, and what an amazing experience it was! The children loved coming in, making wish lists and purchases, calculating change and being independent shoppers.

While others treasured sharing the experience with their family members. Either way, everyone had a great time and it was a busy hub for the four days!

We hope you enjoyed buying some lovely gifts for family members.

As a result of everyone’s wonderful support, the school raised around $1400. We will use this money to buy new books and resources for our school. A huge THANK YOU!

After the amazing and positive response to this event, we will be hosting another Book Fair next year at the same time…. just in time for some more Christmas shopping for 2022.

Once Upon A Festival at Immanuel College Excursion

On the 29^th of October, some students from Coro travelled to Immanuel College to take part in the Once Upon A Festival. Once we arrived, we got shown to our first workshop. This one was run by Andrew Joyner, who is the author of ‘Stand Up Speak Up’, ‘The Pink Hat’, and many more. He taught us how to make mini books and inspired us to use only ‘Up’ phrases, by reading his book that used this technique. We then checked out the bookshop, and the story circle, before heading to the next workshop. This one was held by Jaqueline Harvey, online, who is the author of ‘Alice Miranda’, ‘Clementine Rose’, and ‘Kensy and Max’. She ran us through how she creates her characters, and gave us tips for the ones we create, like making them feel really alive. The workshops really helped us learn about writing, and also gave us an idea of how other people plan and create their stories.

Written by Clare C - 6/7EH

We are fortunate to have many wonderful volunteers at Coro. While it has been a challenging year, we were able to welcome our volunteers back in term 4.

Talking to many of our students last week, there have been some real connections made, students value your time and support, and you help make learning fun.

To Jen, Delia, Georgia, Shirley, Lyn, Sarah, Stephanie, Julia, Rosalie, Margaret and Jeff we say thank you.

A special mention to Margaret Gully, mother and grandmother, who has been a LAP volunteer mentor long before I became co-ordinator and has supported many fortunate Coro students. At our Monday assembly was presented with a LAP Association loyal service pin.

To Lyn and Shirley, we are equally grateful for your ongoing support of our students.  I’m still trying to work out exactly how long it’s been, but talking to Yvonne, its been quite a few years.

Jenny Tucker

LAP/Kids Hope Coordinator

Naa marni!

This term, eight Year 5 students formed a new action group. The purpose of the group is to is to celebrate the culture of indigenous people and look at how we can take action on reconciliation. We brainstormed some different ways that we could take action, and decided on planning a bush tucker garden.

The garden will include kangaroo grass, bush tomato, bower spinach and rosemary. In addition to the garden, we are hoping to add finger lime, lemon myrtle and peppermint gum to the orchard. The garden is going to be outside the Year 3 and 5 classrooms, near the mural that will be installed next year. Once the garden is established, the plan is to use the newly grown bush tucker to cook with in the kitchen.

Thank you to Mrs Gardner, Ms O’Driscoll and Keith Sharplin for supporting us with this project.

Marley, Quincy, Kade, Emily, Logan, Austin, Elsie and Elyssa

This year, members of our school community participated in Children’s University which has been a great opportunity for students to continue building successful habits of learning outside of their classroom.

On Thursday of week 5, our 2021 graduates attended their Graduation Ceremony held at Bonython Hall in the city along with a number of other participating schools. Our graduating Students from Yr 3-7 collected learning hours in their passport while engaging in a wide variety of learning experiences outside school hours. Students were joined by families and friends to help celebrate their learning and achievement.

Thank you to all of those people who have supported this terrific program and who have contributed to its success.

Congratulations to our graduating students for 2021.

Dan Johnson

After the Governing Council meeting on October 26th all our families were invited to vote in an online poll to make the 2022 Materials Services Charge legally recoverable. Thank you to the many families who voted. The result was overwhelmingly in favour with 109 families voting for and 21 against to make our Materials & Services charge of $390 for 2022 fully legally recoverable. Invoices for 2022 will be issued early next year.

Instrumental Music at Coromandel Valley PS 2022

New and existing students:

Here at Coromandel Valley Primary School, we are fortunate to have private and small group lessons on a variety of instruments during school hours available to our students.

