Principal's Report
Dear EHPS Parents and Carers,
End of Term 2
As we quickly approach the last two weeks of school for this term, we can look back and reflect upon so many educational opportunities that the children have experienced. For example Year 6 Inter-School Sport, House Athletics, Inter-School Cross Country and Year 5 Camp. There were also incursions like Year 1 Minibeasts, visits from the Police and Fire Brigade for Preps, or excursions like Year 2’s visit to Mont De Lancey. The remaining two weeks continue to provide more opportunities for the children to be involved in great educational experiences e.g. Year 2 excursion to Seaford Wetlands, Year 4 Camp, Prep Careers Day, Instrumental Music Concerts and Science Week. These educational activities supported the children’s learning and engagement at school.
Once again, the PFC were active in Term 2 with their marvellous Mother’s Day morning ‘Treat’ as well as the Mother’s Day Stall. All these special activities have created a real buzz with the children and has made their term enjoyable and very productive.
Dream big Evelyn & EHPS!
Recently, Evelyn from Year 4 had a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet Katherine Bennell-Pegg—Australia’s own female astronaut and Australian of the Year 2026. Evelyn says that she was so inspired by Katherine’s journey and achievements. During their meeting, Evelyn was able to ask Katherine a number of questions about space. As well Katherine was kind enough to sign a beautiful photograph dedicated specifically to our school, complete with an inspiring message for the students
It was great to hear from Evelyn at Assembly on Monday about this amazing experience!
Youth Chess Championships 2026
Lucas Z from Year 6 has been selected to represent Australia at two international chess championships. Lucas will be Australia's official player in the Under 12 Open category for both the FIDE World Cadet Chess Championships 2026 (15–28 June in Batumi, Georgia) and the 28th Asian Youth Chess Championships 2026 (15–25 July in Shenzhen, China). This is an amazing achievement and a wonderful opportunity for Lucas. We hope that he has a marvellous experience and look forward to hearing about his experience and results. Congratulations Lucas and all the best in both championships.
Inter-School Chess Tournament
We are delighted to share some fantastic news from the Maranatha Christian School Junior Interschool Chess Tournament.
Essex Heights Primary School was proudly represented by ten talented students:
- Tejas K (6B)
- Harry L (3L)
- Ethan L (4N)
- Royce M (6R)
- Palaksh M (6B)
- Bradley P (6W)
- Christian P (4S)
- Karanam (Prabhava) R (6B)
- Jeniru S (4N)
- Lucas Z (6W)
Our team achieved an outstanding result, winning the Team Championship and securing a place in the Semi-Finals.
An impressive seven of our students qualified for the Semi-Finals, demonstrating exceptional skill, determination and teamwork throughout the day.
Congratulations to our individual award recipients:
- Lucas Z (6W) was crowned Individual Champion, achieving a perfect score of 7 out of 7.
- Harry L (3L) and Prabhava R (6B) both scored an outstanding 6 out of 7, finishing equal second.
Most importantly, all students represented Essex Heights Primary School with excellent sportsmanship, resilience and teamwork. They should be incredibly proud of their efforts and achievements.
A special thank you to Sharon Zhang, Harry Li's mother, for generously volunteering her time to supervise and support our students throughout the tournament. Opportunities such as these would not be possible without the support of our parent volunteers.
We would also like to thank all of the families involved for their ongoing encouragement and commitment to the chess program. Your support helps provide students with valuable opportunities to challenge themselves, build confidence and represent our school in the wider community.
Congratulations once again to all competitors. We wish our team the very best as they prepare for the upcoming Semi-Finals and look forward to sharing more exciting chess news with our school community.
Thank you to Simon Liao for coordinating the students participation in this tournament and to our regular chess tutors.
Semester 1 Reports
Following an in-principle agreement between the Department of Education and the Australian Education Union (AEU), all planned industrial action related to negotiations to finalise the new Victorian Government Schools Agreement (VGSA) has been entirely suspended.
The AEU had included a ‘ban on all aspects of work related to the provision of written comments on student reports provided to parents’ in that industrial action. While this ban has now been lifted, the Department of Education recognised that it may now be difficult for schools to provide full written comments for Semester 1.
At Essex Heights we will provide reports that indicate student achievement against the relevant curriculum area of the Victorian Curriculum F-10, but they will not include full descriptive written comments.
Student Reports for semester 1 will be available online by Thursday 25 June. As always, teachers will be pleased to discuss your child’s progress with you at our next parent-teacher discussions scheduled for Week 3 of term 3.
If there is a more pressing matter, please contact your child’s classroom teacher to arrange a meeting.
Region Cross Country
I was able to attend the Eastern Region Cross Country Finals on Thursday 11 June to see our four students participate. It is a very prestigious result to be able to represent our school at this level. Grace C, Reece X, Emily S and Alia A all ran very well, and some personal best times were bettered achieved. Congratulations to them all for representing our school so well. Thank you to Ms Hocking and Ms Kemp for helping to prepare the students for this event.
