Dear Parent and Caregivers,

LEARNING CURVE WELLBEING PROGRAM

Our Learning Curve focus this week is from the Engagement and Mindfulness category and the wellbeing skill builder is ‘Resilient Attitudes’. Our students will be working on this topic during their Health lessons and then following up with their class teachers as well. This focus is about learning to look to the future positively so that when challenges happen to our students, they are able to respond well to them. They will learn that no one is born being resilient. It is a skill they have to work at so they should welcome challenges to learn how to respond to them.

STRATEGIC PLAN AND ANNUAL IMPLEMENTATION PLAN (AIP)

Recently, we have had to submit our Strategic Plan for the next 4-year period at ESS and then also the AIP which maps out the first year of the plan in more detail. The priorities included in the plan have come from our Full School Review held last year as part of our Quadrennial School Review. Staff and parent feedback were also part of that review. The plans were submitted to our School Supervisor recently and approved for implementation. The plans were shared at our last School Council Meeting and have now been endorsed by the School Council Chair. I have attached the plans for your information and these will be going up on our school website this week.

Our Strategic Plan is organised under 4 key priorities which are:

• Successful Learners-Writing,
• Successful Learners-Mathematics,
• Successful Learners-Differentiation and
• Wellbeing.

Underneath each priority are long-term goals and a range of strategies and when they will come up over the 4-year period. In the AIP each of the strategies is then broken down into a number of actions.

In coming newsletters, I will unpack a priority each time with what that looks like this year. The first of those priorities is Successful Learners –Writing. This priority is about ensuring our students continue to progress in NAPLAN at a rate similar to like schools; that we are continuing to increase the numbers of students achieving A/B grades in English and to ensure we have consistency of teaching practices across the school. 

We will be continuing to focus on our planning processes and the use of Learning Walls and Bump it Up charts in the classrooms.  We will be continuing on with our Cold Writes as a formative assessment piece to guide the development of Learning Goals in Writing for all students. We will also be focussing on ensuring we have consistent practices in place for providing student feedback around their writing tasks and moderation of student work. We will make improved handwriting and keyboarding skills a priority to ensure students are fluent to free up working memory, so they can focus on the quality of their writing.

PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS

A reminder that the first opportunity to have a formal meeting with your child’s teacher will be at our parent teacher interviews next week in week 9 of this term on Monday afternoon/evening.  Your child’s teacher will be able to let you know how your child has settled in and how they have presented thus far on pre-assessments for the term and the Term One summative assessment tasks.  These interviews for this semester will be held on Monday, 18/3/24 in EPAC between 3:15 and 7:30pm. Bookings can be made via the SOBS program. These interviews go for 10 minutes each and bookings will be open from Friday 1^st March at 6am to Friday 15^th March at 6am. Information re the booking process was in the newsletter in Mrs O’Malley’s section and was also emailed to all families.

NAPLAN

A reminder that the NAPLAN testing for our Yr 3 and 5 students will be held online between March 13 and 19. 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 our school improvement strategies.  We wish our students all the best for the suite of testing and we look forward to the data being returned to the school to guide future learning and support programs.

P&C Annual General Meeting

Recently the P&C held their first meeting for the year. It was great to see some new faces at the meeting and we look forward to welcoming more new faces as the year progresses. The next meeting of the P&C will be the next General Meeting followed by the Annual General Meeting where all Executive Positions will be vacant and nominations will be called to take on these positions for the coming year. 

CAMP AUSTRALIA OUTSIDE SCHOOL HOURS CARE

We recently learned that Tina from OSHC has accepted another position at a Camp Australia new service at another school. Therefore, Nikki will step up to take over the Service Director position.  Whilst the other Co-ordinators will stay in their positions, they will now recruit for a replacement Co-ordinator. We wish Tina all the best at her new school and thank her for her service and diligence with our OSCH through some turbulent times. We congratulate Nikki on her promotion and wish her all the best as she leads the service into the future.

