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Of course the Corona Virus Co-vid 19 is on everyone’s minds at the moment and, as a school, we are planning for its possible impacts.
At this stage school is open as usual, albeit with extra strategies in place to help contain the spread of the virus. School closures may still be considered late in the outbreak in anticipation of a peak in infection rates or there may be a need for short term reactive school closures to allow cleaning and contact tracing to occur. Until then, for us, it is business as usual. We will ensure updates on any changes get to you as quickly as possible. To help us with communication please ensure that your contact details are up to date.
All of our classrooms are stocked with hand wash and hand sanitizer and we have updated handwashing protocols for all students. Cleaners are ensuring that desks and high use areas such as door handles are given extra attention during their cleaning routines.
We are reviewing future school activities and will postpone our participation as required. At this stage assembly has been cancelled for the rest of this term and Principal awards will be presented in individual classrooms. We will endeavour to still hold parent teacher meetings in week 10, however this is subject to ongoing review.
Given the latest Government direction limiting indoor gatherings to less than 100 people, it is likely that many of next term's events will be postponed as well. Communication around this will be ongoing.
We are preparing for continuity of learning and teaching, developing digital access for students so that, in the event of any closures, students will have on-line access to school work. Students have already been working this year in Digital Technology classes to log on, which will help if this becomes necessary.
Each one of us, and our school, play a vital role and I ask for your continued support in this containment effort. Please keep children at home if they are sick, even if you think it is just a cold. Please continue to pay extra attention to health and hygiene measures employed at home with your children, particularly the use of soap and, if soap is not available, hand sanitiser and just for now, reinforce no shaking hands, hugs, kisses or high 5’s from friends
It is perfectly normal for children to have questions about events that are covered in the media, such as the information currently being distributed about Coronavirus. If a child brings up Coronavirus or asks questions, it is important to acknowledge how they may be feeling and to answer questions as honestly as possible. This will help them feel informed and understand what is happening. It is important to emphasise there is a very small number of cases of the virus in Australia currently and the likelihood of them coming into contact with the virus at this stage is still very, very low.
With our school focus on writing, I often get lovely pieces of text from students. One student recently wrote ‘we need to depend on each other. Be kind to another and they will be kind to you” Great words India (Year 4) and particularly pertinent at this time!
In other news look at these lovely photos of our Prep students from their excursion yesterday. Preps did not see a ‘real’ Bilby and were able to tell me this was because they are nocturnal as well as very shy.
Carol Butler
Principal
Parent Teacher Interviews Week 10
We are endeavouring to hold Parent Teacher Interviews in Week 10 Monday 30th March until Friday 3rd April of this term. For those parents and carers wishing to make a meeting time with their child/ren’s class teacher, these will be organised through the SOBS online booking system. (Please see the URL below)
https://eq.sobs.com.au/pt3/parent.php?schoolid=70109.
The booking period opens Thursday 19th March at 4:00pm and will remain open until Friday 27th March at 1:00pm. If the cancellation of Parent Teacher Interviews are required (due to the impacts of Corona Virus) parents will be notified and an alternate interview period will be available later in the year.
Should you have any questions or concerns regarding this matter please contact me on aomal3@eq.edu.au or ph: 35501333
Amy O'Malley
aomal3@eq.edu.au
| Friday 20th March | Bullying, No Way! Day (wear orange) |
| Wednesday 25th March | Crazy Sock Day |
| Thursday 26th March | Prep Vision Screening |
Cancelled Events - as of March 18, 2020
Monday Assemblies until end of Term 1
Thursday March 19 123 Magic Parenting Course
Thursday March 19 Cyber Safety Event
Wednesday April 1 ESS Cross Country
Friday 3rd April Colour Fun Run
All Interschool Sporting Events
District, regional, state, national, interstate and international school sport competitions
Year 6 Term 1 News
Hello ESS community!
