Principal’s Report

This coming Friday morning, we are looking forward to welcoming local police officers to EPS before school as part of Walk to School Day. Students will have the opportunity to meet the officers, learn more about road safety and receive some fun temporary tattoos to celebrate the occasion. We encourage families to support students in walking, riding or scooting safely to school where possible. We have already had the Ambulance Service and CFA visit this week with the Prep students! Later this term, the Early Act Club will also be participating in “Thank a First Responder” Day.

We also celebrated a hugely successful Colour Fun Run last Monday, with approximately $8,000 raised towards future playground improvements for our students. A huge thank you to our families and community for your support and enthusiasm in making the event such a memorable one.

We are also proud to be supporting FightMND, with fundraising merchandise currently available for purchase from the school office. Please see prices listed elsewhere in this newsletter. For more information about the important work of FightMND and the Big Freeze campaign, visit their website.

This past weekend, EPS proudly hosted the annual Hills Ukulele Festival — a fantastic celebration of music, song and community enjoyed by people of all ages. Thank you to Dan MacEoin and the organising team for once again delivering such a wonderful event, to Peta Woodyard for co-ordinating food throughout the weekend, and to Bronwyn Thomas-Smith and Craig Appleby for their valued support.

This week, we are looking forward to our Early Act Club visiting Pepi’s Land on Thursday to participate in a Landcare activity, and our Grade 5 students visiting Emerald Secondary College on Friday to further explore their future secondary school opportunities.

Our school is using an online system for new Foundation (Prep) enrolments to Victorian government schools, called VicStudents.

To get started:

  • Visit https://students.educationapps.vic.gov.au/s/ to create an account and complete the online application form by Friday 31 July 2026.  If you would prefer to submit a paper application form, please contact us.
  • We will then review the information submitted and be in contact with you by Friday 14 August 2026.
  • You should accept one enrolment offer by Friday 28 August 2026. When accepting an offer, you will be required to provide additional personal and health information that will be shared with the school.

Is VicStudents secure?

VicStudents has been assessed by the Department of Education to a high degree of security in line with the Victorian Protective Data Security Standards and is compliant with ISO 27001, the leading international standard for information security.

 More information

For more information about enrolling your child into a Victorian government primary school, visit Enrolling in Foundation (Prep).

Please contact us via email: emerald.ps@education.vic.gov.au, or phone 03 5968 4311.  We’re here to help and will get back to you quickly. We look forward to your application and hope you will be joining our school community soon.

About the survey

The AtoSS is a voluntary student survey offered by the Department of Education every year to help schools and the department understand students’ experiences of school. We will ask your child about their thoughts and feelings about their school, their learning, relationships with other students, resilience, bullying, health and wellbeing, physical activity, and life in general.

ORIMA Research Pty Ltd has been contracted by the department to manage the collection of the online survey and will provide support to schools through a telephone hotline and email.

This year, the survey will be conducted at your school from 18th May to 12th June.

What are the benefits?

Young people enjoy having a say! This survey has been running for nearly 20 years and helps schools plan programs and activities to improve your child’s engagement with school, their wellbeing and their learning. The survey data also helps the Department of Education understand how to improve student learning.

What are the risks?

We don’t expect many risks of participation, but some students may find some questions personal or sensitive. If you agree for your child to take part, they can still skip questions or withdraw at any time whilst completing the survey if it makes them upset or uncomfortable. A teacher will be present during the survey to support students.

The questions come from validated survey instruments used in Australia and around the world. They focus on your child’s strengths and are designed for each year level group.

What will my child be asked to do?

Your child will be invited to complete the survey online during class time using a purpose built secure online survey tool. We are not “testing” your child. Please note:

  • Students can choose if they want to take part, skip questions if they don’t want to answer, and can stop doing the survey at any time.
  • There are different versions of the survey to let all students take part.
  • The survey will take around 20-40 minutes to complete.

How is my child’s privacy protected?

