Hello everyone,

Principal Appointment    Earlier this week it was announced to School Council and Staff at East Bentleigh P.S. that no appointment was made for the advertised position of Principal at East Bentleigh Primary School. The process will commence again in early Term 2. I will be continuing as Acting Principal for Term 2 – which I consider a great privilege. Aaron Jones, Michelle Mather and Lee Jellis have been an excellent support throughout Term 1 in their roles as Acting Assistant Principals and will be continuing in this role in Term 2.

School Council News    Earlier this week the 2024-2025 School Council met for the first meeting of the new council. Welcome to new members, Iole Issaias, Georgie Lye, Ray Van Haven and Rachel Jeffreys (re nominated) – parent members, and Andrea Smith - DE representative member.

Welcome back to Lisa Cleland and Julia Kahan (parent members from last year) Michelle Mather and Aaron Jones DE representatives. Congratulations to you all.

The following Office Bearers were elected on Monday night:

President:               Rachel Jeffreys

Vice President:       Julia Kahan

Treasurer:              Michelle Mather

Minute Secretary:  Aaron Jones

I look forward to working with you during the year.

Subcommittees

Subcommittees are the working hub of School Council. Much of the planning, policy and organisation takes place in the subcommittees. Subcommittees will be convened by a school council member; however, subcommittee membership is open to all parents if they have an interest or expertise in a particular area.

School Council extends the invitation to join a subcommittee and participate, supporting the educational environment of all our children.

Please contact me if you are interested in joining a subcommittee this year. Our current subcommittees are:

FINANCE

FACILITIES-BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS MAINTENANCE

EDUCATION AND POLICY

COMMUNICATIONS AND ENGAGEMENT

FUNDRAISING AND INITIATIVES- Including Bentleigh Farmer’s Market/Grants/OSHC

Parents and Friends Committee    I have received a request to form a Parents and Friends Committee at East Bentleigh P.S. The aim of the Parents and Friends Committee is to welcome those in our school community to be involved with their children’s education and work together to support our wonderful school by:

Encouraging social interaction among parents and families

Providing resources and facilities for the school for the benefit of the pupils through fundraising activities.

There is a defined process to commence a Parents and Friends Committee at a government school.

A letter requesting to form a parent’s club is signed by at least 6 parents and sent to the principal. I received a letter earlier this term.

The principal sets up a meeting with the aim of forming the parents club and notifies the school community of the upcoming meeting. This meeting will occur on Wednesday 17^th April @ 3.00pm.

There will be a reminder via COMPASS at the beginning of Term 2. It will also be on the calendar.

Easter Bonnet Day -Thursday 28^th March – 9.00am   Our annual Easter Bonnet parade will be held on the last day of term - Thursday 28^th March. This is always such a fun event, so why not brainstorm ideas with your children so they can take part. It would be great to see as many parents as possible getting in on the fun.

Anaphylaxis Awareness    We have students in our school who have a severe allergy to nuts and nut products. If exposed to nuts these students can have an anaphylactic reaction and, within a very short time span, experience extreme difficulties with their respiratory and/or cardiovascular systems. Potentially this is life-threatening. The key to prevention of anaphylaxis in schools is knowledge, awareness and planning. As part of our Risk Management to ensure the safety of these students, I ask families not to bring nuts or nut products to the school site or to school activities.

If your child is at risk of having an anaphylactic reaction, please educate him/her about not accepting food from others.

Anaphylaxis is not rare. The Australian statistics show one in one hundred and sixty-six children have had at least one episode of anaphylaxis in the past, with one in six episodes of anaphylaxis having occurred in school or childcare. Safe schooling is often a big worry for parents however with education and co-operation between school, parents and doctors, school can be a safer place for those with anaphylaxis.

Your cooperation with this requirement is appreciated. The classroom teachers will provide you with additional information from time to time, and in particular inform you of protocols to follow around bringing any special foods to school for Special Days or Events.

Bentleigh Farmers’ Market     A reminder that our next market is this Saturday  23^rd  March running from 8am-12:30pm. This month we will have over 40 stalls all bringing the freshest and best produce our Victorian farmers have to offer. Browsing through all the wonderful stalls is a relaxing way of spending some time on a Saturday morning - I hope to see you there.

ANZAC DAY – 25^th APRIL    Next week and the first 2 weeks of Term 2 we will be selling ANZAC Day badges, key rings, wrist bands and pens to support our local Bentleigh RSL Club.  Our local RSL club supports all returned soldiers and their extended families through many different activities in the community. This is our way to support them and say thank you for all their dedicated work throughout the years. The ANZAC Day badges, key rings, wrist bands and pens range from $1:00 - $5:00. Our School Captains will be selling these each morning commencing on Monday 25^th March.

They shall grow not old,

As we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them,

Nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun

And in the morning

We will remember them.

Lest we forget.

Working Bee - Saturday 20th April 2024     We are pleased to advise that we are having our first Working Bee for the year on Saturday 20th April from 9am -12noon. All are welcome! Please come and help beautify our grounds and gardens. We will also be serving a delicious morning tea for all who attend. Please BYO garden gloves!



