Principal's Message 

What a wonderful two weeks it has been at ENPS! 

Student Toilets

The biggest and most exciting highlight of the past two weeks has of course been the preview and sneak peek at our new student toilets! According to the Year Ones, it was the “best day ever!” when they got to walk through the new facilities on Wednesday. Word on the street is that the new water bubblers even taste like lemonade! (I assure you they are just water though!) 

This week all year levels have had the opportunity to walk through and take a look, while back in class they have been reviewing and discussing our expectations for behaviour in the new toilets and how we can keep the new facilities clean. It was even great to see all of the parents and carers who took advantage to also having a sneak peek this morning! 

While they are not completely finished just yet, we do hope to have final handover by the end of next week and that the new facilities are operational for Week 10! We will certainly bid a very fond farewell to the relocatable toilets when that happens! 

Please remember that at all times, parents/carers are not allowed to enter or use our school toilet facilities. This is in line with Child Safety Guidelines.

National Reconciliation Week

Our Sorry Day and Reconciliation Week assemblies were once again a highlight. What our children are learning about now is so very different from what so many of us as adults learnt when we were at school. I am so proud to know that our students have these opportunities to learn from, value and respect our First Nations people. Sorry Day and Reconciliation Week are hugely important to developing all of our understandings and being allies to our Indigenous cultures is a major step in that reconciliation. I sincerely thank all of our families who share this with us. I unfortunately missed attending the Reconciliation Week assembly in person, as Craig Mather and I attended the DET Anti-Racism Professional Learning day last Friday, however I have heard so many wonderful reflections from the assembly last Friday. 

You may have also noticed that some of the poles in the Inclusive Play Space have been painted. As a part of our staff wellbeing, we had a session last week where a number of staff members (including myself) opted in to an art activity painting the poles. I had a lovely time painting our Wominjeka pole! 

Anti-racism at ENPS

As mentioned, I attended an Anti-racism professional learning last week with Craig Mather (Health and Wellbeing teacher). Racism, prejudice and discrimination have no place in our school or community, and as a school we are committed to ensuring anti-racism is embedded in our values, practices and actions. Craig and I, along with our Executive Team and staff will now apply this enhanced lens on anti-racism, prejudice and discrimination to further review our school’s Guiding Statements, School-wide Positive Behaviour (SWPB) and expectations matrix, our Programme of Inquiry and practices across and throughout our school. We hope our community shares the message too!

Kinder Visits and 2025 Foundation Enrolments 

To add to my highlights reel, last Thursday, we had a wonderful visit from Villa Bambini kindergarten and nineteen of their four year old kinder students. It was a hoot showing them around the school, teaching them how to play Gaga Ball, and reading a story! I think I had more fun than they did! We love getting to know our future Foundation students and supporting their transition to school journey with them and we look forward to some of our other local kinders coming for a visit soon too!

Don’t forget that 2025 Foundation enrolments close on Friday 26th July. We already have been inundated with applications to enrol from both within and beyond our school boundary and places will be limited. We urge all families with a child ready for school in 2025 to please get your enrolments in as soon as possible. 

Staffing Update

Well there is certainly something in the water at ENPS and we have another baby on the way! Congratulations to Shannon Garner and her partner Jason who will be welcoming their first baby in November. We are thrilled for Shannon and Jason. This makes baby number four on the way this year for ENPS staff and we are super excited to be expanding our school family with these new additions! 

Semester One Reports and Parent Teacher Interviews

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. 

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

This term, we have decided to provide both in person or an online interview option for Parent-Teacher Interviews. If you would prefer an online interview through Webex, please make contact with your child's classroom teacher/s to arrange a Webex link for your allocated time. 

Finally, to wrap up two big weeks, a big congratulations to Nathan L (6MP) for coming second in the Divisional Cross Country event last week. Nathan will now compete at the Regional competition in Week 10. 

A sensational effort from Nathan, as well as Mia (5EW) and Jay (6CP) who competed at the Divisional event last week. 

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

Kate Barletta

Principal