LEARNING CURVE WELLBEING PROGRAM

The Learning Curve focus this week is from the ‘Engagement and Mindfulness’ category and the wellbeing skill builder is “No to Bullying”. This topic is about students learning how to use their strengths, to not give power to bullies by not engaging with them at all. Students will learn that people who bully others are weak people wanting to have power over others to make themselves feel better. Students can break the cycle by refusing to transfer your power. By not opening everything online, and in person by looking the bully in the eye and saying firmly that you refuse to accept it, and then walking away to let trusted adults know.

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 re this topic is attached for your information.

REMEMBRANCE DAY

It was lovely to commemorate Remembrance Day on 11/11 at 11am across our school. All classes stopped for a minute’s silence at 11am and I laid a wreath with our School Captains and Defence students in the front memorial gardens. We also had an Aussie icon, a kookaburra, observe the ceremony as he perched on the memorial and then the stairs to oversee the proceedings. This added a nice touch for the ADF students who came down for the solemn activity.

PREP 2025 ENROLMENTS AND TRANSITION MORNINGS

We held our final transition to Prep morning last Friday with nearly all of our new Prep students attending for the morning of activities. Much thanks to our amazing P&C who opened the uniform shop for the morning, so our new students could get fitted out in their uniforms and also to Camp Australia for providing the morning tea for the new parents to socialise together.

A reminder that if you know of families who live in our catchment and are planning to come here next year, please remind them to get their enrolments in asap. Our next meeting will be at the Roll Up afternoon in Week 10 on Wednesday, 4th December where all students will roll up to new classes. More information regarding this will be emailed out to the new families next week.

2024 YEAR BOOK

A reminder that again this year we are producing a Year Book of the 2024 school year at Enoggera State School. This book is a great memory book of the year and is available to purchase by our families. It includes class pages and pages on all of our school events and activities throughout the year. It also includes a special focus on our graduates.

The book is gifted to our graduating students at the graduation ceremony and will also be available for collection for families who order and pay for one prior. Order forms are attached below and are also being emailed out this week so if you wish to purchase the year book please complete the order form attached and return to the office with payment by Friday, November 29, so that you do not miss out. As we only have 60 available this year the first 60 families that order will receive their copy before the holidays. A further order can be placed after that for delivery at the start of school next year.

GRADUATION

A reminder that our Graduation Ceremony for our Year 6 student will be held on Thursday 5th December at 9:00am in EPAC and this will be followed by the Guard of Honour later in the day at 2:50pm and then the Graduation Social Event in EPAC that night. Information has gone out to the Year 6 families with information about the event and a link to purchase tickets for the event through TRYBOOKING. The cost of tickets for a 3-course catered buffet dinner will be $45 per head. There will be a DJ to entertain the students after the dinner. There is a limit on three tickets per student to the dinner (graduate and two parents) only due to capacity in EPAC and with the caterers. Tickets will close next Wednesday to enable numbers to be sent though to the caterers.

We have a group of parents helping out with the organising of the decorations, but I am sure we could do with more helpers during the day to prepare for the evening event. If you would like to help out please contact Mrs Burrows on tburr11@eq.edu.au or by phoning the office.

https://www.trybooking.com/CWOPT

WEEK 11

We have developed a plan for the ‘soft’ week of school in week 11 as there will be no formal activities or formal teaching of the Australian Curriculum occurring during that week. All official school events will be finalised by the usual end of week 10 of the term and week 11 will be supervision and alternative activities for those students requiring supervision. Students will be supervised in classes, which may not be their own class teacher and may be combined with other year levels dependent on the numbers attending. 

Therefore, if families are wishing to go on holidays early, they can go at the end of week 10 as usual, without missing anything important at school. This will enable our teaching teams time to do some very important planning and preparation for next year, but of course this is dependent on how many students are at school and are requiring supervision. 

We ask that if you know your child/children will not be attending school in week 11 that you let the office know as soon as possible. Hopefully, with less students attending in week 11 we will be able to collapse classes so that our teachers get some planning and preparation time for the new school year before heading into the holidays.

DEFENCE SCHOOL MENTOR POSITION

Unfortunately, our DSM Miss Rhiannon Davidson has taken up a full -time position at another school so this week we welcome a replacement DSM, Mrs Alicia Trevena. As she gets connected to the system here, she will be in contact with the Defence families to introduce herself.

CHAPLAINCY

Recently the Local Chaplaincy Committee were advised that our Chappy Twinkee will be completing her studies at the end of this year and taking fulltime employment in the new year. This will mean that our Chaplain position will be vacant.

Recently at the P&C discussions were had around the option of changing to the new Wellbeing Officer also provided from the same funding. As this change can only occur when the position is vacant or at the end of funding agreement, it was decided to send a survey to all families in our school community to get an indication for ongoing support of having a Chaplain in our school or moving to the new Wellbeing Officer. I have provided some information below re the two roles but basically both positions do the same role, but the Chaplains are provided by Scripture Union and Wellbeing Officers can come a from range of different approved providers to meet the funding guidelines.

Therefore, a survey has been emailed out to all families and it would be great if each family could decide if they would support a Chaplain or a Wellbeing Officer moving forward for the rest of this funding period until 2027.

