Filter Content
| Week 5 | Friday 4 August | Pyjama Day Student Council Gold Coin Donation |
| Week 6 | Monday 14 August | Assembly ESS EPAC 2pm |
| Tuesday 15 August | Year 3 Nudgee Beach Excursion | |
| Intermediate Band and Strings Workshop Ferny Grove | ||
| Olympics Unleashed Year 5 & 6 | ||
| Wednesday 16 August | EKKA Holiday | |
| Friday 18 August | PREP Open Morning 9am to 11am | |
| Week 7 | Monday 21 August | Year 2 Lone Pine Excursion |
| Thursday 24 August | WAKAKIRRI Logan Entertainment Centre | |
| Friday 25 August | Book Week Parade 9.15am |
Dear Parent and Caregivers,
PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS
Thank you to those families who booked and attended parent teacher interviews last night. Again, it was lovely to see the partnerships and positive conversations happening in the EPAC around student learning and how best to support our learners moving forward this semester. If you missed an interview and would still like to meet with your child’s classroom teacher, please contact the office or your child’s teacher via email to find a mutually convenient time. Our bookings were certainly close to capacity, which is testament to our supportive and caring community and the value we place on educating our young ones and supporting them to be the best they can possibly be.
CITY DISTRICT TRACK AND FIELD TRIALS
Congratulations to all of our Athletics team who represented our school at the City District Track and Field Trials last week over two days, with some pleasing results. Congratulations to Ashton, Chelsea and Alexia who placed in their events and have been selected to go on to the Metropolitan North Trials shortly. Ashton won his 100m and 200m events, Chelsea won her Shot Put event and Alexis placed 3rd in the High Jump event. We look forward to following their progress at the next level.
We were also notified yesterday that we have placed 3rd in the Small Schools Competition at the carnival which means the number of placings/points we received compared to the size of our school is a fantastic effort also.
Thank you to Mr Woodrick for all of his organisation in selecting and nominating our team and then managing our team on the day. Thanks also to Mrs Fitzpatrick who attended the carnival as our representative official.
EXCURSIONS
This term we have many exciting excursions and activities planned. These include:
- Yr 3 excursion to the Nudgee Beach Environmental Education Centre on 15/8
- Yr 2 excursion to Lone Pine on 21/8
- Wakakirri team travelling to the perform at Logan Entertainment Centre on 24/8
- Maths Tournament team travelling to Albany Hills SS for their competition on 28/8
- Yr 5/6 students attending the Volley Ball Cup at Craigslea SHS on 31/8
- Yr 4 excursion to Everton Park SHS for the MADD Day on 7/9
- Our winning Reader’s Cup team travelling to the STATE Finals at Morteon Bay College on 7/9
- Prep excursion to Nudgee Beach Environmental Education Centre 14/9
With all of these excursions happening this term on top of some other incursions and all of them requiring permissions and some payments, I encourage parents to stay informed and to meet deadlines for permissions and payments. If activities have a payment required, the payment and permissions need to be submitted to the administration office and if the consent is just a permission with no payment these forms need to be handed to classrom teachers.
MULTI-PURPOSE ROOF
We are still patiently awaiting the safety certification and council approvals to enable the hand-over of the multi-purpose court.
CAMP AUSTRALIA OSHC
I openly acknowledge that the changeover of OSHC providers at our school from YMCA to Camp Australia has not been smooth, based on the many complaints and concerns that have been raised by school staff and parents, with both Camp Australia and myself. I have continued to follow these up at the highest level and feel now that we have been listened to as we have held the company to account, based on the winning tender they submitted.
We have recently been in high level talks with Camp Australia's General Managers and Sales Managers from Sydney and Melbourne to work though the concerns and complaints. These managers have flown up to view the service and to meet with me for these talks. We have discussed the actions required to turn things around and have created an action plan to be implemented. I feel more secure now that they have employed a Service Director (Tina), who is out of ratio, to deal with incidents and build relationships, as well as coach new staff. In addition to this role, they have the current Service Co-ordinator (Julie) who is in ratio and also another Service Manager (currently being recruited- in ratio).
