Dear Parents/Caregivers

Infrastructure
We recently have had three rooms in E Block renovated and they are looking fantastic with all new fittings to make them modern learning spaces. Last Friday I attended the start-up meeting for the new building, which will be located in the middle of our school.  The successful building company will be setting up their work compound on March 1, and are hoping to have the demolition of playgrounds, sandpit enclosure and softfall areas and preparation done for the slab to go down on March 31.  Whilst we will suffer some disruption and loss of play areas for a while,  the addition of the new building with six new general learning areas and a new staff lounge will be a great addition to our school and will certainly reduce the stress around the lack of space we are currently experiencing.  Below is the artists impression of the new building which we hope will be completed by the end of September this year.

We are still waiting to here what might be possible for the roof over the multipurpose court which has been a high priority project for some time now.

Parent Information Sessions
Yesterday our class teachers ran their parent information sessions for this year over the TEAMS application.  There were two sessions at 4:30pm and 5:15pm which parents could log into through their child’s school email account.  Teachers will send home powerpoints/recordings of the session and the Term Overview and information  to those families who were not represented in the sessions last night.  Please contact your class teacher via email in the first instance if you need anything clarified from the sessions yesterday.  We thank those parents who were able to participate as it is this two-way partnership between home and school,  which will benefit your child and their education.

Student Council and School Leader Investiture Ceremony
Due to the current restrictions,  we have had to postpone the planned student leader investiture ceremony until after the restrictions are lifted and we can have face to face assemblies and parents onsite once again.

This year we have introduced an additional layer of student leadership to the school which is a Student Council.  The Student Council will be chaired by the School Vice -Captain- Heidi F.,  and will consist of the other captains and class representatives from each class from Yr 3-6. 

I have been in several schools which run this layer of leadership,  and have found it to be a wonderful avenue for the student body to have a voice within the school, to make decisions and fundraise for particular projects or organisations.

Currently the classes from Yr 3-6 are running a class-based process to elect the class representative and these will be announced in the next school newsletter. Following that we will be able to get the meetings up and running to commence the work of the Student Council this year.

COVID Reminders
A reminder re the government restrictions in place at schools until March 4.  We realise this has not been an ideal start to the school year, but we are doing our best to abide by the directions to help keep our staff and students safe. 

As announced by the Premier on Sunday 30 January 2022, the Queensland Government has released the COVID-safe back to school plan.  From Monday 7 February- Friday 4 March, key features of the plan include:

- The suspension of school camps, excursions, assemblies, and large gatherings (please note that school sport will continue as usual)

- limiting visitors on site, with exceptions for parents and carers of students experiencing

vulnerability, students attending early childhood development programs, kindergarten, Prep or Year 1

- staggered drop off times and/or special drop off zones

- masks supplied and strongly encouraged for students in Years 3 to 6

- mask wearing for all high school students and all staff

- rapid antigen tests (RATs) available in school for students and staff who develop symptoms while on site

- priority access to RATs for students and staff at Queensland Health testing clinics

- a range of ventilation measures including air purifiers as required

You can access the Back to School plan, and further information and FAQs on the Department of Education COVID-19 website.

Essential to the success of these measures is that if your child is unwell or displaying any COVID-19 symptoms, they must not attend school. I cannot emphasise this message strongly enough – it is critical to keeping our school community safe.

Thank you for your understanding as we continue to work together during this difficult and unprecedented time.

Parent Teacher Interviews
These are on the school calendar for Tuesday 22^nd March.  At this stage we are not sure whether these will take to place face to face or via TEAMS. More information will come out in the newsletter later in the term as bookings will be available via the SOBS email.

New Staff
We have a number of new staff members this year who have joined the team at ESS.  Starting from the next newsletter,  we will start to profile the new staff to introduce them to the ESS community.

Kind Regards

Welcome back to the new school year.  It was been wonderful to finally have the students back on site with us.  I have enjoyed greeting students and parents at the gate and seeing the smiles of students as they return to learning.  I am personally so excited to be returning to Enoggera SS in 2022 and am looking forward to my first full year as Deputy Principal of this amazing school community.   I know it will be an amazing year! 

