Dear wonderful EBPS families,

As the colder weather begins to settle in across Melbourne, I hope all of our families are keeping warm and well. There is something quite special about this time of year in schools. The pace seems to soften slightly, we all naturally draw a little more inward, and classrooms begin to take on that warm winter feeling of storytelling, creativity, reflection, and connection.

Within Steiner education particularly, winter is often seen as a time of “going inward” — a season that invites calm, imagination, resilience, and nourishment of the inner life. While the world outside becomes colder and quieter, there is an opportunity to strengthen warmth within ourselves through community, kindness, creativity, and meaningful relationships. It is often during these quieter seasons that children deepen their thinking, imagination, and sense of belonging.

As always, I continue to feel very grateful for the caring and connected community we have here at East Bentleigh Primary School. It is through the support of families, staff, and students working together that our children continue to flourish.

Michelle Mather – Regional Appointment

I would like to share with our community that Michelle Mather has accepted a position as Regional Disability Coordinator (RDC) with the Department.

This appointment is a true testament to Michelle’s exceptional skills in inclusion, student wellbeing, leadership, and her remarkable ability to work collaboratively and positively with a wide range of people. Michelle has made an enormous contribution to EBPS, particularly in strengthening our inclusive practices and supporting students, staff, and families with great care and compassion.

While Michelle will certainly be greatly missed at EBPS, we are also incredibly proud of her and excited for this next chapter in her professional journey. We know she will make a significant impact in the region through this important work.

Importantly for our community — this is not goodbye forever! We fully expect to see Michelle return to EBPS in 2027, and we wish her every success in the meantime.

Until the Assistant Principal position is formally filled through a process I am currently undertaking with the Region, I would also like to sincerely thank Janette Grunfelder, who will be acting in the Assistant Principal role over the next two weeks. Janette’s calm leadership, deep knowledge of our school, and ongoing commitment to students and staff are greatly appreciated.

Book Fair – Thank You

We held our annual Book Fair last week and it was a wonderful success.

The school earned over $500 worth of books from the fair, as well as approximately $800 in rewards points, which helps keep new books and library resources coming into our library for students to enjoy.

A very big thank you to everyone who visited and supported the Book Fair. Every purchase made helps raise funds and contributes directly to supporting reading and literacy opportunities for our students.

An especially big thank you to Jane Ross, our Librarian for coordinating the fair and all the work involved behind the scenes. Thank you also to Michelle Mather for helping set up the fair, and to Sal Cockcroft, Lisa Cleland, and Hannah Eden for all of your support helping run the Book Fair throughout the week. Events like these simply could not happen without the generosity and support of our community.

Open Day

Our Open Day on Wednesday was a wonderful event and a fantastic opportunity to showcase our beautiful school community to prospective families.

Families were warmly welcomed with music performed by our students, an Acknowledgement of Country led by our School Captains, and introductions to our Leadership Team, PCFA, School Council, and TheirCare.

The tours throughout the school went exceptionally well, and it was lovely to hear feedback from families who commented on the warmth, care, and welcoming atmosphere they experienced throughout the morning — something we know is such a special part of the EBPS community.

A very sincere thank you to Janette Grunfelder for coordinating the event, to all staff who supported throughout the day, and to our School Captains who represented our school so wonderfully. I personally had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with many families and it was wonderful to hear such positive feedback about our school.

Bentleigh Farmers’ Market – Saturday 23rd May

A reminder that our wonderful Bentleigh Farmers’ Market will be taking place this Saturday, 23rd May.

The market continues to be an incredibly important part of our school community — not only bringing people together, but also helping raise valuable funds that support programs and opportunities for our students, including our Kitchen Garden Program.

As always, we are very grateful for volunteers who generously give their time to help the market run smoothly. If you are available to assist, even for a short period of time, please reach out to Heidi or keep an eye out for Compass communications regarding volunteer opportunities.

The Farmers’ Market is such a special part of our community and always has a lovely atmosphere. We hope to see many of our families there.

These events are also included in our Compass calendar.
Please click here to download the Term 2 calendar.



As always, thank you for the ongoing support you all provide to our school community. Schools are at their very best when families, staff, and students work together with care, kindness, and shared purpose, and I continue to feel incredibly grateful for the wonderful community we have here at EBPS.

Over the coming weeks there will also be further communication regarding our much-loved Mid-winter Festival. Please keep an eye out for updates and information as we move closer to this magical community event.

I hope everyone stays warm and well over the week ahead.

Warmest regards,
Sarah Spence
Principal

Being a Math Active school, East Bentleigh PS participated in a competition about the number 300, organised by MAV - Mathematics Association Victoria. Many students contributed by creating something about the number 300. Below is one of the projects from Class 34T.

Project 300

It all started with a finger knitting Steiner class 3/4. Would we get to 300???

The pieces we finger knitted:

After finger knitting for a while we started with estimating; how many are there? 301? 102? 212? 208? 170?

How could we count? The rule was: We cannot count by ones!

And we started using arrays. Each group received a random amount and organised this clearly in arrays.

Counting in collections, we got to………155 pieces. That is not enough! More finger knitting to do!

Tanja Boxelaar – 34T Classroom Teacher

On Wednesday 20^th and Thursday 21^st of May, Melinda and I were very lucky to participate in the Maths Australia PD, run by Esther White and Stephanie McIlroy, about using integer blocks in the classroom.

We had fun playing with blocks to trust the count!

Thank you very much to Stephanie McIlroy (Lottie’s mum in 34T) for organising this for us. We learnt a lot and we’re excited to share this with teachers and students.

Tanja Boxelaar - Classroom Teacher 

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

Orders open until 8:30am on the day!
Term 2 2026 menu below
https://classroomcuisine.com.au/