Dear Parent and Caregivers,

Wow! Week 4 already! This term is just flying by as we all have settled back into routines and the expectations at ESS. Our new Preps are doing a great job adjusting to ‘big school’ as they learn the ropes. The morning separations are becoming easier, but I do encourage our parents to ensure when the bell goes, you support your child to line up with their bag and then move away from the line up area to make the teachers’ job easier when they collect the class. It is not helpful to the teacher if there are parents still standing in the line-up area when they are trying to take control of the class and get upstairs to commence learning. I ask for parent co-operation with this, particularly in the Prep and Yr 1 line-up areas.

STAFF

I am very excited to announce that we finally have recruited a full-time permanent teacher for our Yr 5/6B class. We thank Mrs Gradwell for taking on the class for the past four weeks and ensuring they are settled and up to date with the curriculum.

It is perfect timing, as Miss Laura Kerwick commences on the class next Monday and Mrs Gradwell moves to Prep C as Mrs Rossiter commences her maternity leave. We wish Mrs Rossiter all the best with the birth of her new baby and her leave. I am sure you will join with me in welcoming Miss Kerwick to our school community as she settles into ESS life.

A reminder, that if you need to contact staff during the school term it is best to do this via email. When you email staff you should expect a response within 48hrs.  Please do not expect class teachers to respond during the school day, when they are teaching. If your request is of an urgent nature, it is best to phone the office.  Likewise, our school Facebook page is not the best place to get urgent information or to make general commentary.

Please also keep in mind that the morning drop offs are only time for a quick handover and are not the best time to have a lengthy chat as this is a very busy time when teachers are collecting their classes to start the school day.

DISTRICT SWIMMING

Congratulations to our 8 students who represented ESS at the District Swimming Trials held at Lawnton pool last week. They all performed to the best of their ability amongst some talented competition. Much congratulations to Sienna Grice and Toby Vaughan who were selected to go ahead to the Metropolitan North Regional Swimming Trials. We wish them all the best at these trials.

PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS

Thank you to those parents who were able to attend the parent information sessions last Tuesday evening.  We had an excellent roll up and teachers were very pleased with the engagement of our parent community and the interest they show in their child’s education.  If you were unable to attend the teachers will be sending home the information presented so that you can read it in your own time and email through any questions you may have about the class.

The next opportunity to have a formal meeting with your child’s teacher will be at our parent teacher interviews in week 9 of this term.  You child’s teacher will be able to let you know how your child has settled in and how they have presented thus far on pre-assessments for the term and the Term One summative assessment tasks. 

These interviews were scheduled for week 9 19/3 but we have had to move them to the Monday of that week. Therefore, our first round of Parent Teacher Interviews for this semester will be held this term on Monday, 18/3/24 in EPAC between 3:15 and 7:30pm. More information will go out shortly about using the SOBS program to book your interview spots.  These interviews go for 10 minutes each and bookings will be open from Friday 1^st March at 4pm to Friday 15^th March at 6am.

STUDENT LEADER INVESTITURE CEREMONY

Thank you to those parents who were able to join us for the Student Leader Investiture last week. It was wonderful to see our leaders receive their badges of office from Tim Mander, MP and Andrew Wines, BCC Councillor and to hear the new leaders take their oath in front their families, students from Yr 3-6 and staff. 

We look forward to working with the new Captains and the Student Council. They have already had their first meetings for the term and I was most impressed as to how they came to the meetings with lots of ideas. Particularly, our Student Council Class representatives who had obviously take lots of notes from their class meetings to bring to the Council meeting. 

A reminder our full students leadership group now is:

School Captains - Bronte Scholes and Adelyn Blatchford

• School Vice-Captain and Student Council Chairperson - Isabella Hall
• House Captains
  • Waratah - Jamie Landon and Ivy Atkins
  • Banksia - Levi Lavin and Mason Cross
• Arts Captains - Georgia Linedale and Ivy Smith
• Class Student Council Representatives - 3A-Shashwat Kafle, 3B - Emma Bebel, 4A - Penny Leavitt, 4B - Elka Johnston, 5/6A - Keira Humphreys, 5/6B -Charlotte McDonald, 5/6C - John Knight.

NAPLAN

This term we will undertake NAPLAN testing for our Yr 3 and 5 students online between March 13 and 25. We ask that you do not make appointments or plan holidays during this time as it is important that all students have the opportunity to participate in this testing program as it provides valuable data to inform their future learning journeys and school improvement strategies. If you have concerns about your child sitting the NAPLAN tests and require information about possible withdrawal or exemption please make an appointment to see myself, so that we can discuss these options and complete the required paperwork prior to the testing dates. If your student has a Personalised Learning Plan in place and regular adjustments are made in class, the Success Teachers will be in touch for your approval and signing of a document which will allow for these adjustments to be applied to the NAPLAN testing to ensure the tests are accessible for all students. These adjustments might include, extra time or rest breaks.

SCHOOL SUPERVISOR VISIT

On Thursday, we are being visited by a special visitor - our School Supervisor, Mr Willis. Mr Willis will be here to see the leadership team and he will also be visiting some classrooms to see how we are going with our classroom learning. Mr Willis will also be looking over our Strategic Plan and our Annual Implementation Plans before we present these to the School Council for signing off at our first meeting of the year next week, on Monday afternoon. Following that approval process, I will be able to share these documents with the whole school community to give you an idea of our priorities and plans for the next 4 years at ESS.

LEARNING CURVE WELLBEING PROGRAM

Our Learning Curve focus this week is from the Meaning and Purpose category and the wellbeing skill builder is ‘Giving to be Kind’. Students have been working on this topic during their Health lessons this week with Mrs O’Malley and Mrs McKenzie, this is then followed up in class. This focus is about the act of giving and doing kind things for others as well as smiling, saying hello and saying thank you to make a positive difference to other people’s lives.

Our Student Council have combined this focus with Valentine’s Day today to sell little paper hearts that they have been busily cutting out, for students to write a kind message on to give someone today. I received my first one at 8:30am this morning from Charlotte N one of our Student Council class representatives. Thank you Charlotte-you made my day!

ENVIRONMENTAL  SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE

Each year we run a range of committees within our school to progress our priorities.  Again this year, we will have an Environmental Sustainability Committee to progress our School Environmental Management Plan and initiatives. We usually meet once per term at Crema Coffee Garage at 8am on a Wednesday morning. Our first meeting for this year will be next Wednesday morning 21/2. We have five enthusiastic staff members already signed up on the committee with me as the Chair at present, but we would love for a couple of parents to support us with this work by being part of the committee. Mrs Kent who lead this last year unfortunately has transfered over to McDowall State School in 2024, we are already missing her leadership around this initiative. We are hoping we can all pull together and continue the great work we have created in the last few years under her leadership. This includes looking after our new edible gardens, the compost bins and worm farms, the digital watering system, Containers for Change and our recycling bin system. School staff, students and Camp Australia Staff have been helping out with the gardens, however we are certainly in need of some extra parental support.

Till next time,

Mrs Anne Robinson

Principal