From the Principal...

Hi Everyone and welcome to the latest newsletter. I’m sure you’ve all been enjoying the beautiful weather across this week. It’s been fantastic to see our students enjoying the many varied opportunities at MEPS.

Mother’s Day 

I hope you all enjoyed the Mother’s Day weekend and managed to find some time to thank and celebrate your Mothers!

Thank you to the community links group for providing and supporting our Mother's Day afternoon tea.  Also a shout out to Marshall White, Team Kids (OHSC provider) and Stir Cray Kids (canteen) for their support of this event and the school!

Education Support Staff

We would like to acknowledge and thank our incredible Education Support Staff for the valuable contribution they make to our school and our people, each and every day. Their dedication, compassion, patience and commitment help create a nurturing and inclusive environment where all students are supported to learn, grow and thrive. Whether working in classrooms, supporting individual students, assisting teachers or helping behind the scenes, their impact is felt throughout our entire school community.

We are deeply grateful for the care and encouragement they provide to our children and for the positive difference they make in so many lives.

I’m sure you’ll join me in sharing our sincere appreciation and thanks to our wonderful Education Support Staff.

This weekend marks Education Support Day which is a timely reminder stop, recognise, acknowledge and thank our amazing team, although we are very appreciative of the team each and every day.

To: Mim, Neisha, Marie, Jane, Karen, Sathiya, Mitchell, Bridget, Bronte, Courtney, Jan, Tiffany, Mel, Barbara, Sarah, Lisa and Liz – THANK-YOU!!

Curriculum Day

The staff enjoyed a very productive curriculum day on Monday. We focussed on a range of curriculum and pedagogy. The staff worked through some of our whole school wellbeing curriculum foci, a strategic review of our instructional model, a review of some student performance data, a review of our strategic planning documents for learning and some curriculum planning time.

School Contributions

Thank you to the families who have paid their 2026 school contributions. Please know the positive impact that your contribution makes to the school. We rely heavily on your support to continue resourcing our school with adequate and appropriate resources. 

The 2026 Parent Contributions consist of two categories: 

1. Curriculum Contributions - Curriculum items and activities which the school deems necessary for students to access the curriculum. $250
2. Other Contributions – Non-curriculum items and activities that relate to the school’s function and objectives. $100 or if you are in a position to support the school with any additional funds, we would be extremely appreciative.

Please note that the Curriculum Contributions are inclusive of all digital subscriptions for this year, meaning we are not asking for parents to pay separately for this educational access. If you are yet to pay these contributions, we would welcome your support.

Indigenous Perspectives 

I was fortunate enough yesterday to share in a wonderful session provided by one of our parents, Josh. Josh shared some amazing insights and knowledge about Indigenous culture to one of our Year 3 classes. He spoke about Aboriginal traditions, customs, celebrations, dance, song, art, sport, community and the connection to country. 

Josh shared some amazing examples and artifacts from echidna spines, mangrook (indigenous football), possum skins, emu feathers, jewellery, clapping sticks, digeridoo, local ochre, etc. The students enjoyed hearing about the local flora and fauna and how Aboriginal people skilfully and resourcefully maximised all that the land has to offer. Josh also explained the elements of indigenous culture that we often see represented across our community ie: Welcome to Country and smoking ceremonies. A clear highlight was listening to Josh play the Digeridoo! We are very grateful to have Josh share his culture, knowledge and insights with us!

Cross Country

Congratulations to everyone for their participation at our school cross country event this week. It was great to see everyone in their colours, being active and having loads of fun! Thank you to Mrs Roberts and Mrs Mclaughlin (and all staff) and the parents who came along to support and also help with the whole event!

World Day for Cultural Diversity 

Thursday 21 May is the United Nations World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. This special day recognises the richness of cultures around the world and highlights the importance of inclusion, respect, understanding and learning from one another. It is an opportunity for our school community to celebrate other cultures, languages, traditions and family backgrounds. 

To celebrate this year, we will be inviting students to either wear cultural dress that represents their family heritage or bring in a meaningful cultural item from home to share with their classmates. This could include a traditional object, photograph, book, artwork, instrument or another item that reflects their family’s culture and traditions.

Dress Up: Thursday May 21!

Chess Tournament

Good luck to the students participating in the Chess Competition today at Peninsula Grammar. We wish you well!

Year 3-6 concert

Our Year 3-6 students have been enjoying their build up to the 3-6 concert. There has been lots of practising, singing, acting and dancing! Please be reminded of the permission and payment required for this program. There are still a handful of families yet to process this via Compass.

Sponsorship – as is the case with whole school events, there is an opportunity to sponsor! If you would like to support the school and promote your business, please let me know.

michael.kent@education.vic.gov.au

We have sent home some further information about costumes for each year level and next week will share some details about ticketing.

Our concert is scheduled for Wednesday June 17 at the Frankston Arts Centre with the show due to commence at 7pm – please block this evening in your diaries.

School Photos

This was a great day across the school with smiles all around!

Maths Explorer (Years 3-4) or Maths Olympiad (Years 5-6).

Across the next few months we have some students participating in these maths extension opportunities.

First Aid

The whole of MEPS staff have recently completed their Level 2 First Aid training. This qualification is hopefully not needed but always nice to have the capacity to respond to our duty of care as required.

Cranbourne Gardens

On May 25 our Year 4 students will be heading to their excursion to Cranbourne Gardens as part of their History unit, where they are learning about colonisation and exploring how Aboriginal communities lived before this time. This hands-on experience will deepen students’ understanding of the rich culture and traditions of the Bunurong/Boon Wurrung People and their strong connection to Country.

During the excursion, students will:

• Learn about First Peoples’ tools and how they were used
• Explore indigenous plants and their uses for fibre, medicine, tools and food
• Use ochre to create paint, stamp handprints and draw meaningful symbols
• Enjoy tasting native bushfood tea

This experience will support students to build their understanding of First Peoples’ culture, both past and present, while developing important cross-cultural awareness.

Coal Creek Excursion

On Wednesday 27th May, Year 1 students will attend an excursion at Coal Creek Community Park and Museum. Coal Creek. Year 1’s are learning about History: Daily life past and present.

This excursion will bring learning to life, in a recreated coal mining village located in the South Gippsland town of Korumburra.This will help students identify continuities and changes in daily life by comparing the past and the present. Students will participate in a 30-minute Victorian-style lesson in the old schoolhouse, followed by a tour of the museum, including the Main street, pioneer cottages and various historical displays. 

Year 4-6 Opinion Survey

The Attitudes to school survey is a voluntary student survey offered by the Department of Education every year to help schools and the department understand students' experiences of school. We will ask your child about their thoughts and feelings about their school, their learning, relationships with other students, resilience, bullying, health and wellbeing, physical activity and life in general.

A little from our school leaders:

Hi, I’m Ethan and I am one of the school captains here at Mount Eliza Primary school. The reason why I applied to get this role is because I think I can make a change in our school yard and community. We’d usually write the newsletter with all the other school captains, but this fortnight we got asked to just write about ourselves. 

I really like doing both swimming and tennis competitively and in my free time I love to play table tennis. My favourite genre of music is Aussie hip hop, and I also like to go to concerts. I have a dog called Cody he is a Lhasa x Maltese. I love to take him for walks and go to the dog park with my family. My favourite food is any pasta, except for macaroni as it doesn’t fit with any other sauce except cheese [in my opinion]. If I could travel anywhere, I would probably pick to go to Italy because I am learning Italian and like I said I love my pasta!

Have a great weekend.

Michael

Respect, Resilience, Responsibility, Connectedness and Challenge