Principal’s Report

Celebrating the Retirement of Sandra Pepi

This week, we farewell an extraordinary educator, leader, and colleague - Sandra Pepi - as she retires after an incredible 40 years of dedicated service to Merri-bek Primary School.

Sandra has been an exceptional teacher whose deep curriculum knowledge, strong relationships with students, staff, and families, and unwavering commitment to student learning and wellbeing have shaped generations of children. Her influence reaches far beyond the classroom, and she has left a lasting legacy across our school community.

Sandra is also a highly respected leader. Her calm, steady, student-centred leadership of the 5/6 team, her professionalism, integrity, and genuine care have earned her admiration from colleagues and families alike. Many of us will particularly miss her on school camps, where her humour, organisation, and guidance always helped everything run that little bit smoother.

On a personal note, I have had countless conversations with Sandra over recent years, gently trying to convince her to stay “just one more year.” Each time, she reminded me - with her trademark smile - that after 40 years she had earned her rest, yet she still continued to give wholeheartedly to her students and our school. That generosity, loyalty, and dedication is simply who Sandra is.

Sandra’s departure will leave a significant gap at MPS. We will miss her leadership, wisdom, compassion, and ability to bring calm to even the busiest days. But most of all, we will miss her - her kindness, her laughter, her unmistakably strong voice, and the warmth she brings wherever she goes.

On behalf of the entire Merri-bek Primary School community, we extend our deepest thanks to Sandra for her decades of service, commitment, and care. We wish her joy, rest, adventure, and plenty of quality time with Tony as she begins this next chapter.

Congratulations, Sandra- and we hope to see you back visiting (or even CRTing!) in the near future.

Farewelling Staff Leaving Merri-bek Primary School

As we come to the end of the school year, we take a moment to acknowledge and thank the staff members who will be leaving Merri-bek Primary School. Each of them has contributed to our community in meaningful ways, and we are deeply grateful for the care, dedication, and expertise they have shown our students.

We extend our thanks to:

Sandra Pepi
Tasneem Bekai
Elena McKinlay
Liv Trevisan
Daisy Day
Gabby Furst
Michelle Rooke
Hannah Garvan
Cara McMahon
Victoria Topalidis
Lily Callanan
Katy Ingram

While it is always bittersweet to say goodbye, we celebrate the achievements of these wonderful educators and support staff. We wish them every success and happiness in their next chapter and thank them for the positive impact they’ve had on our students and school.

On behalf of the entire Merri-bek community, we express our appreciation and warmest wishes for the future.

Welcome the following Staff to Merri bek PS

We are delighted to welcome several new staff members to Merri-bek Primary School. As our enrolments continue to grow, we are fortunate to have recruited a number of outstanding educators who will be wonderful additions to our Merri-bek community. Please find their short profiles below:

Pia Stathis
Kristina Bounas
Sophie Oakes
Tess Haycox
Annaliese Richards
Callum Blackburn
Yasemin Ozsoy
Anna Maxwell

You’ll also find the full set of teacher profiles for 2026 included in this newsletter. We encourage you to place them somewhere prominent at home and chat with your child about their teacher/s for next year.

Wishing you all a safe holiday period and wishing you all a joyous festive season. Look forward to seeing you all in 2026, on Thursday 29th January and our new Preps on Wednesday 4th February from 9.00 to 1.00pm.

Maria Giordano

Principal

Bianca Hudson - Acting Principal's Report

Dear Families,

We would like to thank you for all your support this year. What a wonderful year we have had and there are many opportunities for us all to celebrate together this week. We say goodbye to our wonderful year 6 students as well as some of our amazing staff and welcome new staff to the Merri-bek community. We will have lots of fun celebrating the wonderful 42 year career of Mrs Pepi. You will receive your child’s teacher profile for 2026 and your child’s Semester 2 report on Tuesday afternoon. Please note that all classes and friendships have been taken into account and poured over for many hours by leadership and staff, therefore we hope you will support all teachers for 2026 and class decisions. We appreciate your trust in us and the process.

We are excited to have Luciana teaching Spanish culture in 2026, she has been a LOTE teacher previously and we are committed to a wonderful and expansive Spanish LOTE program. As such we will be recruiting for a Specialist LOTE teacher for Spanish later in 2026.

We hope you join us for our end of year assembly on Friday at 1pm and remind you that we finish EARLY THIS FRIDAY at 1.30pm.

We wish you a wonderful and joyous holiday season. Stay safe and have a great break.

Kind regards

Bianca Hudson

Acting Principal

Staffing 2026

Kinder News