Principal's Item 

Dear parents, carers and friends of EEPS,

Last Thursday we were fortunate to have the Kaboom Percussion group visit EEPS, with all their own, hand-made instruments and present three shows throughout the day. It was another great musical experience to add to our classroom music program and our many other musical outlets, such as the Year 2 and 3 excursions to hear the MSO, concert and our ensembles. Thank you to Mr Day for organising this incursion at EEPS.

Remembrance Day service

Thank you to those parents and friends who were able to attend our annual Remembrance Day service on Monday. The school was also honoured to have several of our leaders participate in the Eltham-Montmorency RSL service, reading a special poem.

Parent payment contributions and School Savings Bonus

Last week I wrote about the 2025 parent contributions. Thank you for the positive response to this point and for the direct Compass Newsfeed. Today, there will be a separate Newsfeed from Melissa McCarthy, our Business Manager, providing more detailed information about the School Savings Bonus for families for next year. 

School improvement

This week, the Leadership Team met with our Senior Education Improvement Leader to review our 2024 Annual Implementation Plan, and to discuss our learning goals and plans for 2025. It was a lengthy and rigorous discussion where I was able to highlight many of our considerable successes and achievements during the year - both in terms of data and student learning and impact on our culture. 

Yesterday I attended a Principal Area Forum in Epping. Besides a lengthy State-wide update from Dr David Howes, the Deputy Secretary the main focus of the day was around specific updates around components of the new Victorian Teaching and Learning Model and an update on the work that the Region has been doing with new learning units of deeply embedded Indigenous perspectives.

New school website

The new school website is continuing to be developed. As a part of this we are having a special photographer visit next Wednesday to get some more recent, professional photos that we can use to refresh some of the older images. 

R-mazing race

Don’t forget that this Thursday is the JSC organised R-mazing Race day to celebrate our new school values. Families were invited to make a small contribution on Compass, in lieu of a gold coin, and all children are invited to dress up as a character starting with the letter ‘R’ to celebrate Respectful, Responsible and Resilient people. Thank you again, in advance, to the large number of parents and carers who have offered to help out on the day and for the support. All proceeds are going directly into a new playground development area that will be installed next year.

Some dates coming up;

Thursday 14th November- R-mazing Race

Thursday 28th November- Year 1 Activity night

Monday 2nd December- 2025 Student Leaders announced at Assembly

Tuesday 3rd December- Market day and Strings concert

Thursday 5th December- Market day and Family picnic

Friday 6th December- Curriculum Day

Monday 9th December- Prep Celebrations- Prep B and H

Tuesday 10th December Transition Day

Wednesday 11th December- Prep Celebrations- Prep C and JC 

Friday 13th December- Prep Breakfast and Year 6 Graduation

Tuesday 17th December- Year 6 Celebration Day

Wednesday 18th December- Year 2 Activity Day

Friday 20th December- 9.00 am ‘Passing of the Keys’ ceremony

Thank you to everyone for your generous support of everything ‘purple and gold’. Please remember to make sure that you read all the different sections of the Newsletter not to miss anything, especially at this busy time in the year.

Have a great week.