Hello Wonderful EBPS Community,

What a busy and exciting week we’ve had at East Bentleigh Primary School! With NAPLAN now complete, a big congratulations to our students for approaching it with such positivity and perseverance. We’ve also had swimming sessions underway and thrilling interschool sports – I had the pleasure of watching an exhilarating game of netball that had me on the edge of my seat!

I’ve also been working closely with our school captains to refine our assemblies and we’re looking to include more music and performances in the coming weeks – stay tuned!

You’ll also have noticed that works are continuing around the school, and I’ll share more about that below. Lastly, a big thank you to our wonderful Assistant Principal, Michelle Mather, who kept everything running smoothly while I was away for a couple of days this week – I’m so grateful for her leadership and support.

International Day of Happiness


Thursday marked the International Day of Happiness, and our school was full of bright, joyful colours as students and staff came in casual dress to celebrate. While happiness is a wonderful feeling in itself, it also has ripple effects—research shows that happy people tend to be more generous, kind, and compassionate. According to a 2008 Harvard study, happiness is contagious—when one person becomes happier, it can influence those around them, creating a chain reaction of positivity.

As the Dalai Lama wisely said, "Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions." At EBPS, we love to promote happiness through connection, kindness, and celebration—thank you to everyone who joined in and made the day so uplifting!

Bush Dance Thanks – Part Two!

Last week I thanked some of the key people who made our Bush Dance such a success—but I accidentally left out two more of our incredible volunteers: Claire and Hannah Eden. These two wonderful community members worked hard behind the scenes to help bring the event to life. It’s the work of people like Claire and Hannah that make our school flourish. Please accept my apology for the oversight, and a huge thank you for all your efforts!

Ongoing School Works


As part of our continued focus on improving the school’s buildings and grounds, you will see a number of works underway:

• Our Kindergarten is getting closer to completion.
• Door locks on the main building have been replaced to ensure improved security.
• Weekend maintenance is underway to restore the timber floors in our main building.
• Gardening upgrades are happening slowly but surely.
• And yes—you may even spot me with my leaf blower in hand tidying the paths in the mornings!

We’re deeply committed to providing the best possible facilities for your children, and while some of these projects take time, the results will be well worth it. I’ll keep you updated, especially as some improvements are planned for the term break.

Working Bee – Sunday 30th March

Our rescheduled Working Bee will be held on Sunday 30th March, and we would love your help! If you're able to lend a hand—even just for a little while—please come along.

We are so lucky to have such a beautiful and supportive community, and these events are a wonderful way to come together, connect, and make a real difference to our school grounds. Thank you in advance for helping us create a vibrant environment for our children to thrive in.


Website Under Review and Rebuild

We are currently in the process of reviewing and rebuilding our school website to ensure it better reflects our school, provides up-to-date information, and serves our families more effectively. Thank you for your patience and understanding during this transition—we're excited to bring you a refreshed and more user-friendly online experience soon!

Mon 24th Mar-Tue 25th Mar       Grade 1&2 Swimming Program
Wed 26th Mar-Thu 3rd Apr         Grade 3&4 Swimming Program
Sun 30th Mar                               Working Bee - Prep Area
Wed 2nd April                              School Photo Day 

For a full view of the school calendar month - please click here

Please note - you can view the latest School calendar at any time on Compass - you can choose to view it by day, week, month or term and also choose what you want to include by clicking on the layers you want to view, ie: School Events, Public Holidays etc.

Look for this icon on Compass.

As always, my door is open, and I’m more than happy to have a chat. Whether it’s a concern, suggestion, or a quick hello—please don’t hesitate to drop by.

Take care and have a lovely weekend.

Kindest regards,

Sarah Spence
Principal, East Bentleigh Primary School

PCFA March News

We’re back for 2025 and have started off with some great community building events.

Welcome to all our new Prep families, it was lovely to meet some of you at the orientation day last year and our “Tea & Tissues” morning tea on the first day. I hope all the children have settled in well and are enjoying their time at the school.

Our first whole school event for the year saw the return of our Bush Dance! Thank you to everyone that came along, got involved and made it an enjoyable night. We had some great ticket sales with around xx in attendance and most of our food and drinks sold out!

There are some individuals that contributed greatly to the success, Rachel Jeffreys, Claire Eden and Hannah Eden all led the organisation of the event. Rach worked hard to get everything organised, Claire did all the work with the band to make sure we got the right date for all the children to have their lesson, and everyone could enjoy a fun night and Han once again put her creative skills to use with flyers, decorations and props for the night.

Thanks also to the following people for their help at the event

• Our set-up crew of Rachel, Mika, Tania, Chris and Megan. As well as our superstar student from 3/4P Tom Jeffreys who is always on hand to help with set-up of events & farmers markets and worked tirelessly from 3pm!
• Andrew Jeffreys for his time on the BBQ and Steph McIlroy for jumping in on food sales.
• Sarah and Michelle for helping to organise the staff roster to run food & games so that parents could enjoy the night. To all the staff that put their hands up to help Ann, Jane, Andrea, Marie, Anna, Ange, Melinda, Janette, Mandy, Ramana, Tanja and Michelle a big thank you!
• And also to everyone that hung around and helped with pack-up, Rach, Michelle, Hannah, Claire, Melinda, Ramana, Ange and anyone else I’ve forgotten, I’m sorry!

We would love for more people to volunteer and put their hand up to join PCFA, help organise events and contribute to ideas. A registration form to join needs to be filled out and can be returned to ebps.pcfa@gmail.com

Our AGM is being held on Thursday 27^th March, at 3.30pm. We would love to see as many people at it as possible so you can hear all about the plans for 2025 and beyond.

Looking forward to more events throughout the year!

Lisa Cleland

PCFA President