Newsletter 21st June 2024

No.5/T2-2024


Principal's Message

Dear Parents and Carers,

This is the last newsletter for Term 2. Next week is a busy last week with Parent/Teacher Interviews on Monday 24th June, Matt Moras’ music students performing on Wednesday 26th June @ 5:00pm in the PAC and our Mid-Winter festival on Thursday 27th June from 4:30 – 6:00pm. Enjoy our busy last week of Term 2 and stay safe and healthy over the holidays.

Principal Selection for East Bentleigh P.S.

In recent weeks, Kevin Murphy, (Senior Education Improvement Leader – Department of Education) convened a selection panel to complete a thorough process to appoint a new Principal for East Bentleigh PS, commencing from the start of Term 3. Unfortunately, the selection panel determined that there were no suitable applicants, therefore an appointment could not be made. As a result, Kevin has negotiated with me - Susan Jackson - to continue as Acting Principal in Term 3.

Next term Kevin will commence a process to appoint an Acting Principal for Term 4, 2024. At some point in Term 4, he will again commence a process to appoint a substantive Principal from 2025. Thank you to all the members of the selection panel for their work in this process.

Michelle Mather, Lee Jellis and Janette Grunfelder have been an excellent support throughout Term 2 in their roles as Acting Assistant Principals and will be continuing in Term 3.


Reports

Your children’s reports were uploaded to COMPASS on Wednesday 19th June. I’d like to thank the teachers for the many hours of work they put into these documents.

I hope you have read them carefully in preparation for the parent /teacher interviews scheduled for next Monday afternoon - I would encourage you to discuss your child’s report with them, (as appropriate), noting and celebrating their growth since their last report. Areas of future learning are also an important area to focus on.

Prep Enrolments – 2025

Over the next few weeks, we will be processing Prep Enrolments for 2025. If you know of anyone who is thinking of enrolling at East Bentleigh P.S., please ask them to get their enrolment forms into the school. We commence workforce planning early in Term 3 and knowing how many prep enrolments we have for 2025 will enable us to plan how many prep classes can have.


East Bentleigh’s Parents, Carers and Friends Association - PCFA

As explained in an earlier newsletter we have formed a Parents, Carers and Friends, Association – PCFA - for East Bentleigh Primary School.

At the beginning of this year, we began the process of establishing a parent’s club at the school. There was a nine-step process that we needed to follow:

1. Letter of request signed from 6 interested parents to the Principal.
2. Meeting organized by Principal – held on Wednedsay 17th April.
3. Elect an interim committee at this meeting – formed at this meeting.
4. Interim committee to prepare the current template “Model Parents Club Constitution.’
5. Interim committee to seek Minister’s approval of the proposed constitution.
6. Minister approved our constitution on Wednesday 9th May.
7. We called an inaugural meeting on Wednesday 19th June to elect office bearers, request nominations for office bearers and interested parents completed the registration form.
8. At the inaugural meeting, the election of office bearers took place, conducted by an independent person – i.e. - the Principal.
9. Once the office bearers were elected the association was in full operation.

On Wednesday when we held our Inaugural meeting to elect the office bearers. The following parents were elected:

  • President – Lisa Cleland
  • Treasurer – Claire Eden
  • Secretary – Megan Wandel

We have 20 parents who have already completed the registration form and become members of this association.

Please contact Lisa Cleland - ebps.pcfa@gmail.com - if you would like to join this association. Lisa will send details out to all members about the first PCFA meeting next term.


School Fees

A huge thank-you to all families who have paid their 2024 school fees. I have included the 4 options for payment we offer to this newsletter.

  • OPTION 1: Payment in full by Friday 23rd February and receive a 5% discount if your whole account is paid.
  • OPTION 2: Payment in full by Thursday 28th March 2024.
  • OPTION 3: Three instalments, proposed as follows: (Your full account divided by 3)

                       Instalment 1  -  Friday 23rd February 2024

                        Instalment 2  -  Friday 19th April 2024

                        Instalment 3  -  Friday 21st June 2024          

  • OPTION 4: Alternative payment options are available through the school with parents encouraged to make an appointment with the school to discuss circumstances and available options.

I urge any families who are having difficulties paying fees to make an appointment with myself (Sue Jackson) and Julie Robinson (Business Manager) as mentioned in Option 4.


Working Bee

A huge thank you to Jane Ross for organising a very successful working bee and Michelle Mather for providing the delicious morning tea on Saturday 15th June.

We had 5 families attend between 9.00am -12 noon. These families weeded, pruned, and swept areas around the school. Their combined efforts have helped to further improve the appeaerance of our school grounds.

A special thank-you to the following families who attended:

  • Rachel Jeffreys – parent of Tom – 3/4J and Charlie – 1/2H
  • Jodie Yule – parent of Maise 5T
  • Carolyn and Nigel Battin – parents of Paige – 3A
  • Andrew Hooper – parent of Chloe - 3/4P
  • Dona Elvitigala – parent of Senon and Talia – 1/2H and 3/4J


Mid-Winter Festival – Thursday 27th June

Our children in Prep – Year 3 have commenced working on their lanterns for this special evening, which at its core is a celebration of light. Whilst the Prep children will enjoy a seasonal puppet show in the classroom, the Years 1-3 children, with their teacher, will meet on the oval, hold hands, and join with the other classes as we slowly and carefully walk the path of the Spiral to the center then turn and walk outwards, all the while singing “Rise up oh Flame”.

After the Spiral the children join their parents and take their lanterns for the lantern walk around our school – lead by the teachers. During this walk we sing “In the Heavens Stars are Shining” This year our Taraleigh Kinder will also join our walk.

