Dear Parent and Caregivers,

COVID-19

Following on from my communication yesterday- just another thank you to our whole school community for your amazing co-operation with the evolving COVID-19 situation at present.  This is an unfortunate but necessary precaution to minimise community transmission of COVID-19. I therefore ask once again that, as a school community, we work together to support each other.

Just a further reminder that due to the extension of the lockdown until 4pm Sunday 8 August 2021, at this stage the following arrangements will remain in place:

• Only students of essential workers or identified vulnerable students can continue to attend school for supervised learning only (no explicit teaching) whilst their parents/carers must leave the home to attend work.
• Students of non-essential workers will continue to have access to remote learning from home.
• School will be staffed by minimal staffing from Wednesday August 4, whilst most staff work from home.
• Your child’s teacher will continue to be your main point of contact during this time. However, if you have any specific concerns, please contact myself to discuss this further.
• All sports and extracurricular activities will be cancelled or postponed. Our onsite Outside Schools Hours Care (YMCA) will remain closed except for children of essential workers and vulnerable children who must leave home to attend work.
• Parents and visitors should not currently be onsite at all to minimise risk to students and staff, so I encourage you to use the Stop, Drop and Go zones at the front and back of the school each morning and afternoon. These are supervised every afternoon.
• For those families collecting items from school please liaise with the office to collect these from boxes at the front of the school to minimise contact with admin staff.
• It is important that we all continue to follow COVID-safe practices including physical distancing and wearing face masks throughout this period.
• I encourage you to continue to refer to the information on the Queensland Health website.
• If you, or a member of your family, is feeling unwell or displaying known symptoms of COVID-19 please get tested, stay home and isolate until you get the results and your symptoms resolve.

And finally, if your family is a deemed a close contact of a COVID-19 case and you are plunged into quarantine please let the school know.  If anyone in your family tests positive during this time please let the school know immediately so that we can inform Qld Health and DoE.

I will continue to provide updates as they become available via our Facebook page and by SMS. I once again thank all parents and carers for your support during this lockdown and we look forward to bringing our whole school community back together again as soon as we are able to safely do so.

And again, thank you for the fabulous work you are doing with the learning from home. It warms my heart to walk around my school this morning and see the teachers onsite interacting with their classes via the TEAMS Meetings. As I said in my email last night the most important thing is that our students are safe, loved and care for and that is the most important thing right now.  All we ask is that you do your best as we know that many of you are also trying to juggle jobs and work from home, whilst trying to ensure your children are safe and do not fall behind at school. Please do not let the school work put any further pressure on you or your family. Everyone’s circumstances are very different and we appreciate that.  We are here emotionally for you, if you need support please reach out.

PREP ENROLMENT

A reminder that we have set dates for two open mornings this term, where prospective families can come for a tour of the school facilities and listen to a general talk about our school and the programs we have on offer by the Principal and Head of Department-Curriculum.  These Open mornings will held on September 1^st and September 7^th from 9-10am and will commence in the EPAC facility on Laurel St.

Following that will be the Prep enrolment interviews with a member of the Administration team for those families that want to enrol a Prep student for 2022.  These interviews will be held in the last two weeks of this term between September 6^th and September 17^th and will be able to be booked through the SOBS booking system by each enrolled family at a time that suits them.  These bookings opened on August 1^st. At that interview we will collect some information about the child entering Prep and check that all of the enrolment paperwork is in order and provide information around the rest of the enrolment and transition process.

Following the enrolment process then in Term 4 we will hold transition afternoons and information sessions which will focus specifically on preparing the child for Prep and also providing all of the necessary information about the Prep program to the parents.  If you have any questions about the Prep enrolment process for 2022 please call the Administration office.

I would also encourage prospective families to attend our 150^th Celebration Family Fun Day on August 28^th from 11am-4pm on the school oval as there will be school tours also available on this day and it will be a wonderful way to get a feel for the culture and tradition in this beautiful school and to meet our supportive families.

STAFFING

The applications for the Defence School Mentor position at our school have now closed and the recruitment process is underway.  We are hoping to get this moving as soon as the lock down is over.

I am happy to announce that the recruiting for the permanent Deputy Principal position here at Enoggera State School has been finalised and I can announce to our school community that the successful candidate was Mrs Tina Burrows.  She is coming from the North Coast Region at Humpybong State School and is a very experienced Deputy Principal with a fabulous skill set that will value add to the work at this school.  We are still negotiating a start date for her but I am hoping that she will be able to commence with us in week 6 of this term.  As this will be the first permanent Deputy Principal position at this school we are currently setting up a work space for her.  It is very exciting to see how this role will compliment the current leadership team.  We are also lucky to be able to maintain our HOD-C position for at least the next 12months or so.

FACILITIES

We have been advised that our new building is going ahead with construction hoping to start over the Christmas school holidays. We have seen further designs and colour schemes, so it really is becoming very exciting and will be a wonderful and much needed addition to our great school.

The multi-purpose court roof is still on the agenda as we work with a range of groups and Departments to get this project happening also, but it may mean if we can get the project to move ahead that it may be delayed as we have had our grants funding extended through to 2023 at this point. 

We have also been advised that we are getting an upgrade of facilities for E Block which will also be a great addition for us.  The classrooms and staff room in E Block will be refurbished to make them more modern classrooms and more aligned to the new building, internally.

Till next time,
Mrs Anne Robinson
Principal