Week 2 is nearly done and dusted and what a week it has been. As I write this on Thursday afternoon I am praying and hopeful that the All Schools Coota Beach Volleyball Carnival will go ahead. After this week’s experience of extreme weather early Monday morning, we are praying that there will not be a repeat of bad weather that will prevent the carnival going ahead. So much work goes into preparing any carnival but the effort to work in with the Town committee, the regional schools, the catering needs and managing over 600 students has been significant. The generosity of our school community has also been exceptional (as usual) and we have been inundated with donations to help us make some valuable funds for our school. Thank you to our dedicated staff who have devoted hours to making this event a reality.

Already we are back into the swing of the academic school year and classes have begun in earnest. We are trying to prioritise the teaching of literacy and numeracy in our Infants and Primary spaces by eliminating interruptions and missed lessons. This means that we have timetabled our literacy block into the first two hours of the school day and we would hope that nothing interrupts this teaching time except in extenuating situations. If you have to make an appointment for your child we would encourage you to avoid making them in literacy time (9-11am) and numeracy (11.45-12.45pm). There are some exceptions to this time frame in Stage 3 to accommodate library periods but this is the limit of the interruptions we hope.

The Annual Swimming Carnival was a fabulous success. We navigated and managed the heat of last week and did our very best to have the carnival over by the time the heat peaked later in the afternoon. The students were outstanding. There was strong participation especially from our senior boys and there was a positive and enthusiastic attitude the whole day. Thank you to the staff who coordinated the day and to all those who assisted in any way. Information about pathways will be available for students progressing to the next level.  

We are edging closer to the time when the primary students can move into the refurbished primary building. We are just waiting on the doors and then we can begin the massive process of moving all the resources, supplies and students back into the new spaces. It looks fabulous and will hopefully translate into fabulous learning spaces where our students excel.

Next Monday 17^th February we will host the Year 7 Information Session in Rooms 7 & 8 followed by a shared BBQ. The K-6 Information Evening will be held on Tuesday 18^th February in the Infants Breakout Space. The Infants session will begin at 5.30 to be followed by the Primary presentation at 6.15. All Infants and Primary families are invited to share a BBQ dinner at the conclusion of the presentations at 7pm. Please RSVP to the Front Office for catering purposes. Babysitting is available.

In finishing this newsletter it is now Friday afternoon and our All Schools Coota Beach Volleyball Carnival was an enormous success. We prayed that the weather would not turn nasty to stop us hosting the 3^rd annual event and our prayers were answered. It was a fabulous day with a wonderful atmosphere and great fun. We thank all those who helped to make it such a success and we look forward to making it even better next year. A full update will be included in next week’s newsletter.

Have a fabulous weekend. If you are one of the 191 teams that will compete on Saturday then I hope you also have enormous fun and a safe weekend.

God Bless

Ms Nicky Trinder

Principal