Principals Prattle

Before I start with my usual welcome highlighting our school vision statement I would like to take a moment to express my excitement about the many opportunities that our school will provide throughout the year for students, parents and staff. The old saying that the more you put in, the more you will get out is certainly very true in a school setting. If as parents you put time into developing your child’s learning in conjunction with the school the more they will get out of their experiences.

To all our returning students and families, welcome back. To those who are joining us for the first time, we extend an especially warm welcome and we are pleased that you have chosen to be a part of our school community.

We also have a number of new teachers joining our team this year.

Year 2 – Miss Lyndal Bonnet

Year 3 – Miss Amber Valerio

Year 4 – Miss Georgia Woodford

Year 5  - Ms Sonia Locke and

Year 6 – (Sharing with Mrs Macrae Emmerson) Ms Marguerite Toth

We are pleased to  have these teachers join the school team and we look forward to working with them throughout the year.

We also welcome Mrs Michelle Kicks who is replacing Jo Graham in the aides room in the office block.

This year we will continue to focus on nurturing academic excellence, building a supportive and inclusive school culture and providing a range of extracurricular activities for students to challenge their learning growth. The highlight this year will be our school musical and during the term we will be holding auditions for characters for this event.

We have a new focus on shared reading across the year levels which focuses on explicit teaching of reading and students learning from and with each other.

Our P&C will again be hosting a range of events to build community spirit and provide fundraising opportunities for the school. In about a week’s time our new senior playground will be completed. Very exciting!

We also are welcoming some new sponsors of the school and there is an introduction to one of these sponsors further into the newsletter.

In week three Wednesday 12^th February, we will be hosting a parent information session that will share some of the broader education agenda as well as information relating specifically to life at Coombabah State school. This will be held in the library at 2.30pm, please RSVP to the school office. 

Meet the teacher will be at 8.30am at your childs classroom also on Wednesday 12th February.

Thank you for your continued support of our school community. We’re looking forward to a fantastic year ahead with you and your child. If you have any questions or need assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Don’t let a small concern build into something bigger.

As always I will commence this newsletter with our school vision statement –

…..Engaged and resilient students learning in a safe and inclusive environment…..

To start this year off I will share with you some of the changes we have seen for our Prep students and the process for them moving from their kindergarten program to prep. Over recent years our school has developed much closer relationships with our local kindergartens and together we have developed strategies and activities to introduce our incoming prep students to the school and where they will have their classes and some of the people they will interact with. This has helped greatly with knowing students before they start formal schooling and helps everyone with a level of familiarity. This has resulted in a much more positive start for students and families.

OUTSIDE SCHOOL HOURS CARE

Recently we had to make a difficult decision to relocate our before and after school care to the hall. This change needed to occur as we needed the space they were occupying for extra class space for students to participate in specialist lessons for technology.

We are working with Camp Australia to create a new and engaging space that your children will be able to use and will not be as tight for space as the previous rooms.

We appreciate your patience and support during this transition and we are working closely to try and solve some of the current concerns.

BEFORE AND AFTER SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS

You would have all received information about the before school arrangements as we move forward in 2025. Please note the following as there have been a couple of changes.

If students arrive before 8.25 they are to sit in area A. At 8.25 a bell will ring and students will move to the following areas –

Prep and year 1 – Area I (prep/year 1 eating area near drop and go)

Year 2 and 3 – outside the old outside school hours care building

Year 4, 5 and 6 – stay in area A

Students will be able to move from these areas to access breakfast club.

At 8.45 another bell will ring and students can leave the area they have been waiting in and move promptly to classrooms.

At 8.50 a bell will ring to signal the start of our online assemblies and all students should be in class at this time.

Parents are asked not to move to outside the classrooms until the bell goes at 8.45. Please do not go over the red painted lines before school and at the end of the day as this disrupts the end of the school day for our teachers and students. As soon as the 3pm bell goes you are able to cross the lines and move to collect your child from their room.

