As we near the end of another school term, we all know our school is busy with many activities occurring at any one time. The last few weeks have been no exception. Our children and staff have been involved in a variety of activities, including; SAPSASA athletics, Senior Choir performing at the Festival of Music, Yr. 6 Exhibition evening, Reception students visiting Monarto and Student-Led conversations just to name a few.

Congratulations to our Senior Choir on a wonderful performance at the Festival of Music last Wednesday night. It was an absolute pleasure to be part of the audience seeing our excited students have an opportunity to perform after all the preparation they have put in throughout the year.

Congratulations also to our R-2 students and staff for their wonderful dance concert last week. It was great to see so many family and friends attend. I know the students had a fantastic time and did an outstanding job presenting dances through the decades. Special thanks to Miss Maddie for teaching and leading our R-2 students.

Staffing Update

Karen Knox, who was appointed to CVPS from 2024 in an ongoing position will no longer be joining us as she has won a leadership position at another school.

Congratulations to the following staff who have been converted from contract to ongoing positions:

Dan Johnson 1.0

Kate Trengove 0.5

Alex Long 0.5

Early next term we will be developing class structures for 2024 and looking to appoint contract teachers into any extra vacancies.

Pathway Rectification Project

The Pathway and Access Rectification Project is progressing well. Issues with disturbance to the root zone of some trees continue to be a concern with two further trees to be deemed high risk by the Department for Education and were required to be removed as they presented significant safety concerns. As far as we are aware there is no further need for any more tree removal. It is highly likely that at the conclusion of the project, we will need to continually check and monitor the risk of all trees in this area. New planting of native species will take place once the project has been handed back to the school. This is currently scheduled to be the end of the first week back in Term 4.

Parent Reading Workshop

On Monday 18^th September Linda Clune presented a parent information session about our Playberry Laser phonology program. Thank you to the families that attended. It was a great opportunity for our parent community to hear all about what phonology is and how families can support children with reading at home. One important takeaway: Once students have 'cracked the alphabetic code', regular reading aloud is critical. Parents can help with this by sitting with children, following along with the text to monitor that children are reading the actual words that are on the page, and to check pronunciation. Short, frequent reading aloud sessions are best - daily for five minutes is enough - although, if your child loves reading, by all means continue for longer!

Progressive Achievement Tests

Currently, students are undertaking the annual Progressive Achievement Tests in Reading and Maths.

The Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT) are online reading comprehension and maths assessments aligned to the Australian Curriculum. The tests are administered each year and provide teachers with information about the learning strengths and needs of their students.

Planning for 2024

Planning is well underway for the 2024 school year, which includes organising staffing, class structures and placements. 

To assist with our planning, we would appreciate it if you could advise us if your child(ren) will not continue their schooling at Coromandel Valley next year. If this is the case, please contact the school via phone (82783693) or school email. This does not include any current Year 6 students. Thank you.

Below is the proposed Materials and Services Fee for 2024 that has been revised by the Governing Council Finance Committee and recommended by Governing Council at our meeting Tuesday 12^th September. There is no change to the fees from 2023.

If you have any questions, you are welcome to email:

• Governing Council Chairperson, Sam Neville, at sam.neville@outlook.com
• Treasurer, Ben Sanderson, at ben.sanderson268@schools.sa.edu.au
• Principal Rob Warncken at rob.warncken732@schools.sa.edu.au

As in previous years the Governing Council has voted to poll the school families so that the full charge of $400 is legally recoverable. Without a positive vote from polling we would legally only be able to recover the prescribed amount of $287. This would severely impact our 2024 budget for classroom, library and ICT. All schools have to option to charge above the prescribed amount. Please note that anyone who receives the Schoolcard benefit will not be impacted in any way by this and, if eligible in 2024, will still receive the full Schoolcard benefit.

“The prescribed amount is the amount set out in Regulation 81 of the Education and Children’s Services Regulations that schools can charge as a compulsory component of their materials and services charge without the requirement to poll the school community. The school must however undertake the process of completing the notice as outlined in step 4 of this instruction. The prescribed amount for 2024 for a primary student is $287.”

