Principals' Page

Over the next couple of weeks our students in Years 3 & 5 will work through the Naplan assessments. These tests provide us with a snap shot of how an individual student has performed on a given day. It also, and very importantly, shows us the areas of strength as a school and our focus areas of growth. We want our students to do their best but do not want them to have test anxiety. While we understand that assessments can be worrying, we would like parents to partner with us to support your children. Talk to your children about doing their best and that the result is really about the teachers knowing what to teach next. A key message for us is "Don’t forget they are still a child, and childhood is supposed to be fun."

We are proud of the results that our students achieved last year. Below is a table that compares our school results to all children across Australia.

Junior School Council

The Junior School Council is a vital way in which all students at HEPS have their Voice heard.  These are our JSC representatives for this year.  Their role is to capture ideas, suggestions and questions from their classmates, then share them with school leadership.  At HEPS we recognise that students must feel connected to all aspects of the school for them to thrive academically, socially and emotionally.  

Senior Sport Gala Day

Our Level 5 and 6 students did us proud last Friday by representing HEPS in a range of sports including basketball, tennis and cricket.  It was another great example of our students demonstrating Respect, Teamwork, Resilience and Growth.  All teachers and parents reported sensational behaviour.   

Working Bee

Thank you to the parent community that volunteered their time on Sunday morning at our first working bee for 2024. It was a fantastic turnout with over 40 adults and kids involved. This was the biggest turnout since I have been organising them. We were able to complete many jobs including staining the deck in between the Year 3 classrooms, Level 1 area and Foundation rooms. We had plenty of volunteers in the veggie garden weeding and preparing it for next season's planting.  We cleaned both sand pits and added fresh sand for the students to play in. Finally, we shovelled new dirt into our brand-new planter boxes near the 5/6 playground. A special thank you to James Rees who hired a mulcher. We plan to have another working bee again in Term 2.

Three Way Conferences

Bookings for our Term 1 Three-Way Conferences are now live via Compass. Three-Way conferences will occur in Week 9 (last week of Term) on Monday 25th March between 2.00-7.15 PM and Tuesday 26th March from 2.00-3.30 PM. These will occur in your teacher's classrooms or in an allocated room. 

Three-Way Interviews are a key aspect of maintaining supportive communication for your child between school and home.

Bookings can be made by selecting the Community tab and then clicking on Conferences. Please keep in mind that we have allocated each conference 10 minutes and we would ask for your assistance in keeping to these time constraints. 

Bookings will close on Monday 18th of March at 3:45 pm. 

HARMONY DAY

We are excited to announce that HEPS will be celebrating Harmony Day this year on Thursday March 21st. We encourage students to wear the colour orange or a traditional costume. Why orange?  Orange is the official colour chosen to represent Harmony Day. It signifies social communication and meaningful conversations. The colour orange also relates to freedom of ideas and encouragement of mutual respect.

The day will begin with a whole school assembly, an acknowledgement to country and an explanation of why we celebrate Harmony day from our school captains. There will also be a Japanese drumming performance and special assembly. If you or your child would like to say 'welcome' in their traditional family language at the special Harmony Day assembly please contact Mrs Holmes at kimberley.holmes@heathmonteastps.vic.edu.au. 

If you would like to come in and help our community celebrate Harmony Day please speak with your child's teacher about ways you could help in classrooms on the day. 

District Swimmers

Congratulations to the 11 students who participated in the District Swimming carnival last week. We are very proud of your efforts and for upholding our school values of Respect, Resilience, Teamwork and Growth. Special mention to Sara P for progressing to the next stage.

Student Free days 2024

An integral aspect of the work of teachers is to ensure that they are remaining current with their professional knowledge. This enables us to continually provide the best possible learning opportunities for your children, being reflective and responsive to the changes in research and our world.

This year our teachers are allocated two student free days for independant professional practice and we will have two student free days in which we work together on our collective professional learning. To undertake our work we will have four student free days this year; 10th May, 27th May, 16th August and 4th November. 

Annual Implementation Plan Summary

Each year we create an Annual Implementation Plan for our school. This strategically focuses our whole school on specific improvement areas with our practice while maintaining our high expectations and performance in all other school areas.

The AIP is a lengthy and often confusing document. To support our whole school understanding of our 2024 focus, I have created the summary below.

I hope this enables our whole community to share in our growth.