Principal's Item 

Dear parents, carers and friends of EEPS,

I hope you were able to have a restful weekend as a family. The weather was a little up and down with the sun finally shining through yesterday afternoon. Short weeks are always busy, and this week is no exception, with 2027 Prep classroom visits and our student discos tomorrow and Friday.

Budget Update

Last week I wrote about the Government committing to fully funding Victorian Government Schools. At the same time, it was announced that there would be cuts for disability supports in schools. Yesterday afternoon, revised aspects of the decision were released but further details are yet to be published. It is making workforce planning and staff budget planning very complex for the school. Normally, these decisions would have been made much earlier in the year. 

Voluntary Parent Contributions – 2027 - Helping to Maintain Our Programs

In light of the above the 2027 plans are still in full swing at EEPS. This week a separate Compass Newsfeed will be sent to all families detailing the information about the parent contributions for 2027. There have been a couple of changes this year, but further information is found in the attachments to the Newsfeed. Once again 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. The school has also conducted some research on comparable local schools in our Network, and the EEPS suggested contributions remain very comparable and lower to like schools. 

Student Achievements

Congratulations to Amalia M in Yr 4, who competed in High Jump at the State competitions. Amalia succeeded in coming 13th in the State, which is a fantastic effort. Well done!

Student Free Days - 2027

The dates for 2027 student free days have been allocated. Please note, that with the new Victorian Government Schools Agreement (Industrial Agreement) there are an additional 4 student free days, tagged as Professional Practice Days for all school staff. As with previous years we have attempted to line the student free days to minimise disruption where possible. A care program will be running on most of these days, subject to demand. Here are the student free days for 2027, noting that slight changes may occur and will be communicated well in advance.

Term 1

Curriculum Day - Wednesday 27th January (state-wide)

Professional Practice Day - Friday 19th March

Variation to School Hours Day (3 Way Conferences) - Monday 22nd March

Term 2

Curriculum Day - Monday 12th April (first day of Term 2)

Professional Practice Day - Friday 11th June (before long weekend)

Term 3

Curriculum Day - Monday 12th July (first day of Term 3)

Professional Practice Day - Friday 3rd September 

Variation to School Hours Day (3 Way Conferences) - Wednesday 15th September 

Term 4

Curriculum Day - Monday 1st November (Cup Monday)

Professional Practice Day - Friday 3rd December

Coming Up

EEPS Remembrance Day Service

We will be holding our annual Remembrance Day service at 10:50am on Wednesday 11th November and EEPS parents and grandparents are warmly invited.

Democracy Sausage Sizzle

On Saturday 28th November, State Election Day, we are holding our democracy sausage sizzle and cookie stall. Please see the attached flyer and work out a time that you can help. Regardless of your political opinions it is always a fun day and a fabulous way to give back to the school. 

Student Disco

This week we are holding the annual student disco again, Prep-2 on Thursday and 3-6 on Friday. It is such a fun event, and we invite students to be involved. Please see the Compass event for further information and for participation.

Have a great rest of the week.

Kind regards

Warren Lloyd

Principal