Dear Wonderful Families,

I hope everyone has had a lovely week. It is hard to believe we are already at Week 5! There continues to be so much happening across EBPS, and as always, I have really enjoyed getting out into classrooms, chatting with students in the yard and catching up with many of you at the gates. Even in the middle of a busy term, those little conversations and connections are some of my favourite parts of the job.

A short time away

I wanted to let you know that I will be taking Long Service Leave from Friday 14 August through to Friday 21 August, as I need to spend some time caring for my father.

During my absence, Peter Sneddon will be Acting Principal. Peter brings a great deal of experience in school leadership and I know the school will be in very capable hands. I would particularly like to thank Peter and Jade Williams for stepping up to lead the school while I am away. I am very grateful to have such a strong leadership team around me and know that it will be very much business as usual at EBPS.

I will be back at school on Monday 24 August.

Getting to know our School Council

Our lovely School Council would really like our community to know them better! You will find information about our current School Council members in one of the attachments to this newsletter, and I encourage you to have a look and put some faces to names.

School Council is an incredibly important part of the governance of a Victorian government school. While I manage the day-to-day operation of EBPS, School Council works alongside me to help establish the broader direction of our school. Council has an important role in areas such as strategic planning, policy, school finances, facilities and ensuring that the decisions we make continue to serve the best interests of our students and community.

We are very fortunate to have a group of people who genuinely care about EBPS and give their time voluntarily to help us continue to grow and improve our wonderful school.

We would also love to have more members of our broader community involved in the work of our School Council through our subcommittees. You do not need to be an elected School Council member to participate. Our subcommittees include Grants, Education, Community Engagement and Wellbeing, and Marketing and Community Engagement, and they provide a wonderful opportunity for families to contribute their ideas, skills and experience to particular areas of school improvement.

The commitment is manageable — generally two meetings per term — and subcommittee members help discuss priorities, provide feedback, support the development of projects and make recommendations to School Council.

If there is an area that interests you, I would really encourage you to become involved. Strong schools are built through strong partnerships with their communities, and there are many different ways you can contribute.

Register your interest here: Sub-committee expression of interest

Our new acknowledgement system

You may have heard your children talking about our new whole-school acknowledgement system, which we have begun introducing as part of our Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) work.

The idea behind it is actually very simple. Across EBPS we explicitly teach the behaviours and expectations we want our students to demonstrate. When staff notice students demonstrating these behaviours, they may receive an acknowledgement. These are given intermittently and are not about children behaving in a particular way simply to receive a reward.

Importantly, this is not an individual competition. Acknowledgements are added to a shared class collection, with the class working together towards a special shared activity. The emphasis is on contributing positively to the group and building a strong classroom and school community.

I also want to reassure families that considerable thought has gone into how this approach sits within both our Mainstream and Steiner settings.

In our Mainstream classes, the acknowledgement system sits within our broader PB4L framework. PB4L is about explicitly teaching children the behaviours that help everyone learn and belong, recognising those behaviours when we see them, creating predictable environments and providing additional support where children need it.

Within our Steiner stream, I absolutely recognise the importance placed on intrinsic motivation, developmentally appropriate practice, rhythm, relationship and the child gradually developing their own inner sense of responsibility. Our approach has been deliberately designed with this in mind. We are not using individual prizes, public rankings or children competing against one another. The acknowledgement is brief and intermittent, and any celebration is shared by the class rather than attached to an individual child. In fact a number of Steiner Schools use similar systems including Sophia Mundi Steiner School here in Melbourne, Newcastle Waldorf School and Ballarat Steiner School, whose behaviour approaches explicitly include positive acknowledgement.

In many ways, the collective nature of the system reflects something that already occurs naturally in classrooms — recognising when a group has worked beautifully together, cared for its environment, shown kindness or contributed to the wellbeing of others.

Ultimately, our goal in both streams is the same: we want children to develop an internal understanding of why kindness, respect, teamwork and perseverance matter. An acknowledgement is not the end goal; it is simply one tool adults can use while children are learning and developing these habits.

This is also why we will continue listening carefully to our teachers, students and families as the system develops. EBPS is a unique school, and anything we implement needs to work thoughtfully within both of our educational settings while still providing consistency for children across our shared school community.

Looking towards our next Strategic Plan

Although 2027 may sound a long way away, we are already beginning to think about an incredibly important piece of work for EBPS — the development of our next School Strategic Plan.

A Strategic Plan sets the direction for a school over a four-year period. It identifies our major priorities for improvement and helps ensure that our time, resources and professional learning are focused on the things that will make the greatest difference for our students.

This process should never happen in isolation. Our students, staff and families all experience EBPS differently, and each perspective is valuable.

As we move into Term 4, you will therefore begin to see opportunities to provide feedback about our school — what we are doing well, what you value most, where you think we can improve, and what you would like EBPS to become over the coming years. There will also be opportunities for our staff and, importantly, our students to have a voice in this work.

I really encourage you to participate when those opportunities arise. This is our community's school, and the next Strategic Plan is an opportunity for us to collectively help shape its future.

These events are also included in our Compass calendar.
Please click here to download the Term 3 calendar.
**Please note: the next working bee has been moved to Sat. 12th September - please click on full Term 3 calendar link above.

That’s all from me this week. Thank you, as always, for the warmth, support and care you continue to show our school and each other. I feel incredibly fortunate to lead this wonderful community, and I look forward to seeing everyone again when I return.

Take care of yourselves and each other.

Warmest regards,
Sarah Spence
Principal

Good afternoon, EBPS community!

As I reflect on the past fortnight, I can't help but feel incredibly grateful to be part of such a vibrant, connected and caring school community.

There has been so much to celebrate! We enjoyed another fantastic Working Bee run by Jane Ross, Taylah Voltan and our School BIG Sub Committee and attended by a great number of families to help refresh our beloved chicken coup space. We’ve enjoyed Thursday afternoon Community Markets, with Assistant Principal Pete Seddon once again taking on the role of BBQ Master. We were also proud to host a Mathematics Network meeting, expertly led by Tanja Boxelaar and Amanda Hooper-Duffy, showcasing the outstanding professional learning and collaboration taking place at EBPS.

Across the school, we've continued to strengthen our Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) journey through our acknowledgements work, helping to build an even stronger culture of belonging, respect and teamwork.

A huge congratulations also goes to Lee Jellis (Hot Chocolate Maestro) and our Student Voice Council for organising such a successful Pyjama Day. It was wonderful to see our students embracing the day with so much enthusiasm while supporting a great cause.

This week, the leadership team was also deeply touched by the beautiful Principal Day celebration organised by our incredible staff. Your kindness, generosity and appreciation meant more than you know and we thank you.

Of course, these highlights are just a snapshot of what makes EBPS so special. Every single day, our dedicated staff, enthusiastic students and supportive families work together to make our school an exceptional place to learn, grow and belong.

To say I am proud to be part of the EBPS community is an understatement. Thank you for making this such a wonderful place to be. I can't wait to see what the rest of the semester brings!

With Kindness,

Jade Williams

Classroom Cuisine is available for us to order online,
every day (except Tuesdays)

NEW TERM 3 MENU BELOW
Orders open until 8:30am on the day!
menu below
https://classroomcuisine.com.au/