Principal's Item 

Dear parents, carers and friends of EEPS,

I hope that everyone has had a positive and productive start to the week. What a busy week is has been. Last week we had Prep Celebrations, the Year 2 day camp, Market Days, and a very successful End of Year / Family Picnic on Thursday evening. 

At assembly on Monday we thanked our 2023 Year 6 student leaders for their efforts during 2023. They have contributed in so many ways to help sustain and build the culture of our school during the year. Thank you to them for hosting assemblies, organise sporting events and fundraisers and for being excellent role models- thank you to all of you. Thank you also to Mrs Vescio and Mrs Carson who has helped worked with the Student Leaders this year.

Year 6 Gratitude Market

On behalf of the school I wish to express my sincere and heartfelt gratitude to our school community for the support of the Year 6 Gratitude Market last week. This is an annual tradition at EEPS where our Year 6 students plan and organise their market stall activities. Collectively the market made a little over $6,400 which is an incredible effort, for which the chosen charities will be absolutely thrilled. 

Transition Day

Today students have spent the day in their 2023 classroom with their new classmates and teacher. Although some feeling of angst can come with the uncertainty of what next year brings, we do hope children also come home positive with a growth mindset for the learning and growing that will take place as they embark on the next stage of their schooling. 

The class structure and teacher allocation is always a very complex process, with many often competing factors to consider. Please trust that we always make considered and thoughtful decisions around these aspects, and have created several drafts of all grades and constantly reviewed and revised them over the last month.

Following on from my Newsfeed last week around the exciting plans for 2023 I am pleased to announce the 2024 EEPS structure;

Leadership team: Warren Lloyd (Principal), David Tyndall (Assistant Principal, on leave Term 1), Lisa Joseph (Assistant Principal)

Learning Specialists / Leading Teacher: Melissa Egan, Paul Kearney, Mary Vescio (Acting), Tracey Beadles (Acting), Naomi Brabender

Prep

Tracey Beadles, Gabe Hughes Admin Leader, Sarah Coney, Jacinta Claridge 

Year 1

Josie Anzelmi / Grace Scaglione, Lyndal Wilmot / Lisa Pascal, Lina Raudino / Amanda Robinson, Georgie Richards, Hannah Glynatsis

Year 2 

Sarah Nichols, Roslyn Pritsis /Romy Magdis, Steve Arnold, Taleah Arter / Lisa Hallam, Samantha Keane

Year 3

Emily Borg, Hayley Hopper, Matt O’Callaghan, Lamya Kwan

Year 4

Sophie James, Abbey McCauley / Melissa Egan, Bec Peters, Fiona McCluskey / Alicia Dow

Year 5

Hayley Deards, Nathan Gourzelas, Madeleine Elliot, Paul Kearney (5/6)

Year 6

Tash Owen, Sarah Gale, Mary Vescio, Paul Kearney (5/6)

Support and Specialists

Learning Support- Angela Lapadula, Laura Banks 

Visual Art- Blair Coates, Ashleigh Harris 

Japanese- Aoi Sakamoto, Ashleigh Harris 

PE- Kristian Bain, Sandi McNamara

Music- Jenny Samphier and Jason Day

Library- Patty Casale 

Biodiversity and Sustainability- Kara Jackson 

Creative Media- Ruby Curtis

Instructional Leaders- Melissa Egan and Paul Kearney

Mental Health, Wellbeing and Inclusion Leading Teacher- Naomi Brabender

Disability Inclusion Support- Lisa Pascal 

Support teachers- Melissa Egan, Romy Magdis, Alicia Dow, Lisa Hallam, Jason Day, Ruby Curtis, Ashleigh Harris, Sandi McNamara

Education Support Staff –Di Tucker, Amy Eaton, Margie Haynes, Gita Patamia, Andrea Rabak, Tim Donoghue, Amanda Russell, Rachel Corkery, Katrina Moore, Kristal Pekolj

First Aid—Chris Hill, Andrea Rabak (all teachers at EEPS have First Aid training)

Office- Julianne Roberts, Lesley Searle, Melissa McCarthy (Business Manager)

OSHC- Jess, Kathryn, Ros, Miriam, Jack and Kristal

Ruby Curtis and Ashleigh Harris are returning to EEPS in 2023 in part-time capacities. 

In 2024, Amy Stubberfield, Brooke Harbour, Rachel Hodgson, Katia Gonano and Hannah McIntrye remain on Family Leave. Katie Carson, Alex Harriman and Laura Banks will be going on family leave early in 2024. 

Staff departures

Every year always brings some staff movement. I have already congratulated our three pregnant staff, Mrs Carson, Miss Harriman and Ms Banks, all of whom will be replaced in 2024. Following a short-term contract Mrs Lizz Yaccoub, one of our ES staff, is moving to a school closer to her home and we wish her all the best. 

Miss Rachel Schopf is taking advantage of an exciting opportunity for the first half of 2024 working with the Active Schools Program, as part of School Sports Victoria. We anticipate Rachel returning to EEPS for the second half of the year. Good luck Rachel!

