Principal's report

Dear Parents/Carers,

We’ve reached the midpoint of Term 2 and there is so much to celebrate at EPS.

Across the school, there is a real sense of energy and excitement. Our Prep students are rapidly approaching their 100 days of school milestone, classrooms are full of rich learning opportunities, and students continue to demonstrate our values of Respect, Responsibility, Personal Excellence and Curiosity each day.

There is a strong sense of momentum and pride around the school at the moment, and it has been wonderful to see students, staff and families continuing to thrive together as we move through a busy and rewarding term.

2025 Annual Report

The 2025 Annual Report was recently endorsed by School Council and is now available on our website: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oHEJuyNX7cKDYfevC-3LHmOEuxlrXAL_/view

The Annual Report provides a valuable overview of our school’s achievements, progress, and operations throughout the 2025 school year. As a legislative requirement for all Victorian government schools, it offers a transparent account of key metrics including student outcomes, attendance, wellbeing, and financial performance. I often reference this document during school tours with prospective families, as it provides a clear and consistent way to understand how our school is tracking. I am incredibly proud of our 2025 Annual Report, which reflects a year of strong learning growth, student wellbeing, and community connection at EPS. The achievements outlined throughout the report are a testament to the collective efforts of our students, staff, and families, and the strong sense of partnership that continues to underpin our school community.

I wanted to share this snapshot from the 2025 Annual Report, which builds on the reflections and celebrations outlined throughout the report. The data below highlights parent and carer responses to the annual and anonymous Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey, which is distributed across our school community each year.

In 2025, we received responses from approximately 150 families, providing valuable feedback about their experiences and perceptions of our school. We are incredibly proud of the results, with EPS achieving a 91.6% positive endorsement for General School Satisfaction. This significantly exceeds both similar schools and the state average, and reflects the strong sense of trust, partnership, and connection that exists within our community.

These results are a credit to our dedicated staff, supportive families, and wonderful students who work together each day to make EPS such a positive, inclusive, and high-performing learning environment.

Our 2025 NAPLAN Reading results continue to reflect the strong reading culture and high expectations for learning that exist across EPS. We are incredibly proud that almost 90% of students achieved in the Strong or Exceeding proficiency levels in Reading, with our results exceeding the state average across both Year 3 and Year 5.

In 2025, 73 students completed the Year 3 Reading NAPLAN assessment, and 60 students completed the Year 5 Reading assessment. With cohort sizes of this nature, even a small number of students can significantly influence percentage outcomes. This highlights the importance of looking beyond a single percentage figure and recognising the consistency of our results over time, including our exceptionally strong three-year averages.

These outcomes are a testament to the collective work of our staff and students, and to the balanced approach to reading and literacy that continues to underpin teaching and learning at EPS. While we are proud of the academic achievement reflected in these results, we are equally committed to fostering a genuine love of reading and literature in our students.

A wonderful example of this can be seen in our library, where students are actively recommending books they would like added to the collection. Last week alone, more than 60 student book recommendation notes were submitted, followed by a further 75 this week. This level of engagement highlights that our students are not only developing strong reading skills, but are also building the habits, curiosity, and enthusiasm of lifelong readers.

These results also reflect the outstanding work of our tutoring program across the school. Throughout 2025, five part-time staff members worked within the program to identify and support students through a range of approaches, including one-on-one tutoring, small group instruction, in-class support, and targeted withdrawal sessions. Using student data to identify needs and monitor progress has allowed us to provide highly targeted support for students requiring intervention, while also offering extension opportunities for students in both literacy and numeracy.

The breadth and flexibility of the tutoring program have had a significant impact on student outcomes, and we thank the staff involved for their dedication, expertise, and ongoing commitment to ensuring every student is supported, challenged, and able to thrive.

Education Support Personnel (ESP) WeekOn Friday 15 May, we celebrated Education Support Day at EPS with a special morning tea in recognition of the incredible contribution our Education Support staff make to our school every single day.

Education Support staff includes all non-teaching staff across our school, including our office team, integration aides, and grounds staff. Their work is vital to the smooth running of our school and to supporting the learning, wellbeing, and success of our students. Quite simply, we could not do the work we do without them.

It was wonderful to see our Education Support staff feel genuinely valued and appreciated by the wider school community. A particular highlight was the beautiful cards created by students, coordinated by our teaching staff. The thoughtful messages, colour, creativity, and care that went into the cards brought plenty of smiles and were warmly received by staff throughout the morning.

We sincerely thank all of our Education Support staff for the care, dedication, professionalism, and warmth they bring to EPS each and every day.

Gratitude Stall for EPS Carers

A sincere thank you to the parent and carer volunteers who supported our Gratitude Stall. The thoughtful gifts brought joy to many mothers, carers, and special people within our community, and the stall was once again a wonderful success.

We are incredibly grateful for the time, effort, and care that went into organising and running the event. Your support and generosity helped create a warm and positive experience for so many members of our school community.

Attendance Matters

Ensuring your child attends school every day is one of the most important ways you can support their learning and development. Missing just one day a fortnight can add up to approximately four weeks of lost learning time across a school year. Over the course of a child’s schooling, this can equate to a significant amount of missed learning.

While we understand that absences are sometimes unavoidable, we encourage families to plan holidays during school vacation periods wherever possible to help maximise learning continuity and classroom connection for all students.

Family Contact Details

Please contact the office to ensure your family’s contact details are up to date. These can change over time, and having accurate information is essential for staying connected and ensuring we can reach you when needed.

Have a great weekend,

Michael Portaro

Principal