Principal's Message
Welcome back to Term Three! What a whirlwind two weeks it has been too! There have been, and are so many wonderful things happening at ENPS. The 100 Days of School celebration from the Foundation students today was an absolute highlight! How incredibly special it was. And our assembly was an absolute hoot! We all had so much fun together!
Trivia Night Tonight!
I also can’t wait for tonight’s Trivia Night fundraiser! If last year’s is anything to go by, it will certainly be a fun night. Thank you to everyone who is attending, donated or supported our school through the the event! The Silent Auction was a great success and with a further live auction tonight, we are sure to raise lots of money for our school.
As a government school, we rely on fundraising to continuously improve our facilities and to provide our students with fantastic resources and equipment. We are so grateful for your support. A huge shout out has to go to Tanya Ward, Teresa Heale, Ben Suter and the Community Engagement Team for their tremendous organisation for the night and to Tony and Gabby Cogur and the team at Laila Reception, for their generous support of our night with the venue.
NAIDOC Week
Thank you also to all that attended our special NAIDOC Week assembly last Friday afternoon. Every year we are more and more impressed in the learning of our students, their reflections and the power of belonging and connection for everyone in our community. At ENPS, everyone truly does belong.
To coincide with NAIDOC Week, our staff have over the two past weeks participated in Cultural Understanding and Safety Training (CUST). Facilitated by our regional Koorie Education Support Officers (KESOs) we have all broadened our personal knowledge of true Australian history and of the culture of our First Nations people. We hope to, in the future be offer this training to our families too.
Kinder Visits
This week we also had our second kinder visit for the year. Our local kindergartens are busily preparing their little people for 'big school' and we love having them come and visit us at ENPS. This week Essendon Journey Kindergarten and Child Care came for a visit with their twenty-four year old kinder students. We had lots of fun playing on the Foundation playground, having a look around the school (even spotting some siblings and cousins!) and having story time with me.
Staffing
There are a few changes to our ENPS staffing for Term Three. Last week we had a few new faces start at ENPS and we even farewelled one as Miss Mina headed off on Family Leave. Lindi De Angelis has replaced Mina Stephens as our Performing Arts teacher, while Lachlan Anderson has replaced Christine Purcell in 6CP (now 6LA). Ruby Ziogas has stepped in to 3LD for Term Three to fill Lisa Do’s leave for the term and we have also had Samantha Cook join our Education Support team.
In support of the Department of Education’s (DET) Teacher Re-Engagement Initiative (TREI) we have also had two further returning teachers join our team. Colleen Beasley has joined in to FAM alongside Ainslie McArthur, while Kerry Herrmann will be starting next week in Visual Arts alongside Nicki Myszka. Colleen and Kerry will undertake a 40 day placement at ENPS to re-engage in the teaching profession.
We also have a couple of staff members capitalising on their Long Service Leave for the start of this term with Julie Schenk (Library) and Jennifer Evans (IT) away on leave currently. We thank the wonderful parents who have stepped in to volunteer their time to assist in the library during Julie’s absence! We are so grateful as this really keeps our library operating while Julie is away.
New Student Toilets
We have been so excited to finally open our new student toilet facilities and the students all agree, they are amazing! We have all been working hard to ensure safe and responsible use of the facilities and we thank our families for reinforcing this at home too.
ENPS Expectations Series
We acknowledge that we have been filling up your Compass feeds a lot lately with our ENPS Expectations Series of posts. These reminders of our student and community expectations are really important and we value the support of parents and carers in working in partnership with us so our expectations are clear and understood.
So far we have shared our expectations for the new student toilets, behaviour in the class and in the yard, school uniform and for eating time. In the coming weeks we will continue to share our expectations for Digital Citizenship and device use and school attendance.
As an ENPS Executive Team, we value clear, transparent and timely communication. We see communication as a shared responsibility and by documenting and sharing our expectations ensures all members of our community are accountable to them. We would rather over communicate to build trust, transparency and integrity, than not communicate enough with you. We hope our communication helps you feel informed and connected to our school.
Parent/Carer Opinion Survey
As also communicated this week, throughout next week, the DET’s Parent and Carer Opinion Survey will be distributed to all ENPS families. The survey is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour, and student engagement. The survey is optional, but we encourage and appreciate your participation.
Our school will use the survey results to assist in identifying areas for improvement and professional development needs in the school, to target school planning and improvement strategies. Please keep an eye out for that next week. Our school staff are also currently participating in the DET's School Staff Opinion Survey and likewise we value to voice and input of our staff in developing our future directions and improvement strategies. Earlier this year our Year Four to Six students completed the Student Attitudes to School Survey too.
PSW and House Team Polo Shirts Update
Word from PSW is that our wonderful newly designed House Team polo shirts will be made available in store and online in the coming weeks. We are very excited and are now planning a launch of the designs and shirts with a traditional smoking ceremony with the support of the Wurundjeri Council and our artist, Daen Sainsbury-Smith. Keep an eye out for updates!
We are also excited to announce that we have a further three year agreement with PSW to continue as our school uniform provider. School Council have just finalised a procurement process and are proud to continue our partnership with PSW into the future.
We are also excited to have started working with PSW on our 2025 Year Six Grad Wear! The Year Fives are very excited, so keep an eye out for that too!
2025 Enrolments and Planning
It may only be half way through the year, however 2025 planning is now well underway! We have been thrilled to receive in excess of one hundred and forty 2025 Foundation enrolment applications, however we will only have capacity to take 88. This is, of course, bittersweet. We wish we had the capacity to take all students wanting to come to ENPS, however we simply do not have the classrooms or room to do so. Our offers for Foundation places will begin from Monday.
In 2025 we will be aiming to continue our four classes at each year level, maintaining our straight grade structure, however this will be determined by our enrolment numbers in our Year One to Six year levels. We are so fortunate to have such small class sizes this year at ENPS and moving forward we will need to ensure a financially viable structure is in place based on enrolment numbers across the school to maintain this or explore alternant options to ensure best outcomes for all.
We have lots of wonderful things to look forward to this term across the school; the Year Four camp preparation is in full swing for Term Four, the Year Threes and Fives have their intensive swimming lessons coming up, there are writing celebrations ahead with the return of our ENPS Writing Competition, the Year Sixes are very excited to begin their Exhibition of Learning and begin their transition to secondary school, and even our 2025 Foundation transition turns up another notch as we get ready for Term Four and welcoming our future students and new families for orientation. So much is going on!
Thank you again to all of our families for your ongoing support and for joining in and being a part of our wonderful school community. We are so grateful and proud of how our school community works together.
Bring on the Olympic Games and go Aussies!!!
Kate Barletta
Principal