Very soon you will receive an email asking you to vote online to accept or not accept the recommendation from Governing Council to legally recover the full Materials and Services fee of $400.

Our students (years 4-6) participated in the Wellbeing and Engagement Collection survey at the end of Term 1.

Young people’s wellbeing is an important part of how they learn at school. The survey seeks students’ views about their wellbeing and their engagement with school. Students in years 4 to 12 across the state were invited to participate and the information collected helps the education system and broader community to support young people’s health and wellbeing.

The survey asks students about their social and emotional wellbeing, school relationships and engagement and learning in school, physical health and wellbeing, and after-school activities.

Our students continue to show a high level of general happiness and overall wellbeing. An interesting area to note is the percentage of students who don’t believe they regularly have a good night’s sleep.

On Thursday Week 7 (07/09/2023) we had a Japanese Obento Lunch Day. 22 Reception students enjoyed eating their obento lunch one day before, due to their excursion on Thursday. It was great to see that so many students ordered and enjoyed their obento lunch.

In total 281 obento (152 Karaage bento, 20 Fried salmon bento, 48 Vegetarian sushi bento, 55 Gluten Free Teriyaki chicken bento and 6 Vegan sushi bento) were ordered!! This means that over 56% students at CVPS experienced Japanese obento on that day.

A huge thank you to students, parents/caregivers and staff members to make this cultural event successful.

Also, thank you so much to Matthew, Michelle and Suzie in the canteen for their full support in distributing obento lunch boxes to the students, and to Sue for all the administration work including organising QKR orders.

A special thank you to Nagomi Japanese kitchen for cooking our delicious obento lunch. Students who missed the obento lunch this year or want to eat more Japanese food, you can still experience a tasty Japanese lunch/dinner at Nagomi Japanese kitchen (Shop 5/242 Hutt Street Adelaide  (08) 8232 0944) .

Hiroyuki Yamamoto

Japanese language teacher

The Reception students visited Monarto Zoo to support their inquiry into living things. The morning rain was welcomed as it encouraged the animals out into the habitats so there were lots to see! We visited the chimpanzees, meerkats, and rock wallabies before hopping on a bus for an African Tour. On the tour, we saw giraffes, lions, cheetahs, painted dogs, hyenas, and rhinoceros. Jarred, our guide, was very impressed with the students’ general knowledge of the animals.

The Reception classes held a morning tea for our Fathers or special person to celebrate Father's Day. It was a lovely morning with students making gifts and the traditional ties for their special person. Thank you to all the parents for making an effort to come into the Reception classrooms. 

Coromandel Valley recorder students perform at the Festival Theatre

As part of the Primary Schools Festival of Music, several Coro Valley recorder students took part in a performance at a Foyer concert on Friday 15^th September at the Festival Theatre. They played for nearly half an hour, a great achievement for all the performers, supporting them were a number of parents and friends.

Congratulations to: Patrick, Val, Eli, Mack, Charlotte, Willow, Alisha, Toby, Hugh, Molly, Lydia and Lucy

A team from Coromandel Valley recently took part in the Southern Zone Interschool Chess Tournament.  12 students representing the school - Amelia, Eddie, Eliza, Finn, Hamish, Jackson, Oliver, Piper, Sahishnu, Shravenn, Tyler and Walter.

With over 60 students taking part, the Southern Zone tournament always has some very strong schools taking part, but this term the competition was even tougher.  While the final team results were based on Primary and Secondary divisions, the two divisions were combined for individual games.  It was quite daunting for our students to have to play some of their games against students who were much older and more experienced, but they gritted their teeth and took on the challenge.

Despite having the odds stacked against them the Coro team were very competitive across the whole tournament, finishing on 15.5 points to take 2nd place, with our top 4 competitors winning silver medals.

The entire Coro team did a fantastic job and I was extremely proud of both their efforts and sportsmanship.   5 of our 12 players either equalled or set a new personal best tournament score.