In Year 6 this year, we have hit the ground running and we LOVE it! Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve done and what we’ve enjoyed or noticed so far, all in our own words!
English
This term in English writing, we are learning about how to compare Storm Boy the novel to Storm Boy the film. Mrs Leeson has been helping us out throughout the whole term and giving us individual feedback. In my opinion, English is now one of my favourite subjects. By Maria.
In English we have been writing a written comparison on Storm Boy (comparing the novel to the film). We needed to incorporate topic sentences, descriptive words, comparative words and back anything we said up with EVIDENCE from the novel or film! By Ollie J.
Maths
In Maths last week with Mrs Leeson (while the Year 5s were on camp), we did 50 quick operations that would appear on the interactive whiteboard for 5 seconds before the next question would come up. We had to use either addition, subtraction, multiplication or division. I have been enjoying this as Maths is my favourite subject and this helps improve my quick maths mental skills. By Connor.
Recently in maths, the grade six cohort has been learning about many things. Some of the things that we have been learning about is; short division, long division and how to add, subtract, multiply and divide fractions. The most recent topic that we have learned about is how to read train, plane and bus time tables. Mr Roxburgh is our maths teacher and he has been pushing us to get us ready for high school. He sometimes seems a bit strict but I know it is just for the best, as he wants us to do well. By Chris.
In maths, we have done two major tests so far (adding and subtracting fractions and reading and interpreting timetables). I love doing maths because it’s fun and challenging and Mr Roxburgh is humorous and makes it fun! By Chang.
Chinese
At ESS, we are learning Chinese with Mrs Cho. She is a fantastic teacher. Every Thursday we learn about Chinese numbers. She showed us which ones are the lucky numbers and the UNLUCKY numbers. Like four, which means death, and eight, which means wealth and health. The Chinese have so many unique and interesting celebrations I cannot even imagine how fun it would be to have a vacation there (although maybe not just yet!). By Ruby.
Science
This term in science the year 6’s have been creating a creature for an assessment task. I enjoyed doing this, as it was fun to fully create a creature that you also got to name. We had to create two creatures. One for a desert environment and the other for a cool wet rainforest environment. Since we were allowed to name our creature anything we wanted, I decided to name mine the ‘Mr Roxbourghonculous’ and the ‘Mrs Leesononculous’ - in dedication to our two year 6 teachers. By Chloe.
In science, we have learnt about the different types of animal adaptations. Such as physical, behavioural and physiological adaptations. It was fascinating to learn about how and why some animals are like they are, and we even got to design our own animal while describing why we made it like this to fit the particular environment. One of my favourite physiological adaptation is how the camel can travel up to 3 days without water. By Logan.
HASS (Humanities and Social Sciences)
We have begun, every Tuesday afternoon and Thursday morning, doing HASS with Mrs Leeson. Right now, we are looking at rights and responsibilities of Australian citizens and the contribution of individuals and groups to the development of Australian society since Federation. I cannot wait to see what we do each lesson. By Ollie K.
Music
In music this term, we are in groups of three to eventually show the class our item. We are using the song ‘Funga Alafia’ to practice bourdons and improvisation on the xylophones. Our music teacher, Ms. Hopper, is very helpful and patient. By Gabby.
Drama
So far in drama we are memorising and acting out scripts for our assessment. Our script centres around a mother, child and baby who are stuck in a terrible storm and have to be rescued. We do this weekly for 30 minutes with the wonderful Mrs Wilcox! By Katie.
Buddies
Something I love doing on Monday afternoons is buddies with preps. I love putting a huge smile on my buddy’s face. Something that is cool and awesome about my buddy is that he is like a mini version of me, he is very cute. By Jhett.
Our prep buddies have exciting personalities and are fun to spend time with. We see them each Monday so we can walk them down to assembly. We do all different types of activities with them that their teacher sets up for us to do. By Ollie J.
