Principals Report

my Dear SEPS Families, 

I would like to share I have been successful in my application to participate in the Department’s 2025 Flexible Work Initiative. This means that from next term, I will reducing my hours to 0.8 and will not be in on Wednesdays for the remainder of the year. The initiative is only for 12 months. The initiative is intended to encourage school leaders to step into a Principal role with the support and mentorship of a current principal and provides other leadership opportunities within a school. 

Once my application was approved, the process was undertaken by the Department to interview for an Acting Principal. I am very pleased to announce that the successful candidate is our wonderful Assistant Principal, Trudy Gau. Given that Trudy and I already work closely together, I know that this will be a seamless process, and I will not be missed at all on a Wednesday. I am taking this opportunity to support my son and daughter-in-law by looking after my grandson, Jordan. He will be turning 1 next month and it is time for his mum to return to work. She is absolutely dreading leaving him so I am very grateful to have this time to be there for them.   

Easter Hat Parade

We invite you all to join our Easter Hat Parade on the final Friday of the term – Friday April 4. We will be holding a special assembly at 9am to celebrate the hat parade and draw the prizes for the Annual Easter Egg raffle. Please see more information in the SEPS Social section. You will also find information on the beautiful posters that will be placed around the school.

NAPLAN

NAPLAN has been completed for another year! I would like to commend our teachers on their preparation. We are very proud of our Year 3 and 5 students, who all appeared very calm and happy. The two-week assessment window was relatively stress free thanks to all the work behind the scenes by Ms Parsons and our IT team. Our systems were all in place, despite some of glitches that were caused at the department’s end. On Day 2, issues were apparent across most schools however our wonderful Ms Parsons was able to troubleshoot and recover our session for all students.  We will be holding a special celebration with our awesome Year 3 & 5 students soon.  

Harmony Day 

As you are aware, today is Harmony Day. Our Student Representative Council (SRC) organised the day by making posters and asking students to wear a touch of orange and activities were arranged in Communities this afternoon. The SRC decided that rather than ask for another gold coin donation, that it would be more important to raise awareness that leads to action. A few parents have asked what Harmony Day actually stands for. After today, we hope that your children can have a discussion with you about what it is and why we celebrate it. 

The theme for National Harmony Day this year was “Harmony – we all have a role to play”. Harmony Day coincides with the United Nations International Day for the elimination of racial discrimination. For us, it is about creating an inclusive and respectful environment at our school. It reminds us to value diversity and promote cultural understanding and appreciation. The colour orange is used to signify support for cultural diversity and inclusion and is signifies meaning conversations, freedom on ideas and the encouragement of mutual respect. 

With only two more weeks to go we still have a lot happening. We hope you all enjoy the gala next weekend if you are attending. Just a reminder that school finishes at 2:30pm on the final Friday so that you can put it in your calendar. 

Have a wonderful fortnight ahead. 

 Jane Briffa