Your support in ensuring this occurs makes for a smooth start and finish to the day for all our classes.

MOBILE PHONES – AWAY FOR THE DAY INFORMATION

Education Queensland has implemented a policy around the use of mobile phones in state schools.

We already expect our students to hand their phones into the teacher aides room and this practice will be continuing.

This policy has very limited impact on our school practices as we already have a process for phone storage during the day. There are three areas however that I do need to mention that have not been fully addressed.

1. Parent contact with students through ipads (email, messenger). This is not permitted and any messages for students need to come through the office and a message will be sent to your child.
2. Smart Watches – a number of student have smart watches. These are not permitted to be used in the classroom or at school between 9am and 3pm. Wifi needs to be turned off if your child has this type of watch.
3. Students who require their mobile phone for managing and monitoring health conditions are exempt from this policy. If you believe your child needs their phone for a medical or health condition and you have not already spoken to the school about this please do so as soon as possible.

PLAYGROUP

We will be starting our school playgroup again on Wednesday 12 February. If you have a child that is Pre prep age or you know someone who does and they don’t have any children at the school, you are welcome to attend. Playgroup commences at 9.00 and runs until 10.30.

It is a great way for children to interact in a safe and welcoming environment and is a good way for parents to connect with each other and the school.

No RSVP is required – just need to turn up!!

P&C MEETING – Monday 10 February  

Our first P&C meeting is on Monday 10 February

Our meetings are generally just over 1 hour in duration and the aim of the P&C is to find ways to support the school and its initiatives. It is also heavily invested in the tuckshop and uniform shop, both of which are valuable additions to the efficient provision of services to parents.

I would encourage anyone to consider attending our P&C meeting and helping add value to our school community.

PARENT AND COMMUNITY CODE OF CONDUCT

I have attached the Education Queensland Community Code of Conduct. This is not something that we regularly have to refer to for our school and that is something that we are very proud of – it doesn’t happen everywhere.

However sometimes we all just need a reminder that how we conduct ourselves on the school site has an impact on students, staff and other parents.

PARKING

Each year we have issues with parking around the school. One of the biggest concerns is in the council reserve opposite the school with people parking near the exit and making this congested as well as a danger for parents and students who are crossing over. Please ensure that you are not parking on the yellow lines in this carpark.

Bundarra Street

There is no parking allowed across the double gates at the end of Bundara Street. This is an access point that needs to remain clear. To park there you would be doing several turns, again putting our community members and students at risk of harm.

There is also disabled parking at the back gates that needs to be available for people with assisted parking stickers in their cars. Please do not park in these spaces.

We also need to be aware of parking across neighbours driveways and on any yellow lines.

ELECTRIC SCOOTERS

No students are permitted to ride electric scooters to school. Students in primary school are not permitted to ride these devices due to their age.

Parenting Ideas – Justin Coulson

I thought that this article might be beneficial as we commence a new school year. Everyone gets anxious when something new is on the horizon. It is how we acknowledge this anxiousness and build resilience that is what can make a difference. The article was written by Dr Jodi Richardson.

6 tips for parenting anxious kids

If you’re the parent of an anxious child you’re most certainly not alone. The number of children experiencing an anxiety disorder is currently estimated at 117 million worldwide. Here in Australia, there’s an average of 2 anxious kids in every classroom; and they’re the ones with a diagnosis. Many more anxious kids are yet to have their anxiety identified and understood.

As much as we’d like to, we can’t rid our kids of their anxiety, but we can help them to manage it in ways that enable them move it from centre stage and get on with living a vibrant, rich and meaningful life.

Here are 6 tips to support you to parent your anxious child:

1. Explain anxiety

Anxious kids can struggle to explain how they feel and can worry that no-one will understand what they’re going through. That’s why explaining anxiety is an important step in supporting an anxious child. The knowledge that anxiety is well understood, that other kids experience it and that it’s manageable brings them immediate relief.