BEFORE SCHOOL PROCESSES
Prep and Year 1 parents continue to be the only parents permitted on site under the current restrictions. Parents are asked to wait with their children under E Block only before school. We kindly ask that you do not wait under C Block. Students should be sitting with their parents at this time. When the bell rings, Year 1s are to walk to under C Block to line up for Mrs Kent and Mrs Boon.  Prep students will now remain under E Block and line up for Miss Enoch, Mrs Egerton and Mrs Nelson. Preppies are no longer walked up to the classrooms by parents this week.

All other students from Year 2 to Year 6 are required to sit and wait under D Block.  This area is supervised from 8:15am and the bell rings at 8:45am.  Students line up at this time to wait for their teachers to collect them from their line up areas. Thanks for your support of our morning processes!

Hats and Water Bottles
During these hot summer months, please remember to ensure your child is coming to school with their hat and a water bottle every day!  It is easy for students to become overheated and dehydrated if they are not drinking water throughout the day.  As always, please ensure your child’s property is clearly labelled.

Facebook
Our school has a very active Facebook page with daily posts to keep our school community informed of what is happening in our school.  Our events are posted throughout the term to allow parents time to be prepared for the term ahead.  We encourage all of our parents to follow our page so you can enjoy the wonderful experiences our school has to offer.  The more you interact with the page by liking and commenting on posts, the more our page will appear in your newsfeed.  A reminder that Facebook is not the best platform to ask questions that you need immediate or urgent replies to as we don’t always see questions in the comment sections of a post.   This is best done by emailing the teacher/admin or calling the office.  Facebook is also not a site for posting complaints or negative comments about staff or school processes.  If you have some constructive feedback for the school or an issue that you would like to raise, we would respectfully ask that you make an appointment to speak with the Principal to discuss your concerns.  Any inappropriate comments will be removed from the platform.

Clubs and Activities
With the upcoming start to the new building project, we will be losing some of our current play spaces including the Year 2/3 & Year 4-6 playgrounds; the sandpit and the soft-fall area.  In anticipation of this happening and the reduction of available play spaces for our students in the coming months, we have introduced clubs and activities for our students to participate in to keep them engaged and busy at break times. Every teacher on staff has one duty per week as a club/activity of their choice, to offer students an awesome range of things to do!  The roster has been made into a visual timetable that is displayed in all classrooms and around the school grounds in various locations.  Teachers talk to students each morning about what clubs and activities are on offer each day and where they are located.  This has been a huge hit with our students!   This will hopefully prove to be a great initiative for our students while our new building is being constructed, and into the future.

Stop, Drop and Go
A friendly reminder to parents that to ensure the Stop, Drop and Go Zone at South Pine Road (in the car park) is successful, it is essential that drivers proceed all the way to the first gate where a staff member is waiting to open the gate for students. Parents are unable to leave their vehicles in this area to walk their students into under the buildings as it causes congestion to the flow of traffic and becomes a safety issue. Please do not drop your students at the first gate either as this causes cars to have to go around your vehicle and again causes issues with the traffic flow. Thanks for your support with our safe drop-off.

The expectation is the same for Laurel St Stop, Drop and Go.  Please do not park in this zone and leave your vehicle as it doesn’t allow for the traffic to flow.  It is important to continually move your car to the front of the zone to allow cars to move in behind you.   Our staff are working hard to ensure the safety of our students as they leave the school grounds and we appreciate your support with this by following our pick-up and drop-off processes.

Mrs Tina Burrows
Deputy Principal

Year One is learning how to describe characters in stories this term. We are co-constructing a Learning Wall at the back of or our classrooms as we learn about ways to use adjectives to create an awesome description.

We are looking forward to using and adding to our Learning Wall as we learn throughout Term One. It is going to help us make individual goals in our writing and show us ways we can improve our writing by using correct sequences, interesting words and punctuation.