Friday Quiz
This term we’ve been doing quizzes on Friday afternoon. We work in groups with 4-6 people per group, sometimes we have certain requirements for the groups like having at least one opposite gender in the group or a mix of year levels (5/6). For the quiz we get two sheets of paper, one for the answers and one for the communication and you might be wondering why? Well we have to be silent through twenty questions and if we talk, a point is taken off our total. The questions are mostly random general knowledge questions, one minute it’s about where is the Leaning Tower of Pisa located and the next it’s how old is Mrs Leeson? (Mr Roxburgh threw that one in!) and if I am being honest I’m pretty sure Mrs Leeson uses witchcraft or magic to look that good! The winners of the Quiz get…A pat on the back! I’m pretty sure we have to be quiet for the quiz because we get way too noisy at times during the week or the teachers just want us to be quiet for once! At least they get some peace and quiet on a Friday and we do enjoy it! By Erica.
I really enjoy the quiz as it’s a nice way to end off the week and the challenge is you can’t talk and have to write down what we want to say on a separate piece of paper. By Connor.
Capture the Flag
On Fridays, if it’s not raining, 5/6A, 5/6B and sometimes 5A play capture the flag. The teams are even, the reason I know that is because most of the time it is a tie. 5/6A runs east and 5/6B runs west. The aim of the game is to bring a tennis ball from the other team’s side to the middle of the field. By Joe.
Each Friday I look forward to the end of the day when 5/6A vs 5/6B in a game of capture the flag. This game goes for about half an hour just before school ends for the week. This is a perfect way to end off the week and (totally) isn’t competitive (cough cough). By Logan.
One thing that I look forward to in the week is capture the flag and seeing my teachers (sometimes). In capture the flag the object of the game is to get three tennis balls back to your home base. If you enter enemy territory, in this case 5/6B, they can tag you and you go to jail. In order to get out of jail one of your team mates has to tag you and take you back then you are back in the game. There have been 3 ties and one win by 5/6A. By Alex.
Our Teachers
One of my favourite parts about this year at my new school (ESS) is Mr Roxburgh and Mrs Leeson. The best thing about Mr Roxburgh is he always cracks me up and the best thing about Mrs Leeson is that she’s kind and funny. Together they’re smart, caring and make a great team! Overall they’re the best teachers I’ve ever had, at the best school I’ve ever been to. Mr Roxburgh and Mrs Leeson – Don’t stop being AWESOME! By Nate.
In 5/6A our ‘home’ teacher is Mrs Leeson and in 5/6B it’s Mr Roxburgh, however our classes normally join together, except for a few subjects where we may split into year levels or stay with our home class. It’s pretty cool that we basically have two teachers this year, they’re both really fun and I look forward to seeing what crazy shirt Mr Roxburgh will wear. By Patrick.
Our wonderful year six teachers, Mrs Leeson and Mr Roxburgh have both fun and serious personalities. Mrs Leeson is a happy, kind person who LOVES rose gold and isn’t afraid to show it! Except, as all good teachers are, Mrs Leeson can also be very serious and stern when she needs to. Mr Roxburgh is a funny teacher, his favourite colour is blue and he cannot stand the song, ‘Baby Shark’. He can be serious but that’s what makes us well behaved. In all, the year 6 Teachers are seriously the best. By Eloise.
