Dear parents, carers and friends of EEPS,

I hope that everyone had a chance to have a small break or refresh over the last few days. The weather was certainly lovely to be out and about. A shorter week is always welcome, but there seems to be as much to pack into it as a regular week!

Staff news

It has been a busy year for babies at EEPS in 2023. Congratulations to Ms Laura Banks, who is also pregnant and expecting in early Autumn next year. This is always very exciting, especially when it is the first child.

More sporting news

Congratulations to Jamie R who finished second in the All Schools Championship in the 200 metres last weekend. The school looks forward to hearing of Jamie’s athletic successes later in the year and also in 2024 and beyond as she moves into secondary school.

Year 6 preparations

Last week the Year 6s had their graduation photos taken. The cohort are certainly looking forward to the next few weeks of preparation and their other end-of-year activities such as Market Day.

New cleaning arrangements in 2024

Recently the government has awarded the North-Eastern Melbourne schools’ cleaning contract to Tradeflex. ISS has held the contract over the last 4 years since the government centralised cleaning arrangements. David Tyndall and I have met with the new Area Managers and so far, we are very optimistic about an improvement in the overview cleaning standards from 2024.

Masterplan development

School Council has recently approved the development of a Masterplan for the school. A Masterplan sets out a 5-10 year plan or ‘wishlist’ for the continued development of our facilities. A part of this will be working with the Victorian Schools Building Authority (VSBA) and independent architects to review what our school building ‘entitlements’ are and to see if our current facilities match this. Two main longer term needs for the school are a full-size stadium and a ’wellbeing hub’ where we can provide more rooms for visiting allied health professionals. Once we have a Masterplan it will then be easier to fundraise and seek local and State government support.

As part of the government’s commitment to providing additional kindergartens attached to school sites, they have engaged independent contractors to assess all school sites. EEPS was visited last week and a couple of areas within our grounds were identified as possible locations. Even though this is a long-term project parking and traffic management, and the topography of our spare space could be potential challenges.

Parent Payment Policy- helping to maintain our programs

The 2024 plans are in full swing at EEPS. Later this week, a separate Compass Newsfeed will be sent to all families detailing the categories and charges for parent payment contributions for 2024. The three categories are called; Curriculum Contributions, Other Contributions and Extra Items and Activities. Further information on these categories will be provided in a separate Compass Newsfeed. Once again the staff, Leadership Team and School Council have formulated and set the suggested parent contributions to help EEPS continue to provide outstanding teaching and learning programs with very reasonable costs to parents. We are hoping for the continued support from the EEPS community in this endeavour for all students to continue to enjoy and thrive. As with 2023 there will be no (zero) cost to all EEPS parents in 2024 for swimming, which will provide a significant saving to all families.

Remembrance Day

This Friday, 10th November, we will be holding our annual Remembrance Day Service. Parents and carers are very welcome to join us at 10.50am for this Service. I am very pleased that we will once again have the Choir perform a song as part of the occasion.

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

Warren Lloyd

Principal

Learning @ EEPS - Prep to Year 6