Mrs Boone and Mrs Kent
Year 1 Teachers

Welcome to 2022 and the preparation of many activities in sport.  Over the last two years we have had to replan, cancel, postpone and even manage to run some of the sporting events and 2022 is shaping up to be a year that will be much the same. Each week/day/month we seem to be adapting to the new ‘Covid Normal’ and what that looks like for sporting events during this year remains to be seen. We ask that you are patient and work with us to provide as many opportunities for our students as possible, in whatever framework this becomes.  Our calendar is jammed packed right from the beginning – if you do have questions relating to sport, please email me at jjard16@eq.edu.au and I will endeavour to answer them or find out the answers from the relevant group.  

2022 will also have changes to the Health and Physical Education (HPE) Program with an increase in class time for most classes in the timetable. Mrs Prill will also be at ESS for an extra day and Mrs O’Malley will be supporting the program delivering the Health component to a number of classes.

District Swimming Carnival:
Sadly, the District Swimming Carnival has been the first cancellation of 2022.  With the scheduled date to fall in the first week of our delayed return to school.  In order to keep the swimming pathway open, a modified version of the Met North Carnival has been offered to students within our region who would have been nominated to the District Carnival and who also met the qualifying time provided. For Enoggera this means one student per age group, per event, provided that they have met the qualifying time.

What this means is there are number of students who would normally have been invited to attend the City District Carnival who did not meet the regional qualifying time.  It also affected the 9 year olds who would have normally attended the City District Carnival as they attend this event as an ‘invitational experience’ only with no progression offered to the Regional Carnival.

Enoggera has three students who met the above times and will be competing at the Met North Carnival on Wednesday 23^rd February. We wish them all the best.

Class Swimming:
Our lessons in the pool have kicked off this week on Wednesday 16^th February.  Notes and reminders were sent home to families over the last couple of weeks outlining the swimming timetable, please make sure that you have all of your students equipment ready, clearly named and that it comes to school on the appropriate day.

• Wednesdays – Prep A, 1B, 4A, 5/6A, 5/6B, 5/6C
• Thursdays – Prep B, Prep C, 1A, 2A, 4B
• Fridays – 2B, 3A, 3B

During the term we will be focusing on water confidence and safety in the pool, as well as safety and wellbeing in other settings. 

Students unable to swim due to illness please send a note to school with your child or email Mrs Jardine at jjard16@eq.edu.au or Mrs Prill at tkfar0@eq.edu.au 

Kilometre Club:
Before we know it Cross Country time will be upon us. Plans are being made to run our Kilometre Club in preparation for our Cross Country planned for late Term 1 – we will send home more information with students when we have locked in a timetable for this.  

District Sport Trials:
Term 1 & 2 are particularly busy with City District Team Sport Trials. Depending on the sport, students born 2012, 2011 & 2010 may be able to trial for City District Teams and ultimately commence a Representative Pathway.  This is an optional extra-curricular activity for students. It involves costs to parents in terms of trial fees, most trials are during the day with transport the responsibility of the parents. If students are selected in a City District Team there will be additional costs including, uniforms, team levies, possibly some travel to larger venues around the city. There will also be additional training sessions. Parents and Students need to be fully aware of the commitment that will be needed if they consider trialling.  

As a general guide, the student should be participating in club sport or tournaments of the particular sport for in excess of one year/full season.  Forms will be distributed by the HPE teacher if they are eligible to participate in trials.  They will need to be completed by parents, signed off by the Principal and taken to the trial by the student, trail payments will need to be made via the City District School Shop online all prior to the trial. School nominations will be submitted by the HPE teacher for those students who have been provided with forms. If your student does not wish to trial please, let me know ASAP after you have received forms and I will withdraw the school nomination.

For some sports a trial will be held at school to select those attending trials as our nomination numbers are limited. Students who have expressed an interest will be advised of trials when they arise, which will typically be during a lunch break or short period of class time. These trials will be supported by Education Queensland Staff who have experience in the nominated sports.  

Please remember this is an opportunity at REPRESENTATIVE SPORT not an opportunity to try something new. 

The upper school classes have all discussed with me the sports in which they participate outside of school and their interest in potentially participating in representative trials and their experience playing their sports, which helps in considering whether it is timely for them to be nominated or whether they should be waiting for another year.   

