Principal's News
Labour Day Holiday
This Monday the 14th of March will be the Labour Day holiday. The children are not required to be at school.
We have made it to Autumn. This year is moving by so quickly and the term will soon come to an end. The wonderfully warm weather is such a contrast to the amount of destruction and damage caused by huge amounts of rain in the north of the country. The Junior School Council is currently organising a fundraiser to help the people most affected by the floods.
Call for School Council Nominations
All government schools in Victoria have a School Council. School Councils are legally formed bodies that help to set the key directions of the school within centrally provided guidelines. Parents on School Council provide important viewpoints and have valuable skills that can help shape the direction of the school.
Nominations are now being called for the parent and DE&T employee member categories of School Council. If you decide to nominate, you can nominate yourself or have someone nominate you. Forms are below or available at the office.
Once completed, these need to be returned to the Office by today at 4:00pm on Friday March 11th. We have 5 elected parent category members up for re-election (4 x 1 year terms and 1 x 2 year term), as well as 2 elected Education Department employee category members. If there are more nominations received than there are vacancies on Council, a ballot will be conducted in the two weeks after the call of nominations has closed. Being a member of School Council is very rewarding. We currently meet on the third or fourth Wednesday of the month at 7:30pm. You don’t need any previous experience.
School Council Annual General Meeting
The Annual General Meeting will be held Wednesday evening March 23, from 7pm to 7.30pm in the school staff room where we will present the Annual Report on the school achievements in 2021. This will be placed on our school website for all of our community to read. New office bearers will also be elected for the coming year. The first School Council meeting will be held straight after the Annual General meeting.
District Swimming
The CEPS district swimming team competed at Bayside Aquatics on Monday 7th March. This was against other students from schools in our Cheltenham District. All competitors tried their best and gave a tremendous effort in each event.
Many of our CEPS competitors placed top 4 for their events!
Ryutaro 2nd in Freestyle and Breastroke
Matvey 3rd in Freestyle and 2nd in Breastroke
Liam Ch 2nd in Butterfly.
Yizhe 3rd in Backstroke,
CEPS had a 2nd and 3rd in our Relay Teams. Only first then go through to the DIVISION level.
Congratulations to our swim team and a special mention to Maddie Harvey who came 1st in her Backstroke event. From our Cheltenham District level records, Maddie also still holds the record for the fastest time for Freestyle for Girls 9-10 Freestyle age group.
Another amazing swimmer from CEPS, Hiroke Inoue also still holds the record for the fastest time for the girls 12-13 age group in Backstroke.
GO CEPS!
Stranger Danger
As we are part way through Term 1 it is important to ensure our children are safe at all times. Please talk to your children about safe travelling to and from school and moving around the neighbourhood particularly in regards to strangers. Get them to walk, scoot, ride or play with other children if possible and ensure that under no circumstances are they to approach or talk to people they don’t know. We often have members of the public walk past the school during play times. There are always teachers on yard duty and all children know they are not to speak to anyone they don’t know under any circumstances. It is a simple message but an important one parents and schools need to educate our children about.
Covid Updates
The Rapid Antigen Testing program will continue in schools until the end of Term 1 2022, although this will continue to be monitored and may end early if recommended by health advice.
All students and staff in mainstream schools are recommended to test twice a week, while students and staff in specialist schools are recommended to test each school day.
COVID updates are being sent each day and we will try to get this information to the CEPS community as soon as possible. We continue to follow the Health Departments’ guidelines to keep everyone safe. Please continue to make sure you notify the school if there is a positive case so we can support the family and protect our community at the same time. Keep up the good work. Overall, we have had a successful start to the academic year. Mask wearing has been consistent, the additional masks that you are providing for your children are ensuring that they are protected. Teachers have windows and doors open to maximise ventilation and the air purifiers have been delivered to the classrooms and are all in use. Additionally, we are ensuring that we are limiting the mixing of classes and encouraging the use of outdoor spaces to align with the COVID operations guide.
These actions have led to barely any new cases in our school, everyone is to be congratulated for the joint effort.
For more information on symptoms visit: https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/symptoms-and-risks.
For more information on how to get tested visit: https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/taking-test-covid-19.
The Learning Continues
It is business as usual at CEPS with some great learning happening across the school including reading, literacy skills, building numeracy skills, music - rhythm, Art- technical drawing and phonics instruction. There has also been some testing happening across the school.
Group Tours
Today we saw a number of prospective parents come to the school and go on a Group Tour with Mr Bach and Mrs Ward. They looked at the types of programs we run and observed the children working in their classrooms to get a feel for the school and its culture. It’s a big decision on where to send your children for their first year of schooling and this is the first step in the process for parents with young children heading into Foundation in 2023. We hope they enjoyed the experience.
2023 Foundation Enrolments
Enrolments are now OPEN for 2023.
Group Tours can be booked via the office on 9583 5746.
Wednesday 16th March - BOOKED OUT
Thursday 24th March - BOOKED OUT
Tuesday 29th March - **FILLING FAST**
Tuesday 10th May - **FlLLING FAST**
Saturday 14th May - AVAILABLE
Monday 23rd May - AVAILABLE
Places are filling fast so spread the word. Enrolments are open and we ask that siblings coming to Cheltenham East Primary in 2023 please enrol now.
Mr Jon
Mr Jon has been busy cleaning up around the school this week. He is putting the watering system into the garden beds so we can water the plants the children will be planting. He has also been busy painting areas of the school. He will soon be re painting some of the ground marking around the school.
I have also now have a maintenance crew from Year 6 children who can carry out some of the smaller jobs around the school to help enhance the overall look.
Children Arriving Early
Parents are reminded that children should not be arriving at school before 8.30am in the morning. The students are not supervised at this time of the morning as teachers are preparing their classrooms for the day. Before and After Care facilities are available for parents who have to go to work early. Students should not be inside the buildings before the first bell unless supervised by a teacher.
Contact Details
Have your contact details changed? We have already tried to phone parents and emergency contacts only to find that the phone number is no longer valid. It is absolutely vital that we can contact parents/carers at all times.
Thought For the Week
Principal
Wayne Bach