Dear Parent and Caregivers,

LEARNING CURVE WELLBEING PROGRAM

The Learning Curve this week is from the ‘Health and Strengths’ category and the wellbeing skill building is ‘Fear of Missing Out’. Students are learning that Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) is an addiction where people fear they are missing out on things and is usually related to fear on digital devices. FOMO can interfere with your in-person relationships with people who are present in your lives. Students are learning that it is always better to talk to your friends face to face and to enjoy each other’s company in person rather than focussing too much on what is happening on their devices.

Our students are working on this topic during their Health lessons. This is then being following up with their class teachers as well as using their ESS Learning Curve diaries. The parent article regarding this topic is attached for your information.

FANFARE STRINGS COMPETITION

Next week our Senior and Junior Strings Ensembles will compete at Fanfare at Lawnton State School.  Each school performs in their category and will receive grading and feedback on how they can further improve as an ensemble. This will be the first major performance for our Strings students this year under Miss Kirk, so we are excited to see how they go. A reminder to our Strings families - the performance uniform is the new School Performing Arts polo shirt, long black dress trousers (no jeans, leggings or ¾ pants are acceptable) and black socks with their usual all black school shoes. We wish all the best to the Strings students next week!

209 SOUTH PINE ROAD

The house at 209 South Pine Road has now been removed.  The block has been levelled and gravelled and will become a temporary staff carpark for the next while. A fence and boom gate are being installed for staff access and a path and stairs will be put in giving access from the back of the block to adjoin the EPAC walkway for staff to access the school. The hope is that the temporary staff car park will alleviate the congestion and staff parking in the Church, surrounding streets and at the front of the school. This is the first stage of a three-stage plan to increase the land size of the school which will enable us to increase our green space down the track.

CHAPPY WEEK

This week across Australia is Chaplaincy Week from May 22-May 26. This week is about putting a spotlight on the work of Chaplains and what they do in our schools and communities. This week we show our support of our Chappy Twinkee and the Chaplaincy Program in our school. We will hold a Green Pillar Dress up day for a gold coin donation on Friday, which will go towards Chaplaincy. We also have the Chappy Neon disco, being held in the multi-purpose court on Friday evening from 5-7pm. This is the Chaplaincy major fundraiser for the Local Chaplaincy Committee which funds the shortfall in wages for us to keep a Chaplain in our school 2 days per week. We look forward to as much community support as possible. Our school Chaplain supports our young people in navigating school life and provides a safe, positive influence for our children. Below is some information from Scripture Union who manage the Chaplains in schools around the Chaplain’s role.

PREP OPEN DAY

We will hold another Open Day in Term 3 on July 26 before our Prep Enrolment Interviews run at the end of Term 3 and beginning of Term 4. The Prep Transition and Information sessions in Term 4 will be held on November 1 and 15, which will then be followed by our final roll up afternoon on December 11.

If you know of families who live in our catchment and are hoping to come here next year, please let them know of the next Open Day in Term 3. Families who have made their decision can drop in enrolments forms to the office at any stage to enable us to get them on the system and into the communication channels for next year.

A reminder to parents that if you are requiring factual information about anything at school you should be getting that information direct from the school’s sources such as our newsletter, email, website or school Facebook page. It is not helpful for parents to be taking second hand information from other private parent Facebook groups and then distributing this information as factual. We have had a few misunderstandings recently where parents have taken information from private parent Facebook groups as fact. A reminder to parents that if you are involved with any private ESS parent Facebook groups that you ensure you are following what we teach our students and that is to “be kind and be respectful”. We would expect that parents are modelling this same behaviour on these Facebook groups. Therefore, defaming a staff member or the school on one of these sites is not only unkind but inappropriate. It is always best to go straight to the source. Stacey, Ellie and Tory who form our administration team are only too happy to answer parent requests for information either over the phone, in person or via email.

AEDC

This term our school will participate in the AEDC (Australian Early Development Census) which enables the Australian Government to collect information about early child development and how this impacts on our Prep students as they start school. The census consists of each Prep teacher completing the census tool for each child in their class. The child does not need to be present for the teacher to collect the relevant information on how they are going in five key areas including literacy, numeracy and social skills. Below is the flyer re the census. Letters were sent home to Prep parents last week via email for you to Opt Out. The Opt Out closes tomorrow as our teachers will commence the census tool on Monday.