Some additional information about the District is available on the City District Sports page connected to the Metropolitan North website. Feel free to check in on this site.    https://metnorthschoolsport.eq.edu.au/district-sport/our-districts/city

Key Dates – this term.

• Regional Swimming (Met North)– Wednesday Feb 23^rd
• Enoggera Cross Country – TBC – end of Term 1

Mrs Jo Jardine
HPE Teacher

Senior Dance Ensemble (Years 4-6)

Welcome back families!

The Senior Dance Ensemble is a performing arts enrichment program that runs before school with live performance opportunities throughout the year. This year, the contemporary dance ensemble will rehearse each Thursday morning at 8am in EPAC. Training will start next week for existing members only.

The great news is that we have an overwhelming number of students wishing to join the ensemble (numbers approaching 60). The not so great news is that new students will have to audition and be selected for a spot on the team (25 students maximum). Students will be notified of the selection process including audition times by the end of the week.

Mrs Melissa Wilcox
The Arts

Welcome back to the 2022 school year! We hope everyone is settling in well so far this term.

CHOIRS AND RECORDER CLUB
Our Choirs and Recorder club are back on for the year starting this week.

Senior Choir- starting Friday 18^th Feb 8am- Open to all Year 4-6 students. Permission slips have gone out to students who have expressed interest, these are to come back to Ms Hopper or the office by Friday 18^th.

Junior Choir- Mondays 1^st Break- Open to all Prep-Year 3. No sign up required. Students who come are to bring a folder with their name on it to store their lyrics. Students who wish to be in performances need to demonstrate regular attendance.

Recorder Club (Pitch Plastic)- starting Friday 18^th- 1^st Break- Open to all year levels. No sign up required but regular attendance is required to be part of performances. Please bring a folder for sheet music which will be provided.

STRINGS
We welcome Ellen Harle, our new Strings teacher, to Enoggera. The students have had their first lessons today with Mrs Harle. We hope she enjoys her time here.

Ms Mariel Hopper
Music
mxhop2@eq.edu.au

Digital Technologies

It is wonderful to see so many students attending Robotics and Coding Club. Our senior students are facing the challenge of building the brand new VEX IQ robots from scratch. Next term, our junior students will explore the new VEX Go robots.

The Prep students have done a fabulous job settling into the routines of school. We look forward to continuing to learn about digital systems and coding Bee-Bots in Digital Technologies.

ICT skills

Our school is committed to building student ICT capability in all subjects, learning areas and year levels. As NAPLAN continues to be delivered online, students are encouraged to practise their ICT skills at home. The site, https://naplanonline.qld.edu.au/whats-changing/i-c-t-skills outlines the seven ICT skills for online assessment:

• locate and select answers from lists
• type answers or responses
• read a screen and navigate web pages
• manipulate objects on screen
• read and comprehend digital texts
• plan and compose text using word processing
• listen using a headset.

The skills are detailed in the Queensland ICT skills guide (PDF, 1.9MB) and are aligned to the Australian Curriculum. At school, students will be using a laptop or PC with a mouse to complete the assessments. Students can also practise their touch-typing skills online at https://www.typingclub.com/

Mrs Melissa Wilcox
Technology

Hello Enoggera State School Community and Defence Families,

My name is Amy Della-Torre (Miss D) and I am the new Defence School Mentor! I have been a teacher aide here at Enoggera State School since last year and have already met a few of the students. I have a background in Social Work and Community Development and have a great passion for supporting the emotional and social wellbeing of young people. I am so excited to contribute to this new role and look forward to meeting all the students and families in the coming weeks.

Please look out for a survey coming home with students in the coming weeks. It would be great if you could fill these in so I can learn more about you and how I can best support families in this role!

My working days are Thursday and Friday and you can contact me on adell37@eq.edu.au.

DEFENCE KIDS HQ IS BACK!
COME TO THE LIBRARY DURING 2^nd BREAK (PLAY) ON THURSDAYS/FRIDAYS.

