Principal News
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
LEARNING CURVE
This week our Learning Curve program is from the Positive Emotion and Gratitude Wellbeing element. The wellbeing skill builder is ‘Growth Mindset’ in Prep - Year 2 and ‘Moving your Mindset’ in Years 3 - 6. The lessons teach students to understand that their mindset is about what they believe they can change themselves, and that their challenge is to move it further towards growth by practising the things that they want to improve. These concepts are being taught in the Health lessons with Miss Dunstan this week and followed up in classrooms. Our Year 3-6 students continue to track their progress in their Learning Curve diaries. The parent newsletter is attached below.
Primary_wk8_Parent_Newsletter_Article_2025.pdf
STAFFING
Last week our Technical Officer Mr Andrew Wilson, who has serviced our school on his circuit for the past 7 years finished up at Enoggera as he was promoted to a higher classification based at Eatons Hill SS. We thank Andrew for his dedication to our school during his time with us and we wish him all the best with his promotion. Lee Baker has taken over the position, as he did last year whilst Andrew was relieving above level.
We have also finished the recruitment for the Defence School Mentor position to start next term. The winner was Hannah Lee and we look forward to working with her next term.
We have also finalised the recruitment for the permanent A02 position to replace Stacey Talbot. The winner is Jacinta Slater who comes to us from Wilston SS where she an A02 part time. We welcome Jacinta and thank Dal Bageda for stepping into the role temporarily for the later half of this term.
Also in staffing, our HOD-C (Head of Department Curriculum), Amy O’Malley is currently on long service leave and will return during the last week of this term.
In our 2024 staffing allocation we have been allocated another classified officer position with a HOSES (Head of Special Education Services). Currently Belinda Paton is acting in this position temporarily whilst the permanent position is currently advertised on Smart Jobs and will close on March 27.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Over the coming school holidays as usual there will be works undertaken at our school. The front of our school will get a new facelift and increased security with our pool fence along the stop drop and go being replaced with the new 8 foot high DoE security fencing that you may have seen at other schools. This is a start in getting new fencing around the whole school perimeter, as we are still trying to get on the fencing program for this to happen.
The rest of the works around the B and C block refurbishment program will also be completed with the new classroom doors, autext operable walls between classrooms and noticeboards going in as well as paint touch ups and some other minor repairs.
NAPLAN TESTING
Thank you to families for your co-operation during the NAPLAN testing which was mostly completed on Monday this week. The last test for our Year 3 and 5 students, was the Numeracy test. We still have to the end of the week to do some catch up tests with students who were absent before the testing system closes off for us on Friday. We look forward to the interim results and raw scores coming back later next term before the reports for parents will be released towards the end of Term 3. A big thank you to Mrs O’Malley, our NAPLAN coordinator and the other staff who assisted with setting up, supervision or packing down after testing occurred.
WELLBEING OFFICER
Our Wellbeing Officer, Alisha Pearson has settled in well restarting the Breakfast program on Tuesday mornings, the fruit program and the Friday radio program on the Astro-turf. She has been spending time getting to know students, families and staff both in the classrooms and the playground and has been working closely with our Students Services team to support students in need.
It was great to see at the recent P and C meeting that the P and C committed to supporting the role for the rest of this year by funding the shortfall in wages to keep the service for two days per week in our school, since the new role no longer has the backing of the Local Chaplaincy Committee and its funding.
2026 PREP ENROLMENTS
We will be commencing our 2026 Prep enrolment process with our first Open Morning of the year next term on May 2 from 9-11am. The morning is for all prospective ESS families and will commence with a presentation in EPAC with a Q&A at the end and then a tour of the facilities following. Families wishing to enrol a Prep student for 2026 can collect an enrolment pack from the Administration office and return the completed enrolment form at any time. At this stage we are accepting enrolments for in-catchment families only. If you are out-of-catchment and wishing to enrol for 2026 you can complete a waiting list form and we will be in touch later in the year as enrolments for 2026 are firmed up and we determine if there are any spaces remaining.
P&C
Our P&C Annual General Meeting will be held in the G Block Staffroom next Tuesday evening at 6:15pm where all positions are declared vacant and elections are held for office bearers for 2025. I thank our 2024 outgoing Executive for their work for our school and I encourage all families to get behind our wonderful P&C. The P&C work tirelessly for the school to support the school strategically through fundraising and offer vital services to our school community, such as the Tuck Inn and the Uniform Shop.
They recently held a very successful Bunnings BBQ fundraiser to start the year and will hold their first major fund raiser, the Bush Dance this Friday night at EPSHS. Again, I encourage families to get behind and support our P&C as all of their fundraising proceeds go back into supporting the school. Whether that be through attending events or volunteering at events your help is always much appreciated.
TEACHING OF READING V9
In case you missed this in the newsletter last fortnight with the tropical cyclone. Last year we commenced implementation of the Australian Curriculum Version 9 in English and this year in Mathematics. As part of the changes to English there have been significant changes to the teaching of reading in Australian Schools as part of this curriculum. Our staff have been working through the professional development around the changes late last year and we have created an action plan to guide implementation in readiness for a full roll out next year.
Last year the Department of Education conducted some parent twilight sessions online which were well received. These were recorded and I have attached the link below.
https://mediasite.eq.edu.au/mediasite/Play/d5a99b04712b44758dc85854bde46a3c1d
There is also a parent brochure at this link.
https://det-school.eq.edu.au/assets/reading/documents/reading-parent-brochure.pdf
As we progress further into our action plan we will share more specific information about how you can support your child to read at home and about the changes to the way we are attacking word reading (sight words) etc
Till next time,
Mrs Anne Robinson
Principal