WELCOME

Welcome back to all of our current students and also to the new families who have joined us here at Enoggera State School for the 2023 school year.  We hope your time with us is enjoyable and positive and that your children make some lasting friendships within our lovely school community.  I particularly extend a warm welcome to all of our new Prep families, as this may be your very first association with the school, we look forward to you becoming involved in the school and making some lasting partnerships with you and your children.

As usual, at school we have a busy year ahead with many exciting and educational activities planned, to ensure we bring out the very best in each student and that we do our utmost to prepare them for what lies ahead in the future. We look forward to working closely with our parents and caregivers throughout the year as a team to bring this goal to fruition, because as they saying goes, “It takes a village to raise a child!”

STAFF

We also welcome some new staff to our school this year and we look forward to them becoming integral members of our team as they find their feet. Our staff for 2023 is below:

I look forward to profiling and introducing our new staff to you over the coming newsletters and on our Facebook site.

NEW MISSION and VISION

Last year we did a lot of work with our staff to update the schools Mission statement and vision for the future to ensure we are all on the one page and working together toward the same goals.  With change in staff over recent years it was important work for our staff to all be on the same page.  You will see these around the school and on our email tags as we roll out this new work.  We have been working closely with the High Performing Teams program and company around this work to refine our structures and processes within our school also to ensure they align with HPT and our school mission and vision.

BUILDING UPDATE

As you have no doubt observed we were handed over the new building- G Block on January 16 and we wasted no time in getting moved in and set up for the new school year.  Our staff were all very busy assisting with the move and set up, which we are ever so grateful for.  The building company ICM also assisted by providing labourers to assist with moving resources and heavy items into the new building also.  Whilst there are still some things to be finished off such as the phones, blinds and some defects etc to be rectified, we are really enjoying this new addition to our school and the space it is providing us.  At our first P and C Meeting for the year we took the attendees for a tour and they were suitably impressed also.

Along with that we saw the F Block Demountable taken away in January and the site rectified.  Whilst we have struggled to keep the water up to the new turf in that area, it looks like it is finally taking hold.  This will be able to be used as an additional play space for Preps once it is ok to run on.  Mr Woodrick has plans to set up obstacle courses and equipment for the Preps to play on there since the P-2 playground and new sandpit are in high demand.  This could be a great future project for the school to add another permanent playground to the mix for our Prep students.

The last project we have on the boil at present is the roof over the multipurpose court.  We spent much time over the holidays continuing to complete requirements around heritage, noise and fire safety to get closer to the awarding of the tender to the winning company.  We are hopeful this project will get under way shortly.

PARENT INFORMATION SESSIONS and PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS

Next Tuesday evening we will hold our annual Parent Information Sessions where parents can attend the classrooms to meet with the teachers to hear about the new school year and the routines and expectations for their child’s class.  There will be two repeat sessions at 4:30 and then again at 5:15 to allow working families to get to them and also to allow families with multiple children to get to at least two of the sessions.  There will be a sign in sheet at each session so that information can be forwarded to families who are unable to attend on the evening.  The sessions will finish with a Q and A session so if you have questions suitable for the whole group please save these for then.  If you wish to meet with the teacher individually about your child, this is probably not the right time, but you should make another time convenient for both to have a more in-depth conversation.  Our first round of Parent Teacher Interviews for this semester will be held this term on Tuesday, 21/3/23 in EPAC between 3:15 and 7:15pm. More information will go out in the coming weeks about using the SOBS program to book your interview spots.  These interviews go for 15 minutes each.

STUDENT LEADER INVESTITURE CEREMONY

Next week during our assembly time (6th of February) we will hold our Student Leader Investiture Ceremony for 2023. At this ceremony we will invite the Yr 3-6 students and families of the students being invested into leadership positions to attend. The ceremony will be held in EPAC commencing at 2pm.  The ceremony will include our School and Vice Captains, House Captains, Arts Captains and Class Student Council Representatives, which are still being selected by their classes.  Invitations will go home on Friday to those students being invested.

