The new stairs are still not completed, but will be over the September holidays.  We are close to finalising our furniture and affects purchases for the new building also, which is very exciting.

STAFFING

Our Regional HR teams are currently working on Teacher transfers for the 2023 school year.  This year there are two processes- a requested transfer process where teachers can request a transfer to another school and then there is the required transfer process where the DoE will move teachers around to other schools in order to fill vacancies and to ensure there is balance of experience, skills, gender across schools and also to ensure green placements where staff are not required to travel more than 50 minutes from their home.  This year as part of the required process, they are targeting teachers who have been 5-10 years in their current school and were made permanent at that school on the undertaking that they would complete some rural/remote/unfavourable service and have not done so thus far in Queensland.  As with every other school, we have teachers who have been identified as part of this required process, so we are awaiting news early next term as to who may be impacted.

MATHEMATICS TOURNAMENT

Our Maths Tournament teams have been busily preparing for the tournament next week at Albany Hills State School.  They will be accompanied by Mrs Burrows and Mrs Hall on the day.  We wish them all the best as they compete against other schools in Brisbane North.

WAKAKIRRI

You have no doubt heard already, our Wakakirri team performed splendidly at the recent performance and have been invited back to perform again at the awards night held at the Logan Entertainment Centre on September 6.  On top of the feedback on our performance which was: ''A well-structured and powerful performance by a strong ensemble addressing our planets greatest challenge '', we also received the following Performance and Production awards: Excellent theme/concept; Excellent ensemble; Excellent staging – combination of all aspects; Best direction: Combination of dancing and acting; Excellent construction and clarity.

And finally, we have been nominated for two National Awards this year. The National Environmental Award and National Performing Arts Excellence Award.

Congratulations to our wonderful Waka team led by Mrs Wilcox!

CHESS COMPETITION

Mr Taylour has received lots of interest and is currently finalising the entries into the School Chess Tournament to be held at St Dympnas Primary School in Aspley on Friday 9 September. Students in Divisions Prep-2 and Yr 3-6 will compete across seven rounds of games of 15 minutes each, where an adjudication occurs if the game is not finished.  We are able to enter only 10 students in each category and the top 5 scores from each division will be used to go towards the final placings on the day.  As this is the first time we have participated in this event and we have had so much interest due to students taking lessons with Chess Mates at the Emmanuel Church each week, we are really looking forward to participating and enjoying the day with like-minded students.  The students will travel from school with school staff on a mini-bus to the competition and back, and will be under the direction of our school staff during the day. 

REGIONAL ATHLETICS

Congratulations to our three students who are competing at the Metropolitan North Regional Athletics this week. They are Chelsea O’Hara (Shot Put), Ari Mauchline (1500m) and Avery Pocock (Long Jump).  We are eagerly awaiting results from the competition that will be reported in the next newsletter. A big thank you to Mrs Jardine for all of her organisation around selecting and organising students to attend. 

OPEN DAY AND PREP ENROLMENTS

We encourage families to focus on finalising enrolments ready for the 2023 Prep transition and information sessions next term.  All enrolments need to be into the office by 2/9/22 so that they can be entered into the system ready for enrolment interviews to be held during the last two weeks of this term, from the 5 through to the 9 September.  These meetings are where we go through the enrolment process and collect information re the child and their needs for class placements for 2023.

Enrolment interview bookings will be open through the SOBS system at the address below.  Information has gone out to enrolled families and are attached below as well.  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, as we are hoping to have three straight Prep classes again in 2023.

Bookings for Prep Enrolment Interviews : 

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

Bookings available from the 5 to the 9 September between 1-3:30pm each day for 30 minute interview slots.

Booking System Opens on Monday 29 August 2022.

MULTI-PURPOSE COURT ROOF

We are currently having to re-tender for the multi-purpose court roof project to get accurate pricing due to increased building and steel prices, in the hope of finally getting this project off the ground.  With the additional time our P and C and school community have had to raise further funds towards the project, in addition to what was initially committed and the offer of additional funds from the School Subsidy Scheme, we are hopeful that this time we may be able to get the project completed before further increases again make it unattainable in the current market.

EDIBLE GARDENS

In collaboration with the building company ICM and also HYMIX they are donating and erecting four raised garden beds for the environmental committee and club to create some edible gardens in the school.  These new gardens will be located at the back of E Block. The plan is to hopefully provide produce that the tuckshop could use and then to sell the remaining produce to provide funds the Environmental Club funds to maintain and continue the gardens.  We have some good quality worm soil and worm juice ready to go onto the new gardens also.  Our students are doing a great job collecting food scraps for the worm farms as we are now progressing into the top levels of the worm farms.  It is wonderful to hear feedback from parents about how children are wanting extra fruit and scraps to give to the hungry worms!

The new label for the recycling bins have arrived and look great on the new colour coded bins.  We are continuing to educate our students around which rubbish goes into which bins.  Our Environmental Club are doing a great job in monitoring and sorting any foreign items from the bins.

FLAG POLE

The new flag pole which has been purchased through the Past Students and Staff of ESS group has been ordered and preliminary footings work done so it will be installed very soon.  This purchase was in addition to the lovely cabinet for archives in our office foyer which I featured in the last newsletter.  These additions to our school were made possible through donations from the 150^th celebrations and also an anonymous donation to cover the shortfall in funds raised. We look forward to being able to proudly fly the Australian, Queensland, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags each day on the four flag poles.

Till next time,

Mrs Anne Robinson

Principal