Coatesville Competencies Writing Competition
Congratulations to Jackson Ling (room 3) whose story about the importance of listening has been chosen as this fortnight’s winning story. Check out our school newsletter and competency blog to read Jackson's story. 
Thank you to everyone who entered this fortnight, your stories were all fantastic! We are looking forward to poem and story entries this fortnight about our Competencies Focus of 'Focus'.

Always Listen, By Jackson Ling
Once upon a time there were three kiwis, nine sparrows and four fantails. One day they were all playing soccer on the field. The teacher told them to “go back to class”, but they just ignored her and kept on playing! Then the teacher explained that if they didn't go back to class they would have to go to the principal, Mr Kahu.  The sparrows stop playing, and soon the fantails stopped playing... But the kiwis didn't, so they got sent to Mr Kahu. Mr Kahu was not impressed and they had to stay in at lunch time to write apologies for not listening - The moral of this story, is always make sure you listen and follow instructions!


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Despite the wet start to the week, our Year 3-6 School Swimming Sports are going ahead as planned on Tuesday 13th March! Any changes to this status will be posted here by 8:30am on Tuesday. You can find more information about this event, including a timetable of events on the Swimming page of our website.

This week the Coatesville School Contact Directory is coming home to every family.  Be sure to check out our Sponsorship Section in the back.  All our amazing sponsors from 2017 are listed in here.  

Thank you so much to Burnsco for supporting the Coatesville School & Community swimming pool by supplying us materials at half price to make up new swimming lane ropes.  The original ones were over 20 years old so we are very grateful for new ones!
Thanks so much to Lee Roycroft for putting the new ones together.  He worked like a trouper having them ready for Upper Harbour school to use in their Swimming Sports last week!
Of course they are all ready for our own swimming sports next week and then later for the inter-school swimming including other local schools in a couple of weeks.

Last Friday our Chinese families brought Chinese New Year to Coatesville School! They did a sensational job as they shared their culture with our students and school community.
It was a massive team effort from our Chinese families. The students and staff were extremely grateful for the work they did. It was quite amazing!
Thank you all so much for your willingness to make such a memorable day for all of us. Well done! 

This year we have decided to revamp our wonderful Coatesville Competencies. After a review of our indicators as a staff last year, we knew it was time to bring the Competencies back to the forefront and make sure everyone at Coatesville School really understood the revised competencies.
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New Student Speak Progressions
This term all classes have worked really hard and provided their ideas to create ‘student speak’ Indicators. Here are a couple of examples below:

Under the Responsibility Competency, one of the indicators is Prepare, and the student speak version is: I can make sure that I am ready for learning.

Under the Respect Competency, one of the indicators is Appreciate, and the student speak version is: I can value other people and their ideas.

Now that all classes have had their voice in creating the ‘student speak’ indicators, I am working on creating Success Lists, so students can set goals and track progress in their new Progression Books!


Competency Focus of the Fortnight
We will now be having a Competency Focus of the Fortnight!

Starting term 1, week three, each fortnight there will be a competency focus every two weeks (see image below for the term 1 schedule).

Teachers and Peer mediators will be  providing learning opportunities around this focus throughout the fortnight. There will be fun activities, videos and quotes in the Daily Notices, lessons in class and items at Assembly! Our first focus starts in week 3 and it is Responsibility - Prepare.


Competency Bands
Competency bands are still a big deal at Coatesville School, but how students earn them has changed.
Value Bands are such a privilege to earn! If a student Completes a Success List for a competency (e.g. Responsibility) and are consistently showing all indicators, and this has been signed off on their Success List by their class teacher, they will be presented the band for that Competency at school Assembly - parents will be informed by class teachers if this is going to happen.


Check out our page on the school website here for more information :)

After consulting with our community, staff and Early Learner Centres; Coatesville School will be adopting Cohort Entry from 30th of April – beginning of Term 2, 2018. 93% of parents and prospective parents and 91% of our 2017 staff were in favour of introducing this policy, so we feel this is a very positive decision for our students, staff and community.
There will be two entry points in each term – Monday: Week 1 and Monday: Week 6. Children will start at the entry point that is closest to the date after their 5th birthday. There may be circumstances that we alter a child’s entry point; this would be at our discretion and in consultation with parents/caregivers.
Parents/caregivers will have the choice of waiting for the next cohort entry point if they felt their child was not ready to start school. 
Prospective students will be given the opportunity to have three visits before they start; during the last visit parents/caregivers will have the chance to have morning tea together and meet with me so I can answer any further questions they may have.
Parents/caregivers choosing not to start their child until the age of six must ensure they start school on their sixth birthday, regardless of our school’s cohort entry arrangements. 
Sharleen Telford
Deputy Principal/Kiwi Team Leader 

Due to the rain we have postponed the Kauri Family Fun Day to tomorrow as the forecast is for more rain today. 
The forecast for tomorrow is looking  good. See you at 11:30 tomorrow.

​Digital Classrooms in Action – BYOD Showcase in Year 5 and 6 Classrooms
On Friday 8th December, after assembly, we will be giving the parents of all Year 3-5 students the opportunity to see our Year 5-6 digital classrooms in action. This is a fantastic opportunity for parents to learn more about our BYOD journey so far, and to ask any questions you may have about BYOD, as we continue the digital direction we have already embarked upon.
 
Join us in the staffroom after assembly for a brief introduction, (approx. 9:45am), followed by Year 5-6 Digital Classrooms in Action Showcase in Rms 1, 3 and 4 from 10-10:30am.
 
Our Year 3-4 students will also be given the opportunity to visit the Year 5-6 classes at this time, to answer any further questions they may have.
 
In the meantime please visit our ICT page on the website for the most relevant and up to date information including BYOD Information and FAQs.

​The names and the new leaders of the teams are:
 
Kahu Team (Yr 4-6*) Learning Leader: Sarah Burnett
Tui Team (Yr 3-4) Learning Leader: Caleb Rosamond
Kiwi Team (Yr 1-2) Learning Leader: Sharleen Telford
 
* Note: Kahu team will include a Yr 4/5 class due to the student numbers we have across Year 4 and 5 for the 2018 year. 

We are very pleased to announce that The Trusts Community Foundation have kindly granted us

This goes towards re-painting and re-filling our Coatesville School & Community Swimming Pool.  Thank you so much to TTCF for your support!  ​It costs the school a huge amount to restore, however it benefits all of the students, their families and those families of the wider community.  Therefore, we are extremely grateful for the support of TTCF!
FYI the associated gaming outlet in our area is the Tavern in the Park, 235 Dairy Flat Highway, Albany.

We are super excited to announce that $32,000 was raised at our annual fundraiser this year!  We of course rely on our supporters who sponsor and donate to Coatesville School which really enables us to put on a great day while raising funds to support our school.  Thank you so much to all of you - we really appreciate it!
Huge thanks goes out to all of you who really helped out Jace and the FOTS team in the lead up and also with set up, running the day and pack down again - look at what can be achieved when everyone pitches in together!  THANK YOU!!!

Due to Ag Day & having a Friday off in lieu, we were a bit behind on our Gotcha Draw but we managed to have one on Friday at our wonderful Assembly. 

Well done to our three wonderful winners who showed Respect, Responsibility or Reflection & got themselves into the draw. A huge thank you to our generous sponsor Nicky White of Precision Real Estate for providing the $20 Westfield vouchers every fortnight - we appreciate your support. 


As the school years draws closer to an end, I am sure there will be many students striving to earn their Competency Bands - make sure you do all you can to get yours by the end of the year by showing Respect, Responsibility and Reflection.