22-06-2022

Dear Parent and Caregivers,

END OF TERM EVENTS

This last week of term is a very busy week with key events happening. These events include our Inter-house Athletics Carnivals for Snr students on Wednesday 22/6 and Jnr students on Thursday 23/6 at Mt Maria College fields and our Under 8’s Celebration on the last morning of the term on Friday 24/6 for students in Prep-2.  We look forward to celebrating the end of term with our students at these special events.

PRINCIPAL’S ASSEMBLY

It was lovely to celebrate a successful semester at our Principal’s Assembly on Monday morning where we presented three awards to each class under our three school pillars of Learning, Safety and Relationships.  The Learning Pillar is for demonstrating academic effort throughout the semester.  The Safety Pillar is for demonstrating positive behaviour consistently throughout the semester and the Relationships Pillar is for demonstrating school pride.

SEMESTER REPORTS AND PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS

Tomorrow afternoon the end of Semester One reports will be emailed home to families.  To ensure you receive the email please ensure that the One School email address does not go into your junk email.  Likewise, if you have changed your email address please ensure the school has it updated in One School so that you receive the email from One School tomorrow afternoon.

Receiving of the reports is a good opportunity to have a reflective conversation with your child around their progress this semester and to set some goals for next semester.  We realise that with the reduced time and many disruptions to learning due to the delayed start, COVID absences and also the floods that grades may not be where they need to be for this semester, but please be assured that our staff are working hard to ensure that by the end of the year that all achievement standards have been covered and our students are where they need to be.

For this reason, we have moved the Parent Teacher Interviews for Term 3 to week 2 of the term so that it is at the beginning of the new semester and timely to be reviewing the Semester One achievements and creating goals and making plans for Semester Two.  Previously, when we have held these interviews at the end of Term 3 it is too late to be making semester plans.  This means that the Parent Teacher Interview bookings through SOBS will open when school comes back on the first day back 11/7 and will remain open until Monday of week 2 -18/7 and interviews will be held in week 2, 19/7 of the term on Tuesday evening again in EPAC.

INFRASTRUCTURE UPDATE

Things are motoring along now with the build and we are seeing daily progress as we head towards the slab going down. When we come back after the holidays we are hoping to have some access returned along the front of the library and to have the new Yr 3-6 playground completed and our oval returned.  The new stairs from the multi-purpose court should be well under way, if not finished, also.

READER’S CUP COMPETITION

It was lovely to acknowledge the hard work of our Reader’s Cup team who competed at the Brisbane North event at Kurwongbah State School recently.  As this is the first time we have entered this event it was great to see our students competing against other seasoned, competing schools.  Out of 37 schools we came 21^st overall, but it was certainly heartening to see that we were very competitive in the some of the rounds, which means we will need to work to be more consistent across each of the texts for next year.  Considering we lost one team member to an overseas holiday the week before the competition and one to COVID the week of the competition and our team played without a reserve on the day we are extremely proud of the way they carried on.

At our Principal’s Assembly on Monday we presented the students with their certificates of participation and congratulated them on their great effort. Well done to Evelene, Sophie, Freya, Sabrina, Lara and Aron!

ASSISTANT REGIONAL DIRECTOR VISIT

Last week it was lovely to have our regular visit from our ARD, Mr Rob Van den Heuvel.  During his visit he met with the leadership team and we went on a tour of the school to check on progress of the facilities development.  Of course, though the major focus of his visit is always teaching and learning where we discuss our improvement priorities, study our school data and visit classrooms to talk with teachers and students.  This visit we spent time in the Yr 4 classrooms where he was checking on progress of our Learning Walls and how students are using the walls to “bump up” their grades in English.  In 4A he had a detailed conversation with Bronte about how she finds the wall and how she is using it to achieve to the A/B standard and in 4B he spoke with Walter, who we also watched present his Traditional Tale assessment to the class.

He was also able to join in on the Yr 5/6 teachers whilst they were moderating the final assessment pieces in English at their PLC meeting.  They were unpacking the travel brochures the students had created against the marking guides and achievement standards in English. Mrs O’Malley (HOD-C) was doing a great job facilitating the moderation conversations.

SCHOOL WATCH

A timely reminder that the School Watch program encourages everyone to look out for and report any after-hours crime in our schools.  Empty schools can become targets for unlawful entry, arson, stealing, graffiti and property damage, especially during school holiday periods. This comes at a cost to the whole community and not just the financial cost of repairs.

The School Watch program is a partnership between the Department of Education and Protective Services Group, Queensland Police Service, providing a way for members of the community to report anything they see that is suspicious, even if it seems minor.  On average, more than 700 calls are made to School Watch every year, helping to keep our schools safe.

Look, Listen, Report. Call School Watch on 13 17 88.  If you see a crime in progress, call Triple Zero (000).

TERM THREE OPEN DAY

As we prepare our calendar of events for Term Three we have set the date for our next OPEN DAY for prospective 2023 families.  This Open Day will be on Wednesday August 3, commencing at 9am with a presentation in EPAC again and then going on a tour of the facilities. Following that Open Day we will commence our Prep Transition program with Enrolment Interviews for 2023 Prep Students in the final two weeks of the term from September 5 to September 16.  These will be able to be booked through the SOBS system and information will go out to enrolled families and in our newsletter prior to the bookings opening. Please pass on this information to families who are looking at our school for 2023 whether in-catchment enrolments or intending to apply for an out-of-catchment placement, if available.

CLASSROOM VISITS

It was lovely to recently be invited to visit the 4B Pinball Parlour.  The students Design and Technology unit this term was focussed around designing a pin ball machine.  The students then made up their design at home with the help of family and brought them in for the culminating activity.  They had planned out how the event would run, created tickets allocated tasks and roles and most importantly roster time to play the pinnies.  Mrs Burrows and I had a great time trying out the designs.  Well done Mrs Harris and 4B.  What a wonderful way to culminated the learning from the term.

Everton Park State High School – Photography Competition

This term, Everton Park State High School ran a photography competition and invited local Year 4, 5 and 6 primary school students to participate.

A number of Enoggera State School students entered the competition, with one student achieving Runner Up in the Primary category.

Congratulations to Elle in Year 6. Your photo titled ‘Kerry Secret Valley’ was truly spectacular and linked perfectly with the theme of the competition: Mother Nature. Well done!