They have implemented compulsory training for all of the staff at the service and are working hard to ensure more consistency of staff and less reliance on agency temps, to assist with more consistent supervision for our students. They have listened to our concerns and have reviewed processes and procedures and we have been supporting them to implement improved processes to ensure the safety of our students. I believe that as these new processes are implemented and with the additional staffing that things will settle down and the community trust in the service will rebuild, we will once again have an OSHC service that we work well with and can rely on to provide exemplary service to our ESS families.
FULL SCHOOL REVIEW
This fortnight I would like to share the last of our key affirmations from our Full School Review conducted at the end of Term One, before I profile the improvement strategies recommended by the review team, in the next newsletter. These affirmations are listed in the Executive Summary available on our school website which informs our Quadrennial School Review.
Students enjoy a range of learning opportunities to develop skills in areas of interest.
The school promotes the Arts through its instrumental music, strings, band, junior and senior choir, dance and drama, including highly regarded Wakakirri performances. Students are offered the opportunity to participate in many co-curricular clubs as part of lunchtime activities arranged by staff and supported by parents. Parents are appreciative of the wide range of learning opportunities and experiences offered, particularly in cultural pursuits. Students express appreciation for the time staff take to provide them with these learning experiences.
Again, this was wonderful to have affirmed for our school staff and is very positive feedback.
CHANGES TO EDUCATIONAL REGION STRUCTURE IN QLD
As you may have heard on the news this semester there were changes made to educational regional structure with the Department of Education. Whilst we were in the Metropolitan Region previously, we are now in the new Metropolitan North Region, which takes in all schools south of the Brisbane River right up to the South Sunshine Coast area. With this we have a new Regional Director and we also have a new School Supervisor. Previously we were supervised by an Assistant Regional Director but this role and supervision and support structure has also changed under the DoE’s new strategic direction ‘Equity and Excellence’. Our new School Supervisor is Mr Evan Willis and he will be visiting our school for the first time on Monday, August 14 to meet with myself and school leadership team. Below is the link to the DoE’s new Strategic Plan 2023-2027.
https://qed.qld.gov.au/our-publications/strategiesandplans/Documents/strategic-plan-23-27.pdf
STAFFING
- Next week I will be on Long Service Leave to attend my eldest daughter’s wedding in NSW. Mrs Tina Burrows will be the Acting Principal in my absence.
- Miss Ellie Mastrapostolos has been extended as the temporary Business Manager at ESS until January 16, 2024 behind Mrs Leanne Haslam, who has been extended at Eatons Hill SS. It is anticipated that these positions will become permanent at that point.
Till next time,
Mrs Anne Robinson
Principal
Calendar Dates
A reminder that there are two days that our school is closed this term:
Wednesday 16th August for the EKKA holiday
Friday 1st September for a departmental Student Free Day.
Other Dates to mark in your calendar:
Friday 4th August – School Council Dress Up Day – Wear your Pyjamas!
Thursday 24th August – Wakakirri Performance at Logan Entertainment Centre
Friday 25th August – Book Week Parade
Wednesday 30th August – P&C Fathers’ Day Stall
Thursday 31st August – Feed your Fella BBQ Breakfast for Chaplaincy
Saturday 9th September – P&C Family Fun Day
These dates and other events can all be located in the newsletter calendar and on our school Facebook Page.
As the weather remains cold over the winter months, a reminder that students are required to either wear a school jacket available at the uniform shop (open Tuesday morning from 8am); or a plain jumper in a school blue colour. Students are not permitted to wear hoodies or jumpers with any printing or designs on them. Girls are permitted to wear blue stockings (or black if blue is unavailable). All students can also wear plain school blue tracksuit pants. A reminder that girls should be wearing suitable earrings and headbands to school. Headbands should be in school colours and earrings should be limited to plains studs.
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.
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. Click on the more tab and then the events tab in the dropdown menu to go to our events.
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 or derogatory comments will be removed from the platform.
Please remember to never make comments on the page referencing a child’s name for privacy reasons.
