Principal's Item 

Dear parents, carers and friends of EEPS,

Firstly, I wanted to say thank you for the overwhelming support that I have received since my return from bereavement leave this week. It is heart-warming to be part of such a caring and warm community. A big thank you to Lisa Joseph, Assistant Principal, and Doreen Montgomery, Acting Principal, in my absence.

Staff news

We wish Laura Banks all the best as she heads off on family leave later this week. Good luck and we look forward to seeing Laura back for a visit with her new baby. Laura’s support role will be continued later in the year when we have additional staff returning from leave.

JSC Reps

It was lovely to welcome the new JSC Reps for Year 3-5 for 2024 at our assembly on Monday. Congratulations to the following students; Emmy W, Harry W, Penny T, Taylor S, Ruihan C, Taya H, Yash R, James Poulton, Sarp C, Ollie W, Piper W and Mia H. Mrs Vescio is looking forward to working with the JSC in 2024.

School Photo Day

School photo day is always an important milestone on the yearly calendar. Thank you to our parent community for approving the Compass event so promptly. Our new photographers were fantastic to work with and have been very efficient today. On a personal note this will be my tenth year of photos at EEPS so that is always a milestone to celebrate in any workplace!

Acknowledgement- Rare Diseases Day

Last Thursday was Rare Diseases Day, which raises awareness for the 300 million people living with rare disease around the world and their families and carers. The long-term cause of the Rare Disease Day campaign is to achieve equitable access to diagnosis, treatment, health and social care and social opportunity for people affected by a rare disease. At EEPS we do have a student with a rare disease, impacting less than 0.0000075% of the world's population. We are continually committed to provide different opportunities to all our students in different ways.

Being ready for learning

Recently at the Prep Information evening we talked about helping your child to be ‘ready for learning’. There are a large number of factors that impact on a child’s readiness to learn however, we know that the start of the day is really important. Whilst I understand parent work commitments and the desire to give older students some independence, please recognise the importance of the morning to help prepare students for a successful day of learning. Recently the school has had reports of several of our older students wandering the streets early in the morning, including buying drinks and lollies at the shops. This doesn’t necessary set the children up for a focused day of learning. Just something to reflect on.

Movie Night- Migration

Excitement is building for the annual EEPS movie night on Friday 22nd March for the screening of ‘Migration’. We are having a raffle, a sausage sizzle provided by the CFA and lots of popcorn. Please be sure to get your tickets from the office. I look forward to seeing many of you there. We are still on the look out for additional child friendly raffle prizes so please see the separate movie night newsfeed about this. It is sure to be a great night.

3 Way Conferences- Variation to school hours day

As the term is ticking along our attention is focused on arrangements for the end of term and the beginning of next. As I communicated previously, the format of the 3 Way Conferences for Term 1 will be slightly different than previous years. The conferences will be an opportunity for teachers, parents and students to discuss both academic and social progress during term 1 as opposed to a ‘getting to know you’ visit like the previous few years. The term 1 3 Way Conference day is Monday 25th March, from 11.00am-7.30pm. Students are only required to attend for the 3 Way Conference. Please make sure to read my direct parent, Compass Newsfeed on this topic that was sent yesterday for additional information and clarification.

Long weekend

Just a reminder that this Friday is a Curriculum Day and next Monday is Labour Day. I hope all families can have a break and enjoy spending time together.

Thank you again, it is great to be back.

Have a great week of ‘Learning and Growing Together’.