Special mention goes to

- Eddie, Eliza and Oliver who were all competing in their very first tournament

- Hamish who was our highest placed competitor, finishing in 16th place with 4 wins and a draw from his 7 games. 

- Amelia who was the highest ranked female competitor for the tournament with 3 wins from her 7 games

- Eliza who was awarded the Fair Play Award

- our four Year 2 students, who were amongst the youngest competitors at the tournament and who all had to face opponents from Secondary Schools

A huge thanks to Carrie Julian, Opal Greenwood and Rob Warncken for assisting in transporting the team.

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

Be the Brave Second Chicken!

Recently I was fortunate to attend the Resilient Kids Conference where four of Australia’s leading experts in raising healthy, resilient kids, spoke on various topics. There was certainly a lot of wisdom, common sense and practical tips throughout the day (also a lot of laughs, and some tears too!)

Some of my take aways included:

• From Maggie Dent:
  • “Don’t solve all of your kids’ problems – teach them how to think, not what to think”.
  • “Boundaries give children predictability and a sense of order and reduce stress from uncertainty”.

• From Michelle Mitchell:
  • “Our feelings are constantly in a state of flux; when we only accept positive feelings, we invalidate all other human emotions”.

• From Dr Justin Coulson:
  • “To a child, love is spelt T I M E”.
  • “Kids are much more resilient when their parents don’t tell them what they need to do but when they support them to figure it out themselves”.

The session that I personally found most informative was listening to Karen Young speak about anxiety. She reflected on how, as a society, we have come to see anxiety as a deficiency, whereas it is a normal feeling that all humans feel, because our brain is wired to keep us safe. Our brain is like a smoke alarm – sometimes it goes off because the toast overcooked, not because the house is a raging inferno. We are the boss of our feelings, and we check it out and decide what we need to do next when our body is warning us about being anxious. According to Karen, the worst thing for anxiety is avoidance and accommodating (letting children avoid activities and accommodating them in this). Instead of moving children out of the way of activities that cause them anxiety, we need to help them to navigate through them, and help them work through the experiences that they need to handle the discomfort of feeling anxiety.

This is not easy as parents, because our child’s anxiety may trigger our own anxiety. So, when it comes to being brave, we need to go first!!

Karen gave the example of some chickens. A researcher stared down and stressed out a chicken, to the point where it laid down and played dead. After two minutes of being left alone, the chicken saw that it was safe, and it got back up and started clucking around. Next the researcher stared down and stressed out two chickens. They both laid down and played dead. They both kept checking their surroundings and they both saw the other chicken still on the ground, so they assumed they were still in danger because they could see each other playing dead. It took them both 5 minutes to eventually get up and continue clucking around. Finally, the researcher stared down and stressed out one chicken but left the second one alone. The stressed chicken laid down, but after checking out its surroundings and seeing its friend up and about, the chicken hopped back up and started clucking around after just one minute. So, our job is to be the brave second chicken and, when it comes to anxiety in our kids, we need to be brave, go first and show that we can handle the situation.

If you would like to read some of Karen’s articles, she has many resources on her website:

https://www.heysigmund.com/

The following book is also a useful resource with chapters by the conference speakers.

Jenni Forder

Pastoral Care Worker

Did you know that September is Therapy Dog awareness month? This is a chance to recognise the wonderful animals who play a pivotal role in providing comfort and emotional support.

Studies show that being around a pet is scientifically proven to have both physical and mental health benefits across the board. Everything from improved sleep, to a reduction in anxiety and depression, improved motivation and mood, and bringing families and communities closer together.

So we thought it was time, once again, to recognise out awesome Therapy Dog, Murphy, and answer the most common questions that we get about her!

How old is Murphy?

What type of dog is she?

Murphy is a Labrador cross Golden Retriever

What does Murphy like to eat?

Well, anything really – she’s not fussy! But she does enjoy chomping on apple, carrot, capsicum and zucchini. She also enjoys some doggy yoghurt with some Weetbix and dog food in the morning for breakfast.

