Welcome back to Term 3. As recently communicated, we have been hit extremely hard with illness with a significant number (up to 100) of students and staff absent from school with various illnesses.  We have reminded families that If their child is unwell, consider keeping them away from school to keep the infection rate as low as possible. Thank you for your support with this.

We are also reminding/encouraging students to wash their hands etc regularly.

Staffing Update

Welcome to Karen Dangerfield who is replacing Bernie DeLyster (Long Service Leave) for the first 6 weeks of this term.

Congratulations to Kate O’Driscoll, who has won the Assistant Principal role beginning in 2024 through to the end of 2026. I’m sure you’d all agree that it is a very well-deserved appointment, and we look forward to Kate continuing her fantastic work here at Coro for at least the next few years.

We would also like to welcome Karen Knox, who has been appointed to CVPS from 2024 in an ongoing position as part of the latest HR placement process.

Pathway Project

The Pathway and Access Rectification Project is well underway and on schedule to be completed by the end of this term.

Access around certain areas of the school is limited however, staff, students and community members have adapted really well to this and interruptions have been minimal.

During excavation, two trees were deemed to be unsafe due to their root growth/placement and unfortunately were required to be removed.

The Department for Education’s annual parent survey

The Department for Education coordinates an annual survey to better understand the things we’re doing well, where we can improve, and what’s important to you as a parent. The information we collect from this survey is driving change for the department.

In the week beginning Monday 31 July parents will receive an email or SMS from the Parent Survey Team with a unique link to participate in the survey.

We highly encourage you to complete the survey, which takes less than 10 minutes. 

Your feedback will be used locally in our school improvement planning and more broadly to inform other key initiatives to improve education in South Australia. Your answers will not identify you or your child. Only collated feedback will be provided to our school.

If you did not receive an email or SMS with your unique survey link, contact education.ParentSurvey@sa.gov.au and include our school’s name in your email.

For more information visit the Department for Education website.

NAPLAN

NAPLAN reports were sent home last week. This year there have been changes to the NAPLAN reports to include new Proficiency Standards which commence from this year. NAPLAN reports now show how children are tracking against four achievement levels known as proficiency levels. 

The proficiency levels are:

• Exceeding: the student’s result exceeds expectations at the time of testing. 
• Strong: the student’s result meets challenging but reasonable expectations at the time of testing.
• Developing: the student’s result indicates that they are working towards expectations at the time of testing.
• Needs additional support: the student’s result indicates that they are not achieving the learning outcomes expected at the time of testing. They are likely to need additional support to progress satisfactorily.

Therefore, “If your child is in the Strong or Exceeding category, it means they have demonstrated proficiency and that their literacy or numeracy skills are where they should be at this stage of their schooling. If your child has not yet achieved proficiency, then they will either be in the Developing category or the Needs additional support category.” (ACARA CEO, David de Carvalho)

Below are some of the ways that our teachers provide additional support through quality teaching practice to meet learner’s diverse needs:

• intentional teaching – building on strengths, interests, ideas and needs
• explicit teaching
• gradual release of responsibility
• modelling: I do it
• guided instruction: we do it
  • collaborative learning: you do it together
  • independent learning: you do it alone
  • graduated tasks: easy tasks to hard tasks
• inquiry based learning
• cooperative learning – working with others
• thinking routines – strategies that can be used repeatedly to promote and support thinking
• scaffolding
• providing materials that reflect a variety of cultures, environments and settings such as those experienced by students from non-English-speaking environments.
• stocking the classroom with a range of quality resources to engage learners of different abilities
• providing alternative representations of resources
• visual and technological supports.

2024 Reception Enrolments

Families that reside in our school zone or have a sibling enrolment for starting Reception at Coromandel Valley PS in 2024 have been contacted via phone.

We have had a lot of inquiries about student enrolment at our school and appreciate the response from existing families in completing the registration of interest form for children to enrol.  

To support us with this process we are asking families who have a child starting school in 2024, or know of a family who lives in the community with a child starting in 2024, to complete the registration of interest form as soon as possible.  registration of interest form.pdf

Mid-year intake in schools – In 2024, schools will be introducing a mid-year intake, with children starting Reception in Term 1 or Term 3. Term 1 students will complete 4 terms of reception and term 3 students will complete 6 terms of reception. We expect to receive more information from the Department this term.

Leaving CVPS in 2024?

Aside from Year 6 students graduating at the end of this year – if your child will not be returning to Coromandel Valley Primary School in 2024, please let Karen in the front office, by phone 8278 3693 or email dl.0104.info@schools.sa.edu.au

This will help us with our forward planning for the 2024 school year. Thank you.

Information to Families of Year 6 Students

This week, enrolment offers for secondary school will be sent to the families of year 6 students.

Most families will receive their offer by email on 9, 10 or 11 August.

If you think you have not received your enrolment offer from your secondary school, you need to check your junk folder for an email from education.noreply@sa.gov.au

If you did not provide an email address on your registration of interest form, you will receive your enrolment offer in the mail or it will be handed to you by your child.

If your enrolment offer has not arrived by 14 August, please let Karen at the Front Office know and we can follow up with the secondary school on your behalf.

If you need support to accept your enrolment offer visit www.education.sa.gov.au/enrolment, or contact your allocated secondary school and they can step you through the process.

