Principal's Item 

Dear parents, carers and friends of EEPS,

It has been a busy week. Our Year 3 and 4 students thoroughly enjoyed the Healesville Sanctuary on Monday, whilst our Preps enjoyed their first school excursion to Chesterfield Farm on Tuesday, even though the start to the day was very chilly!

ICAS and STS

Well done to the students who have been participating in the ICAS assessments over the last week. Also, well done to the students who have been participating in the 2026 Science Talent Search. I have mentioned before the ‘micro moments’, and these are two more examples of this and giving things a go. 

Drone Photo

We were disappointed that we couldn’t take a whole school drone photo last Friday for National Week against Bullying and Violence. We postponed the photo due to the high winds but are aiming to do a retake this Friday. The annual photo is certainly a talking point when we display them in the classrooms.

Community Traffic Safety Update

Families will recall that I recently had a meeting with State and Federal Members of Parliament. I am in regular discussion with Nillumbik Shire Council regarding longer term parking and traffic management concerns around the school. This week I received the following message from Council to pass onto our community members:

Traffic safety around school zones is paramount to ensure the safety of our community. Nillumbik Shire Council and Victoria Police are actively patrolling school zone areas to ensure a safe school zone for all vehicle and pedestrian users. 

Please acknowledge this message as a friendly reminder to all parents/ carers to ensure they are parking safely, legally and abide by all road rules and ensure to be mindful of speed limits within the area and parking restrictions.

While there will be an increased presence in patrols in school zones across Nillumbik Shire Council, Officers will be proactively patrolling the area around Grove Street to identify and address illegal parking. We kindly ask that the school community respect officers who may be observed inspecting vehicles and if required issuing infringements. 

Please note that enforcement may not always be visible, as Council uses various methods to issue infringements, including affixing notices to vehicles, hand delivery, and postal service.

Keeping everyone safe around schools is a shared responsibility. Be sure to observe all school speed zones and parking restrictions. Patrols around school zones, which are done in conjunction with Victoria Police will also be resuming to help keep children safe. 

I ask all EEPs families to please, hold safety in utmost importance, as we continue to work on some longer-term solutions. 

Learning and Growing Together

This week our teaching staff have had another engaging professional learning session further unpacking the ‘Explicit Teaching’ section of the new Victorian Teaching and Learning Model. The purpose was to deepen our collective knowledge to continue to teach to the point of need within our new approach to literacy. This week, as well, I was able to attend the Term 3 Principal Area Forum, which focussed heavily on planning whole school improvement and factors for enabling learning.

Asking for Help

I spoke at Assembly on Monday about the importance of asking for help and having someone significant who children can trust and turn to. Normally this would be parents, but sometimes other family members, teachers, school staff, sporting coaches or mentors can play this role. I would encourage all families to have these reinforcing conversations at home as a very important protective factor for all children.

Arts Show

Our 2025 Arts show is coming up very shortly, Thursday 11th September, 5.30-7.30 pm. It is going to be a great night, with lots of student artwork displayed and musical items scattered throughout the school. We have also organised a CFW sausage sizzle for the night. Hopefully the weather will be nicer than two years ago when we had heavy rain!

Lastly, please don’t forget that tomorrow, Thursday 21st August, is our special Book Week Dress Up day and parade in the morning. There are two purposes - to have a lot of fun but also to raise much needed funds for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, with the gold coin donations.

Have a great week of ‘Learning and Growing Together’.

Kind regards

Warren Lloyd

Principal