Dear parents and carers,

I hope that everyone has had a positive and productive start to this week.

Last week was certainly a week of contrasts. The week started with a great assembly where Vicki Ward presented several awards, including our inaugural Inclusion Acknowledgement certificates. We had the very successful Year 6 Market Days, the Strings Soiree, School Council, the annual Christmas End of Year picnic and teacher planning for 2025. There really are a large number of positive and meaningful things happening. I am very grateful that, almost universally, our great school receives incredibly strong support from parents, and the broader community. This was something that I remembered during the unfortunate media attention last week.

I would like to take advantage of this opportunity to remind all members of our school community, that if you are uncertain about something then please just ask- ask your child’s classroom teacher, the office staff or a member of the Leadership Team. Mostly, we have very considered plans, programs and initiatives and are always happy to provide more detail, from time to time, when needed.

Year 6 student leaders

At assembly on Monday, we thanked our 2024 Year 6 student leaders for their efforts during 2024. They have contributed in so many ways to help sustain and build the culture of our school during the year. Thank you to them for hosting assemblies, organise sporting events and fundraisers and for being role models- thank you to all of you. Thank you also to Mrs Vescio who has worked tirelessly with the Student Leaders this year.

Year 6 Gratitude Market

On behalf of the school, I wish to express my sincere and heartfelt gratitude to our school community for the support of the Year 6 Gratitude Market last week. This is an annual tradition at EEPS where our Year 6 students plan and organise their market stall activities. Collectively the market made a little over $6,500 which is an incredible effort, for which the chosen charities will be absolutely thrilled. A special thank you to the Year 6 parents for their generous donations of food, supplies and their time.

Curriculum Day and exciting DE initiatives

Last Friday, as I mentioned, was a very successful teacher planning day for 2025. You may also have seen or heard additional announcements from the Minister for Education over the weekend, around the teaching of synthetic systematic phonics. We have been busy looking at modifications to our approach for the teaching of literacy in 2025, including some additional assessments and a new data platform for the school. This, combined with a redefined role of our Learning Specialists, will stand us in good stead for a very exciting year of teaching and learning.

Past students

It is also wonderful to hear of the successes of our past students from time to time. Ex students, Jamie Ritchie, Tilly Johnson and Sam Reeves (brother to Sophie, Ollie and Ella) all achieved some great results at the recent All Schools Athletics Championships in Queensland. Congratulations to these students.

Transition Day

Yesterday students spent the day in their 2025 classroom with their new classmates and teacher. Although some feeling of apprehension can come with the uncertainty of what next year brings, we do hope that your children came home positive with a growth mindset for the learning and growing that will take place as they embark on the next stage of their schooling.

The class structure and teacher allocation is always a very complex process, with many often competing factors to consider. Please trust that we always make considered and thoughtful decisions around these aspects, and have created several drafts of all grades and constantly reviewed and revised them over the last month.

Here is the 2025 EEPS structure, with 28 classes;

Leadership team: Warren Lloyd (Principal), Lisa Joseph (Assistant Principal), Melissa Egan (Assistant Principal)

Leading Teacher: Naomi Brabender

Learning Specialist: Hannah Cullen, Emily Borg, Tash Owen, Mary Vescio

Prep

Tracey Beadles, Gabe Hughes, Katrina Moore, Hannah Glynatsis

Year 1

Josie Anzelmi / Ashleigh Harris, Lyndal Wilmot / Lisa Pascal, Lina Raudino, Hannah Cullen

Year 2

Sarah Nichols, Roslyn Pritsis / Lexie Hartney, Steve Arnold, Taleah Arter / Lisa Hallam, Samantha Keane

Year 3

Emily Borg, Hayley Hopper, Jacquie Gasson, Lamya Kwan, Brooke Harbour / Alicia Dow (3/4)

Year 4

Sophie James, Abbey McCauley / Alex Harriman, Bec Peters, Brooke Harbour / Alicia Dow (3/4)

