Principal's Item 

Dear parents, carers and friends of EEPS,

I hope you are having a positive and productive week. It was wonderful to attend our EEPS Athletics Carnival last Thursday at Greensborough. Overwhelmingly the majority of Year 3-6 students gave the events a go and enjoyed the participation. There were some anxious Year 3 students competing for the first time but I would like to particularly commend them on their efforts and attitude. It was also great to witness community co-operation – some Montmorency Secondary College students providing welcomed assistance on the day.

Staff Update

I would like to welcome Mrs Lexie Hartney to EEPS. Lexie started this week and will be taking over most of the teaching of Creative Media and also play a support role in Year 6 to allow Mrs Vescio to co-ordinate the concert. Mrs Hartney will be working on a Monday and Tuesday.  Thank you also to Mr Nigel Dunne, who is continuing in his role next term.

Refugee Week

This week is Refugee Week- this is an annual celebration to recognise and showcase the contributions of refugees in enriching our communities and culture. This year’s theme is ‘Finding Freedom: Family’. The theme highlights the importance of family, near and far. This includes extended and chosen families, neighbours and support systems in Australia that make the journey to safety possible and give hope in times of uncertainty. Whilst EEPS doesn’t have a large number of refugee families, empathy and understanding around this group in our community is always important.

Prep Museum

It was a great honour to officially open the 2024 Prep Museum yesterday morning. The students have been working very hard with their buddies, to create special museum artefacts for all to see. Well done Preps!

Police in Schools Program

On Monday EEPS hosted a visit from Senior Constable Nicole Kendricks, who is our local Police School’s Liaison Officer. This was a prearranged visit for Nicole to talk to our Year 5 and 6 students around a number of important topics, including staying safe online and around the theme of personal responsibility. This was also a theme that I talked about at assembly on Monday. Thank you to Mrs Brabender for organising this activity and I hope that it generated some productive conversations at home.

Assessment and Growth

Next week the Semester 1 student reports and self-reflections will be ready and online from Wednesday, through Compass. Sometimes it is important to remember that childhood development and learning growth frequently doesn’t happen on a smooth trajectory or a straight line. There are always ups and downs, periods of stronger growth and periods of consolidation and different levels of challenge and ‘step-ups’ along the school journey as your children move through the primary and secondary years. Please remember this when the reports are released next week. Do take the time to go through the reports with your child/ren as this is also an important aspect of their learning journey. Thank you to the teachers who have put a lot of time, energy and effort into preparing the reports, and to the students for the efforts on their student reflections.

Bake Sale and Fundraiser

Next Monday, 24th June, the Junior School Council have organised a Bake Sale for parents, straight after assembly in the OSHC space downstairs. For students it is a crazy hair / free dress day, with a gold coin donation to help raise money for State Schools Relief. Last year’s Bake sale was a huge success so let’s see if we can match that.

Ramp Project Update

Progress is still being made, all be it slowly, on the Ramp Project. One hold up has been waiting for the handrails which come from a large company, however they are involved in the tunnel and rail link government projects, so these have tended to take priority over our small project! Pleasingly, the new disabled car spot is slowly taking shape. For those who are wondering, the ‘pad’ at the bottom of the main steel steps leading to the office was not done to specification and will need to be modified over the holidays, this is why it appears to have been left unfinished all term.

Art Competition

It was wonderful to see so many fantastic pieces of student artwork come in for our ‘animal’ themed competition. Thank you to all the students who got involved and to the Visual Arts Leaders for organising this activity with Mr Coates.

It was very entertaining to have some of our Year 1 and 2 students perform at assembly on Monday and I look forward to the Strings Ensemble performing next Monday, our last assembly of Term 2.

Have a great week.