OUTSIDE SCHOOL HOURS CARE

As you may have been informed by my email early in the holidays the tender process for the OSHC was announced on the last afternoon of the school year after the close of business, so I had the job of informing the community of that outcome early into the break.  The winning company was Camp Australia and they are in preparation mode to take over on the April 3, the first day of the Easter School Holiday program with their popular Rocketeers program. Below is the partnership announcement and there is further information in this newsletter around registering for Camp Australia and also booking in for the Easter Holidays (please see the Community Section).

FULL SCHOOL REVIEW

As 2023 is the final year of our 2020-2023 Strategic Plan, this will be the year of our Quadrennial School Review where we take information and feedback from all stakeholders to assist in developing the strategic plan for the school for the next 4 years, 2024-2027.  As part of that process our school will undertake a Full School Review from the EIB Education Improvement Board to feed into that process. We have been notified that our review will be very early in the school year commencing on March 28, just after the completion of NAPLAN for the year. Early in the new year I will provide all stakeholders with more information about this review and how they may be involved in it. The link below will take you to a fact sheet for parents and community members.

https://schoolreviews.education.qld.gov.au/review/Documents/parent_community-factsheet.pdf

NAPLAN

This term we will undertake NAPLAN testing for our Yr 3 and 5 students online between March 15 and 27.  We ask that you do not make appointments or plan holidays during this time as it is important that all students have the opportunity to participate in this testing program as it  provides valuable data to inform their future learning journeys and school improvement strategies.

YEAR BOOK

Last year our school took on the creation of our first whole school year book in partnership with our school photographers, MSP.  The year book features a comprehensive record of the school year at Enoggera State School including a feature on each class, specialist subject area, extra-curricular activity and event as well as a special feature on our graduating students.  If you paid for one but haven’t collected it or still wish to, we do have some left.  Please contact Cat in the office to buy one.

Till next time,

Mrs Anne Robinson

Principal

BEFORE SCHOOL PROCESSES

With the opening of the new building and the new AstroTurf and handball courts, we have changed some of the before school processes.

• All parents are asked to wait with their children only under C Block before school. Students should be sitting with their parents at this time. We kindly ask that you do not wait under E Block as this is the thoroughfare to the boys’ toilets and easier to monitor with no parents and students waiting in this area.
• When the bell rings at 8:45am, Prep students will remain under C Block and line up for Mrs Egerton, Mrs Nelson and Mrs Rossiter/Miss Enoch. Lines will be painted on the concrete to help the preppies to see where to line up.   Parents are to say goodbye to their children downstairs and help them to line up to walk up to class.  Parents are asked not to go upstairs with the students as it causes congestion on the stairs and on the veranda which is unsafe.
• When the bell rings at 8:45am, Year 1s are to walk to under A Block (near the Uniform Shop) to line up for Mrs Kent, Mrs Boone and Miss Hunt.
• Students are not to deliver bags to their line up areas when they arrive at school, but to keep them with them until line up time.
• All students without parent supervision are to sit and wait under D Block. From 8:30 these students are permitted to play handball or skip on the AstroTurf if they choose. When the bell rings, students are asked to return their skipping ropes and handballs to the Year 5/6 volunteers and return to under D Block.  The staff on duty will then release one year level at a time to move to their line up areas.
• Year 3s are to walk via the library to their line up area, not through the new building breezeway.

Front Gate

In trying to be helpful, some students or parents are using a rock from the front garden to hold back the front gate on South Pine Road leaving it wide open!  This is very unsafe for our new preppies who may wander off and see the open gate that leads to a very busy road!  Please ensure that you keep our front gate closed at all times.  Thanks for your help with this.

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

Due to the success of our clubs and activities roster last year, this will continue in 2023 even though we have the oval back and additional play areas on the AstroTurf and sandpit.  There will be a reduced range of activities available for students to participate in at break times.  The roster will be 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.  Some of these activities include: Computer Club; Robotics; Coding; Paper Planes; Lego; Bubble Blowing; Teddy Bear’s Picnic; Origami; Colouring In (Library); Recorders; Drama; Dancing and Singing. 

