Principal's Message 

Welcome back to school for 2024! It has been a very smooth and positive start returning to school. It has been so marvellous to have our students back, watch all of our Foundation students settle into school and see our Year Sixes off to camp! And how fabulous it was to mark the start of Lunar New Year at this afternoon's assembly with a special presentation and dragon dance! The splashes of red and gold in the gym (and on staff) were a great addition to the joyous celebration!

It is hard to believe two weeks have flown past already and all of our students are now settled into their new year levels and classrooms.

A huge congratulations to our staff for having everything set and ready to go. The two curriculum days at the start of the term were certainly put to great use and this was very evident with new learning spaces set up and ready to go, along with exceptional curriculum planning, learning and teaching experiences. I am always blown away by how hard our staff work preparing and setting everything up in their rooms ready for day one. 

It was also wonderful to see so many of our Year One - Five families take the opportunity to come in for our VIP and open classroom afternoon on Wednesday. This was a great way to meet our teaching staff and for our Year One - Five students to show their special people around their classrooms and school.  

It has been an exciting start to the year too for our new School Captains for 2024. Already Saanvi and Harry have taken to their roles with confidence and excitement! Find out all about them on the School Captains page. 

A big welcome to our new families, students and staff this year. Our community at ENPS is really something special, so we hope you all make the most of opportunities to create connections and sense of belonging too. Keep an eye out for our start of year community picnic coming up on Friday 23rd February at Woodlands Park. This is a great way to meet other families and celebrate the start to the school year together. (See the following page.)

Staffing Update

We have had a number of new faces join our staff team in 2024. We welcome Samantha Hanks and Cooper the Therapy Dog (Foundation), Molly Todd (Year Two), Kellie Oxlade and James Reid (Year Three), Imogen Westcott (Year Four), Emma Wasson (Year Five) and Pamela Pan (Mandarin) to ENPS. David Underwood-Harris has also joined our teaching team in a permanent position, working alongside Ange Collins (our Literacy Learning Specialist) in 4HC. We have also welcomed new Education Support staff members, Annalise Galea and Chantelle Crisci.

In the coming week we will also finalise a further classroom teaching position to work alongside our Mathematics Learning Specialist, Melissa Paola, in 6MP.

We have also had our first wedding for the year with Imogen Westcott and her partner Nick, tying the knot just before school returned.  

In the coming weeks we will also farewell Hannah Clark as she prepares for Family Leave and the pending arrival our her first baby with her husband, Marcus.

For our TeamKids families, you will also notice Rachel has returned from Family Leave too in the afternoons. We welcome Rachel back to ENPS!

For your information we have again included the 2024 Staff List in this newsletter for you - this way you get to know who is who and what we all do! 

This year we are also implementing the Department of Education’s new Mental Health in Primary Schools initiative. While some schools across Victoria have already been undertaking this initiative last year, our Moonee Valley Network (and Western Melbourne) schools have just begun. This is an exciting change and we have Serena Walker, as our Mental Health in Primary Schools leader for 2024. 

Building Works

Student Toilet Facilities

This year our student toilet building works has continued. While works have been significantly delayed, and are now expected to be completed at the end of March, it has been encouraging to see the new facilities taking shape over the past couple of weeks. 

The plans below will provide an idea of what to expect, along with how it looks now. 

Nature Play Space

Our Nature Play Space (beside the Year Five/Six playground and oval on the Gillies Street side) has also had developments over the school holidays. This is an exciting community project, supported by the Essendon North Rotary Club and the Strathmore Men’s Shed. Throughout 2023 our tunnel and stepping logs were built and installed by the Strathmore Men’s Shed. Just before school return, Rod, Steve and the team from the Men’s Shed installed our tee pee. We are so thrilled to have worked with the Essendon North Rotary Club and the Strathmore Men’s Shed on this project and are incredibly grateful for their work, efforts and support of our school. This has certainly been a wonderful inclusion to our outdoor spaces and another alternative for imaginative play for our students. 

Outdoor Learning Resurfacing

After a year of phenomenal fundraising by our Community Engagement Team and school community, this week our resurfacing of our outdoor areas has begun on the upper basketball court (between Year Six and Foundation). There has certainly been a lot of noise as Tuff Turf has been cleaning, grinding back and preparing the surface for painting.  We can’t wait to see how it looks at the end of next week! 

2024 Community Engagement and Start of School Picnic

Make sure you print a copy of our 2024 Community Engagement Calendar of Events (found in this newsletter) for your fridge at home and save the date for a great variety of events that will happen throughout the year. 

Our first great community event took place this week with our VIP (Very Important Person) and open classroom afternoon. It was fabulous to see lots of family members coming along to meet our teaching staff, see our learning spaces across the school and engage with our learning and teaching from Year One - Year Five. 

Next up is our Start of School Community Picnic on Friday 23rd February from 3:30pm in Woodlands Park. Our ENPS School Council host this event and everyone is welcome. Bring a picnic dinner, a picnic blanket, chairs and enjoy an afternoon chatting to other parents and staff, while the kids play together. There is no cost involved and you can stay for as long or little amount of time as you like! 

More information to come for all of these events, however if you are keen to be a part of this (or any community engagement event) planning, please contact the office, Tanya Ward or myself directly. Our first Community Engagement Team meeting with our parent volunteers will be on Thursday 22nd February at 9am, so we would love to see lots of parents/carers come along! We need everyone’s help to keep our community events happening. See the Community Engagement page in the newsletter for more information. 

Planning Week

Next week, our teaching teams will have their allocated planning day, as a part of Planning Week. Across the week, each year level team will have one day to work collaboratively together planning and preparing for their upcoming unit of inquiry. This means that your child will have all their specialist lessons on the one day, as a way to release the home group teachers. Our planning days happen once a term to support teaching teams with planning time. 

Wishing all families that celebrate Lunar New Year a very happy and prosperous 2024 too! I look forward to hearing all about the weekend’s celebrations and hearing the fire crackers and festivities.

Have a wonderful weekend. It has been a tremendously smooth and positive start to 2024 and we all look forward to a great year ahead! 

Kate Barletta

Principal