Welcome to any new members of our school family for 2021. You have joined a very special school community that supports and helps each other to ensure our children have the best opportunities in life.
Thank you to all the parents who have taken time to talk with me over the past week and pass on their appreciation for the work that has gone into making this a successful start of the year.
This Friday is Day 8 for all state schools. Our enrolment of this day determines each year what our final teacher and teacher aide staffing allocations will be and our budget for the year ahead to support our children.
I am very pleased that our school has grown and this year we have 34 classes established with the largest Prep cohort we have seen. This year our Year 6 cohort is also the largest number we have seen in many years. Over all the school will have approximately 840 students this year. At this stage, all classes are allocated within the numbers guidelines and should not require any further changes. Given our normal migration patterns have been impacted, we know that Coorparoo State School is positioned well into the future.
Our numbers growth looks to continue and the planning that has been already completed for our Masterplan will become critical as we are near capacity and may reach this by the end of the year.
Our new refurbishment of Kijini Under Croft has been fantastic. It is so lovely for our children to have a much improved space for lunch and shaded play. Works continue on the lift, which we hope will be completed in May.
As our school numbers grow, we will see changes to our specialist timetables and programs to cater for these increased numbers. For this reason, we have increased staff this year to cover music and PE classes. I am pleased to welcome Nicole Lane to the Music Team and Tara Morgan to the PE team alongside Monique French.
This year we see the introduction of Prep Swimming. To achieve this it is necessary to make some significant changes to how the program operates in the junior school. In term one this year, Years 2 and 3 students will be swimming and we will celebrate their efforts with a mini carnival at the end of term. Students in Prep and Year 1 will swim in term four each year. Our Students in Years 4 to 6 will swim both term one and four with our senior carnival near the end of year.
With QLD currently being in a COVID normal level, we are already working hard on school as normal this year planning for the usual curriculum and extra curricula activities as normal. Our only current restrictions are room numbers for indoor spaces, and adults needing to social distance. This is great news, but we must continue to stay home if sick and practice good hygiene.
Drop off and pick up times with parking continues to be a challenge for all of us. A number of parents have already said to me that it was so much easier when they could drop at the gate and go. Only Prep students need a parent to drop them to the class teacher. Students in all other grades if arriving at school before 8:30am are supervised in the main covered area. After 8:30am they are supervised in their building areas therefore, if you have an older child then you are welcome to say goodbye at the gate.
Parking is usually busy at pickup times for about 15 minutes coming early does not seem to help this situation as no one is moving until the children are released. If you have an older child please use the Stop and Drop however, it only works if you keep moving. If your child is not there move to the end of the queue. When council or police are onsite, it is amazing how quickly everyone picks up!
If you can walk to school or park a short distance away this also helps and many of our students and parents ride a bike!
If we can do this, it leaves parks for our Prep parents to pick up their little ones and with 130 Preps this year, we certainly need space for them to park.
We are constantly sending out information about school operations to parents. You can stay informed via the School Website, Q Schools App, QParents App for finance, attendance and report cards, emails, and social media (Facebook). Please ensure that your contact details are up-to-date and if you change emails, phone or address let the school office know immediately. Our term calendar is on the school website and is constantly updated with new events. QSchools is the best way to stay informed and save important events as reminders.
Finally, I want to thank parents for their efforts to have all children in their correct uniforms. It is so lovely to see our students wearing their Black and Gold with pride, with school hats and black shoes! This is important to us as it says a lot about our school community and the pride we take in representing our school each day. Please remember to name all items! Our lost property is already growing.