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 our Learning Pillar focusing on:
- Listening Carefully
- Following Instructions (the first time)
- Working Quietly – not disturbing teaching and learning
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.
Best Line Up and Best Eating Area
Congratulations to our winners of the Best Line Up and Best Eating Area for the past fortnight. Mrs Robinson and Mrs Burrows were out and about monitoring over the last two week. There has been a huge improvement in the eating area behaviour with a special mention to the improvement in the Prep Eating Area. Line up has also improved with a special mention to Year 3 and Year 1 for their improvement. The winning class and year level will be rewarded with additional 10 minutes playtime on a Friday afternoon of their choice supervised by Mrs Burrows and Mrs Robinson. Keep up the great work everyone!
One of our current School Council parent representatives, Lisa McDonald, has recently stepped down from their position. We are very grateful to Lisa for the valuable contribution she made to the School Council. This has created a parent representative vacancy on the School Council and the opportunity for any interested parents to submit a nomination form.
The School Council meets once every term on a Monday afternoon from 3:15pm for approximately an hour. The meeting is both in person and via teams, so you do not have to come to school to attend the meeting. Nominations will be voted on by the current members at the meeting on Monday 28th August. The meeting has been postponed for 2 weeks from the original date due to scheduling conflicts.
Nomination forms should be email to Tina Burrows (tburr11@eq.edu.au) as the current chair of the School Council by Friday 25th August.
We look forward to receiving any nominations and welcoming a new parent representative to our School Council.
Olympian Visit
Our Year 5 and 6 students will attend a special visit from “Olympics Unleashed” on Tuesday 15th August in the EPAC. This is a free program where Olympians and athletes aspiring for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and beyond share lessons from their Olympic journey that every student can learn from. Presented in an interactive and engaging way, athletes will share how they set goals, overcome challenges and demonstrate resilience throughout their athletic journey.
Tina Burrows
Deputy Principal
This year book week will be celebrated from 19th – 25th August (Week 7) culminating with our Book Week Parade on Friday 25th August at 9:15am.
The theme this year is Read, Grow, Inspire. I hope students are excited at the prospect of dressing up as their favourite character! Information regarding the venue for our parade this year will be shared in the Week Six Newsletter as our Multipurpose Court is still awaiting handover after our recent upgrade.
Library News
Thank you to parents who placed orders for Issue 5 of Book Club! This has now closed and deliveries should arrive late next week. I look forward to providing students with all of their new purchases shortly.
Premiers Reading Challenge
Just a reminder to all students who are completing the Premiers Reading Challenge to try and reach the challenge of reading 20 books by August 25 (Prep – Year 4) and 15 books for students in Years 5 and 6. All students who participate in the challenge are to return their record sheets to Mrs O’Malley by Friday 25th August for collation.
HAPPY READING!
Amy O'Malley
Head of Department - Curriculum
Hello Parents and Caregivers,
Just a quick reminder that some parents/caregivers have credits on their student accounts. As we have a few excursions coming up in Term 3, please feel free to contact me in relation to these credits to either check or apply to invoices.
If you have any questions or concerns, please email me on bsm@enoggerass.eq.edu.au
Have a great week,
Ellie Mastrapostolos
Business Services Manager
City District Track and Field Carnivals
A number of students participated in the City District Track and Field Carnival on Thursday and Friday 27th and 28th July. Well done to everyone who attended. There were some very impressive results – the full results schedule will be shared with the participants when it is received from the City District Convenor.
A special mention goes to Ashton, Chelsea and Alexis who managed to secure a spot in the City District Team and will now be competing at the Met North Carnival on 22nd and 23rd August at QSAC, Nathan. We here at ESS wish you all the best at your next competition.
To be selected in the City District Team these students had to place in the top 4 of their events at the carnival earlier this week.
Thanks to Mrs Fitzpatrick who worked over the two days on the girls Shot Put and was the team photographer.
Volleyball Cup
The Annual Primary Schools Cup will be held at Craigslea State High School on Thursday 31st August. Students from year 5 & 6 have nominated their interest in participating in this team and permission forms are being sent home shortly with the bus and admission invoices. Please ensure that you complete the forms and return it to the office with payment as soon as possible to assist with finalising participant numbers.
