Hello everyone and welcome back to the 2026 school year.

I trust you’ve all enjoyed the break and were safe in your travels around the country which proved complex in some parts with extreme weather events and alike.

We have enjoyed an amazing start to the school year over the past two days!

The students have settled back into school amazingly well and it has been wonderful to see them all, chat with them and to hear of the fun times had over the holidays and also to hear the children talking so positively about 2026. Even in the first two days the grades have settled back into school life extremely well and students have been actively re-establishing friendships and of course, are making lots of new ones! A special welcome to the new families who are joining the school this year. I trust that you will enjoy everything that our great school has to offer and that you will feel connected to our school and its people.

A very special welcome also to our new Prep families. The Prep students have started school in brilliant style! Our Prep parents are to be congratulated on the way they have prepared their children for school, your efforts have helped to make this transition to school as smooth as possible.

Our Preps have enjoyed their first half day today and will have another two half days on Monday and Tuesday. The Preps will not be attending school on Wednesdays during February.

A very exciting year ahead as the staff have been working hard to prepare a dynamic and engaging curriculum. All staff were involved in meetings and planning sessions prior to the students commencing school. We are excited to have all students back to school and eager to learn.

Please note that apart from this welcome back edition our fortnightly newsletter will be published in every ‘even’ week of the term which will commence next week. Next week the newsletter will contain a lot of information about our start up processes, dates and events.

One significant opportunity to make you aware of is our ‘Parent Teacher Connect’ meetings that are scheduled for Monday February 9 and Tuesday February 10. These meetings provide an invaluable opportunity to meet your child’s teacher and for us to hear from you about your child and how they’re settling into the school year. On Monday we will send home further details and information about our booking processes.

Further to the communication sent out this week regarding school open times; please be aware that only the front gate will be open from 8.15am. Other access gates will be opened from 8.30am as per previous arrangements.

2026 Timetable

A quick reminder of the teaching and break times for 2026.

8.45am - 10.45am : Session 1 & 2

10.45am - 11.15am : Recess play

11.15am - 1.15pm : Session 3 & 4

1.15pm - 1.30pm : Supervised lunch eating

1.30pm - 2.15pm : Lunch Play

2.15pm - 3.15pm : Session 5

2026 Dates

Term 1:

Jan 27 - April 2

Tuesday, January 27 and Wednesday, January 28 - Teachers resume – NO students

Thursday, January 29 - Year 1-6 commence (8.45 – 3.15pm)

Friday, January 30 - Preps commence 9.00am – 1.00pm

Monday, February 2 – Reduced time for Preps only - 9.00am -1.00pm

Tuesday, February 3 - Reduced time for Preps only - 9.00am - 1.00pm

Wednesday, February 4 – no school for Prep students

Thursday, February 5 – New time for Preps only 8.45am – 3.00pm

Friday, February 6 - Reduced time for Preps only - 8.45am - 3.00pm

Term 2

April 20 – June 26

Term 3

July 13 – September 18

Term 4

October 5 – December 18

Sunsmart

Please note the school’s sunsmart policy requires all students to wear their school approved, sunsmart hats until April 30.

Hot Days and Extreme Weather Days

On days when it is extremely hot (like next week’s forecast) the children will remain in classrooms and be supervised as they are on wet days.

Welcome again to the school year and I am excited by the opportunities that lay ahead for 2026!

A highlight of my day, as we welcomed the Preps into school was the initiation by one of the students to draw a picture of me. I must say this is very lifelike and probably a bit of an upgrade from the version I see in the mirror each day! Thanks Grady for being so kind and thoughtful to draw Mr Kent.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone and we look forward to our first 5 day week next week.

Kind regards,

Michael

Respect, Resilience, Responsibility, Connectedness and Challenge

Privacy Collection Notice

Information for students, parents and carers

The Department of Education and Training (the Department) values your privacy and is committed to protecting the personal and health information that schools collect.

All school staff must comply with Victorian privacy law and the Schools’ Privacy Policy. This notice explains how the Department, including Victorian government schools, handles personal and health information. On occasion, specific consent will be sought for the collection and use of information, for example, for a student to receive a health service. Our schools are also required by legislation, such as the Education and Training Reform Act 2006, to collect some of this information.

Throughout this notice, ‘staff’ includes principals, teachers, student support service officers, youth workers, social workers, nurses and any other allied health practitioners, and all other employees, contractors, volunteers and service providers of the school and the Department.

On enrolment, and during the ordinary course of a student’s attendance at a school, schools will collect information about students and their families for the following purposes:

educating students
supporting students’ social and emotional wellbeing, and health
fulfilling legal obligations, including duty of care, anti-discrimination law and occupational health and safety law
communicating and engaging with parents
student administration
school management
supporting policy in relation to student education and wellbeing.

If this information is not collected, schools may be unable to provide optimal education or support to students or fulfil legal obligations.

For example, our schools rely on parents to provide health information about any medical condition or disability that their child has, medication their child may take while at school, any known allergies and contact details of their child’s doctor. If parents do not provide all relevant health information, this may put their child’s health at risk.

Schools also require current, relevant information about all parents and carers so that schools can take account of safety concerns that affect their children. Parents should provide schools with copies of all current parenting plans and court orders about or that affect their children and provide updated copies when they change.

When parents enrol their child in primary school, they will be asked to provide personal and health information in several ways, including via the Enrolment Form, the School Entrance Health Questionnaire (SEHQ) and the Early Childhood Intervention Service(ECIS) Transition Form.

The Enrolment Form is used to collect information that is essential for the purposes listed above, and requests information such as:

Emergency contacts – Individuals parents nominate for a school to contact during an emergency. Parents should ensure that their nominated emergency contact agrees to their contact details being provided to the school and that they understand their details may be disclosed by the Department if lawful, e.g. in the case of emergency communications relating to bush fires or floods.
Student background information – Information about country of birth, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin, language spoken at home and parent occupation. This information enables the Department to allocate appropriate resources to schools. The Department also uses this information to plan for future educational needs in Victoria and shares some information with the Commonwealth government to monitor, plan and allocate resources.
Immunisation status – This assists schools to manage health risks and legal obligations. The Department may also provide this information to the Department of Health and Department of Families, Fairness and Housing to assess immunisation rates in Victoria, but not in a way which identifies students.
Visa status – This is required to process a student’s enrolment.

All schools may use departmental systems and online tools such as apps and other software to effectively collect and manage information about students and families for the purposes listed above.

When schools use these online tools, they take steps to ensure that student information is secure. If parents or carers have any concerns about the use of these online tools, please contact the school.

School staff will only share student and family information with other school staff who need to know to enable them to educate or support the student as described above. Information will only be shared outside the school (and outside the Department) as required or authorised by law, including where sharing is required to meet duty of care, anti-discrimination, occupational health and safety, and child wellbeing and safety obligations. The information collected will not be disclosed beyond the school and Department without parent consent unless such disclosure is lawful.

When a student transfers to another school (including Catholic, independent and interstate), personal and/or health information about that student may be transferred to the next school. Transferring this information is in the best interests of the student and assists the next school to provide the best possible education and support to the student.

For further details about how and what level of information is provided to the next school, refer to the: Enrolment: Student transfers between schools

Schools only provide school reports and ordinary school communications to students, parents, carers or others who have a legal right to that information. Requests for access to other student information or by others must be made by lodging a Freedom of Information (FOI) application.

To update student or family information, parents should contact their school.

MEPS PTA