| Prep A | Molly V | Great progress in reading groups and having the confidence to have a go at harder tasks |
| Prep A | ||
| Prep B | Rowan M | Having a go with his work and helping others on the way |
| Prep B | ||
| Prep/1A | Ameliya A | Knowing all of her Jolly Phonics sounds and actions |
| Prep/1A | ||
| 1A | Alexis B | Working hard to solve subtraction word problems |
| 1A | ||
| 1B | Olivia H | Always completing set tasks with pride |
| 1B | ||
| 2A | Avery P | Being an enthusiastic and engaged learner, with quick solutions to problems |
| 2A | ||
| 2B | Georgia L | Her kind and caring nature when her peers need help |
| 2B | ||
| 3A | Marlow K | Impressive work ethic and continually demonstrating great in-class behaviour |
| 3A | ||
| 3B | Lynnette I | Producing work of a very high standard in maths and excellent test results |
| 3B | ||
| 4A | Zac C | Engaged and considered contribution to class discussions |
| 4A | ||
| 4B | Byron G | Being a helpful, supportive and caring member of the class |
| 4B | ||
| 5A | ||
| 5/6A | Gabby C | Pursuing excellence across all tasks and assessment work |
| 5/6A | ||
| 5/6B |
Stop Drop and Go
Please note that the car park along South Pine Road is a designated 2-minute Stop, Drop and Go zone between 8-9am and 2.30-3.30pm. This means that drivers cannot park their vehicles for longer than 2-minutes. A staff member supervises the main pedestrian gate between 3-3.15pm each afternoon; for student safety, we only release students to the first 3 cars in the line. We ask for patience in the afternoons to ensure all students remain safe. At no stage should drivers get out of their vehicle.
Reception is being updated! We have some furniture that you are more than welcome to put in your "Best Offer" (for one or both), placed into a sealed envelope and drop into Office before the deadline of 3pm Wednesday 25th March, 2020. Please include your name and phone number so we can contact you if you are successful. You must be able to organise pickup and removal before end of Term Friday 3rd April, 2020.
Glass side and coffee table
Blue Couch
It is important that we have helpful conversations with our children about what is going on in the world. Our anxiety, and the uncertainty displayed in the media, is something children pick up on. If we don't influence the conversation then our children will come to conclusions of their own which may not be on the right track.
UNICEF has put out some information about talking to children about COVID-19
Also at the bottom of the page are useful links.
Sarah Petchell
sarahp2@chappy.org.au
District Sport and Higher Levels:
Schools have received this information today regarding District Sport and Higher Levels.
The decision has been made to cancel:
- the representative school sport program which includes district, regional, state, national, interstate and international competitions
- Queensland School Sport team participation in any national, interstate or international events organised across Australia or internationally.
This decision is effective as of 17 March 2020 and will continue until further advice.
This of course includes Trials, Training and DISTRICT/MN/QSS School Championships.
We will keep you advised of any updates. For those of you who have paid for city district trials that have now been cancelled, EQ staff are working through the process to arrange refunds or other appropriate actions from here.
Please understand that our City District Officer will communicate the processes once they have been developed, in the mean time we ask for understanding and that you do not call the City District Secretary for a personal update as this will slow the whole process down. She works with 30 plus schools and has dozens of sports online at any one time. Communication will be with myself as the school PE teacher and representative at City District as processes are rolled out. I will in turn touch base with you where possible to advise of any action required by you.
District Team Selection:
Congratulations to the following students who were recently selected in the City District Football (Soccer) Teams. Well done both of you. Sadly, however, all District Team activities have now been cancelled, so there will be no other matches this year for these teams.
Asha – Girls Under 12 Football (Soccer)
Tyler – Boys Under 12 Football (Soccer)
Class Swimming:
Thank you to those families who have become more vigilant in ensuring that all equipment that is required for school swimming is with your student on the appropriate day, this has assisted with the smoother running of our classes.
Borrowed and Spare Gear – until now we have been able to assist with a supply of spare items to assist those who forget to bring an item or two. Given the current situation, and considering the health and wellbeing of students we will cease to loan goggles or rashies or spare swim wear to students. Caps are still available and are being sanitised between classes.
Kilometre Club:
I am unable to be at school on Wednesday 25th March until after 8.30am, so there will be no Kilometre Club on that morning, however, Mr Hawthorne will include running practice in his fitness club on Thursday Morning.
Cross Country:
Our Whole School Cross Country was schedule to be held on Wednesday 1st April, sadly we will have to cancel the “whole of school event”. We are however, looking at hosting a modified fun run event for students during class time. Planning is currently underway to hold a year level by year level or class by class event on that day, which will allow students to participate in some structured active physical events.