Andrew Woodrick
HPE Teacher
Student of the week awards for Monday 31 July 2023
|
Class |
Name |
|
|
Prep A |
Rowena G |
Working hard to learn your letters and sounds |
|
Prep A |
Isla M |
Practising her letters and sounds |
|
Prep B |
Malcolm A |
Using sounds to write simple sentences |
|
Prep B |
Hannah O |
Remembering finger spaces between words |
|
Prep C |
Maisie C |
Sounding out words when writing a sentence. Well done! |
|
Prep C |
Matthew M |
Great work in maths tasks this week. Well done! |
|
1A |
Anna J |
Enthusiastic participation in the classroom |
|
1A |
Thomas G |
Dedication to his work |
|
1B |
Henry B |
Amazing effort in creative writing |
|
1B |
Lee B |
Always displaying persistent effort in everything he does |
|
1C |
Abby C |
Being a kind and considerate member of our class. Well done! |
|
1C |
Edward S |
Being a responsible learner, staying focused while learning. Well done! |
|
2A |
Ryder D |
Fantastic work this week on writing sentences all by himself |
|
2A |
Gwen R |
Always trying her best and helping her classmates |
|
2B |
Antonia R |
For doing a fabulous job at settling into your new school |
|
2B |
Kieran C |
For demonstrating exemplary leadership skills |
|
3A |
Hudson K |
His much-improved excellent effort in writing! |
|
3A |
Alexandra N |
Explaining her thinking processes in many subject areas! |
|
3B |
Rachel M |
Always demonstrating a positive attitude to your learning |
|
3B |
Hugh S |
Having an outstanding work ethic |
|
4A |
Tristan H |
An improved effort in resolving conflicts peacefully. We are very impressed! |
|
4A |
Sienna G |
Showing courtesy and sincerity to others |
|
4B |
Lachlan B |
Improved efforts and results in mathematics |
|
4B |
Ferah S |
Detailed and thoughtful responses in English |
|
5/6A |
Chiara C |
Improvement in reading comprehension |
|
5/6A |
Toby V |
Improved effort in class |
|
5/6 B |
Eve D |
Interpreting a poems language features |
|
5/6 B |
Blake J |
Showing diligence in Maths |
|
5/6C |
Ava S |
Always focussing and doing her best |
|
5/6C |
Thomas T |
Being an engaged learner |
Year 5/6
It’s all about colonial times in 5/6 this term! Many of the poems we are studying are written by AB Patterson and students are having to closely analyse the language that he uses, before transforming a poem into an exciting story. This ties in nicely with our HASS unit, where students are discovering gold and what life was like on the goldfields. Currently, they are playing some games hoping to strike it rich!
Health and technology also relate nicely to each other, with students looking at healthy lifestyles, including food choices and our technology will encompass food preparation and design. We will design a product to transport food from recycled materials.
Students are also enjoying science, conducting lots of experiments investigating light, how it travels and how it is reflected.
We will maintain our strong learning focus on Reading and Spelling programs which are proving to be fantastic. The students will continue to be involved three times a week in reading together with their classroom teacher teaching the explicit strategies required to be a literate student. Please keep encouraging your children to read whatever interests them at home to promote a lifelong love of reading.
It’s a busy term with lots of exciting events, including:
- Wakakirri performance (24th August)
- Book week parade (25th August)
- Selected students participating in Maths Tournament (28th August)
- Volleyball cup (31st August)
Don’t forget, we also have two days off, the EKKA holiday on the 16th August and the pupil free day on the 1st September. All in all it is shaping up to be a busy and productive term.
The Year 5/6 teachers.
Battle of the Bands- Trivia Night
Thank you to everyone who made the 2023 Trivia Night a great success! A lot of fun was had by all and everyone put in so much effort with their music themes. It was great to see the likes of The Spice Girls and Special guests, The Beach Boys, The Wiggles, Tina Turner and we even had our very own Marching Band.