After a very successful year of teaching at EEPS Miss Stephanie Crevatin is leaving EEPS to teach at a school much closer to where she lives and in the Catholic sector. We thank Stephanie for her cared and dedication to all the students in her care and wish her all the best.

After 11 years at Eltham East Mrs Genevieve Keogh is taking on a new challenge and moving to the Concord School. Concord is a special developmental school and Genevieve is looking forward to the challenge. She joined the staff at EEPS as our Japanese teacher and remained in that role until the end of 2021 when she returned to the classroom in the Prep team. Over many years Mrs Keogh has made significant contributions to EEPS organising highly successful Japanese / Asian Studies Days and been our staff Health and Safety Representative. Thank you, Genevieve for all your contributions over the last 11 years.

Mr David Tyndall, Assistant Principal, will be temporarily on secondment in Term 1 2024 as the Acting Principal of Eltham Primary School, following the retirement of their existing Principal. Congratulations to David and we look forward to you returning to EEPS with a new skill set and enthusiasm for all things ‘purple and gold’.

In addition to the above movement, we have 2 long time staff members retiring next week, Mrs Arlene Crouch and Mrs Kerry Buswell.  Together they have a combined 96 years of service to the Department of Education and to generations of children.

Arlene first started in the Department in 1972 and has taught at Eltham East for the past 29 years. Kerry first started in the Department in 1978 and has taught at Eltham East for the past 31 years, making her one of our longest serving staff members. Considering EEPS is only 60 years old working here for 29 or 31 years is a significant achievement and commitment. I did comment to staff that this commitment, dedication and length of service is not something that we will see again, with the changing workforce career trajectories of younger staff, and we will be all the poorer for it.

Arlene has had many roles over the years including as a specialist teacher. In addition to her classroom roles Arlene has also been our ever-reliable backstage coordinator for our biannual concerts and coordinated the Mother’s Day / Father’s Day / Special persons day craft activities in the art room.

Kerry has spent the majority of her teaching years at EEPS in the upper school, teaching Year 5 and 6 classes. Kerry has always been a willing participant for camps and extra school activities and will be remembered by her skills and proses helping to solve friendship challenges for our older students.

To both Kerry and Arlene, on behalf of the school, the Department, and generations of children, a massive, heart-felt ‘thank you’ to you both. We wish you all the best in your retirement years.

We wish all our leaving staff our very best as they embark on a new phase in their life journey in 2024. We will be able to officially say goodbye to them all at our final assembly on Wednesday 20th December.

Staff arrivals

With change becomes opportunity for EEPS. To ensure that we have committed and caring classroom teachers for our grades in 2024 we have a number of excellent passionate new teachers. In addition to the maternity leave replacements we also need to allow for an additional Year 3 and 4 class in 2023, changes to our specialist offerings in 2024 and for Mrs Melissa Egan providing Instructional Coaching throughout the school. Whilst there are still challenges in the teaching profession with recruitment, I am very pleased with our structure. 

 We have the following new staff members joining us in 2024;

Ms Jacinta Claridge- Jacinta comes to us from Willmott Park Primary School. She is looking forward to bringing her Prep experience to EEPS.

Ms Hannah Glynatis- Hannah is excited to begin her teaching career at EEPS and comes from a family of teachers.

Ms Samantha Keane- Samantha comes to EEPS after a career in other industries and is looking forward to joining our Year 2 team in her ‘dream job’.

Mrs Lamya Kwan- like Samantha, Lamya has also had a different career before starting teaching and we welcome her into our Year 3 team.

Mrs Sophie James- Sophie is joining EEPS after many years at Pinewood Primary School in Mount Waverley. She is looking forward to bringing her experience to EEPS and joining the Year 4 teaching team in 2024.

Ms Madeline Elliot- Madeline is joining us most recently from Donnybrook Primary, but has taught for several years in South Australia. Like Hannah, Madeline comes from a family of teachers and educators.

Mrs Sarah Gale- Sarah has taught for several years at Mill Park Heights Primary and has lived in several countries. Sarah is greatly looking forward to joining our Year 6 team.

Mr Paul Kearney- Paul joins EEPS as an Instructional Leader / Learning Specialist. Paul comes from Laurimar Primary where has performed many similar roles. We are looking forward to Paul’s contribution to the EEPS community.

Mrs Katrina Moore- Katrina joins us as an Education Support Staff member throughout the school.

Student Reports

Tomorrow the 2023 Semester 2 reports will be available on Compass. The semester reports are the culmination of your child’s interaction, engagement and results in the teaching and learning program during the semester. These reports actually take an incredibly large amount of time to collate and write so please take the time to go through them together with your child. Thank you to the teachers for their efforts with the reports.

Houses for Year 2 students moving into Year 3

This week the Year 2 students will find out their House colours for next year. This is always an exciting moment. We will formally welcome the students into their Houses at our special start of the year, Flagpole Assembly next year on Monday 5th February.

Thank you to those families who attended our End of Year / Christmas Family Picnic last Thursday. It was lovely to have so many people attend, and the musical items were very well received. I confess that I had another one of those ‘how good is our school’ moments a few times during the evening!

Only one week to go in the 2023 school year!

Have a great week of ‘Learning and Growing Together’.

Warren Lloyd  

 Principal