Principal's Message

What a great couple of weeks at ENPS. The past two weeks have been so much fun however I think we are all eagerly awaiting the school holidays after an eleven week term! I had the best time as guest speaker to the Year Fives last Friday as a part of their leadership day!

A big shout out to all of our teaching staff this week following a fantastic two nights of Home and School Partnerships meetings, along with all of the parents and carers who made the time and effort to attend (especially in the cold!). We certainly value the time with you and hope you did too. 

Another shout out this week to Sam S (4CT) who last week competed in the Regional Cross Country. Sam’s effort was fantastic coming 52nd out of 97 runners in his event. What an absolutely incredible achievement and representative for our school. Congratulations Sam, we are so proud of you! 

Congratulations also to our School Wide Positive Behaviour token lunch recipients for the past two weeks! I had a wonderful lunch last Thursday with Grace (3JK) who bought along Erin (3KO), and yesterday Serena Walker had a fabulous lunch with Tamer (FLT) and Leandro (2LK) and their friends Chloe and Matthew.

Staffing Updates

As we head towards the end of term, we have a few staffing updates. As previously communicated, Adrian Jones leaves us next week to head off on an adventure teaching in Japan. Jonah Garvie has this week joined our team as a part of the handover before taking over 5AJ next term. Caimeizi (Mei) Li will also be joining us next term, as Pamela Pan finishes up at ENPS too. While we welcome Jonah and Mei, we wish Adrian and Pamela all the very best! 

Kirsty Johnson has also joined the Foundation team for the coming weeks working alongside Ainslie McArthur in FAM and the Foundation team. 

Next term we welcome back Joseph Labagala to his full time position as Grounds and Maintenance Manager, which means we will be farewelling Stuart Upton who has been filling in since the start of the year in the grounds role. Stuart has certainly become a part of our ENPS family and we thank him for all of his incredible efforts in keeping our school looking incredible. The kids will really miss seeing Stuart every morning so make sure you give him a shout out if you see him next week! 

Nicola Veneris is currently on leave travelling through Europe, returning for the start of Term Three. In Term Three we will also see Jan Clark, Jenn Evans, Craig Mather, Angelina Cetin, Lana Thomas, Ainslie McArthur and myself all taking an extended break after the holidays. Craig and myself will be taking the first week off, Lana, Angelina, Ainslie and our technician, Jenn, are taking off the first two weeks, while Jan will be off for the first three weeks of the term. Arrangements are being finalised for leave cover and we will communicate this with families of the classes once confirmed next week. While I am away, Alice McKenzie will be acting principal in my absence until Tuesday 29th July. 

Next term will also see the return of Sian Wilson from Family Leave. Sian is returning into PE and will be taking over Sue Elsbury’s PE classes for the remainder of the year. Sue will be off for Term Three to recover from back surgery and upon her return will fill a variety of roles. We look forward to welcoming Sian back and wish Sue all the best with her back! 

Attendance

At as part of this week’s Home and School Partnership meetings, we have highlighted the importance of being at school and on time every day. Teachers have been provided with attendance data for Semester One for every child and as appropriate, have followed up with families through these partnership meetings. We will continue to be closely monitoring absences, lateness and early departures next term. As an insight into what attendance data looks like, I shared the below information with staff this week as a clear indicator of why we continue to raise absences, late arrivals and early departures with families. While we don’t want children to be at school if/when sick, if they can be at school, then they should be at school. Please understand that even being late or picked up early on a regular basis has a impact on learning. 

Learning Environment Projects

From the start of Term Three we aim to be using a new pedestrian access gate for Gillies Street. The smaller gate closer to the Performing Arts Hall has over time become too much of a safety hazard due to the exposed peppercorn tree roots and we have therefore made the decision to relocate the entrance gate to the double gates closer to the supervised crossing. We will be relocating the bike racks and making way for an improved storage system in Term Three for bikes and scooters as well. 

Prior to Term Three we will also be upgrading the grounds with high visibility paint to poles, posts and railings and we hope to have made a start to some upcoming playground refurbishments on the Year 3/4 and 5/6 playgrounds. The Junior School Council have been very keen to see our playgrounds fixed up and have been working with Mr Smith to make this happen. Keep an eye out for updates! 

CCTV Surveillance System and Improved Security

Due to a recent string of security incidents, particularly during out of school hours, we have had to investigate improved security around the school. In the coming months we aim to have a Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) surveillance system installed to help monitor unwanted visitors and keep our students and school safe. We will certainly communicate more once finalised. Please see the CCTV page in this newsletter for more information. 

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing you all next week for our final week of Term Two! I can't wait for the celebration of the Foundation student's 100 Days of School next Thursday! Don’t forget also that there is an early finish next Friday at 2:30pm. Our final assembly next Friday will be at 2pm. 

As this is the final newsletter for the term, I wish everyone a safe and happy holidays and look forward to a wonderful term ahead in Term Three! I will see you all in Week Two, hopefully baring a sunny afterglow from a few weeks in Singapore and Thailand! 

Kate Barletta

Principal