What is Murphy’s favourite toy?

Murphy loves chasing balls and playing with them. She likes any toy that she can chew. She also likes finding dirty socks on bedroom floors!!

Where does Murphy live?

Murphy lives with our Pastoral Care Worker, Jenni, and her family

Where does Murphy go on holiday?

Sometimes Murphy has little getaways and stays with Ms O-Driscoll or Ms Morgan. She loves having a holiday with them, and hanging out with their dogs, Maggie and Charlie.

What is Murphy’s favourite game?

Murphy loves to play Doggy, Doggy who’s got your bone. She regularly visits classes to play this game with the students at Coro.

Can I pat Murphy when she has her coat on?

Yes, absolutely. Murphy is not a one-on-one assistance dog and when she is working, her job is to bring comfort and support, so patting her with her coat on is encouraged. However, if you do see her on the oval or around the school without her coat on, she is having a break and this is the time to leave her alone – this means not patting her calling her name, or running up to her. It’s very important for her wellbeing for her to be allowed to have some play time and be a normal dog.

Are there rules about Murphy when she is in the school?

Yes, we have Murphy’s Law and these are important to make sure that Murphy feels happy and relaxed to come to school and do her job well:

1. Please say hello to the adult with Murphy before greeting Murphy
2. Never feed Murphy anything
3. Be gentle when patting Murphy
4. Only 2 people patting Murphy at a time
5. Don’t crowd around Murphy
6. No screaming or shouting when you see Murphy, and don’t run up to her, just approach her calmly

A huge thank you to all coaches, managers, families and players for a huge winter Netball season. We had 7 amazing teams join us this year. It's always wonderful to hear about new skills learnt and friends made.

Please remember to return your washed uniform to the front office ASAP.

Janita 

What a fun season the year 6 team had this year. The girls decided at the start of the season to enter a team, with a couple of first year players and others who have not played together since year 2 for Coro! The team had a few wins, a healthy rivalry with Belair PS (played 4 times!) and a few mixed results against more experienced teams. The girls always played with a smile on their faces and showed amazing sportsmanship. They should all be extremely proud of how well they represented Coro in their last year at school. Well done!

Andy and Denise

Year 5 Saturday morning netball team had a season of skill building and lots of enthusiasm.

Some of our girls started the year with never playing netball before but they all were very excited to learn new skills and develop as a team. We only had a couple of wins but the girls motivation and hard work made each week fun and enjoyable to watch.  Although the score board did not always show it the girls always played a tight and competitive game while having fun.

Thanks for a great season. Hannah, Naomi and Jenne

Our 4/5 Friday night team, consisting of Anissa, Ava, Amber, Flossie, Freya, Isabella, Georgia, Macie, Molly and Ruby, have had a fantastic season.

Playing in a year 6 division, the girls have showed such determination, persistence, commitment and tremendous sportsmanship towards our opposing schools, but most of all to each other. They have shown kindness and resilience during even the toughest of matches.

Their skills and confidence have been outstanding,  resulting in nearly a clean sheet of wins and few draws.

Well done to a wonderful group of young ladies. Your smiles, laughs and cheers each week make coaching you all so rewarding. Super proud of each and every one of you. Thank you!

Coach: Lisa Richards,  Team Manager: Rhiannon Wells.

The Year 2’s had a large team of very eager players this year! We started the season off with lots of throwing and catching practice and learning where to go on the court. There has been so much growth as the year progressed with players showing confidence in their positions and space on the court. We look forward to our last game and would like to give a special thanks to our enthusiastic cheer squad encouraging us every week. Thanks for a great season of learning! 

Karen and Steph

The Year 3 Light Blue netball team had a great season.  They were regraded into division 1 after four big wins at the start of the season and they continued to impress with their improvement, skills and sportsmanship throughout the rest of the season.  They were committed to training and they were a pleasure to coach.