As we know, learning an instrument is beneficial to a child’s brain development as well as developing learner habits such as persistence, organisation, being principled and building self-confidence. It can also help children feel a sense of belonging as they share common interests with others through extra-curricular involvement and playing with others.

While most of our tutors are private providers, we also have access to the Department’s Instrumental Music Scheme for orchestral strings instruments which is funded by the department. This is a fantastic way for your child to experience learning an instrument with minimal cost (hire of instrument only). Orchestral strings instruments include violin, viola and cello.

Year levels Instrumental lessons available

Year 2- 6 recorder only (Jan)

Year 3-6 Drums, piano, keyboard, electric/acoustic/Bass guitar (Peter)

Acoustic/Electric guitar / Ukelele (Alison)

Clarinet, Flute, Trumpet, Saxophone (Andrew)

Strings -violin, viola, cello (IMS – Lisi)

If you are interested in enrolling your child in an instrumental music lesson for 2022, please complete the nomination form in the below link. It is helpful for these enrolments to be done before the end of the school year so as the instrumental teachers can construct their timetables as soon as possible.

https://coromandps.schoolzineplus.com/instrumental-music

Existing learners:

If you are currently learning an instrumental from one of our providers or within the IMS strings program, please make contact with your instrumental tutor as soon as possible if you haven’t already done so, to confirm your place or discontinue learning for 2022.

If you have any questions please contact Stacey Stutterd, Performing Arts Teacher - stacey.stuttered841@schools.sa.edu.au

Dr Xanthe Strudwick visited the year two classes during their science lesson in Week 6 for a masterclass on wound dressings. 

Xanthe, a research assistant at Future Industries Institute, Uni SA, whose current work is looking at how to heal burns so that they do not form scars.  The lab is using both an inside out therapy, where they can prevent the scar causing signals from being turned on in a burn wound by injecting a treatment far away from the wound itself, which could be useful for large wounds spread across a patient’s body.

This paired nicely with our learning in science this term around mixtures and how different materials are combined for different purposes.

The three year 2 classes enjoyed designing and constructing their own wound dressings out of materials from the MAD room.  They collaborated with peers and communicated their ideas and justified the choices for their materials and layering.

“It was great to make wound dressings out of things from home” Freya

“I liked working with other people to come up with a dressing” Jack
“She taught us a lot and it was really fun” Sienna

“Xanthe taught us how to heal wounds better” Maia

“When can you come back?” Amber

Sarah Todd

Science Specialist Teacher

What an incredible opportunity, a week-long expedition working with such passionate and knowledgeable scientists.

The BushBlitz expedition was a two week expedition with over 30 scientists from different fields, sampling, surveying and collecting data for exploration and conservation.  Seven teachers from all over South Australia were accepted, through an application process to attend the trip. I arrived for the second week of the expedition, with only one other teacher.  This meant we had flexibility and choice about which scientists we assisted for the day.  Lucky us!

Over the week I have flown in a corporate 8-seater plane to Ceduna, surveyed the mallee habitat for dragon species, swept flowering eucalypts for native bees, walked the wrack on the beach looking for bivalves, practised using a key to identify existing species and stopped to appreciate the diversity of organisms.

Highlights of the trip were:

• Visiting Head of Bight, the most northern extent of the Great Australian Bight.
• Watching a stand-off between a Goulds Goanna and a Dugite.
• Looking at different tracks and scats (poo!)
• Appreciating how many different holes are in fact homes (reptile, wombat, bird, insect).
• Learning new scientific terminology – marine and terrestrial.
• Understanding the efficiency of DNA barcoding of species for ease of identification.
• Zoom calling Miss Mac and Mr Popplewell’s classes with a marine biologist.

Such an amazing opportunity for networking and collaboration.  I have already tentatively booked visits from these scientists to visit school next year!

If you missed it, the visiting teachers have been blogging daily with our daily highlights.

https://www.earthwatch.org.au/Blogs/teacher-blog

Sarah Todd

Science Teacher