Families may then enjoy a Winter picnic together on the Oval /Basketball courrt, warmed by the gas heaters.

Our Steiner classes will be participating in a Eurythmy Spiral during their Eurythmy lesson next Thursday 27th June in the PAC. This is a beautiful ceremony and one that all children who participate in Eurythmy look forward to each year.
Kate Graves (Eurythmy teacher) has offered an open invitation this year for parents to come and watch this beautiful ceremony. She asks that you respect her wishes to quietly enter the PAC and to please take no photos or have conversations that will distract the children during this ceremony.

These are the times that your child’s class will be participating in the Eurythmy Spiral on Thursday 27th June.

9:30 - 10:30am - 6L with 1I and 1ES

10:30 - 11:00am - 3A

11:30 - 12:10pm - 2M

12:10 - 12:50pm - 4AR

12:50 - 1:30pm - 5T


Kind Regards,

Sue Jackson - Acting Principal

 

 

 



Literacy @ EBPS

Information Reports

In Year 1/2 Mainstream, students have been reading, comparing and writing information reports. They have learnt about the structure and features of information reports. As we come to the end of our writing cycle, the students will choose their favourite information report that they have written to up-level and publish. 

These are examples of some of the reports students wrote about red pandas. The students watched a short video on red pandas, then wrote their information report. 

Bill and Amanda are very proud of their Year 1/2 students!













By Bill Portelli - 12P Classroom Teacher



Numeracy @ EBPS

Prep Steiner Numeracy

The children are familiarising themselves with partitioning and number sense. The are very engaged in the play based and hands on numeracy activities. They excitedly built a home for our large giraffe and one for our tiny mouse exploring the concepts of big and small.

The children loved selecting, organising and counting objects from around the room to create patterns. They enjoyed our game in which they first worked out how many children are at school. Then they moved around and when the music stopped, they created two groups, and in this way, they worked out different combinations to create a specific number.

The children also used concrete materials to explore the number combinations and see if they could identify specific patterns and strategies. They also enjoyed choosing a number in small groups and working out how many different combinations they could work out.The children are developing skills of observation, deduction and trial and error.

They also have enjoyed numeracy activities relating to stories. They explored straight and curved lines when we explored the story of The Three Bears. They also worked on measurement in relation to the height of the three chairs, as well as capacity in relation to the different sized bowls. They enjoyed sorting and classifying items belonging to the three bears.

I hope you have enjoyed this snapshot into some of our daily Numeracy activities.











By Donna Leibowitz - Prep D Classroom Teacher

 

 



Wellbeing @ EBPS

Wellbeing in Class 3A

At EBPS we use the Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships Program to teach our children how to build healthy relationships and to develop resilience and confidence.

Research in the field of positive psychology emphasises the importance of identifying and using individual strengths to promote student wellbeing and positive behaviour.

We can’t get through a day without using our muscles or using our physical strength. However, we also cannot get through a day without using our personal strengths. These are the strengths that help us to learn new things, to be fair and get along with others, to help us stay in control of our emotions and behaviour, and to cope with challenges. Some examples of these kinds of strengths include being kind, fair, funny, brave, forgiving, curious to learn and determined.

The children in 3A have been learning to identify personal strengths and to illustrate how they have used them in daily life.




By Alison Hackett - 3A Classroom Teacher



Farmers' Market Update

FARMERS’ MARKET UPDATE

Our school has held two Farmers’ Markets since our last update and on both days, we were blessed with lovely autumn weather which meant lots more people through the gates! 

For the April and May markets we’re pleased to report that we have added an additional $4185 in funds to support the Kitchen Garden Program.

The role of the SAKGP is to deliver pleasurable food education to inspire children and young people to understand and connect with fresh, delicious food through fun, hands-on learning. This approach empowers children and young people to develop practical skills, an appreciation of seasonal produce, and a positive, confident, and healthy relationship with food — for life.

Did you know that many schools only offer a Kitchen Garden Program for 1-2 terms per year?  We’re proud to run the program for the entirety of the school year so our children can be immersed in cooking education and gardening practices throughout their middle and senior years at EBPS.

As always, the market cannot operate each month without help from our school community, many of whom we count on time and again to volunteer their time:

Set-up, Gates & Pack-up: George and Stanley, Lisa and Grace, Rachel, Tom and Charlie, and Shar who opened up.  Jules, Khin and Sarah greeting market goers on the gates.  And Leigh, Ayana and Jules who closed.  

Breakfast Stall April: Shazz, Tim, Leigh, Natalie, Keith, Claire who ran things so well we sold out of brekkie rolls just before 11am!

Breakfast Stall May: Lisa & Grace, Rachel, Tom & Charlie, Malcolm, Cheng, Jamie, Gus, Gali, Valerie & Bradley.

Our next market after this Saturday's is on the 27th July and we’d love to see some new faces volunteering!

If you’re free to help with set-up, pack-up or on the gate please reach out to Heidi. At each market our breakfast is run by volunteers by grade level - so if you receive a call out during the next month - please reach out to Rachel if you are able to help.


Thank you

Heidi & Rachel



NEW - Term 4 2024 School Calendar

To view the Term 4 Calendar in full - please click here: term calendar
Please note - more entries will be added to the calendar during Term 4 - so be sure to always check the calendar each week when you receive your Newsletter / Bulletin email. Thank-you



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**Disclaimer
: We thank the many organisations/businesses that support the publication of our newsletter by paying for their advertising. Whilst the Editor checks for appropriate content, E.B.P.S. does not endorse the conduct or service and encourages parents to investigate the product or service as they would for any purchase they are contemplating.  Sue Jackson - Acting Principal**