Music Concerts
The Instrumental Music Program has recently conducted its mid-year concerts - Strings, Keyboard, Prep to Year 2 Piano, Years 3 to 6 Piano, Percussion and Woodwind & Brass. The final concert - Guitar & Ukulele - will be held next week.
The different concerts are always very well attended, and the children display their learning and expertise, demonstrating their growth as performers over the first half of this year. All concerts were held in the school hall. The children, ranging from beginners to advanced, played for their parents and demonstrated the progress they have made.
A big thanks must go to all the Instrumental Music teachers for their tutoring and for preparing the children so well for their performance. Special thanks to Alyssa Kennedy for her impeccable organisation of all six concerts.
Next week's final concert starts at 6.30pm in the Hall and all are welcome to attend. If you can make the time, I look forward to seeing you there.
Thanks from the McGrath Foundation
We raised $875 this year – smashing our goal – to support the work of the McGrath Foundation to ensure no one goes through cancer without care. We’ve received the following certificate in acknowledgement of the time, effort and energy put into fundraising this year:
Uniform
Essex Heights Primary School families are reminded that our students are expected to wear school uniform every day.
Refer to the Student Dress Code Policy in the Care, Safety & Welfare of Students section of the new Policy Portal:
Items of clothing worn to school must be in the style as defined by the approved uniform available from our uniform supplier, Spartan School World, and in school colours (bottle green, dark grey or white). Uniform can be purchased from the generic school ranges from stores such as Big W, Target or Kmart in our school colours.
At this time of year when your child might need some additional layers for warmth to wear under their uniform, e.g. skivvy, leggings or t-shirt, these must only be in our school colours (bottle green, grey or white) or black.
If you’re in need of a few extra pieces, take advantage of the secondhand uniform sale conducted each term by our PFC. Very reasonable prices and all sales are a fundraiser for the school.
Outside School Hours Care
Did you know that the EHPS OSHC program is in the Top 6% of all out of hours care programs in Australia, as assessed by the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA)?
Please complete survey requested in Paul Davis’ Compass News Feed on 5 June to ensure we maintain and improve the excellent service provided to our school community.
Click the button below to access the survey:
End of term reminder
Term 2 comes to an end next Friday, 26 June. Families are reminded that students will be dismissed early on this day at 2.30pm.
If your child is absent in the last days of term, parents/carers are reminded that the Department of Education school attendance guidelines require you to request my approval for your child to be absent during school term for any of the following reasons:
- Family holiday
- Religious/Cultural observance
- Leisure or social activities
- School refusal
- Other – special event or participation in elite sporting event/training
To request approval for your child to be away from school, parents/carers are required to send an email to essex.heights.ps@education.vic.gov.au for my attention with the details of your child's absence. You will receive an email response with further steps.
Our OSHC program is providing Vacation Care on weekdays in the upcoming school holidays. Bookings are now open and are essential to secure a place; use the booking gate on your Xplor Home app. Don’t delay as places book out quickly.
Term 3 commences on Monday 13 July.
Hygiene and health advice
Over the past month the number of cases of colds, flu, RSV, etc have grown steadily. When children are sick we strongly advise that they should stay home until they are well and free from symptoms. Children that are not feeling well do not benefit from coming to school, they do not engage in activities because they feel very sick. In addition they can then pass on their illness to others. Please help us to keep our school community as healthy as possible so that we can get through the remainder of this term and next.
Leaving EHPS
It is essential for our planning and preparation for the new term and next school year that you advise me in writing as soon as possible if your child will not be returning to EHPS next year. Use the school email address – essex.heights.ps@education.vic.gov.au – to advise the following details:
- Child's name and 2026 class
- Date of last day at EHPS
- Name of the school your child is enrolled at
- Commencement date at new school
- The reason for leaving EHPS
- New contact details, e.g. address, phone number, email
Celebrating our diversity
We acknowledge the following significant days for some of our families:
Al Hijri (Islamic New Year) 17 June
According to the lunar or Islamic Calendar, Al Hijri (Al Hijrah in Arabic) is the Islamic New Year observed on the first day of Muharram. Muharram is the Islamic Calendar’s first month of the year and is the second holiest month after Ramadan.
Dragon Boat Festival 19 June
Dragon Boat Festival (Duanwu Jie or Double Fifth Festival) commemorates the death of the Chinese poet Qu Yuan. It is celebrated in China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and parts of Indonesia. Cultural events involve eating rice dumplings and traditional dragon boat racing.
World Refugee Day 20 June
This day honours refugees and celebrates the strength and courage of people forced to flee their home country to escape conflict or persecution.
I look forward to seeing you around the school.
Kindest regards,
George Perini
Principal