Key Dates

Friday 24^th May – Green Pillar Dress Up Day and Chaplaincy Neon Disco

Wednesday 29^th May – Instrumental Fanfare at Lawnton State School

Thursday 6^th June – Winter Soiree

Monday 10^th June – Student Council Meal Deal

Thursday 13^th June – Junior Track and Field Carnival at ESS

Friday 14^th June – Senior Athletics Carnival at Mt Maria (TBC)

Monday 17^th June – Principal’s Awards Assembly

Wednesday 19^th June – Student Council Book Swap for Indigenous Literacy Foundation

Thursday 20^th June – Student Council Crazy Socks and Sunnies Dress Up fundraiser

Friday 21^st June – Under 8s Morning

Pillar Practice

Our three school pillars including Safety (Be Safe); Relationships (Be Respectful); and Learning (Be a Responsible Learner).  Each fortnight at Assembly, a Pillar Practice is shared with staff and students that becomes our focus behaviour improvement.  This fortnight, our Pillar Practice is around respect and “Being the Best You Can Be”.   

1. Treating others the way you want to be treated
2. Thinking before you speak – your words can hurt
3. Being kind
4. Stop Bullying – be an upstander

All class teachers are provided with a poster for their classroom and will explicitly teach our school expectations around the relevant pillar and behaviour.   Students are reminded daily about our focus behaviour with the goal of improving this behaviour across the school.  The Student Engagement and Behaviour committee reviews behaviour data across the school at their meetings to discuss future focus areas for identified behaviours of concern.   This process is documented in our Student Code of Conduct and is part of our explicit teaching of behaviour in our school.  You can support us by being aware of the current Pillar Practice and discussing the expectations with your children at home.

School Dress Code

Please ensure your children are wearing the correct jumper to school during the cooler months.  Parents are asked to please follow our school Dress Code that requiresstudents either wear the school jacket, or a plain blue jumper.  Blue jumpers with printed designs, colour jumpers and hoodies are not permitted.

Students not wearing the correct jumper will be directed to the office to borrow a correct jumper for the day.   Girls are permitted to wear navy tights.  As these are difficult to find, they are also permitted to wear black tights.  Blue tracksuit pants are also suitable for both boys and girls to wear with their polo shirt.  This Dress Code was developed collaboratively with the school community and supports the wearing of a school uniform to promote a sense of belonging and school pride. It also promotes a supportive environment fostering mutual respect among individuals at school by minimising visible evidence of economic, class or social difference.Thank you for your support of our School Dress Code.

STUDENT COUNCIL

A reminder that the Student Council is planning another Meal Deal fundraiser for Monday 10^th June in Week 9 with money raised going towards their legacy item.    Details will be sent home very soon about this.

Also, this term, a “Book Swap” in which students are permitted to bring a maximum of 3 books from home that they don’t want anymore to school to swap.  Each swap costs the students a gold coin.  In swapping their book, we raise money for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and our students get to take up to three different books home for some holiday reading.  This will be held on Wednesday 19^th June at both breaks in the library.  Further details on how this will run will be provided later in the term.

The second fundraiser is for the Student Council legacy item, and the students have decided to have a Crazy Socks and Sunnies dress up day.   Students are asked to donate a gold coin donation to the Student Council on Thursday 20^th June.

The Student Council will also be implementing a wellbeing initiative in Week 7 of this term (Monday 27^th May to Friday 31^st) May.  Each class will be provided with a pinwheel and will brainstorm aspects of our school that they are grateful for.  The teacher will then write their gratitude statements on each leaf of the pinwheel with their class name in the middle.  These will then be presented on assembly in Week 8 before being planted in the garden beds on the AstroTurf for staff, students, parents and visitors to read and enjoy.   Expressing gratitude is an excellent way to boost morale and the wellbeing!

Thanks to all the staff and students that supported Dress Like a Pirate Day to raise money for Kids’ Cancer Project.  The school community raised $265.60 for this important cause.

Year 5/6 Camp

The Year 5/6 students and the teachers returned from Luther Heights camp yesterday afternoon.  The students had a wonderful time experiencing different challenges while at camp including raft building, flying fox, an escape room, beach games, tree climb, low ropes, orienteering and catapaulting.  The weather was perfect for our adventures and the students enjoyed great food!   The staff at Luther Heights were awesome in teaching and supporting our students in their various groups.   This year, we stayed in the dorms in the top camp which had stunning views of the mountains and coast line. There was a lot of walking up hills to return from activities! The students were up early enough to see the sunrise!  I would like to extend a huge thank you to Miss Lancaster, Miss Dowling, Miss Kerwick and Mr Harris for giving up their personal time to accompany the students, enabling them to participate in this wonderful experience.    Providing students with a camp experience is only possible through the willingness of our teachers to attend outside of rostered hours – so it is greatly appreciated!  A highlight of the camp was the torchlight sing along with Mrs Harris on the guitar! If you follow the school Facebook page, there are lots more photos for you to enjoy!