To ensure that all students have a fair go on the various play areas that are very popular, we have continued to implement a roster system for both the junior school and senior school allocating where each level can play each break.  Of course, students can opt to attend clubs, go to the library or play on the AstroTurf or under D Block and E Block if they choose.   If the roster states Year 1 in Sandpit, this means they can’t go to the Fort or Oval at that break, but can still choose to go to the other options rather than the sandpit!

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 closest to the library. 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. This gate is locked in the mornings for safety. 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.

Swimming

It has been perfect weather for the introduction of swimming lessons this week.  Mr Woodrick is taking swimming this year with the help of a new Teacher Aide Jack Edmonston.   The timetable for swimming has been posted on Facebook and various communication sent home to parents via email. 

Mr Woodrick will be taking our District Swimming team to the City District Swimming Carnival next Wednesday 6^th February.  We are trying to replace Mr Woodrick with another swimming teacher but if we are unsuccessful, the students will miss out on their swimming lesson this day.  We will advise as soon as possible.

School Dress Code

At the beginning of the school year, it is a good time for parents to reacquaint themselves with our School Dress Code.  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.    Please click on the link to view our Dress Code.

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 Safe Transitions.  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.

Welcome to Term One.

This term we will have a strong learning focus on our Reading which will involve support staff.  The students will participate three times a week in reading groups. Their classroom teacher is also teaching the explicit strategies required to be a literate student.  

We will be diligently working on writing a chapter for a fantasy story using the narrative structure in English along with the grammar and punctuation needed to make our text flow. 

In Mathematics, we are covering a range of topics including number, patterns, chance and data, measurement and space.  It is interesting to note how much basic number facts impact on most areas of both mathematics and our lives.

We will work on our HASS unit, which looks at people and environments influencing each other.  Mrs Hall will teach this unit to the 5/6 classes.

In Science, we will investigate survival in the environment and Mr Emes will teach this to all 3 classes.

Mrs Kerr will teach us design and technololgy.

We will also swim in PE, learn health, digital technology, dance, music and art throughout the semester.  We look forward to commencing Wakakirri next term and can’t wait to showcase our talents. 

Overall, the students are working well and we are all looking forward to a great Term 1. 

The Year 5/6 teachers.

Lunchtime Clubs

Thanks to the keen students who have already been attending lunchtime digital technologies clubs. As a reminder, the clubs are:

Tuesday second lunch: Senior Robotics Club

Wednesday second lunch: Coding Club

Thursday second  lunch: Junior Robotics Club.

I am looking forward to seeing new keen faces in the computer lab . We have some BIG PLANS for the rest of the year!

Thanks,

Michael Harris

Digital Technologies Teacher

Welcome back to the new school year. We are looking forward to some fantastic Music making this year!

We have our Choirs and Recorder Ensemble starting up in Week 4, all held in the new Music room. I would like to hold a "Come and Try" session in week 3, to see if this is something that any student would like to participate in. 

New students are welcome! If you are going to join, please bring a display folder for your Music/Lyrics. Recorder Ensemble members will also need their own Recorder in a case.

• Junior Choir- Thursday 1^st Break after eating- Open to all Year 1-Year 3 students. We sing fun songs and have a great time!
• Senior Choir- Friday 8-8:40am- Open to all Year 4-6 students. We sing more challenging songs using 2-3 part harmony but that is still accessible to the student who hasn’t sung in a Choir before. If students wish to take part in Senior Choir this year a note will be sent home after the "Come and Try" day on Friday 10th Feb.  Please return the slip by or at the first rehearsal Friday 17th Feb to Mrs Rees or the office.
• Recorder Club- Friday 1^st Break after eating- “Pitch Plastic” will return for 2023! We will enjoy playing music that caters for all Recorder abilities. We have students from Year 1 -Year 6 in a dedicated group that has a lot of fun.

