Dear Parent and Caregivers,

LEARNING CURVE WELLBEING PROGRAM

The Learning Curve focus this week is from the ‘Meaning and Purpose’ category. The wellbeing skill builder is Forgiving or Saying Sorry. Our students are learning that when you are willing to forgive and say sorry a heavy burden can be lifted off your shoulders. Students are learning that by using their strengths to find the courage to do this, will help them protect their relationships. This also includes forgiving themselves when needed, as those who waste valuable energy holding grudges are often very unhappy. Students are working on this topic during their Health lessons and then following up with their class teachers as well as using their ESS Learning Curve diaries. The parent article regarding this topic is attached for your information.

‘GIANTS IN THE SKY’ MUSICAL

The excitement in the air is palpable as we look forward to our first whole school musical production coming up across four performances on 22nd, 23rd and 24th August. It is wonderful to see it all coming together with the ensemble groups, including our Prep to Year 2 students learning their songs and performances. I was able to pop down last Wednesday to watch the finale rehearsal in action with the Prep, Year 1, 2 and 3 ensemble performers on stage as well.

Ticket sales through Try Booking are going really well with the Saturday evening performance proving very popular thus far. The links to book are below and also are advertised again in this newsletter and on our facebook site. Please pass the word around to other community members who might like to see the show as we are hoping to see four sell out shows. 

https://www.trybooking.com/1220955

PREP 2025 ENROLMENT MEETINGS

Last Friday we held our final Open Day for the year before our Prep Enrolment Interviews, which are being held in the last three weeks of this term. These will continue into the beginning of Term 4. Interviews will be followed by our Prep Transition and Information sessions in Term 4 on November 1 and 15 from 9-11am and then our final roll up afternoon in week 10 of Term 4 on December 4. The SOBS link to book enrolment interviews is below and information will also be emailed out to the Prep 2025 mailing list. Bookings open this Friday August 2 at 6am and close 24hrs prior to each booking date.

https://eq.sobs.com.au/pt3/parent.php?schoolid=70109

If you know of families who live in our catchment and are planning to come here next year, please let them know of the Enrolment meetings coming up, where enrolments for next year are finalised and important information gathered to inform Prep class placements.  Families who have made their decision can drop in enrolments forms to the office at any stage to enable us to get them on the system and into the communication channels for next year.

WEEK 6 AUTHOR VISIT INSTEAD OF REGULAR ASSEMBLY

Instead of our regular assembly in Week 6 on Monday August 12 from 2-3pm, we are very fortunate to be receiving a visit from an author free of charge for our students.  This is perfect timing heading into Book Week 2024.  The visit is being provided as part of the Live @ the Library program organised by the new Everton Park Library. 

The show is being delivered by Stig Weymss – actor and audio narrator of Boy Swallows Universe and The Treehouse series. This funny, interactive and humorous show will have students engaging in storytelling and live narration. We are very appreciative of the Everton Park Library for providing our students with this wonderful opportunity.

NAPLAN AND A-E DATA CONVERSATIONS  

Following on from parents receiving their child’s NAPLAN reports last week we have now been able to hold our Data Conversations with each of our class teachers to discuss their students A-E data for Semester One and what needs to be put in place for Semester Two to support more improvement into the A/B grades. Our teachers were able to make predictions for students and discuss improvements they want to see based on knowledge of the curriculum units this Semester in English and the students’ strengths and weaknesses to inform future teaching and learning. We have also commenced triangulating this data against the NAPLAN data now to see areas of alignment or misalignment between the data sets.

It was exciting again to see that our school continues to perform well above the State Mean in all areas of NAPLAN, which of course includes all schools across the state.  Later on, further data will be become available where we are compared more closely to other similar Qld State Schools which gives us more of an indication of how we are sitting relative to these schools.

The graph below shows that we have continued to improve our results in all areas for both Year 3 and Year 5 since the resetting of the scales in 2023, which is why there is a gap from 2022 to 2023. This is because the previous data cannot be directly compared accurately against the new data due to the changes made to the bandings for the 2023 tests.

INFRASTRUCTURE FUNDING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Recently we were advised that our submission for funding for classroom upgrades in this new financial year had been approved. We were successful in gaining $450 000 towards classroom upgrades in B Block and if funding allows also C Block. We are currently waiting for the DoE heritage team to respond to some design requests for enclosing the verandah in B Block. Final design drawings will then be developed and costed to know if there is sufficient funding to spread across the C Block rooms as well.