CHURCH CARPARK

A reminder to our families that the Church carpark is owned by the Church and therefore is not a school car park.  We are lucky that they do not mind families using it at busy times, but we do need to be respectful of Church staff and volunteers and the families who are trying to access the Early Learning Centre.  There are designated car parks for the drop off and pick up of students at the Early Learning Centre and it is disappointing that I have been told that some of our families are parking in these designated car parks and are stopping those families from accessing them.  If we cannot be respectful and use the car park as the Church requests, they will have no option but to block school access all together.

A further reminder to parents of students in Prep and particularly Yr 1.  If you choose to park and bring your child into school in the mornings and wait with them until the bell, this is under B Block only.  However, you can always use the Stop Drop and Go to drop your child off.  The Stop Drop and Go is supervised by school staff from 8:15am in the morning and the students are then supervised under D Block and supervised to the line up areas at the bell.  The Stop Drop and Go zone is also supervised in the afternoon until 3:15pm. We should be gradually providing students with more independence to cope with morning routines and afterschool routines on their own, especially once they are in Yr 1.  We are noticing that many Yr 1 parents are staying at school in the morning and that the Yr 1 line-up area is very congested. This makes morning routines difficult for teachers and overwhelming for the students. We ask that you be mindful of this in the morning and say goodbye when the bell goes so that students can line up independently ready for their teacher.

YEAR 6 GRADUATION

At the end of the year on the last Thursday of school we will hold our school Graduation Ceremony as usual in the morning during school time, as an opportunity for the school to officially farewell our graduating students. On that same day we do the guard of honour for our Yr 6’s from the front of the school at the end of the day.

In recent years a group of parents have also organised a graduation dinner and dance at a local venue on the Thursday evening.  However, due to rules around this event and fundraising for this event this has not been a sanctioned school event or a P and C event and has been designated a private function. This means that fundraising could not occur to offset costs for our families. 

This year we have decided as a school to take on the graduation dinner/dance as a sanctioned school activity which will allow the school Student Council to fundraise, if necessary and the school to organise the activity.  This will ensure the activity is accessible by all families and will alleviate the need for a parent graduation committee. Instead, the school will be asking for parent help with particular activities leading up to the event as part of fundraising, decorations etc.  We look forward to sharing more information as the event gets closer.

Till next time,

Mrs Anne Robinson

Principal

BEFORE SCHOOL PROCESSES – Some Key Reminders

• Parents of Prep and Year One are not expected to remain with their children before school. You are more than welcome to drop them under D Block where they will be supervised by staff.
• Any Prep students and other students without parents must be seated under D Block.
• Year One parents are encouraged to now drop their children off to under D Block supervision area. If Year One parents choose to remain with their children, they must be seated under A Block. 
• When the bell rings at 8:45am, Prep and Year 1 parents are asked to move to the side to allow students to line up independently and without obstruction.
• Playgrounds are out of bounds to all children before and after school even if under supervision of their parents.
• Students being dropped at the front stop, drop and go zone must enter the school through the supervised gate closest to the library.

 

 

Facebook

Our school has a very active Facebook page with frequent 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. 

If you have a Facebook page, we encourage all of our parents to follow our school 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.  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 focusses on respect for teaching and learning.  Students are reflecting on how their behaviour choices affect teaching and learning in their classroom. We will be discussing with students a teacher’s right to teach and student’s right to learn.

In particular we are focussing on the learning behaviours of:

• Following teacher instructions
• Staying on task
• Asking for help

To positively reinforce this Pillar Practice, teachers will be handing out Gotchas this fortnight for the relationship pillar (green) and learning pillar (blue).    

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.

Student Council

The Student Council has organised their first Subway Meal Deal for the year and you can order your subway and drink until Thursday 14^th March at 9am.   These will be delivered on Monday 18^th March in Week 9 of this term. 

Congratulations to the winners of the first Student Council colouring in competition announced on Assembly this week.

Millie L in 2A.

Alexia H in 4B.

New colouring in competition sheets will be available from the library or the office.  You are allowed to take these home to work on them.  Your finished sheet must have your name and class written on the back and be dropped in the box in the office by Monday morning before assembly.

