Hi everyone and welcome to the final newsletter for term 1.

What a term it’s been! So many wonderful learning opportunities and extra curricular activities for our students and community to enjoy. I hope you and your children have enjoyed the amazing start to the school year. Our students are to be congratulated on their hard work, resilience and positive attitude they’ve shown to their schooling throughout the term.

Thank you to all of you, our amazing parents and carers for your ongoing support throughout the term. At MEPS we place great value on the relationships between home and school. Your support, encouragement and positive communications with the school are always appreciated. Wishing you and your families a wonderful school holiday break.

I would also like to thank the whole staff team for their hard work over the term. We are fortunate to have such a dedicated team who always place the students at the centre of all they do at MEPS. Their commitment and professional approach have supported all of our students in making a great start to the year.

Looking towards next term we will have some additions to our staff team. From the commencement of term 2 we welcome three new Education/Learning Support staff.

Mitchell Bates-Webb, Tiffany Bolton and Liz Cracknell will further support our learning and wellbeing programs throughout the school. All come with a range of skills and experience that will be welcome additions to the MEPS team. We also have our Business Manager, Sharyn Wanstall taking long service leave for the duration of term 2 as is Cassie Humphreys. Both Sharyn and Cassie will be replaced in their roles so that the functioning of the school and our programs is continued.

Wishing you and your families a fantastic, happy and healthy Easter and school holiday break. It has been a busy term and I’m sure you will all enjoy some time to relax, rest and recharge for term 2!

Lightning Premiership

Congratulations to all of the students who participated in the Lightning Premiership tournament this week. It was wonderful to see the students demonstrating their sporting skills but most importantly their wonderful team approach to the various sports.

I managed to make it around to see most of the teams on the day and I was so proud of the effort and also the sportsmanship shown by everyone. The students displayed such a positive and supportive attitude that made for great energy, enthusiasm and encouragement on the day. Well done! We had teams represent the school in volleyball, cricket, tennis, softball and lawn bowls. Thank-you to Mrs McLaughlin, the staff team and the parents who came along to support and encourage our sports stars!

Year 1-3 Swimming

At the start of next term our year 1 - 3 students will enjoy their swimming programs. They are being held at PARC in Frankston where the students will participate in a week of intensive swimming. This promises to be educational and enjoyable for everyone involved.

PTA Dissolution

The PTA has recently met and unanimously voted to dissolve the governance of the PTA. This will mean that the PTA will continue to function in same manner in regards to school events, activities, fund raising and community events but the governance will be supported through the School Council. As always we welcome the opportunity for our community to work together in supporting the broad and extensive offerings provided through MEPS.

School Council

This week we welcomed our 2026 School Council at our first meeting. This followed our AGM to share the 2025 Annual Report. This report will be verified through the Department quality assurance and be shared with the whole community next term.

2026 School Council:

Az Stephenson (President), Gary Howells (Vice President), Anthea Patching (Treasurer), Amy Hille (Secretary), Hayley McLachlan, Krista Lenders, Cara Pollard, Esther Edney, Sabrina Males, Rebecca Mattison, Darren Thresher and Amy Wanless.

Thank you to the exiting members of the council: Jo Downey, Nathan Carrick and Andrew Cullin.

Year 3-6 Performing Arts Program and Concert

Next term, in addition to Mrs Congiusta’s Music, Dance and Drama program; we’re delighted to be expanding our Performing Arts program as we welcome Kinect2Dance to Mt Eliza PS. Over the course of term 2, students will take part in dynamic dance and drama workshops in the lead up to our year 3-6 concert ‘A Night at the Museum!’ to be held on June 17 at Frankston Art Centre. These workshops will be complimented by our MDD lessons, rehearsals and script practice. Our year 5/6 students recently auditioned for lead roles and we are grateful that sooo many students put their hand up to give this a go. Wonderful to see the excitement and enthusiasm for performance.

As part of our school values, our concert isn’t just about learning dance steps. It is an important part of the Performing Arts curriculum and a milestone experience that becomes a treasured primary school memory. Through dance, students gain so much more than movement skills. They build confidence to stand proudly on stage, resilience to keep going when things feel challenging and the joy of expressing themselves in new and creative ways. These life skills extend far beyond the performance, enriching all areas of learning and growth. With the support of Kinect2Dance, we look forward to seeing our students shine, celebrate their achievements, and create lasting memories together as a school community. We will send through the permissions and costings for this program at the start of term 2, we can’t wait to see our students shine!

Children’s University

On Tuesday, participating students in year 3 enjoyed receiving their passport for Children’s University. This is an exciting opportunity for the students to extend their learning beyond the classroom. Thanks to Swinburne University for their ongoing support of our learning program.

School Events

Our year 6 students had a great time at their 1000 steps excursion. This was a wonderful compliment to the integrated curriculum and our Endeavour program.

Year 3-6 students have also been enjoying their ten pin bowling incursions over recent weeks and our year 4 OzHarvest program continues with some amazing recipes coming to life in the MEPS student kitchen.

Planning for Term 2

Staff have been busy this week as they prepare for the term 2 curriculum and learning program. All teams have met to review student progress across term 1 and to accordingly plan for the term ahead.

Sunsmart

Please note the school’s sunsmart policy requires all students to wear their school approved, sunsmart hats until April 30.

Lost Property

There is LOTS of lost property located in the Year 2/3 building. If you’re missing some uniform, it’s likely there!

Easter Raffle

Thank you to the many families who supported the Easter raffle through donations and tickets sales. We also thank the PTA for their support of this activity.

Our preps enjoyed a TeamKids facilitated plastic easter hunt on Wednesday! Great fun for all. Thanks to Isabelle, Tamara and Team Kids for providing this for the students.

A reminder that school resumes on Monday April 20!

We look forward to seeing everyone back at school, happy and healthy. To those travelling, we wish you a safe journey.

Enjoy your Easter and school holiday break.

Kind regards,

Michael

Respect, Resilience, Responsibility, Connectedness and Challenge