Principal's Item 

Dear parents, carers and friends of EEPS,

In leading a large school like ours it is easy to become distracted with a whole lot of operational matters or on the things that still need improvement. However, there are always so many positive and uplifting things going on. Towards the end of last week, I was fortunate to have had some fabulous experiences and special interactions. On Friday morning, on the way into school, a Year 5 student made a very positive and encouraging comment about something that a Year 1 student had made and was showing me. Later in the day I had the privilege of accompanying our students to the St Vincents’ Healthcare retirement village in Eltham. This is always a special activity but was even more so with the celebration of a birthday and the students breaking into a rendition of ‘One Call Away’, from the school concert last year. Everyone who witnessed it could not help but feel connected and uplifted. I often talk about the ‘micro moments’ and it is very true how powerful and impactful they can be - so we don’t always need to be looking for the grand moments in life.

Reconciliation Week

A special thank you to the EEPS choir for their moving performance on Monday of ‘Solid Rock’.  

This song was especially chosen because of its origins and connections to Reconciliation Week and was especially rearranged for Voices of Reconciliation, to allow school choirs all around Australia to perform to attentive audiences. 

Victorian Principal’s Conference

This week the EEPS Leadership team attended the 2-day Victorian Principals’ Conference at the Melbourne Convention Centre. This is a well organised event that provided us both great confirmation of the learning journey our school is on, whilst at the same time provides a lot to reflect on, and many things to continue to challenge us. The Department has done a great job over the last five years of connecting all parts of school improvement and so the conference had very clear links to the classroom and improving student learning and wellbeing - as should always be the case.

Obstacles in Life

As educators we know that children learn through challenges, obstacles and set-backs. This is partly why one of our school vales is ‘Resilience’, and we talk to it frequently. Parents may be interested in reading an article by renowned child psychologist, Michael Carr-Gregg in The Age on Monday which talked to the value of learning with obstacles and set-backs.

Fairy Garden

Thank you to those families who were able to help out for the mini working bee last Thursday on the redeveloped fairy garden. Stage one is complete and I know Mrs Jackson has some great plans that will slowly come to fruition

Thank you

Thank you for the positive feedback from parents regarding the usefulness of the staged approach to helping to sort out problems with your child, that may have occurred at school. This was included in the Newsletter two weeks ago, for those who may not have seen it. It certainly is a tried and time-tested method. Thank you to the really warm, considerate and respectful interactions that the school experiences from the overwhelming large majority of parents - this certainly helps not to make our task any ore complex or involved than necessary.

Don’t forget that next Monday, 9th June is King’s Birthday holiday. I hope everyone has an enjoyable long weekend. Also, next Thursday 12th June is our Year 3-6 House Athletics carnival at Greensborough Athletics track, so please make sure you have given consent and organised payment for this.

Have a great week of Learning and Growing Together.

Kind regards

Warren Lloyd

Principal