Farewell to Dagmar McNamara and Timm Black

Dagmar has been at EBPS for the past 10 years - having 2023 off with leave. She has returned to EBPS this year and will leave us at the end of Term 1. Dagmar will be continuing her teaching journey at Castlemaine Steiner School. Dagmar is a dedicated and experienced Steiner teacher who has educated many students in her time here. We wish her all the very best in her future educational journey. We will miss her wonderful sense of fun and professionalism. Thank you Dagmar.




Timm is leaving EBPS at the end of Term 1 - taking up an apprenticeship as a carpenter. He has been working with us for the past 3 years (is also a former student at our school!) and had made an excellent contribution to the Education Support staff here at EBPS. Timm's gentle, caring manner has supported many of our vulnerable students. We will miss him greatly and wish Timm all the very best in his future endeavours. Thank you Timm.

Kind Regards,
Sue Jackson - Acting Principal

Writing - Compare and Contrast

In grade 5/6, students have completed their narrative and persuasive texts and are now looking into comparing and contrasting.

Students were required to compare two topics of their choice, using a Venn diagram. The graphic organiser will then be used later in the writing cycle to create a longer piece of writing including an introduction, comparison paragraph, contrasting paragraph and a conclusion.

“I like that I got to choose my own topic and investigate 2 video games. I compared what was similar and what was different”

“Thinking of the topic was easy but you had to make sure they had some similarities otherwise it became very hard. For example, Easter and pencil was tricky but KFC and Red Rooster was simple”

“It was interesting seeing how two slightly different topics can have things that are similar but also things that are different from each other”

“Compare means similarities, while contrast means differences.”




By Andrea Smith - Grade 5/6S Classroom Teacher

Maths at EBPS

As you all know EBPS is a MAS school, we are a Maths Active School and we are passionate about maths. At the beginning of this term we have started a maths gifted program for students in grade 5 and 6.

Each week a group of high level maths students meet and tackle a maths puzzle or challenge together. Rueben, Isaac, Henry, Siena, Charlie, Yuval, Luke, Owen and Liam learn to share their thinking and work together to solve high level maths problems. These problems are created by Andrew, who runs the maths website ‘Thinksquare’. Here is the link https://games.thinksquare.com.au/. Have a go at home!

Tanja Boxelaar, Math Leader

Wellbeing in Prep M

Prep M has continued to work on the Zones of Regulation. They've nailed down the strategies for getting back to the green zone and can now all identify which zone they're in.
It's been awesome to see their emotional smarts grow! They're using lots of different strategies to calm down and focus, like taking deep breaths and asking for short breaks.
I've also noticed them helping each other out when someone's feeling a bit blue or too revved up. It's great to see them supporting each other!
For this activity, the students had to make faces, act out each of the zones, and match them to the correct cards. It was difficult for everyone to make an angry face as they couldn’t stop laughing while having their photo taken!




By Stewart McCallum - Prep M Classroom Teacher

A reminder to all that we have set up Facebook and Instagram pages to help promote our school - so please follow, like and share posts, to help get the word out about all the wonderful things our students are engaged with at school!

https://www.instagram.com/east_bentleigh_primary_school/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550083316151

By Janette Grunfelder - Visual Arts and Craft Teacher, Literacy Intervention Teacher, School Council Communication Committee Member

Our School photo day is Wednesday 17th April
(Week 1 / Term 2)

School photo ordering will be available through the school’s Compass portal.
Please click here for more information about ordering.
MSP - EBPS 2024 Flyer

**Family sibling photo ordering**  Ordering for sibling photos will be disabled at 11pm on Tuesday 16^th April  - so please order family sibling photos before this date/time if you are wanting to purchase these photos as well.

Our February market was a busy one with over 800 people coming through the gates.  It was perfect weather for the market with the 20-degree day being not too hot or too cold meaning lots of locals were happy to be out and about, and children enjoyed playing on the playground with their friends while their parents shopped.

We raised $3,916 for the month of February, which is a great start to the year and gives us the kick start we need for fundraising to support both the Kitchen Garden Program, along with other activities at school.

For our February market, we would like to thank the following volunteers:

Set-up, Gates & Pack-up: Kevin, Subhashani & Beau, Amy & Stanley, David, Brittany, Darcy, Renato, Leigh, Yasin, Thuy, Shaun & Seth, Natalie, Lynn, Julia and Sarah.

Breakfast Stall: Miyuki, Kristelle, Cheng, Sharlene, Jai, Jess and Ruth.

Our next market is today, and it’s forecast to be another beautiful day so come down and do some shopping and pop by the breakfast stall to grab an egg & bacon roll for lunch!  We love to see people from our school community supporting the market.

If you’re free to help with set-up, pack-up or at the gate at the next market on Saturday 27^th April, please reach out to Heidi - heidinankervis@optusnet.com.au.  The breakfast stall will be run by volunteers from our Grade 4 classes so please reach out to Rachel if this is you and you are able to help - rachel@heypup.com.

Heidi & Rachel

Sandringham College Open Night