Principals' Page

Safe and Happy term break

As this is the last newsletter before the term break, I would like to wish you all a safe and relaxing  break before the return to school on the 15th July.  School will finish at 2:30pm on Friday 28th June. TeamKids will be running a holiday program for those needing care for their children.

This term was once again a busy time full of learning, both academic in the classroom and within the extra curricula programs. We enjoyed welcoming our community to our Open night and for Mother's day. Our Year 3 & 4 students enjoyed their camps, Year 5 & 6 Sports Gala days and other levels engaging both in school and excursion experiences.

At the end of this term we will wish Kristen Bulfin farewell. Kristen has been an integral member of the HEPS team for about 11 years. During this time she has taught at multiple different class levels, and has become one of our school leadership team. Kristen has also been an Acting Assistant Principal during this time, and will finish her time at HEPS as Acting Principal for the last week of this term.

Phonics Instruction in schools

Over the last couple of weeks there has been media coverage around the explicit teaching of Phonics in schools, and the mandate for it to become part of school programs in 2025.  At HEPS we have already been teaching our students using a Phonics based approach. This includes our whole school approach to Spelling through Jolly Phonics and the use of Cued Articulation as a support to the development of letter/sound relationships. The first few weeks of Foundation see our HEPS students explicitly learning the sounds of S,A,T,P,I,N providing them with the skills to decode many words when reading. The explicit teaching of individual sounds, blending of letters, digraphs eg th,sh,  trigraphs eg igh, air continues until students have developed mastery over the sound production of the English language. Students simultaneously learn how to pull apart and put back together sounds when learning to read and write. 

SEMESTER 1 REPORTS 

Just a reminder that parents can access student reports via Compass on Wednesday 26th June from 4.00 PM. We encourage you to save a digital version of your child's report to access at a later date; this is especially important for our Level 6 students as they transition to high school.

Level 3 Camp

Our Level 3 students recently attended Mt. Evelyn Recreational Camp. The students had a fantastic time participating in the flying fox, giant swing, low ropes, orienteering, hut building and many other activities. Thank you to all the teachers for organising the camp. School camps provide students with valuable learning experiences that help them develop important life skills and make lasting memories with their peers.

Working Bee

Thank you to all the parents and students who turned up for our second working bee this year. We completed all the tasks for the morning including mulching and weeding many of our garden beds and a general tidy up of the playground areas, sandpits and our veggie garden. Once again our lunchtime BBQ and ice creams were a big success.

NAPLAN

It is expected that NAPLAN results will be available to Year 3 and Year 5 families early in Term 3.