Week 11 brings us to the end of Term 1. It is hard to believe that a whole term has passed by already. We had Acquaintance Night, AGM, Sports Day, Year 6 Aquatics, numerous excursions, Parent Teacher Interviews, NAPLAN, Harmony Week celebrations, knockout sports, choir workshops and more. Whilst it was a busy term, it was very productive. Student learning was also a highlight with some fantastic learning taking place in classes.

Sports Day

Our Sports Day was a great success. The turnout was fantastic, and we were thrilled to see the community come together and enjoy the day in perfect weather conditions. Congratulations to the Wallabies for winning the Championship trophy and the Wombats for taking out the Attitude trophy.

A special acknowledgement to Bernie De Lyster for coordinating the day and attending to all levels of organisation, along with the sports day committee, all school staff, canteen staff and parent volunteers for their combined efforts to make the day a successful one. A mention and acknowledgement too, to Keith, our grounds person who contributed enormously to the set up for the day.

We would also like to commend all the students who participated with such positive team spirit and came dressed in their house team colours. Well done to our Sports Day House Captains for their excellent leadership over recent weeks and on the day itself. They worked collaboratively and enthusiastically to prepare and rehearse the health hustle and team chants, which provided high levels of motivation for their team members. We also appreciated the effort they put in, by arriving at school early on Friday to set up for the day.

Well done to everyone involved in making the day a success!

Parent/Teacher Interviews

Thank you to families who attended their child’s/children’s interview over the last couple of weeks. These discussions are an important part of our annual assessment and reporting practices discussing where students are with their learning and goals moving forward. If you were unable to meet with your child’s teacher for an interview, you may choose to contact them to arrange a suitable time to meet next term.

In 2024, we are pleased to introduce Emilia, Mia, Adeline, Finlay, Lola and Gwyneth as our Year 6 student Wellbeing Leaders.

In Term 1, the Wellbeing Leaders introduced a theme for 2024, to help guide their actions and support wellbeing at Coro. The theme, ‘when you water someone else’s plant, you help them to grow and be happy’, is a metaphor for supporting the wellbeing of others in the school through empathetic and kind actions.

To kick off the year, the Wellbeing Leaders held a colouring competition. The theme, and an array of flowers, formed part of the colouring entry. Students were also required to record what they feel grateful for and what makes them happy on their entries. The winners were celebrated at a Monday morning assembly and awarded tokens for the canteen. All entries will be displayed on the windows by the green court.

The Wellbeing leaders hope to run different initiatives, each term, to support the wellbeing of staff, students and families at Coro. How have your watered someone else’s plant today?

Hello everyone,

My name is Michelle O’Connell and I am the Autism Inclusion Teacher (AIT) at Coromandel Valley Primary School. This year in my role, I will be working with students to build school connectedness and develop relationships – student/ student and student/ teacher.

I have a half a day per week in my AIT role to focus on strengthening our school community’s inclusion of students on the autism spectrum.

The Department for Education provides an Autism Inclusion Multidisciplinary (AIM) team to support me in the AIT role. The team includes, senior advisor educators, developmental educator, psychologist, occupational therapist, speech pathologist and an Aboriginal cultural project officer. All the information from the AIM team is evidence-based and informed by the autistic and autism community.

My role as an AIT is to pass on information, resources and training that I receive from the AIM team to my colleagues. I am looking forward to strengthening connections amongst our school community. If you would like to speak to me more about my role or specifically about your child, you can contact me via email michelle.oconnell50@schools.sa.edu.au

I would be more than happy to talk with you about my role or any concerns that you have.

Below are some websites you may like to visit, if you are looking for more information about autism.

• Independent national source of evidence for best practice

https://www.autismcrc.com.au/

• National Autism Helpline - AMAZE

https://www.amaze.org.au/autismconnect/

• Supporting girls with Autism – also a workshop that you might find interesting

https://www.yellowladybugs.com.au/

Kindest regards,

Michelle O’Connell

Michelle.oconnell50@schools.sa.edu.au

Teacher Librarian/ Autism Inclusion Teacher/ Literacy Support Teacher

Harmony Day Celebration

Mon 18^th March (Wk8 T1)

On the 18th of March we held a Harmony day assembly at Coro. We held it in the gym and everything ran smoothly. To start off the day the junior choir performed a beautiful song by Jemma King. Then the Receptions sang the Colebrook song. Everyone wore orange and brought their flags that we all drew ourselves. We also had a Harmony day quiz and asked questions like what year did Harmony day start. Then the senior choir sang Watoto, a song from a village in Tanzania East-Africa. All of us did an excellent job and should be really proud of ourselves.

The amazing Harmony Day leaders  

Ava and Mila

On the18^th of March, students dressed in the color of harmony, orange, gathered in the school gym to celebrate Harmony Day, celebrating unity and diversity in our country. Our Harmony Day leaders, Michael, Cas, Jake, Emelia, Mila, Freya, and Ava talked about what Harmony Day was about and we added exciting Harmony Day quizzes, and surprisingly, no student got them all right. We also saw the reception students sing their Colebrook Song, which talked about respecting the Kaurna People. It was cute, and meaningful. Later, we shared the flags of our countries. It was fascinating to see the diversity of backgrounds in our school. Next, we saw the Senior Choir perform Watoto, a traditional South African song. The students did an amazing job in listening carefully and participating. The leaders did an amazing job in hosting the quiz. 