We have also been successful in gaining another DoE Sustainability Grant to work on the water harvesting options in the school which will include replacing the broken tank and plumbing it in to the sprinkler system and the watering system for the vegetable gardens.  We have also had approved up to $250 000 for other maintenance projects in the school which include repairing of roof in EPAC, flooding and plumbing issues under D Block and the bathrooms and also repainting of the interior of the Resource Centre and new security fencing around the front of the school.

YEAR 6 GRADUATION

Just a reminder to parents of Yr 6 that the school is organizing the ceremony and the social function this year. The Graduation Ceremony will be in EPAC at 9am on Thursday 5^th December and the social function (Dinner/Disco) for parents, students and staff will also be held that night. We are currently getting quotes for the meal and entertainment organised at present, so more details should be available later this term.  There will be an opportunity for parents of our graduating students to get involved later on to assist with some fundraising through the Student Council and then jobs such as decorating the EPAC etc.

OPINION SURVEY

Last week all staff, students and parents should have received an email from the DoE with a link to complete the ESS annual Opinion Survey for this year. These emails were to be distributed from July 15. The survey links are individual links and are open from July 22 until August 16. The data from these surveys is collated by the DoE and shared with schools at the end of the year to inform planning for the following school year. We encourage as many families as possible to complete the survey.

STUDENT COUNCIL MAJOR FUNDRAISER

Our Student Council have planned their major fundraiser for this year and that is to be a Spell-a-thon followed by a Spelling Bee competition.  The idea is that students will be provided with a list of 50 spelling words appropriate to their year level from the Australian Curriculum to learn.  They will find sponsors per word correct eg. 5c/word.  They will then be tested on the words in class to get their score to work out how much money to collect from their sponsors. 

After the Spell-a-thon the classes will choose their class spelling champion who will then play off to find the champion speller in the year level.  The Spelling Bee Competition will be held in EPAC where the year level champions play off against each other word for word using year level differentiated lists to determine our ESS Spelling Bee Champion for 2024. Because the lists are differentiated the winner could be from any year level as it is based on an elimination style competition where they are eliminated if they get a word incorrect. 

Our Student Council look forward to our community getting behind this event to help them to raise money for their legacy item for this year. They are still deciding as to whether to purchase another table tennis table for the students to allow more students to play each day or to get a cold-water bubbler to fill up drink bottles or maybe both depending on how much they raise. Not only will there be financial gain, but this should help to put a spotlight on the importance of being good spelling.

COLLABORATIVE SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

Last week we had a visit from our School Supervisor and some Principals from neighbouring schools to undertake a Collaborative School Improvement visit. I got to share our school’s progress around our Annual Implementation Plan this year and presented a problem of practice for the team to investigate during the visit. The problem of practice chosen was our visible learning focus which includes our Learning Walls and Bump it up Walls in each classroom. They met with staff, spoke with students and presented their findings to the leadership team, which I responded to on behalf of the Leadership Team. We received some very positive feedback and some constructive ideas to help us to progress this initiative in our school to assist students to improve their academic grades. We look forward to working though the feedback received with staff in coming weeks.

PLAYGROUNDS AND OVALS OUT OF SCHOOL

A reminder that all of our play spaces are out of bounds to students and visitors before and after school each day. Our OSHC lease these facilities during this time for the students in their care and it is very difficult for them to supervise their children when other students are on the playgrounds and ovals who are outside their duty of care.

We ask parents to ensure that their children are not on these spaces after school at all and that if you are wanting to meet up with other families for after school play dates you move to other parks for this. This includes students attending rehearsals at EPAC for Music, Dance, the Musical etc, as they are not to be on playgrounds when attending these events as there is no staff supervision.

LOST PROPERTY

A reminder to be checking the lost property cupboard under A Block regularly, as there are always plenty of hats, jumpers and lunch boxes etc in this area. Please remember to ensure your child’s belongings are named (even 2^nd hand items) so that they can be returned to students if found, as it is surprising every day the number of items which are found still unnamed.

Till next time,

Mrs Anne Robinson

Principal