Parents are asked to please discuss our behaviour expectations regarding use of the toilets.  The student council would like to remind everyone to respect each other’s privacy in the toilets by not looking over or under the stalls. 

The student council is also concerned about some student swearing that is being heard around the school.  Our goal is for our school to be a place where we only use kind words – not swearing or using bad words.  So please think before you speak and be polite and respectful of others.  

Finally, the Student Council would like to introduce House Mascots to Enoggera State School.  A team mascot is a person, animal or object adopted by a team as a symbolic figure, especially to bring their team good luck.  The Student Council will be running a competition for students to design a mascot for their house….Waratah and Banksia.  You can design and draw your idea for your house mascot! Entry sheets will be available from class teachers and are due in to the office by the end of the term.

Harmony Day

Enoggera State School will be celebrating Harmony Day on Thursday March 21^st.  Harmony Day is a celebration that recognises our diversity and brings together Australians from all different backgrounds.  It’s about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone.  Students are invited to wear either clothing representing a different culture, or the colour orange for anti-bullying.  There is no cost associated with this dress up day.

Youth Leadership Academy

On Wednesday 27^th March, our Year 6 Student Leaders have been invited to attend the Youth Leadership Academy Primary Dream and Lead Conference as part of their student leader training. Dream and Lead is a one-day, highly engaging event designed to support primary school students in discovering their leadership potential, whilst providing them with strong foundations to succeed. Throughout the day, students will participate in purposeful activities developing their problem-solving skills, and increasing confidence and independence.  Facilitated by internationally trained young leaders, students will recognise the impact they can create as a young person.  The 9 captains will be travelling to the Brisbane Convention Centre in South Brisbane via train with Mrs Burrows to attend this special event.

 

Easter Bonnet Parade

Our annual Easter Bonnet Parade will be held on Thursday 28^th March on the multipurpose court under the new roof! This event is for Prep and Year 1. Students will be walked down to the court after marking the roll in the morning with their bonnets on. Bonnets will be made by the students in their classes in preparation for this event.  Parents are welcome to attend and the audience area will be around the edges of the tennis court on the South Pine Road end. Each class will walk the parade circuit twice. There will then be an opportunity for parents to dance with the students for two songs after the parade. We look forward to seeing the students in the easter bonnets this year.

A friendly reminder to parents that toys and trinkets are not permitted to be brought to school.  Currently, there are students attaching novelty keyrings to their hats which are not part of our uniform policy, and are a safety risk during play.  These need to be removed from hats and perhaps could be attached to school bags instead.  Students are also starting to bring to school small toys that are causing issues with distractibility during learning and arguments during break times.  Please ensure that your children are not bringing these types of items to school.  Thanks for your support.

Ms Tina Burrows

Deputy Principal

Head of Department - Curriculum

Hello Parents and Caregivers,

Happy Week 8!

Lots of invoices have been sent out to families over the last two weeks, so please ensure that you are checking your QParents and emails regularly for invoice details.

If you believe you may have a student credit on your account, please contact me direct to apply this credit as you are unable to allocate credits through QParents online.

Year 5/6 Camp

Camp invoices for 2024 have now been sent out to all families along with all the relevant paperwork. This year we have invoiced the total amount of the camp and full payment is due by Friday the 3^rd of May.

You will be able to make partial payments via BPOINT online, if you would like to pay in increments. To do this open your invoice. Roll to the bottom of your invoice and click on the BPOINT link. From there it will bring up a new screen and you will be able to insert the invoice number, student name and amount you would like to pay.

Partial payments cannot be completed through QParents. If you wish to make a partial payment, you can only use BPOINT or pay in the office via EFTPOS.

Online Consents

A reminder again that we are still waiting on a few families to complete their online consents through QParents. These consents went live at the end of 2023. All prep families have also been emailed out today regarding the online consent and state school consent through QParents.

The State School Consent and Online Consents due dates have been extended for parents who haven’t completed this yet until the end of the term. It is very important you fill these consents in online so that we have the most up to date details surrounding your child. If you are having trouble, please feel free to contact administration and we can try to assist.

