Principals' Page

Capital works

We are very excited that our Capital works project is moving along. This week several builders visited our site with the aim of tendering for our building works. It is anticipated that building works will begin on the 26th December and will continue for most of the 2025 school year. 

As part of the building project the current main building toilet block and Japanese room will be demolished. A new toilet block will be built and will be ready for the students when they return at the end of January.

The building works will include a new administration block  where the current Foundation to Year Two playground is. When complete this will provide a new face to our school with the office entry facing Armstrong Road. 

Probably the most exciting news for the children is that we are going to have a new playground constructed. This will be located where the current Level 3/4 playground is. It will be substantially bigger and have more exciting equipment to accommodate our junior students.  Further work will be done on the other playground throughout the year. 

As the grounds work will happen over the Summer holiday break our TeamKids vacation care program will not run as usual. TeamKids does run from many other local schools and we will be providing further information with regard to this soon. TeamKids will operate as normal for the 2025 school year.

School review

Our upcoming School Review will take place on November 12th, 13th, and 19th. Every four years, schools conduct a review to help guide the development of their 4-year School Strategic Plan (SSP). This process is important for ensuring that we continue to provide the best possible education for our students.  

An important part of the review is collecting information and opinions from parents.  The review panel would like to speak to a group of parents about HEPS and how they believe the school is tracking.  If you would like to be part of a small focus group at 3PM on Wednesday 13th November, please email the school at heathmont.east.ps@education.vic.gov.au   

Swimming program

It was great to see all the Foundation to Level 5 students participate in the swimming program this week at Aquanation. The skills learnt during the program provided children with a swimming and water safety foundation that will enable them to safely enjoy aquatic activities in a limited range of environments. The school swimming and water safety lessons covered 4 key components:

• Underwater Skills
• Entries & Exits
• Stroke Development
• Water Safety

Thank you to the parent helpers who assisted with the bus rotation and helped the students at the pool. Thank you to Miss Cameron for organising the week long event.

Semester 2 reports

At this present moment, staff at HEPS are busy writing Semester 2 reports. These reports provide a great overview of students’ progress based on the completion of several assessments and classroom observations over the course of Semester 2.

We report in line with the Victorian Curriculum. Students are placed on a learning continuum in each curriculum area, based on the data that teachers collect throughout the semester. When you open your child’s report, you will notice some yellow highlighted areas and black dots. The yellow highlighted area indicates the range which students of that year level are expected to be working in. The dots indicate the progression point that your child has demonstrated in that curriculum area.   

It is important to note that the jump from one progression point to another can involve a huge amount of learning! Please know that if a progression point has not moved, it does not indicate no growth. It just means that the growth that has been made has not been quite enough to meet the next progression point. 

At HEPS we value individual growth (one of our school values) and celebrate students’ individual achievements. We understand that students all progress at different paces and that learning does not always follow a consistent trajectory – it can plateau and peak at different times. While the progression points on the front of a report do not always show the individual growth that has been made, the comments certainly will! 

Parents can access the reports via Compass on Thursday 19th of December. 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 reports will be unavailable from Compass after 20th December once the adminsitration system has been rolled over. 

Artificial grass- Side of art room

We recently added artificial grass around the side of the Art room, creating a new space that has quickly become a popular spot for students. To further enhance this area, we plan to add tables where students can sit and enjoy art lessons, as well as use the space during recess and lunchtime.

It was amazing to see some of our HEPS students perform and share their stories about Diwali. Diwali, also known as Deepavali, is the Hindu festival of lights, with variations celebrated in other Indian religions. It symbolises the spiritual "victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance". 

Safe socials - For parents and carers (primary)

The Department has created resources and advice regarding how parents can support their children as they navigate the online world, specifically on how to stay safe and` the potential risks of social media. See link below for some great advice and tips.

https://www.vic.gov.au/safe-socials-parents-and-carers-primary