Congratulations goes to Tina Returned on taking out top spot which includes bragging rights for the year and being our 2023 Champions.
A big THANK YOU to our local business who donated to our raffle - BLISS IN A BOX Co, The Neighbourhood Market, Casa Cibo, Solace Skin and Wellness and Fit to be Wild.
Thank you to our events team who put on a great night, our raffle sellers and most importantly our clean up crew. We couldn’t do it without you.
Father’s Day Stall – Wednesday 30th August
Do you love the Father’s Day stall and the fun and joy it brings the kids? We are looking for someone to lead the Father’s Day stall this year. You will lead a team of volunteers and be supported by the Exec Committee. Without stall conveners these events just can’t happen. If you are interested, please reach out via email or via our Facebook page.
Family Fun Day – Saturday 9th September 2023
We are currently looking for donations of
Terracotta/ ceramic pots etc
Good condition books
Soft drink cartons- Coke, Coke no sugar, Lemonade and Fanta
If you would like to donate, please message our Facebook page, or send an email to pcsecretary@esspandc.com.au
Family Fun Day - Calling all bakers!
Family Fun Day wouldn't be complete without a bake sale!
On the morning of the Family Fun Day, Saturday 9th September, we will gratefully receive baked goods of all sorts. You are welcome to prepare anything you are comfortable with but here are a few ideas:
Old fashioned favourites like fudge, coconut ice, chocolate crackles, rocky road
Iced cupcakes and butterfly cupcakes
Tea cakes, whole iced cakes, date loaf and brownies
Slices like vanilla, chocolate, Mars Bar and lemon slice
Biscuits like jam drops, choc chip, melting moments and shortbread.
It would be great to have a small gluten free section as well.
If your talents lay in preserving, we would also love to have a selection of goods like chilli sauce, jams, chutney and relish. Some freshly baked bread would top it off!
If you can bake and deliver one or more items for our stall, please contact the convener, Emma, on essbakestall@outlook.com
P&C Executives
|
President – Dean Collings Vice President – Khesanh Brock |
Secretary – Christina Maher Treasurer – Debbie Brauer |
For any questions or concerns please email pcsecretary@esspandc.com.au
The Enoggera State School P & C meets every 4th Tuesday of the month.
Our next meeting will be August 22nd.
Keep up to date on all things P&C via our Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/EnoggeraSSPandC
Laura Vinter, Defence School Mentor
BEBRAS Computational Thinking Competition
The BEBRAS Computational Thinking Competition is scheduled for lunchtimes for Years 3, 4, 5 and 6, from 21st August – 10th September, 2023. We have a few keen students involved. I would like to see more students developing their technical thinking skills through this fun and challenging activity.
Students: Drop in to Coding Club, Computer Lab, second break on Wednesdays. I will give you the consent forms for parents/guardians to sign. Or…. Consent forms can be downloaded here. Simply download, print, sign and return the consent form to Mr Harris before August 21.
A few other important facts about BEBRAS for your interest…
- It is an international competition where thousands of students compete biannually.
- Very few students ever reach “Honour Roll Status”. This can be achieved through careful practice of past quizzes. It would be great to have Enoggera SS on that roll!
- BEBRAS is endorsed by CSIRO as part of its Digital Careers Program which targets foundational skill development in students.
- It is free and can be completed at school or home, in pairs or individually.
- Students can participate as many times as they like!
- Students receive certificates of recognition from CSIRO.
Looking forward to helping students complete their BEBRAS challenge this Term.
Michael Harris
Digital Technologies Teacher
Beetroot and Beans
Recently the students got to sample the fruits of their labours. Our vegetable garden is now producing beetroot and beans so the beetroot was prepared four different ways for the children to try. Many of the students had never tasted beetroot before and most had never tasted roasted or raw beetroot and they didn’t realise you could eat the leaves as a salad.
I prepared, roast beetroot, grated raw beetroot, boiled and pickled beetroot (like the tinned stuff) and shredded the leaves for a salad. The beans were chopped a bit so everyone could taste a freshly picked bean but after everyone had had a chance to taste the left-over whole beans were quickly eaten.
