Principal's Message

What a fun two weeks it has been at ENPS! Unfortunately I have missed this week following an extended stint in the Royal Children’s Hospital with my own child, however I have still managed to hear of all the wonderful things happening over the week!

Yesterday via FaceTime I happily joined our Week Seven Student of the Week token recipients Elena (1MH) and Fletcher (1MV) as they lunched with Serena Walker and friends Elisa and Saskia. Last week I also had the pleasure of lunching with Jai (1MH) and Jasper (4IW) and their friends Tanishq and Isaac. Well done to our recipients for demonstrating our school values and being being safe, kind and/or respectful!

The excitement was definitely in the air last week with some of the players from the Essendon Football Club coming to visit the Year Twos! There were certainly some very excited staff too! As a mad Bomber fan, Miss Eliza had to get her photo with them! The reflections from the Year Twos at assembly on Friday were also very timely regarding safe, equitable and fair play.

If you have called or visited the office this week, you may have had the privilege of one of our School Captains answering the phones or greeting you at reception. Each year we love providing our student leaders with the opportunity to be interns in the office during break times. Keep an eye out for Engy, Astin or Sam this term, and our House Captains next term!

Staffing Update

As previously communicated, Adrian Jones (5AJ) will be leaving ENPS at the end of this term as he and his family head off on a new adventure to Japan from Term Three. After 11 years at ENPS, Adrian will be taking up a teaching position at Horizon International School in Yokohama. While a bittersweet time as we prepare to farewell Adrian for the coming 18 months, we are excited to announce Adrian’s replacement in 5AJ will be Jonah Garvie. We are thrilled to have Jonah join our staff team at ENPS and know that he will fit right into 5AJ, the Year Five team and our ENPS community. Jonah will begin working across Year Five from Monday 23rd June as he gets to know everyone, before taking over 5AJ from Monday 21st July for the remainder of the year.

We can now also confirm that Caimeizi Li will also be beginning with ENPS from Term Three as our new Chinese Mandarin teacher, relacing Pamela Pan. Pamela has decided to reduce her teaching load to concentrate on her position at Marcellin College.

We will farewell both Adrian and Pamela at the end of the term.

Semester One Reports and Home-School Partnership Meetings

With Term Two coming towards the end, teachers are have been very busy moderating learning and assessments, and writing Semester One Student Reports. An absolutely huge amount of work goes into these reports and at ENPS we pride ourselves on the breadth and depth of vertical and horizontal moderation (within and across year levels) that is undertaken to ensure student outcomes are accurate and consistent. Multiple sources of data (qualitative and quantitative) are analysed and reviewed to provide an evidenced based outcome for your child’s learning. These Semester One Student Reports will be published on Compass in the second last week of the term (Week 10). You will receive notification when reports go live, information on how to access the reports, as well as a comprehensive explanation and outline of what the report covers.

Please take note that, as previously communicated through Compass and in our newsletters, the Semester One Reports have undergone substantial change in 2025 based on the Victorian Department of Education’s curriculum, assessment and reporting review. I encourage families to please revisit (in this newsletter) these changes and developments as to know what to expect.

Home and School Partnership Meetings

In line with our Semester reports going home, our Home and School Partnership Meetings, Student and Learning Support Group (SSG/LSG) meetings will also be held in the coming weeks. Our Semester One Home and School Partnership Meetings will be held in the second last week of term. Student and Learning Support Group meetings for students funded through the Disability Inclusion (DI) Reform, Program for Students with Disabilities (PSD) or as identified by the school as requiring additional support, will be scheduled and communicated with those families shortly and be held across Week Nine, Ten and Eleven, this term.

Parent/carers will be provided with either in person or an online interview option for Home and School Partnership Meetings. If you would prefer an online interview, please make contact with the classroom teacher/s to arrange that at your allocated time.

Student Attendance

Also aligned with the coming Home and School Partnership Meetings, your child’s individual attendance will be highlighted as we continue to prioritise and reinforce the importance of being at school and on time every day.

At Essendon North Primary School, we acknowledge the impact that absences can have on a child’s education and as a part of our school’s priority towards student learning, wellbeing and engagement, it is a goal for us to actively work with families to reduce the number of days individual students have away from school.

Our Attendance Policy provides extensive information, reiterating that every day counts. There is no set point at which absence becomes a concern; however, the following categories can help to identify patterns of absence:

Regular attendees: miss less than 10 days a year (less than 5% absence)
Risk of chronic absence: miss between 10 and 19 days a year (5-10% absence)
Chronically absent: miss 20+ days (10%+ absence; average 1 day per fortnight)

Classroom teachers will be provided with absence and late data for your child for Semester One, 2025. Based on your child’s attendance in Semester One, this may be raised with you through your Home and School Partnership Meetings for your attention.

We certainly acknowledge that there are a number of significant reasons for a child to miss school, including your family circumstance and medical reasons. However, we also recognise how quickly days absent here and there can add up, and for whatever the reason, before you know it a child has missed a significant amount of school. You can find more information and supportive tips in this Attendance Resource.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing you all next week.

Kate Barletta

Principal