From the Harmony Day leaders 

Jake, Michael and Cassian

On the 18th of March we held a Harmony day assembly at the gym. Our hosts were Ava, Cassian, Emilia, Freya, Jake, Michael and Mila. We started off the day with a beautiful song from the junior choir singing the acknowledgment of the country by Jemma King, followed by the reception students singing the Colebrook song. Everyone wore orange to celebrate unity, harmony and multiculturalism. All students made flags from where they or their ancestors are from. We did a Harmony Day quiz to see what people know about Harmony day, in the end nobody got all the answers right. To finish off our assembly we had the senior choir sing Watoto, a traditional song from Tanzania in East Africa. The celebration was very successful because everybody had fun and the hosts were simply amazing. We felt very proud of how everything went, and we think that the Harmony Day assembly for 2024 will be remembered for years to come. 

The Harmony Day leaders

Freya and Emilia

It was a sunny day, perfect for our Mini Nature Play Festival! We put on sunscreen and hats and headed out for a morning of fun.

There were so many things to do! We built cubbies, played with cool stuff like sticks and stones, painted with watercolors, and made magic potions.

We loved mixing things together to make our potions. It smelled so good with all the herbs and flowers around us!

But the best part was being with our friends, playing and having fun together. As our time came to an end, we knew it was a morning we'd always remember, full of laughter, adventure, and lots of nature!

Chess Club News

Chess Club continues at Coromandel Valley, and while we lost our graduation year 6 students from 2023, we have had several new students coming along regularly, some of who have not played the game before.  It's been great to see some new faces.

Chess Club is held every Monday lunchtime in classroom 6J and all ages and abilities are welcome to attend.

Term 1 Interschool Tournament

In week 10, the term 1 southern zone interschool tournament was held, and a team from Coro travelled to St Martin de Porres School to join 60 students from 7 schools.   Amelia, Dexter, Eddie, Eliza, Griffen, Hamish,  Jackson, Kaiden, Mia, Oliver, Piper, Sahishnu, Walter and Willow made up the team, with the students ranging from Year 3 to 6 and five of them competing in a tournament for the very first time.

The southern zone has always been very competitive and this term was no exception. While the final team results were based on Primary and Secondary divisions, individual pairings were combined, meaning our students were often paired against secondary school students. For our first timers and younger players it was quite a challenge.

Despite the tough competition the Coro team did exceptionally well, finishing in 4th place overall and 2nd in the Primary Division, picking up silver medals for our top 4 point scoring players. An absolutely fantastic effort!  The first placed Primary team was St Martin de Porres, who finished just 2.0 points in front of us. Hopefully we can increase our skills across term 2 and beat them in the next tournament.

I was extremely proud of both the student's efforts and sportsmanship across the competition. Not only we did we get a great team result, but 10 of our 14 competitors either equalled or set a new personal best tournament score. Special mention to

- Dexter, Griffen, Kaiden, Mia and Willow who were all competing in their very first tournament

- Walter who was Coro's highest placed competitor, finishing in equal 6th place, with 5 wins from his 7 games.  

- Willow who was Coro's highest and the overall 2nd female ranked player, with 3.5 wins from her 7 games

- Mia who received the Fair Play Award

- our six Year 3 students, who were among the youngest competitors and who all had to face opponents from Secondary Schools.

A huge thanks to Carrie Julian, Opal Greenwood, Mel Wyness, Emma Wright and Steph Edwards for either assisting or offering to help transport the team. It's greatly appreciated, as the school cannot compete in tournaments without parents assisting.

David Shaw

We were all excited when we found out we had had enough numbers for a school knockout cricket team! Some players on our team were experienced and had played for the knockout cricket team the year before. On Friday of week 8 we headed over to Belair Primary School to verse Blackwood in our first Match. Our captain, Nathan, headed over to do the toss hoping to bowl first which ended up happening with us winning the toss. We had a struggle getting wickets early as they had a good defending top order that didn’t make any runs. Blackwood ended up getting a gettable total of 78 runs. Our top order did well getting the bulk of the runs so the middle and lower order could finish off the job with everyone getting a bat.

Because we won our first game, we had to verse Belair Primary in our second match to go to the second round of knockout cricket. Nathan went over to do the toss hoping to bowl but the opposition won the toss, so we had to bat first. In the first couple of overs Belair had a good bowling attack so it was a struggle for us to score runs. When our batters started getting used to the bowlers, the runs started to flow quite easily. We ended up making an average total of 88. Belair’s top order scored an average amount of runs in the first few overs but once we got one wicket lots of wickets started coming. We ended up drying up Belair’s run rate so everyone on our team could get two overs. Now we get to play round two of knockout cricket!

In 2G, students are diving into a unique educational experience in the Kitchen Garden, led by the inspiring Jenny Tucker. With hands in the soil, they harvest veggies, cook Cherry Tomato and Basil Focaccia, and pitch in with kitchen laundry. Beyond the veggies and recipes, they're cultivating patience, teamwork, and a taste for healthy living. Kudos to Jenny for fostering this hands-on learning adventure!

Please find information in the following link from Glenunga International High School -Glenunga_International_High School_Brochure.pdf