26 August

  • For this Week

  • Saturday ESF CPD

  • Rent Reimbursement

  • LOA and Differentiation Framework

  • Student Support Services

  • Teaching Children About Neurodiversity

  • Digital Tools & Data Privacy

  • Staff Calendar

Morning all. I hope you've had a lovely weekend. We have the K1s unaccompanied this week, and we arranged extra staffing on the floor as extra support (dependent on other absences). K1 teams, please feel free to ask floaters for help on the floor as needed. 


For this Week

Tuesday - Staff meeting @12:10pm, Follow-up from our start of year PD

Wednesday - Student Support Advisor Cathy McSweeny, visits possible Learning Support K2 children for the new Enhanced Transition Plan


Saturday ESF CPD

  • This Saturday PD Day is in lieu of 9 August as a work day. EAs, are not paid in the summer, therefore, EA attendance is voluntary.
  • EAs, if you wish to attend the PD as planned, please add your name to the list HERE. We need to prepare the timesheet for payroll. No action is required if you are not attending.
  • Teachers, please check/ confirm your preference HERE from before the summer.

Rent Reimbursement

FYI - Full-time teaching staff and full-time permanent support staff (including EAs) can join this scheme.

Upcoming Rental Reimbursement Scheme Roadshow; read the HR Newsletter here for more details. 


Going Home Time

As new families are learning the walker/ bus-child protocols, we will hold the buses back until we give them the okay to leave for home to avoid any "unknown" walkers/ bus children. Please double-check if you see any adults standing or waiting around without a child. Similarly, if a walker has no grown-up, we must check if they should be on the bus instead. 


On this same note, please stay onsite until all your children are accounted for - i.e., all the buses are gone, and we've confirmed that any walkers left are "truly" walkers. We might need your assistance when there could be a potential mix-up or to help locate a child. Thank you for your understanding on this. 


LOA and Differentiation Framework

The LOA and Differentiation Framework one-page overview (previously identified by its blue colour) has been updated and is highlighted in yellow for easy identification of the new version. Please delete any older versions you may have saved on your devices. This overview document can be shared with parents and external professionals, while the ESF Matrix remains for internal use only.


Student Support Services

Cathy McSweeny, Adviser - Student Support Services, will visit on Wednesday, 28 August, to continue observing our learning diversity students going through an Enhanced Transition Plan (ETP) process or ARP. In general terms, those children who will require learning support resources at primary school (LOA children). Her visit will be an opportunity for her to gain a deeper understanding of the students in their learning environment. As well as to understand their current strengths and stretches and provide advice. Please find more details about the observation process here. 


Teaching Children About Neurodiversity

The ESF Educational Psychology team have been focussing on promoting understanding of brain differences and neurodiversity-affirming practice within our schools. 


A key part of this involves helping students to understand different learning styles and preferences, along with their own individual strengths and stretches. In order to help with this, the EP team have developed a slide deck with some suggested visuals and activities to help teachers introduce the concept of neurodiversity to children at earlier stages of development. 


Please find the attached slide deck linked here. Please feel free to adapt for your class as you deem appropriate. We hope you find this to be a useful resource that you can revisit throughout the year! 


Digital Tools & Data Privacy

ESF has vetted a few AI options and provided this latest update on safe AI tools. Please see the below image about the safe AI platforms that we can use as staff 😁 The main message is: please "Say no to Poe "for work data privacy.


Staff members should be mindful of the Responsible Use of ICT Policy and the guidelines provided for social media. Staff members should ensure that at all times, their use of ICT, either through social media or otherwise, does not bring their school or ESF into disrepute. When using social media for ESF-related purposes, staff members should identify themselves as an ESF employee and act in a professional manner.


Upcoming Dates

Please check our internal calendar below. We might forget to remind everyone of odd dates. We will continue to add events to the calendar as soon as it's confirmed. Here's the full 2024/25 Calendar. 


Thank you!