Once we determine the needs of the community this will be ratified at the next P&C meeting in November, so that we can move forward with either recruiting a new Chaplain or a Wellbeing Officer for 2025. The survey closes on Friday of this week so please have your say before it closes.

FACILITIES

We have had advice that the renovations of our Prep C and Yr 1 classrooms will be happening over the holidays, so we look forward to seeing the plans for this work to occur. We have been allocated approximately $500,000 for this work which will be managed by a Project Manager employed under the project. We look forward to our classes moving into the renovated classrooms to start the 2025 school year. We are awaiting a start up meeting about when the works will start. This may mean moving a class or two before the end of the year so they can get going on the works to ensure they are all finished before the new school year.

We were also successful in gaining a Sustainability grant this year from the DoE to enhance our water catchment and water management processes to reduce our water bills. We are replacing the tank at the end of C Block with two tanks and this water is to be plumbed into the boys bathrooms at the end of E Block and also to provide water for the edible gardens. Unfortunately, we could not get it connected to the oval sprinkler system as it was too far from the catchment area to pump it. But we can look at further tanks to do this down the track.

SCHOOL CAPTAIN SPEECHES

Last week our Year 5 aspiring leaders handed in their applications for the various Captain positions for 2025. Each of them, have been through a rigorous process of getting signatures on their cards, writing application letters and attending leadership workshops.

A panel of staff met to discuss the School Captain nominations and to shortlist the students to give speeches on Friday in EPAC at 2pm. It was a very difficult decision as there are so many capable leaders in our school. Following the speeches, the students in Years 3-5 and staff will vote. The panel will reconvene to look at the votes and determine all of the Captains’ positions for 2025.

These will be announced at the Principal’s Assembly on Monday of Week 10 where we will have the traditional handing over of the blazers and roles within the school.

Congratulations to our School Captain Nominees pictured below: Miranda Aguirre, Ella Brauer, Sienna Grice, John Knight, Charlotte McDonald, Oscar Pickert, Rose Turner, and Zoe Want. We wish them all the best with their speeches and the rest of the process, but whatever the outcome it is clear that ESS will be in good hands in 2025.

ARTS ON STAGE

We are very excited to be hosting Arts on Stage again tomorrow evening in EPAC. It is proving to be bigger and better every year as this year we showcase our new Band program and our extra Dance crews including the Boys Crew, as well as all of our regular Performing Arts extra curricular groups within the school. Many thanks to our amazing Performing Arts staff who have worked tirelessly again to prepare our students and also to the staff who will provide support on the evening. Also many thanks to our P&C who are doing the food for the evening. This can be ordered through QKR.

SPELL-A-THON

With the fundraising all finalised and amounts totalled it was time to announce the fundraising prizes for the Spell-a-thon. As a whole school we raised $12,225 for the Student Council. What a fantastic effort for their first major fundraiser. This puts them in a great position to purchase some wonderful legacy items for the school to benefit future students. They have been discussing options such as another table tennis table to allow for competitions and lessons to be conducted, cold water bubblers for around the school and also the replacement of the basketball backboards. We are currently in the process of quoting these items so they can make their decisions before the end of the year and hopefully these items can be in the school early next year.

A student in each class who raised the most funds was announced on assembly and awarded a certificate and a $20 gift card. These winners were:

Prep - Charlotte M - $550, Yr 1 - Isobel C - $240, Yr 2 - James T - $315, Yr 3 - Ivy H - $240, Yr 4 - Olive R - $330, Yr 5 - Juliet E - $160, Yr 6 - Jamie L - $105.

Charlotte M was also announced as the highest fundraiser in the whole school and she received another $50 gift card and a certificate. What a fantastic effort for a Prep student. Well done Charlotte! The class who raised the most money was also awarded a certificate and they will receive a pizza and popper party to the value of $100. This class was Prep A. We also awarded a range of books from the recent book fairs as random draw prizes across the school. Congratulations to those students who were presented on assembly.

SPELLING BEE

Following the Spell-a-thon to keep the focus on learning spelling we held a Spelling Bee competition where each close chose their bet speller to play off against the other classes int heir year level to find the best spelling in each year level. Prior to assembly on Monday we held the spelling bee competition which was an elimination competition where each students was asked a year level appropriate word in each round.  If they got it incorrect according to the adjudicators they were eliminated.  The competition continued to the 15^th round where we were left with Madeleine Dixon from 3B who was presented with the inaugural Spelling Bee Cup, a small trophy to keep and a bee toy.  Congratulations also to the year level champions all put up a fantastic fight:  Prep - Elyse F, Yr 1 - Dimitre R, Yr 2 - Millie L, Yr 3 - Madeleine D, Yr 4 - Hazel C, Yr 5 - Isaac O, Yr 6 - Rhys K. All in all it was a fantastic activity with a double focus on fundraising and also spelling which was win win for everyone. Thank you to our wonderful community who got behind the Student Council and also our spellers.

REPORTING

A reminder that students are in the midst of their final end of semester assessments so please ensure that they are at school every day and on time for learning. Report cards will go home on the Thursday afternoon of week 10 by email to all families. Please ensure that your email is up to date in the office and that you list the school email as a safe sender to ensure it does not go into your junk/spam folder.

Till next time,

Mrs Anne Robinson

Principal