Dear Parent and Caregivers,

Welcome back to Term 2 at Enoggera State School. We provide a warm welcome to the new families joining us this term from near and far. As always, Term 2 is a busy term focussed on learning- culminating with the assessment and reporting period, as well as many other exciting activities already on the calendar.  These include our annual inter-house athletics carnivals, Under 8’s day and whole school open day, just to name a few. We will also celebrate Chaplaincy Week from May 22-26 with a range of activities including a dress up day. Additionally, we will be hosting a Slime Run as a major fundraiser for the Local Chaplaincy Committee to support Chaplaincy in our school and to cover the government shortfall in Chaplaincy wages.

ANZAC DAY

We were very fortunate the rain held off for our beautiful school ANZAC service in our front memorial gardens on Monday morning. A big thank you to those who attended- especially our special guests, Major Cocker, Captain Colquhoun, Chaplain Petchell and Dan from Tim Mander’s office, as well as the parents and community members who attended. Our students were very respectful and participated very well. From our Captains through to our Class representatives who laid the wreaths - a significant display of commemoration from all.

A big thank you to Mrs Burrows for her superb organisation and  also to Mr Callaghan and the other staff who assisted with preparing the area and pack up on the day.

We also attended the Gaythorne March on ANZAC Day. Whilst our contingent was small we had a great march around the Gaythorne streets as the weather held off.  Our school captains did a great job leading the march and also laying a wreath on behalf of the school.

CAMP AUSTRALIA

At the end of last term we farewelled YMCA after 21 years of service to ESS and welcomed Camp Australia, who are now operating the service. We have completed our induction with their staff and they are settling into our school and routines. I have met with Camp Australia management to pass on feedback and to work with them around their launch activities and how they can support our school this term through sports days, Under 8s day and our Chaplaincy Slime run. Due to numbers being at capacity in OSHC on some days for some time now, we have applied with Camp Australia to extend the licence from 105 to 135 students and, consequently, have already added another room next door in D Block to the licence as a shared space. 

This means that Camp Australia can use the space before and after school while we still retain access to it during the school day for a flexible learning area, or break out space for our Yr 5/6 classes. As Camp Australia have already set up nicely in this space, they effectively have more room already than YMCA did, which will serve them into the future when the new licence is approved. This process can take 60-90 days to be approved by the Early Childhood Education and Care Department.

HOLIDAY FACILITIES

The work on the multipurpose roof project commenced over the holidays- with the framework for the roof is currently being galvanised, ready for installation. We have also had a range of other work completed during the holidays including: the coloured spray-crete of the school entrance and under D Block which has really brightened up the entrance to the school and looked great at the ANZAC ceremony. We also had a ramp and the path installed at the Laurel St entry next to the Church for bike and pram access to this part of the school. We have also had some work done on removing of mould from the external walls of the library ready for some repainting later in the year and also some investigative work on water damage to EPAC and the library as well as the air con in the library replaced.

FULL SCHOOL REVIEW

Our full school review was completed in the last week of term with some very positive feedback from the three reviewers who spent three days in our school interviewing staff, students and, parents and community partners.  We are awaiting our reports which will detail the affirmations and recommendations to guide the quadrennial school review process and ultimately our next four-year strategic plan for the school.  Thank you to those parents who were able to speak with the reviewers and provide such positive feedback around the school and the work that we do here.

CROSS COUNTRY

Our school Cross Country representative team will attend the City District Cross Country trials next week on May 3.  Those students successful at that event will be chosen to progress to the Regional Met North trials as part of the City District team.  We wish our runners all the best next week as they represent our school with pride.

CHAPLAINCY

On Monday's assembly, we farewelled Chappy Sarah. We thanked her for her wonderful service to our school community over the past 6 years, and bid her good luck as she has now commenced her new role as Chaplain in the Army.  Our new Chaplain (Chappy Twinkee) commenced work here last week.  I introduced her to every class and she is really looking forward to working here and supporting our school community.  She has a great mentor in Chappy Sarah who is staying on as the Chair of the Local Chaplaincy Committee this year.

OPEN DAY

On May 26 we will hold our first Open Day for this year aimed at families who are looking to enrol here for 2024 either in Prep or other year levels.  If you know of families who live in our catchment and are hoping to come to ESS, please let them know of the coming Open Day. This will commence in the EPAC with a talk about the school, followed by a tour of the facilities.

QEW SURVEY

This week and next week our students in Yr 4/5/6 will participate in the Queensland Engagement and Wellbeing (QEW) Survey, which aims to collect information from Queensland state schools in a consistent and systematic way to gain a better understanding of the engagement and wellbeing of our students.

It asks questions about many aspects of students' wellbeing, engagement and experience at school. Data from the survey is used to help schools monitor their school culture, school engagement and student wellbeing in line with the Student Learning and Wellbeing Framework (PDF, 535KB) External link and the Equity and Excellence: realising the potential of every student (PDF, 4.6MB) External link.

More information about the survey will be emailed out to Yr 4/5/6 parents this week with an opportunity to opt-out if you do not want your child to complete the anonymous survey at school.

Till next time,

Mrs Anne Robinson

Principal