In the first week of term, the Reception students celebrated the completion of 100 days at school. The day was full of bright colours, balloons and even a very special surprise from an aged Mr Warncken, Ms Morgan and Ms O’Driscoll. The Reception students celebrated throughout the day with a gallery walk to showcase the 100 items they brought in, lots of activities around the number 100 and a treat in the afternoon. 

 What a great day of celebrations! 

Mr Long, Mrs Melbourne, Mrs Govett, Miss Pike

As part of our unit of inquiry into settlement the year 3 & 4 classes visited the Migration Museum and Art Gallery. At the Migration Museum we participated in a session called First Contacts. This program focusses on the lives of children both pre and post colonisation in South Australia. At the Art Gallery students had a guided tour where they explored the history, stories and traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People through a diverse range of historic and contemporary works of art.

On Tuesday the 2nd of August, Mrs. Bryan and Mrs. Taylor’s year 4/5s went to the Maritime Museum to learn about people migrating to South Australia. 

They got to go into old cabins that people used to stay in when they were traveling across the ocean.

The first cabin they looked at was an 1800s cabin, the people that stayed in there had to sleep on hay bags and often shared the beds with complete strangers. It was crawling with rats and bugs, they got served mouldy potatoes and smoked fish everyday for 4 months. Because they had to eat such horrible food they often got sick, it then spread to other passengers so lots of them ended up dying before they arrived. 

In the 1900s cabin there were a few secrets, they had to sleep on dreadful mattresses and had to poop in a chamber pot in the same room that they slept in with other people! There was a hidden sink in the cupboard right above the chamber pot so when using the sink it wasn’t very pleasant.

The 1950s cabin looked a lot more modern with the mirrors on the cupboards and no chamber pot was needed as they had public toilets on the boats now. The beds were a lot comfier but it was still only 3rd class, so to many people it was considered disgusting.

The 4/5s got to go inside a replica of a ship, they got to explore the Captain’s cabin and learn about the different parts of the ship. They got to see how a real ship would work and how it would look.

On the top floor the students got to learn about The Norma. On the 21st of April 1907 the Ardencraig crashed into The Norma, sending the head of a large statue (figurehead) on the front of the ship, flying. 

The students and the teachers enjoyed visiting so much and learnt a lot about South Australian Migration, they all hope to visit again soon.

Last Thursday the Jump Rope Team visited Crafers Primary School to perform their routine and also to conduct three workshops teaching the Crafers students some jump rope skills.

The team was at the school for most of the day and shared their knowledge and skills with great care, energy and enthusiasm. They were able to share and modify skills so that everyone participating was successful and learnt something new.

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

We have been offering Children’s University lunchtime club two times a week this year to further support participants. Children have been invited to attend the computer room at lunch time to check in and reflect on learning, participate in research tasks, visit learning destinations virtually, access other online learning activities and use the printing facilities.

Congratulations to our participants who have been very busy collecting learning hours in their passport towards their graduation.

Dan Johnson

Y5/6 Teacher

In line with our Sun Smart policy students are required to wear their hat at lunch time as the UV increases to above 3. Even on cloudy days students are susceptible to  sun damage at that time of the day so hats on for full protection. Students do not need to wear their hats at recess time. This allows for some Vitamin D in the system!

After making it through round 1, our boys’ netball team recently participated in the next round of the competition.  The warm, sunny weather and breezy conditions were an unexpected challenge but the team settled in well and managed a good win against Eden Hills.

After a break, the team once again took the court against Craigburn which proved to be a competitive game.  While the scoreboard was close throughout the game, Craigburn came away with the win in the end.

Our final game of the day was played against Stella Maris.  Our players tried a range of different match ups on court and worked hard to break through Stella Maris’ strong attack and defence, but ultimately, we conceded a second loss.

Unfortunately this signals the end of our time in the competition this year. 

Congratulations to Jacob, Joel, Jayden, Dylan, Logan, Harry, Ollie, Souna and James on their hard work throughout the year.  They have learned many new skills under the guidance of Mr D and strived to apply these during training and games.  They have played well as a team and encouraged and supported each other.  Thy represented themselves and our school beautifully. 

Thank you to Bec, James and Beth who supported with transport, scoring and timing on the day.  Thanks also to Kreschelle who umpired our games for us on the day.

Laura Barnes

(Fill in coach in Mr D’s absence!)

On Friday of Week 2, the Coromandel Valley Knockout Soccer team participated in a knockout soccer tournament at the Pembroke oval to play three games of soccer. We left at 8.30am and got back to school at 2.30pm.

The whole team was excited about going and really happy to be there. Everyone in the team tried their hardest and had lots of fun.  I think that our team did really good and that the team tried really hard. I liked that everyone was playing as a team. We might have been knocked out, but we were all glad that we played.  The team had fair games and it was better when we lost because we got more motivation from it.

Spencer and Charlie

Yesterday our Year 5/6 Boys and Girls Basketball teams competed in the School Sport SA Statewide Basketball Competition. The competition was held at the new State Basketball Centre at Wayville. Both teams played 8 games each and were competitive against the other 15 teams in their groups.

Our students displayed a great attitude and represented our school extremely well. They all had a great day. Well done to all the players.

We are looking for volunteers to help run our uniform shop.

The uniform shop relies on parent support, without volunteers we will be unable to continue to offer a shop service.  No experience is necessary, the role can be shared to lighten the load.

Please feel free to contact the office if you’d like to know what is involved.