If you have any other financial inquiries, please contact me directly on 07 3550 1333 or email me on bsm@enoggerass.eq.edu.au

Have a fantastic week!

Ellie Mastrapostolos

Business Services Manager

Student of the week awards for Monday 11 March 2024

Musical News

Our Lead Cast rehearsals are well underway! Students have began working on character development, storylines, songs, choreography and dialogue. We cannot wait to start seeing the students work together in their Sky and Earth casts preparing for our performance. 

All forms should now be handed in. If you've handed all forms in and your performer hasn't received their script, please see Ms Georgia Dunstan or Mrs Rebecca Rees in the EPAC office to collect your script.

Musical Ensemble Information

Attention Grade 4 to 6.

An email went home to all families in year 4 -6 on Friday regarding our Ensemble packs. We are now ready to start casting our ensemble performers for our Giants in the Sky Musical. If you're child has already been assigned an ensemble role during the first round of offers, you can now come and collect your ensemble pack.

For those who would like to sign up to be in the musical in an ensemble role, please ask your child to come and collect an information pack from Ms Georgia Dunstan or Mrs Rebecca Rees from the EPAC office this week. If you prefer a digital copy we can send a pack via email. The pack includes information about the musical, what role the ensemble plays in our musical, as well as all the official forms required for rehearsals and performances.

Attention Grade Prep to 3.

Don't worry we haven't forgot about you. More information regarding ensemble roles for our junior school will be sent out soon. Please keep an eye out for emails and information in the newsletter

Backstage/Tech Crew

If you're in Grade 4 - 6 and interested in being a part of the backstage / tech crew, the expression of interest signup sheet is on the EPAC office door. Please write your details on the sheet as we'll be releasing some information to you soon.

Ms Georgia Dunstan & Mrs Rebecca Rees

Performing Arts Team

Class Swimming

Please remember to check your students’ belongings to ensure they are still named – we have had quite a few items over the last couple of weeks left behind which have not been named making it difficult to return their owners.

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 me at aawoo0@eq.edu.au  

A wonderful achievement for 4B – they are all changed and lined up within 7 minutes. Well done!

Cross Country:

The Senior Cross Country will be held on Monday 25^th March. We are still confirming some of the details, but watch this space for more information.

Students aged 9 – 12 in 2024 are eligible to attempt to qualify for the City District Cross Country which will be held early in Term 2.  Please understand that we have a limited number of openings per age group and students must demonstrate that they are able to complete the distance for their age without walking at our school carnival.  9yr – 1500m, 10yrs – 2km and 11&12 yrs – 3km.

Please note below the corrected year of birth for the distance events.

12 year old (2012) – 3km event – boys/girls (For District Selection)

11year old (2013) – 3km event – boys/girls (For District Selection)

10 year old (2014) – 2km event – boys/girls (For District Selection)

9 year old (2015) -1.5km event – boys/girls (For District Selection)

Running Club

Cross country is about consistent pace over distance, not speed. See you on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday mornings for some practice.

There has been some great participation and I hope that the practice makes perfect for the big race.

District Trials

Congratulations to Sienna G for coming first in her backstroke event at Met North trials. Her next swim is towards the end of the month and all of us here at ESS wish her the best of luck in the individual event and team relay.

Picture courtesy of Carlee G.

Toby V was also at the event in his freestyle. He swam fast, but unfortunately he didn’t qualify for the next stage.

3 on 3 Basketball

We have been running a 3 on 3 basketball game for the last week weeks and while finals day has had a few stop and starts, I am pleased to say a big congratulations for Levi, Mason and Toby who won the competition. The final was very competitive with the two teams very evenly matched.

Well done to all the competing teams, I hope you enjoyed the activity.

A netball competition will be next, so start getting you teams ready!

Andrew Woodrick

HPE Teacher

Dance News

Dance Ensembles are well underway with students attending their first rehearsals last week. In our first lesson, students began learning a small section of a dance which they will work on in preparation for Arts on Stage at the end of the year and hopefully will also perform at an assembly and at the Winter Soiree in Term 2. 