Year 5

Hayley Deards, Nathan Gourzelas, Madeleine Elliot, Rachel Shopf (5/6)

Year 6

Tash Owen, Sarah Gale, Mary Vescio, Rachel Shopf (5/6)

Support and Specialists

Learning Support- Angela Lapadula, Alex Harriman

Visual Art- Blair Coates, Ashleigh Harris

Japanese- Ashleigh Harris

PE- Kristian Bain, Hannah McIntyre

Music- Jason Day

Library- Patty Casale

Biodiversity and Sustainability- Kara Jackson

Creative Media- Lexie Hartney and Laura Banks

Mental Health, Wellbeing and Inclusion Leading Teacher- Naomi Brabender

Disability Inclusion Support- Lisa Pascal

Support teachers-Alicia Dow, Lisa Hallam, Alex Harriman, Ashleigh Harris, Kara Jackson

Education Support Staff –Di Tucker, Amy Eaton, Gita Patamia, Andrea Rabak, Tim Donoghue, Amanda Russell, Rachel Corkery, Raymie Hall, Emily Cottier, Nikki da Luz

First Aid—Chris Hill, Andrea Rabak (all teachers at EEPS have First Aid training)

Office- Julianne Roberts, Lesley Searle, Melissa McCarthy (Business Manager)

OSHC- Jess, Kathryn, Ros, Miriam, Jack and Kristal

Staff departures

Every year always brings some staff movement. Miss Sarah Coney is moving to a school much closer to home and will take her junior years teaching experience at EEPS with her to her new setting. Mrs Georgie Richards has accepted an ongoing position at a school close to her new home in Torquay. Miss Aoi Sakamoto is taking up a short-term position at Caulfield Bilingual School for 2025 and hopefully will return to EEPS with many new skills and experiences. Mrs Sandi Macnamara, after a two-year stint with us is moving to Kinglake PS, a place she has also been working part-time this year. Mrs Fiona McCloskey, also after a two-year stint in Year 4 is leaving EEPS and we wish her well in her future endeavours. Mr Paul Kearney is moving to Wallan Primary School to take up a Leadership position there. Ms Nina Seidel, one of our ES members this term, is also leaving to devote more of her time to her studies as she is currently undertaking a teaching degree.

After a 24-year stint at Eltham East, and a 48-year involvement in education and in the Department, we say farewell to Mrs Jenny Samphier. Jenny has been an integral component of our highly regarded music program at EEPS and has taught the Kodaly system of music to generations of young children. Whilst Jenny’s lessons were always fun, she always set clear and high expectations for the learning and mastery of key music skills. Thank you, Jenny, for your dedication over so many years.

We wish all our leaving staff our very best as they embark on a new phase in their life journey in 2025. We will be able to officially say goodbye to them all at our final assembly on Friday 20th December.

Staff arrivals

With change comes opportunity for EEPS. To ensure that we have committed and caring classroom teachers for our classes in 2025 we have two excellent passionate new teachers.

Welcome to the following staff;

Ms Hannah Cullen- is joining EEPS to fulfill a Learning Specialist role and Year 1 teacher. Hannah has had many years teaching and leadership experience.

Ms Jacquie Gasson- Jacquie brings years of experience in teaching adults in the health field and completed a really successful teaching round at EEPS this year in Year 5 this year.

We also welcome three new Educational Support staff, Emily Cottier, Raymie Hall and Nikki da Luz.

Student Reports

Next week the 2024 Semester 2 reports will be available on Compass. The semester reports are the culmination of your child’s interaction, engagement and results in the teaching and learning program during the semester. These reports actually take an incredibly large amount of time to collate and write so please take the time to go through them together with your child. Thank you to the teachers for their efforts with the reports.

Thank you to those families who attended our End of Year / Christmas Family Picnic last Thursday. It was lovely to have so many people attend, and the musical items were very well received. Thank you to the families who were able to assist with setting up, selling sausages and helping with the pack up.

Only one week to go in the 2024 school year!