I can’t wait to meet you all and start planning our HQ activities for 2022.

GAYTHORNE RSL ANZAC DAY WRITING COMPETITION

Gaythorne RSL are currently running a writing competition for ALL students in Grade 4, 5 and 6!!
It is also open to year 7, 8 and 9 students for those who have kids in High School.

Topic: What does Anzac Day mean to me?

The writing is to share your feelings about ANZAC day, the history of this day and feelings about your own families’ stories of wartime. This is a great opportunity for us to learn more about the significance of ANZAC day and the history of our defence force.

Please see below the categories and incredible prizes up for grabs.

Come and see me in the library during any break on Thursday or Friday for help with your entry. Parents can email me adell37@eq.edu.au for entry forms and guidelines.
*SUBMISSIONS CLOSE THURSDAY 17 MARCH*

Good morning Enoggera SS

I would like to invite your school to join me for Clean Up Australia Day on Sunday the 6th March.

If you can please advertise this amongst your school community I would appreciate it (I have attached a photo you can use).

Please see below information and link to register. 

Date:   Sunday 6th March 2021

Time:   8am – 9am

Venue: Teralba Park, Osborne Road end- Mitchelton. Look for my Marquee and signs!

Register here: https://www.timmander.com.au/cleanupaustraliaday

I would like to encourage everyone to come down and get involved. 

A FREE BREAKFAST WILL BE PROVIDED AFTER THE CLEAN UP.

 If you have any difficulty with registration, please do not hesitate to just turn up and bring whoever you like!

For assistance, contact my office via phone on 3535 1100.

 I hope to see you there.

Key Dates

P & C Meetings – General & Annual General Meeting
The first P & C meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday, 22 February at 6.15 pm.  Please keep an eye on Facebook to confirm the meeting location. https://www.facebook.com/EnoggeraSSPandC

The Annual General Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, 22 March, this includes electing the Executive positions.  The P & C is actively seeking candidates for the President, Vice President and Secretary positions.  To become a P & C member or to nominate for an Executive position please download and complete the forms on the school website (https://enoggerass.eq.edu.au/our-community/pandc ). If you are interested or have any questions please contact the P & C (pandc@enoggerass.eq.edu.au).

We’re excited to announce that we will be holding the School Colour Fun Run this year! Our Fun Run date will be Friday, 1 April 2022. We’ll be launching the fundraising in early March, so make sure to keep your eyes out!

We hope you’ll support our school and students in fundraising for the school building fund!

Uniform Shop
The Uniform Shop now opens every Friday morning at 8.00 – 9.00 am. Uniform orders can be made via QKR! App and collected on Friday mornings from the Uniform Shop.  If you are unable to collect orders they can be collected from the school office. Uniforms can be purchased directly from the shop by card payment only.

Uniform Shop accepts second hand official ESS uniforms that are in a reasonable, wearable condition, this includes music shirts.  All other items (plain blue bottoms/shirts/jumpers) can be donated to your local thrift shop. 

Tuckshop
It was great to be back on Friday and the kids loved having their tuckshop back!

Tuckshop is back to being opened on Wednesdays and Fridays.  Orders close at 8.15 am via QKR! App.

Whilst the Covid Back to School Plan is in place the menu has been limited as we have restricted the number of volunteers in the Tuckshop.  Once the plan has eased we will be back to a full menu. Thank you for your understanding!

If you are available in 2022 to be a tuckshop volunteer on a Wednesday or Friday or to provide home baking please contact the P & C via opsmanager@esspandc.com.au

Containers for Change
Start to bring your containers back and drop them in the Containers for Change (purple) bins scattered around the school!  Alternatively you can visit the depot, deposit your containers and contribute to the ESS scheme, our school scheme ID is C10051863

P&C Executives

The Enoggera State School P & C meets every 4^th Tuesday of the month – next meeting is 22 February 2022

Follow Enoggera P & C on Facebook to keep up to date on planned events, activities, Tuckshop menu and Uniform Shop.  It is the best way to stay informed on all the latest happenings! https://www.facebook.com/EnoggeraSSPandC