In our first lesson back we were missing many students in our Red and Green Ensemble groups. Below is the reminder of the Dance Ensemble times. Please ensure students are coming to our lessons as it is part of their commitment to the group. 

Boys Crew - Monday first break after eating

Dance Ensemble Green - Wednesday second break after eating

Dance Ensemble Blue - Thursday 8am before school

Dance Ensemble Red - Thursday first break after eating

Permission forms have now been sent home and are due back to Miss Georgia Dunstan on Monday 18^th March. If you missed one, please see Miss Dunstan in the EPAC office on Mondays, Wednesdays or Thursdays.

I look forward to seeing everyone at their next rehearsal!

Georgia Dunstan

Dance and Drama Specialist Teacher

This term the children have been immersed in learning how to innovate poems. They have been exposed to different topics to learn more detail about rhyme, rhythm and figurative language. Over the next couple of weeks, they are excited to present their poetry to their classmates, explaining why an audience would enjoy it.

In Mathematics, we have been working on efficient strategies for math mentals, learning how to use our ‘think board’ to problem solve and collecting and representing data into graphs.

Year 2 Teachers

Richard Lin, Julie Chapman, Jaime Hall

P&C Meeting & AGM -Tuesday 26 March 6.15pm

Are you looking to be part of the P&C. We are looking for parents and carers to be part of the Executive team in whatever capacity you may have. The roles can be split over various members to help with workload.

Nomination forms for all the Executive Positions can be emailed to you directly or found in the office. Please submit completed nomination forms by 12pm on the day of the meeting to: pcsecretary@esspandc.com.au

All existing members who wish to continue their membership, will need to submit a new application for membership and sign the code of conduct.

We encourage you to complete your membership forms and submit them to the email above prior to the meeting, regardless of whether you can attend the meeting. These forms can be found in the office.

We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible.

 Frozen Fridays

Every Friday from 3pm-3.15pm we will be selling $1 ice-blocks from the tuckshop for the rest of Term 1 to celebrate the start of the weekend and cool us down in this hot weather.  Cash only. See our flyer above. See you all there.

Parents, please note that all children must be supervised while enjoying Frozen Fridays, they mustn’t be running through the gardens or on scooters.

Thank you to our volunteers who have already signed up, If you would like to volunteer to be one of our Frozen Friday Friends or have any questions, please get in touch via email vicepresident@esspandc.com.au or sign up via the link

volunteersignup.org/48R9L

2024 Premier's Coding Challenge

Link: Premier’s Coding Challenge

Students, Years 4-6 are invited to use Coding platforms like Scratch to invent a way to help our school. See the link above for suggestions. Prizes for pair and individual divisions are a $500 robot for each student, a special guest visit to our school and morning tea at the Qld Museum, with the Minister of Education, Hon. Dianne Farmer.

Come to Wednesday Computer Club for more information or register online.

Student Access

QLearn is the school’s online learning portal and Student SharePoint is the launching point to access emails and also files they created at school.  Please encourage your child/ren to share these sites with you by using their EQ usernames and passwords. These sites can be accessed using telephone, iPad/ tablet or computers.

Parents/guardians without digital devices are encouraged to drop by the school and contact me from the administration block Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings, to devise a solution. Alternatively send me a note via the school Administration.  

Michael Harris

Digital Technologies Teacher

We are looking for School Crossing Supervisors at Enoggera State School to help get our kids safely to and from school.

School Crossing Supervisors must be available for work in both morning and afternoon shifts on a rostered basis (in all weather conditions).

In return we offer the following:

• Casual pay-rate starting at $35.35 per hour
• Relief opportunities on your days off
• Long service leave entitlements

Commencement of employment for the successful applicant is dependent on:

• The favourable outcome of a pre-employment health assessment
• A Positive Notice Blue Card (you do not need to have a blue card to apply for the position)

If this sounds like something you would be interested in, give us a call on (07) 3863 9871 to speak with your local Road Safety Officer or email zillmere_road_safety@tmr.qld.gov.au for more information.