Dear parents, carers and friends of EEPS,

Wow! The 2024 EEPS Concert, ‘Heroes’, was a spectacular success last night. I would like to sincerely congratulate each and every one of the EEPS students who bravely performed. As I said in my speech last night, we are proud of the way we produce our concert. This isn’t an ‘off the shelf’ play, it is uniquely crafted for us, from start to finish.

There are so many people to thank. Thank you to:

-Ms Gonano - for the script

-Mrs Vescio - for the acting coaching and guidance, and for organising all the other details of concert

-Miss Scaglione - for the choreography of all 7 dance routines

-Mrs Sampier - for pulling everything together

-Mr Day - for skilfully rewriting the finale, ‘One Call Away’

-Mrs Bostock - for all the behind-the-scenes concert administration

-Aidan for accompanying the students on the piano

-Our pre-show entertainment students - Ari, William, Alex and Samual

-Mr Coates and the band of wonderful parent helpers for props and costume making

-All the teachers who helped with the year level performances, with props, with micing children up, and managing doors on the night

-All the students who rehearsed for the speaking roles and those who were successful

-The students in the choir, percussion ensemble and Year 4 strings students

AND OF COURSE each and every one of the students who put everything into it culminating in such a great performance.

Staff Update

Congratulations to Mrs Katie Carson, currently on family leave from EEPS, who has secured a permanent part-time position at the Department in one of the Wellbeing Teams. As staff, we were able to say ‘thank you’ and ‘goodbye’ when Katie visited for a morning tea last week.

Tomorrow, Thursday 5th September, EEPS teachers will be providing a special lunch for our Education Support staff, for ES Appreciation Week. There are many roles at EEPS that are indispensable to the smooth running of the school, and for the care in the classroom for many students. Their roles are all valued and acknowledged.

Network Upgrade

Last week the Department central IT servers considerably ungraded their filter system by moving to Zscaler, an internationally regarded, safety and security platform for organisations. Thank you to Puneet, our IT Tech, for making this change run so smoothly.

Wear It Purple Day

Last Friday, 30th August, was ‘Wear It Purple Day’. This is an annual LGBTIQA+ awareness day especially for young people, based in Australia. Whilst as a primary school we didn’t have any form of celebration or acknowledgement as such, it is timely to remember that we all have a role to play in celebrating diversity in our EEPS school community.

School Improvement

Whilst we are still feeling the joy of EEPS concert success, our staff have immediately refocused on our Curriculum Day today. The main focus of the day is to work through the new School Strategic Plan with teachers, after our school review last term. In addition, with our soon to be launched new school values, teams are preparing the learning around them and also team 4 planning.

Last week I was also privileged to attend the Banyule Nillumbik Network Principal Conference at Sorrento. Events such as these are always full of lots of new learnings and possibilities for the students at EEPS.

Impact

Sometimes when we, as Educators, are caught up in the day to day, it is hard to lose sight of the impact that we can make. Recently, the school received an email from a parent, largely thanking the school for the Father’s Day and Special Person’s Day artwork:

‘Before he began school, he was very reluctant to draw and create anything of a crafty nature. In fact, he actually dreaded any sort of art-based activity at kinder and would get quite anxious about it, for him deeming himself “not very good at it”. Mr Coates has brought the joy of art back into his life and he has been able to develop his skill in this area with more confidence. The epitome of this was the beautiful Father’s Day artwork piece. My child also looks forward to Thursdays as he knows this is his art day.’

This was really lovely feedback to receive. I am reminded of the saying that, ‘it takes a village to raise a child’, but is also a great reminder to us all that little things can make a big difference.

Next Monday the Stretto Strings are performing at Assembly, so please come along if you can.

Once again, what a magnificent concert last night and I hope that you all take time to celebrate this with your children! And…help them find their school hats!

With my appreciation for the massive concert support and success.

Mental Health and Wellbeing