Teach your anxious child that the part of their brain that protects them from danger is always on high alert. Called the amygdala, it’s meant to protect them from genuine danger but for anxious kids, it can be almost constantly activated.

Explain that when they feel anxious, their amygdala sends signals to their body to fight or flee from the threat, whether it’s real or imagined.

Next, talk about the body changes such as increased heart rate, rapid breathing and an upset stomach that power them up to fight or flee. They might even feel dizzy, hot, sweaty and panicked. Anxiety effects thinking and behaviour too.

2. Respond with empathy

In the midst of an anxious moment it’s natural to want to reassure anxious kids they’ve got nothing to worry about. Reassurance works in the short term but it soon wears off and they come back for more, which becomes an unhelpful pattern.

Instead, respond with empathy and validation. Use ahhh statements such as:

• “Ahhh, I see you’re feeling really anxious right now, I know how hard this is for you”
• “Ahhh, I know you’re feeling really worried right now, it’s not much fun feeling like that is it?”

Anxious kids need to know you understand what they’re going through.

3. Show the amygdala they’re safe

Once the amygdala senses danger, the cascade of events that follow can’t be stopped. The body and brain will respond as if the danger is immediate. The best way to help an anxious child calm their anxious brain is to teach them to show their amygdala they’re safe. Deep and intentional breathing helps an anxious child to calm their amygdala and will begin to reduce their anxious symptoms. Practise intentional breathing regularly between anxious times before applying this technique in the midst of an anxious moment.

4. Practise mindfulness -the antidote to worrying

Anxiety is distress now about a possible future event, which is why worrying is common for anxious kids. When an anxious child’s mind fast-forwards to an upcoming event or expectation, their amygdala can respond as if the ‘threat’ to their safety is immediate. The antidote to worrying is mindfulness. Put simply, mindfulness is paying attention to what’s happening in the present moment. It may take time to learn, but is a powerful anxiety management strategy once it’s mastered.

5. Practice defusing sticky thoughts

Anxious thoughts can get stuck, refusing to budge no matter how much attention is payed to them. Defusion is a strategy that helps anxious kids look at their thoughts rather than from them.

Imagine your anxious child is worried about an upcoming test. They’re thinking “I’m going to fail the test”. The thought makes them feel awful. Defusion helps kids (all of us) to look at their thoughts by reminding them that the words in their heads are indeed just words, not reality.

Your anxious child can defuse his unhelpful thoughts by putting a statement in front of the thought such as: “I notice I’m having the thought that I’m going to fail the test.” Alternatively, he can say the thought in a character voice like Darth Vader or Peppa Pig, or sing it to the tune of happy birthday or a nursery rhyme. Defusion puts distance between anxious kids and their thoughts and is a wonderful skill to learn.

6. Get the fundamentals right

Ample sleep, good nutrition and exercise are essential for anxious kids. Support your child to adhere to their optimal bedtime so they wake naturally around the time of their alarm, reduce their sugar intake to support their gut health and to exercise regularly for optimal mental health.

These are some of the many strategies that you can share with your child to support them to recognise and manage their anxiety so they can live life in full colour.

Mercer and Cooper are proud to be the Gold Sponsor for Coombabah State School’s fundraising initiatives! We are honoured to contribute to raising funds for essential resources and opportunities for students and staff. Supporting local education and fostering community growth are core to what we do.

As a trusted name in real estate, Mercer and Cooper specialise in helping our clients across the many different stages of property wealth. Whether we are helping you sell your home, manage your investment property, or helping you grow your property portfolio, we’re here to help you.

Our commitment goes beyond real estate – we believe in building strong communities and supporting the next generation. Partnering with Coombabah State School allows us to help create a vibrant environment where students can thrive. We’re excited to be part of this initiative and look forward to its positive impact on the school and community. Together, let’s create opportunities and build a brighter future.

Come visit around the corner at 12 Grice Avenue, Paradise Point, or call us at 5626 9090.