It is hard to believe that we are already at the midpoint of the school year. I hope everyone has recovered from the recent heavy rain and storm activity and the clean-up hasn’t been too significant.

Congratulations

Huge congratulations to Sarah Todd for being selected as a worthy recipient of the 2023 Credit Union SA Outstanding Contribution to the Teaching of Science Award. This Award recognises contributions to the education of students in science, association with SASTA and dedication to professional learning to improve personal skills and student outcomes.

As the recipient of the 2023 Credit Union SA Outstanding Contribution to the Teaching of Science Award, Sarah will be presented the award by the Chief Scientist, Caroline McMillen, on Tuesday, 11^th July 2023, in the Braggs Lecture Theatre at the University of Adelaide.

Mobile Device Policy Update

In line with the Department for Education policy regarding personal mobile device use in schools, we have recently updated our Mobile Device Policy. Very little has changed from the previous update approximately 18 months ago, with the new updated policy ratified at Governing Council this term. To view our Mobile Device Policy, please visit our school website.  

Student Reports

Mid-year reports will be sent home next week. Over recent weeks, teachers have been busy preparing students’ reports based on assessments and evidence of learning over the first semester.

Students in Years 1-6 will receive a written report (individual comments in Maths, English & General) with A-E grades, whilst Reception students will receive a written report referenced against the Foundation achievement standard.

When receiving and reading your child’s report, please take time to acknowledge their efforts and achievements as well as how they are progressing with their approaches to learning (e.g. attitude, effort, work habits, etc.)

Please take time to read through your child/ren’s report, and you may wish to use these conversation starters:

• What is something you have achieved of which you are proud?
• What are three things you did to help your classmates?
• What are the three most important things you learned?
• What is something that was hard for you at the start of the year but is easy now?
• In what area do you feel you have improved?
• What is something you taught your teacher or classmates?
• What is something you’d like to improve?
• Of the books you read, which was your favourite? Why?

Student Free Day – Brightpath

Our second Student Free Day fell on Friday, 9^th June and provided classroom teachers with the timely opportunity to dig deeper into writing and moderation.

Ali Newbold, project officer from Brightpath, facilitated the day. Teachers had already collected an initial persuasive writing sample from their classes, which had been marked and uploaded to the Brighpath platform. Ali guided staff through the process of whole staff moderation, using the exemplars and annotations from the Guide to Making Judgments.

Staff then engaged in a session designed to deepen understanding of sentence structure, using students' own writing. Teachers appreciated the opportunity to explore some helpful resources and plan the next steps for their classes. This professional development day aligned closely with our SIP literacy goal around building teacher capacity and improving student writing skills.

Specialist teachers engaged in professional learning with Laura Polley (Behaviour Coach) around supporting students with additional needs. They then engaged in collaborative planning time with Kate O'Driscoll to ensure consistency of approach across classes. SSOs also engaged in a separate but related session with Laura Polley as well as an online Sue Larkey course about autism.

A friendly reminder that on the last day of term, Friday 7^th July, students will be dismissed at 2:10 pm, with the OSHC service beginning from this time.

Students can also choose to wear casual clothes the last Friday.

Student Free Day - first day of term 3, Monday 24th July 

Show Closure Day (Royal Adelaide Show) - Friday 8th September

OSHC is open both days and can be contacted via email - coro.oshc517@schools.sa.edu.au

The kiss and drop area is always a busy place; however, if arriving early in the afternoon, please DO NOT wait in the main driveway area, as this creates an impasse for traffic that need to enter or exit the school grounds via the main entrance. This is a safety concern in an emergency if this area is restricted.

Please also move forward to the next available spot and not right by the steps, as this will help those waiting to enter the school.

Thank you to the many parents and grandparents who volunteer at our school, we appreciate your willingness to help in many different ways. The Department for Education has requirements that must be completed before we can accept you as a volunteer. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer please see the requirements below.

To volunteer in schools you will need the following:

• Complete the Volunteer Agreement and Volunteer Application.  Please see below for the forms or a printed paper form can be collected from office.
• Working with Children clearance – 100 points of ID presented to the school, form below.  Sue will process and you will receive an email from  Dept of Human Services and a link to an online form will be sent to you, this takes approximately 1 – 6 weeks.
• You will need to register as a volunteer at plink.sa.edu.au to complete online course “Volunteer General Induction “ and “Responding to Harm Abuse & Neglect (RRHAN)”.  Both of these courses take approximately one hour to complete.  You will receive a certificate of completion, please keep an electronic copy and email a copy to sue.matthews799@schools.sa.edu.au. 

volunteer_application_form.pdf

volunteer_agreement.pdf

DCSI_Child_Related_Employment_Screening_Online.pdf

On Wednesday, June 28, the Year 5/6 classes participated in the “Think You Know” SAPOL presentation. Matt from SA Police spoke to students about the importance of using the internet safely. He spoke about what information should be kept private, the difference between private and public, and how to engage in online conversations safely. Matt also discussed the dangers of engaging with people that students do not know in online environments. He reiterated the importance of talking to trusted adults if students see or experience anything online that makes them feel uncomfortable. Students thought the presentation was informative and interesting. There were lots of new ideas for them to think about when it comes to being safe, responsible and respectful users of online spaces.

For parents who would like to know more about the apps that their children may be engaging with, you can visit the Carly Ryan Foundation website to read their Apps Fact Sheets.

https://www.carlyryanfoundation.com/resources/fact-sheets

Kate O’Driscoll

Assistant Principal

The year 5/6 classes are currently completing an Inquiry called ‘Green Blueprints’.  Students are investigating how ‘Organisations consider sustainability when managing systems and products’.

