Principal's Item 

Dear parents, carers and friends of EEPS,

Thank you to the EEPS community for their involvement and participation in our annual ANZAC Day service on Monday. It was fantastic to hear our choir sing, student leaders speak and to be presented with a special Gallipoli Pine. The Pine will be planted once our ramp project is completed. Many of our student leaders will also play a part in the traditional ANZAC Day Dawn service tomorrow in Eltham. 

U R Strong – Wellbeing Workshop

Last week the school was very pleased to welcome the presenters from the U R Strong foundation, to deliver relevant and incredibly helpful presentations to our Prep-Year 4 students around the topic of making friends and sustaining healthy friendships. We were able to provide an additional follow-up activity for our students as a result of additional funding in mental health from the Department. I hope that there were productive follow-up conversations at home.

Staff update

I would like to offer a warm welcome to Mr Nigel Dunne to EEPS as he takes up the Acting Assistant Principal position, left vacant with David Tyndall’s appointment as Principal at Eltham Primary School. Nigel, comes to EEPS with a wide range of leadership experiences at Greenhills Primary School and I know everyone will make him welcome. 

I am also pleased to announce that Mr Gary Wynne has been successful in obtaining our new part-time Groundskeeper / Facilities Coordinator position at EEPS. He has a strong commitment to EEPS with 4 out of his many grandchildren attending the school. Garry will be able to coordinate maintenance tasks and different Grounds projects.

We farewelled Ms Ruby Curtis this week after 8 years at EEPS. Ruby has had a number of teaching roles over her time with us and was working in a part-time specialist role this year. With a young family Ruby was finding the travelling difficult and has secured a part-time position closer to her home. All the best, Ruby!

Lastly, congratulations to Ms Laura Banks, who gave birth to Max Banks Sheahan, on the 21st April, arriving 11 days late! Congratulations Laura, we look forward to you visiting soon.

School Concert- ‘Heroes’

I am very pleased to let the school community know some key information about our 2024 school concert. EEPS has a very proud history of producing our own school concerts and this year is no exception. Ms Katia Gonano, one of our Learning Specialists, currently on family leave, has once again written an original script for us. This year the performance is titled, ‘Heroes’ and as always has a strong social and emotional learning message contained within it. Each year level has a dance item and we will audition speaking roles for each level. Information will be provided later in the term for this process. 

The school concert itself is on Tuesday 3rd September 2024 at Robert Blackwood Hall, Monash University in Clayton. This may seem like an odd venue; however, it is the only facility that is large enough for our entire student body to perform in the finale at the same time. We also make great use of the layout and ramps to make the show come alive. For new families to the school please trust us that our way of producing the concert, including the venue, fits together perfectly.

Year 3 and 4 camps

Our Year 5 and 6 camps are coming up shortly this term. Just a reminder for the dates for the Year 3 and 4 camps later in the year. The Year 3 camp is 10th and 11th October and the Year 4 camp is 28th-30th October. The costs for these camps will be approximately, Year 3- $285 and Year 4, around $300. As always, we strive for the balance of providing the absolute best opportunity for your child/ren at a cost that is as low as possible.

Driving and safety around EEPS

The term has started off very positively in all regards, including the polite way in which most community members are practicing traffic safety. However just a remind about U turns in Luck Street. Here is a safety reminder from the Council School Crossing Supervisors that operate crossings throughout the council area.  

A crossing supervisor has contacted council and expressed their concern with vehicles performing U Turns and dropping off and collecting students in and around the designated supervised school crossing along Luck St. Councils Community Parking Officers patrol the crossings however they are unable to enforce moving traffic or traffic offences such as U Turns. In appreciation that the school is also unable to patrol or manage this, the supervisor has requested we inform you of the safety issues regarding the dropping off and collection of students near the crossing area. Our supervisor mentioned that some vehicles drive to the end of the no through road and turn while others do it very close to the crossing and it is causing some safety concerns and also visibility issues for the crossing supervisor.

Thank you to everyone for your support with this important safety issue.

Welcome to Term 2 message from the Minister of Education

The Minister of Education, the Honourable Ben Carroll, has a ‘Welcome to Term 2’ message for parents and carers. It can be viewed here.

New Interschool Sport district

Over the last 2 years, EEPS, has been working with the other local schools, and representatives from School Sports Victoria to lead a review of our local school sports zones. School enrolment numbers change, and we found that we were often competing against much smaller schools, such as Research PS, Our Lady’s and Eltham College Junior School, with much younger students required to field the teams and often with a significant score imbalance between the schools. This year, there has been a new grouping of ‘medium to large’ schools and ‘smaller’ schools. The first round starts this week and I want to thank Mr Bain for his leadership in this initiative.

Once again, you can see that we have lots of things on the go.

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