Dear parents, carers and friends of EEPS,

Last Friday was a fantastic day for our Journey Through Asia day. Our start of the day assembly woke everyone up with the Chinese Lion dance. As the day unfolded every class had one cultural incursion, along with some craft activities. A huge thank you to Flannagan sensei and Margerison sensei for organising the day.

I would also like to acknowledge that Monday, 20th October was Diwali. For those of you who do not know this is an extract from Wikipedia:

Diwali, also called Deepavali or Deepawali, is the Hindu festival of lights, with variations celebrated in other Indian religions such as Jainism and Sikhism. It symbolises the spiritual victory of Dharma over Adharma, light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance.

To those EEPS families who celebrate Diwali, I hope that it was a joyous day for you.

Government Announcement on BYOD Programs and Screen Time

You may have seen in the media last week, that the Government is removing the option for primary schools to run BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) iPad/computer programs. EEPS has never had a BYOD program and is proud of its history of providing a school-funded integrated ICT infrastructure program. This year we switched to a pure iPad program with keyboard cases for Year 3-6. The Government has also provided screen limits for use during the day. These new announcements are not contradictory to our existing philosophy and practices. All parents can be reassured that we do make the appropriate use of technology but are not at all obsessed with it. We have always known that devices play only part in a comprehensive school offering.

New Opportunity - Part-time OSHC Manager

Whilst most of the news around staff movements will come at the end of the term, I would like to let the EEPS community know that Kathryn Sparkes, one of our two OSHC Managers, is retiring at the end of the year and moving to country Victoria. Kathryn has been a key member of our community for several years, both at OSHC and also doing stints in first aid and helping in the office. We will miss Kathryn and wish her all the very best.

I am letting everyone know now as we have commenced the recruitment process, for a new part-time OSHC Manager. This has been advertised on SEEK and any interested EEPS community members are encouraged to speak to Melissa McCarthy, Business Manager.

2026 Class Planning Process

On Tuesday we sent home the ‘learning friends’ page for 2026 for all Prep-Year 5 students.

At this time of the year, we start to focus some of our combined energy into the classes for 2026. It is my hope that by providing further insight into the steps, that anxiety around the process may be reduced.

The class placement process places at its core the best learning outcomes for EEPS students, not just academic but social and emotional growth.

Teachers will soon be commencing the task of allocating students to classes, each class being an important community of learners.

Prior to allocating students to classes, they are given an opportunity to record four students from their year level who they would believe they would learn well with and like to be with next year or could learn well with. Teachers encourage students to think beyond their own class and to name students with whom they work well, rather than just their close friends. It is not a priority listing, so it does not matter which name is written on the form first. Class teachers explain to students at least one of those named will be in their class for the following year. This form went home on Tuesday with all Prep-Year 5 students. We ask that you help your child and return their hand to their classroom teacher by Monday 27th October.

Previously we have asked for five learning friends on a ‘hand’. Last year we trialled asking for four learning friends. This did provide enough flexibility whilst at the same time helped narrow the focus for the student. Previously, there have been several occasions when the school has had concerns raised by parents around classes with a child getting one of the five but with the comment that that person isn’t really a friend, they just had to ‘fill up the hand’. Hence, our reason for moving to four learning friends.

The key words here are ‘learning friends’. This has never been designed as a list of your child’s best friends, as it is often the case, that many friendships are often strengthened and more positive when the two students are not necessarily in the same class.

Teachers follow a process and consider the following when allocating students. These include:

- There is a fair distribution of personalities and abilities.

- There is a fair distribution of genders.

- Students placed with at least one of their four named learning friends from their year level.

- There is a fair distribution of students with specific needs.

- There are separations when required.

In the coming weeks, teachers and leadership will collectively spend over 100 hours (approx. 2.5 weeks’ worth of work) carefully arranging classes for 2026. We use a specific software program, that considers the children’s preferences to ensure that they are in a class with at least one of their selected learning friends from their list. This year we are moving to a different software program that hopefully will provide us even more flexibility. From there, staff analyse the groupings and consider a multitude of factors such as academic abilities, social dynamics and the diverse learning styles of each child. This process is very complex and time consuming. Teachers use their knowledge and judgement to make the best decisions for the children that they can.

Please trust us; we know your children and their learning styles. There is no such thing as the ‘perfect’ grade, and that learning to work with different students in a supported community of learners is a very normal, natural, and indeed positive and necessary part of child development. Please also remember that it is important for children to learn to interact with children who maybe different to themselves.

The school never intentionally prioritises one student over another. It is absolutely normal that some children will end up with a higher number of close ‘learning friends’ than others due to all the factors that are considered.

Over the next two weeks please let your child’s classroom teacher know if there is anything pertinent about your child’s friendships or relationships, that you think they may not know. (No later than Friday 7th November). We do not accept requests regarding teachers.

If you are moving schools next year, please let the school office know and they can help with the necessary arrangements. Knowing this also helps our planning and ability to offer places to other students, if available.

Whilst we are starting this process and asking the students for their learning friends, our main focus is to continue to have our lens on the current school year as we have many weeks still to go!

As always, thank you for both your support and understanding.

This Thursday we are looking forward to our whole-school Music Aviva incursion. Please don’t forget to provide consent for this special event. We also hope that the Year 4s have a great camp next week.

Have a great week of Learning and Growing Together.

Kind regards

Warren Lloyd

Principal

Sustainability & Biodiversity