Kathryn (coach) and Denise (manager)

Such a fantastic effort from the year 4s this season. We had some tough games and great wins but it didn't matter whether they were up by ten goals or down, their determination didn't waiver. It was fantastic to see their teamwork, resilience and continued improvement in skills as a result of all their hard work. Well done team!

Amber and Kristy

Our season started off with lots of learning curves, the experienced players were helping a clueless coach at training and some players had never stepped on a court. 

We worked hard and ate lots of gummies as motivation! By the end of the season the experienced players had fine tuned their skills to support all levels of players in our team and the newbys were mastering multiple positions and shooting goals! 

We won some and we lost some but always sang with gusto at the end, smiles all round ?

 Amy and Brodie

 Last week, three of our students competed in the State Gymnastics Championships at Titanium Stadium, representing Blackwood Gymsports. Here are their results:

• Sienna (Level 3, U9): 1st in the Floor routine, 3rd on Beam, and 6th on Bars - 1st OVERALL
• Anissa (Level 3, U10): 3rd on Beam, 12th on Vault, 18th on Bars, and 26th on Floor - 10th OVERALL
• Millie (Level 4, U9): 2nd on Floor, 3rd on Bars, 3rd on Vault, 8th on Beam - 3rd OVERALL

All three girls have been training very hard and should be proud of their achievements. Keep up the good work girls!

Penelope qualified for the world championships after placing first at the Australian National championships in Nov 2022. She trained and/or raced up to 6 times a week leading up to the world championships this year which included sprint training, strength training, track training and racing. The world championships is a UCI (Union cyclist international) event where the best of the best come together from over 120 different countries around the world to compete including Olympic level BMX riders. This year it was held in Glasgow, Scotland. Penelope raced in the 9Girls class along with 60 other riders, all top riders of their country. Penelope placed first in all three of her qualifying races, she was very strong out of the gate and was well in the lead by the time she crossed the finish line. 

Following the qualifiers Penelope raced in the quarter and the semifinals where she needed to place top four in each race in order to progress to the finals. Although the competition was fierce, she managed to place first in each race going into the final with the highest ranked points in her grade for the event. She didn't get such a good start in her semi-final and was sitting in 5th position by the first turn, her amazing talent and strength saw her overtake all 4 riders in-front of her before crossing the finish line to secure first place, an extremely challenging feat in BMX!

Penelope was in gate one for her final, the gate of choice for most BMXers, many of the girls in the final had not ridden against each-other all day and Penelope was up against last year's World 1, World 2, World 4 and world 7 so it was likely to be a tough run! Unfortunately, Penelope was slow out of the gate and when she hit the first triple (bumps) she wasn't able to jump like the other girls which slowed her down. By the time all the riders had reached the first turn Penelope was right behind them but was unable to pass them until it was clear.. she turned onto the second turn overtaking one rider and managed to overtake another 2 on the second straight. With the crowd screaming and cheering her on (none of which she said she could hear) she dug deep and began chasing down the lead rider who was from Japan, by the last straight she was less than a second behind the leader but ran out of track to overtake, Penelope is now the 2nd fastest BMX rider in under 9 girls in the world! 

When asked how she felt Penelope said "I'm so proud of how I rode all day, especially for my first world championships. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't manage to catch Chiza (the Japanese rider) on the line because I knew that I could win but I'm still really proud of 2nd".

Penelope is looking forward to getting back into training and preparing for the National Championships in November where she hopes to hold onto her championship title. In the near future, Penelope hopes to attend another world championships, and to place first, especially if it's in 2026 in Brisbane! 

Lars rode well but was very sick with the flu, he was happy to just being able to get on the track but was knocked out after his 3 qualifiers.

On Friday 1st September Charlotte and Poppy participated in the 2023 Interschool Orienteering School Relay Championship at Thorndon Park.

It was a fun day and they both ran a good race. They were fast enough to finish in 3rd but unfortunately an error in their punching resulted in them not placing. As first timers they were very proud of their efforts and are looking forward to participating in future orienteering events.