As part of our investigations,  last week we visited Christie Walk Ecocity to learn about sustainable systems and products used by the community.  Here are some key points from students:

Easily the most important part of Christie Walk is the thick straw walls. These walls help to lower food waste because straw is the excess of wheat, and also helps to regulate the temperature inside the building. First let’s talk about the food waste aspect of the straw walls in more detail. Wheat cutters do not always cut down all the way, so there is a lot of excess straw wilting and dying. Unless we cut the straw before it wilts and use it to create straw walls. The walls help keep people safe and warm and/or cool. The walls are so sturdy the can survive a mild or low earthquake. And the heating and cooling side effect is from the thick walls. Stopping warm air getting out and cold air getting in, vice/versa. Since the air is being stopped the people inside are nice warm or nice and cool. So the straw walls stop food excess going to waste. AND regulates the temperature - Connor

In Christie Walk they never throw things out. Whenever people have some spare clothes, furniture, devices and other things like that, they give it to another person so they don’t waste anything. It also helps save money because instead of going out and buying some new clothes/ furniture they can just get some free clothes from someone from the Christie Walk community - Cassian

The rooftop garden is a good way to share a space with your community and plant your own food so you can save money on food as well as gardening, every month the community of Christy walk does a working bee to save money on gardening. The rooftop garden is also a way of bring people together because of the fruit, vegetables, bees and the herbs they make on the rooftop garden. The garden has trees, bushes, herbs, fruit, vegetables and more. The roof is covered in concrete so that the roots of the trees don’t find a way to dig into the lower levels underneath the roof. The rooftop garden is covered in soil to make the plants live and grow - Georgia O

The Year 2 classes are currently completing an inquiry into how the world works.  Students are investigating how our solar system is made up of different celestial bodies, that can be observed.

On the 23rd of June I went to my favourite incursion so far it was in the igloo.  My favourite thing was the movie and the river flowing was one scarey thing and volcano erupting was scary and the bit that the stars connected to each other it was exciting. I loved it, it was so fun - Eliza

At the planetarium visit we watched a movie.  It had facts.  I was cool inside it, it was so much fun.  And it was blue and we learned about space.  We talk before we went in - Tess

I went to the planetarium.  My favourite thing at the planetarium was the movie and dot to dot stars.  My favourite star was Leo the lion, it was interesting that Buzz didn't want to take any pictures.  The person's name was Dean and he picked someone to be Grandpa, every other one was a kid.  It felt like it was us in real life - Lars

Coromandel Valley recently took part in the Southern Zone Interschool Chess Tournament.   We had 11 students representing the school - Amelia, Finn, Hamish, Isla, Jackson, Jake, Piper, Reuben, Sahishnu, Shravenn and Tyler.

The Southern Zone tournament is always a tough competition, and our students all played very well and represented their school admirably.

The Coro team were very competitive across the whole tournament, finishing in 3rd place on 18 points, behind St Martin de Porres (21.5) and Immanuel Primary (18.5), earning bronze medals for our top 4 competitors.  

The entire Coro team did exceptionally well, and I was extremely proud of both their efforts and their sportsmanship.   8 of our 11 players either equalled or set a new personal best tournament score.   Special mention to

- Finn who finished in 3rd place, with 6 wins from his 7 games. 

- Piper who took out the trophy for the highest placed female competitor, a fabulous achievement for a year 2!

- Hamish who was competing in his very tournament

A huge thanks to Shannon Rose-Husson and Carrie Julian for assisting in transporting the team.

The Chess Club continues to meet on Monday lunchtime in the Mr Johnson's classroom, and anyone is welcome to come along.

David Shaw

Last week, our district girls netball teams played in a 3-day carnival against 9 other South Australian districts. We had two representatives from our school; one playing in each team. Sienna played in the Division 2 team, which won 6 games, lost 3 and finished in 3^rd place. Freya played in the Division 4 team, which won all 9 of their games and finished in 1^st place. Sienna and Freya both played very well and enjoyed the experience. Well done girls!

Our Boys’ Knockout Soccer team have just played their first round of matches against Blackwood, Reynella, and Reynella East at Frank Smith Reserve. The boys played with great skill and discipline throughout the morning.

The first match was against Reynella, which we won convincingly.

The final score was Coromandel Valley (4) defeating Reynella (0).                 

The second game was more evenly matched, and at full-time, the score was locked at 1 – 1 and that’s the way it stayed after extra time. The game then had to be decided with a penalty shootout. We scored from all 3 of our shots and, with some brilliant goalkeeping, managed to keep out all their shots, meaning that we won our second game.

The only thing left to do was beat Blackwood. This turned out to be a very one-sided affair, with the final score: Coromandel Valley (6) defeating Blackwood (0).

So, at the end of the day, our boys scored 14 goals and only conceded 1 – a fantastic achievement. And having beaten the other three schools, they have been knocked out of the competition and we progress to the next round, which the boys will eagerly await next term.

Congratulation to the students who participated in this years Auskick clinic held here at Coro.

It’s all about fun, getting hands on the ball and constantly being involved in exciting activities.

Booking_sheet_July_2023.pdf

Excursion_Consent_Form_July_2023.pdf

Subway_order_form.pdf

Our lost property box is once again overflowing with with unnamed items.

If you are missing any jumpers, jackets, containers or drink bottles please come and collect them.

Any unclaimed items will be given to charity.