Students will be allowed to wear house colours and ribbons will be awarded to race winners.
Spectators will not be invited to attend however, we will ensure that we have photos and share these via our facebook and newsletter mediums.
More details will be provided to parents once planning is complete.
Jo Jardine
HPE
jjard16@eq.edu.au
Friday 20th March is the official National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence and we would like to encourage all students to wear a splash of orange in recognition of the importance of working together to take a stand against bullying.
Donagh McKenzie
dmcke25eq.edu.au
P&C AGM
We will be holding our annual P&C AGM on Tuesday 24th March in the EPAC building from 6.15pm. We will ensure that appropriate seating is available to allow attendees to adhere to the social distancing precautions set in place this week.
Membership and Nominations forms were distributed by email with the notice of meeting on 10th March and are available in the office should you wish to join the P&C or the Executive. Remember this is the only meeting where you can join without needing to attend. Please contact us if you would like a copy of either form. We encourage you to become a member in order to stay up to date with P&C activities.
EVENTS
Crazy Colour Fun Run Day – Postponed
How quickly things can change! We have decided to postpone the colour run scheduled for the last day of term. This is such an amazing opportunity for the school community to come together and raise important funds towards the construction of the undercover area on the multipurpose court – we don’t want anyone to miss out on the fun. Given the current uncertainty created by the COVID-19 outbreak and recommendations regarding social distancing, we believe postponing the event until mid to late Term 2 (or later if necessary), will ultimately lead to a better result for our school community.
Rest assured the funds raised to date will be held securely by the Everyday Hero fundraising platform.
Please - continue to fundraise. We’ve had an enormous response so far with a profit of $3,500 to date. We will pick up where we left off with class vs class competitions and incentives in Term 2.
For any assistance, information or if you’re wanting to help out please contact Ainslie via email ess.pcsecretary@gmail.com
Frozen Fridays - This term we have seen the return of $1 ice blocks for sale every Friday from The Tuck Inn, thank you to our wonderful local sponsors each week for helping our P&C.
Alderley Plaza Chemist
Please get in touch if you would like to sponsor a Frozen Friday!
TUCKSHOP
As we come to the end of Term 1, we will be distributing a survey to gather feedback on the new Tuckshop menu so that we can tweak it for Term 2. Please keep an eye out on Facebook and an email from the school with a link to the survey. We value your input!
SCHOOL BANKING
The health, safety and wellbeing of our communities and our people is our priority. Due to the rapidly developing situation with coronavirus, School Banking has been temporarily paused from 20 March 2020 until the start of Term 2. Please don’t bring your deposit book with your weekly banking to school, we will notify you when banking will recommence.
CONTAINERS FOR CHANGE
WE NEED YOUR CONTAINERS
Unsure which drink containers to bring to the school?
Just check the back of the bottles for the 10c refund symbol. If the 10c refund is noted on the bottle they can be collected and brought to the school for disposal in big the purple bins.
For a full break down of the included and excluded containers, please follow this link to the Containers for Change website: how-it-works.
Unsure how to collect your containers?
You can collect your containers using whatever you like! There is no need to have special bags for the collection. Just put your containers in a bucket, tub, storage container or even an old shopping bag and when it is full, put it in the boot of your car and empty the containers into the purple bins located at the front and back of the school at drop off or pick up time. It's that easy.
Remember, a little bit of effort on your part will make a big difference for our school and the environment.
GET IN TOUCH
We welcome any questions or feedback. Please get in touch with anyone from our committee via email pandc@enoggerass.eq.edu.au or follow our Facebook page for updates
P&C MEMBER DETAILS
President – Jacqui Phillips Vice President – Patricia Cabrera
Treasurer – Bec O’Donnell Secretary – Ainslie Fiene
