Principal's Item 

Dear parents, carers and friends of EEPS,

Welcome to the final few days of Term 3 2025. This past week has been full of colour and life as we celebrated The Arts @ EEPS at our biannual Arts Show. Thank you to the hundreds of students, families and friends who walked through our school grounds on Thursday evening to view artwork, listen to music performances and purchase a CFA sausage in bread. The atmosphere was buzzing and it was a delight to see so many happy faces. Thank you to the amazing team of teachers who made this evening possible and a special thanks to Mr Coates, Mr Day and Clare for curating the event.

At assembly these past two weeks we have been focusing on caring for our school grounds. In particular, managing our food waste and rubbish. Along with our weekly emu bob roster, rubbish bin monitors and rubbish free Fridays everyone can still make a difference by placing wrappers, peels and leftovers back into lunchboxes or straight into the bins. Our school grounds are beautiful, let’s all help to preserve them.

Something else we have spent some time exploring has been the power of our words. Words have the power to have a positive impact on others, or they can be very destructive. We need to choose the words we say towards and about others with care. A question I have used with the students has been, “Are these words helpful or hurtful? Do they build someone up or do they tear them down.” In a world where we can choose to be anything, be kind.

As we head into the school holidays it is a timely reminder for us all to speak to our children and families around pedestrian and bike safety. Over the past few weeks we have had reports of young people riding bikes, e-bikes and scooters in a dangerous manner through and near our school grounds after hours. There is a Youth Road Safety fact sheet in our newsletter this week and below are some further links you may find helpful when understanding the laws and responsibilities around road safety. We want everyone in our community to stay safe and the be safe when moving around.

https://www.police.vic.gov.au/pedestrians-and-cyclists

https://www.police.vic.gov.au/e-bike-safety

https://www.police.vic.gov.au/electric-powered-scooters-e-scooters

As you make your way to 3 way conferences today, there are a number of lost property items that are waiting for collection outside the school office. If your family is missing a lunchbox, drink bottle or unnamed clothing item, please drop by and take a look. We hope to reunite as many items and owners as possible.

Wishing you all a very safe school holiday break. Reminder that we finish school at 2:30pm on Friday and school will return on Monday 6 October.

In kindness

Lisa Joseph

Acting Principal