Performances in Assembly will be scheduled soon, so keep an eye on the newsletter. 

Mrs Rebecca Rees

Classroom Music Teacher

rmree1@eq.edu.au

Welcome to 2023!

This year will be a great year in sport and I’m looking forward to working with the ESS community on delivering some great sporting achievements.

Email will certainly be the preferred method of communication – aawoo0@eq.edu.au so please ask me anything sports related, and I will endeavour to answer them or find out the answers from the relevant group.  

City District:

ESS is within the City District and throughout the year there will be many sport trials to make the city team and compete at the Metro North trials. City trials are for 10, 11 and 12 year old’s and most trials have a limit of 5 students attending from the school so a school selection process may be required before students are invited to attend. The teams are multi aged and all sports have a requirement that nominating students are playing the sport at a high level for a club for at least a year. Theses trials are not come and try event, it is a competitive selection process and there are payments required for all trials.

More information can be found on the City District home page: https://metnorthschoolsport.eq.edu.au/district-sport/our-districts/city

UPCOMMING TRIALS

There are a number of upcoming trials this term.

AFL (23^rd February), Cricket (3^rd February), Basketball (3^rd February), Swimming (8^th February), Touch (17^th February)

Soccer, Netball, Rugby League, are all upcoming in March

Class Swimming:

Swimming will start this week and run until the term 1 break.

Thank you to all of our parents, carers who have nominated to volunteer with some or our younger classes.

Can I please make sure you send your student with their named gear on their designated day unless you have been notified earlier.  We will always consider a number of factors when deciding whether or not swimming is safe.  We will swim during rain if it is safe to do so which is why it is so important to always send their gear.  Reminders of when your students are swimming. 

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

If there are any parents able to help out with classes from Prep to year 2 – please let me know – any additional support is welcomed. 

Students Unable to Swim due to illness – if your child is unable to swim on any particular week, please send a note to school with your child or email their HPE teacher.

Email contacts:

• Mr Andrew Woodrick – aawoo0@eq.edu.au

Kilometre Club:

Our plan was to start our before school running this week – however, the late summer heat has just been a little too much at 8:30 in the morning. Weather permitting – students from Year 3 to Year 6 are welcome to come down to the oval between 8.30 and 8.45am on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings to do some running training with Mr Woodrick.

Preps to grade 2, will get some running (cross country) practice in their extra 30min of movement PE time this term.

Students are to remain in their normal waiting place under the buildings until collected by Mr Woodrick.

Welcome to 2023

Hello and welcome to another fun and exciting year with the P&C. The P&C Association plays an active role in the Enoggera State School community and works in cooperation with the principal, staff, community members and Education Queensland. Funds raised are used to improve the learning outcomes of all students by supporting the school with additional facilities.

Your experience, individual talents, and willingness to give some of your time and assistance to any of a wide variety of activities will be greatly appreciated.

Tuckshop

The Tuck Inn has had its greatest uptake of volunteers we have ever seen. Our roster is almost full. We are now on the lookout for home bakers- if you would like to help, please sing up via this link.  volunteersignup.org/9WTFX

You can view the tuckshop menu on our Facebook page, all orders must be in by 8.15 am Wednesday or Friday morning.

Uniform Shop

Uniform Shop will be open every Tuesday morning from 8.00 – 9.00 am. You can purchase from the shop or pre-order uniform items via the QKR! App and pick up from the shop on the following Tuesday. If you are unable to pick the items up, they will be provided to the office to distribute to your child.

Events

We are very excited about the events we want to host this year. If you are interested in being part of the organising teams or just want to help, put on the day, please get in touch. If there is a particular event that is special to you please put you hand up. Unfortunately, if we cannot get the help required some events will not go ahead this year.

We are also always looking for new and fun ideas- If you have been to a great event and think it would make for a fantastic fundraiser please get in touch.

Key Dates

P&C Executives

The Enoggera State School P & C meets every 4^th Tuesday of the month.

Keep up to date on all things P&C via our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/EnoggeraSSPandC