A teacher will give your child a unique login to complete the survey. This unique student login is an assigned identifier that will be used by the department to link data for analysis and research only. Some student demographic data such as year level, gender, age, and Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander status are provided to ORIMA research, and linked with the unique student login ID to administer the survey. This information helps to support analysis and research, to paint a clearer picture of how Victorian school students are faring.

ORIMA Research will only use student personal information for research purposes to facilitate the administration and data collection of the Attitudes to School Survey. To keep your child’s survey answers private, ORIMA Research won’t include any personally identifiable data in the survey answers file that is provided to the department.

All data is stored on servers located in Australia, and only staff who are working on the project can access it.

All information collected about your child will be handled in accordance with the Privacy Data and Protection Act 2014 (Vic), the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic) and the Public Records Act 1973 (Vic), as well as the Department’s Schools’ Privacy Policy. Please note that consistent with the above legislation and our policy, there are instances where we may be required by law to share information provided by your child. For example, where there is a threat to your child’s health and safety.

How will results be reported?

The department will only use aggregated state-wide survey data to report on initiatives and this data may also be used in public discussions of issues about student engagement and wellbeing. An example of how survey data has been previously used includes reporting levels of student engagement in the Performance Summary in the Annual Report to the School Community. The department will not share any identifiable student data with any other party.

Your child’s school will only get reports about groups of students. Information about individual students and the student answers data file will not be shared with schools. If there are low numbers of student answers to a question, the report will not show results for this question to protect the privacy of those students.

Your school may share the survey report back to you.

What if I don’t want my child to do the survey?

This survey is voluntary. If you do not want your child to do the survey, please opt out by emailing your school at emerald.ps@education.vic.gov.au before the survey starts on Monday 18th May 2026.

Student personal information will be shared with ORIMA Research to facilitate survey preparations prior to this opt out process. If you opt your child out of participating, then your school will ensure that your child is not provided with access to the survey. Student details will be deleted by ORIMA Research at the conclusion of the survey.

If your school does not receive a “Refusal of Consent” email from you before the survey begins, we will assume that you agree for your child to take part in the 2026 Attitudes to School Survey. Please remember, as noted above, the survey is voluntary: even with your consent, your child can choose to skip questions or stop doing the survey at any time.

For more information about this survey, including the questions your child will be asked to answer, please visit the department’s survey information page.

If you would like more information or have any concerns about the survey, please speak to your child’s teacher, or contact the department at school.surveys@education.vic.gov.au.

Please see attached some very important information in regards to protecting the health of a student at Emerald Primary School. Your support and co-operation is very much appreciated.

Important Letter from Monash Childrens Hospital 2026

Please be advised of the following student free days, when our staff will be completing professional learning activities or parent teacher interviews:

  1. Thursday 25th June – Parent-Teacher Interviews
  2. Monday 13th July – Curriculum Day
  3. Friday 4th December – Assessment & Reporting Day

For those families using the TheirCare childcare service, they are preparing to have students on the 20th April, 25th June,13th July and 4th December dates: https://theircare.com.au/

  • May Events:
    • Thursday 21st May – School Council @7.15pm
    • Friday 22nd May – Walk Safely to School Day
    • Friday 22nd May – Grade 5 Exploration Day @ ESC
    • Wednesday 27th May – National Simultanious Storytime
    • Friday 29th May – Assembly
  • June Events:
    • Tuesday 2nd June – Divisional Cross Country (Selected Students)
    • Wednesday 3rd June – Grade 5 Market Day
    • Monday 8th June – Kings Birthday Public Holiday
    • Thursday 11th June – Regional Cross Country (Selected Students)
    • Friday 12th June – Assembly
    • Monday 15th – Friday 19th June – Junior Swimming Program
    • Thursday 18th June – EDEC Lightning Premiership (Grade 6)
    • Thursday 18th June – School Council Meeting @7:15pm
    • Monday 22nd – Friday 26th June – Senior Swimming Program
    • Thursday 25th June – Curriculum Day – No Students at School
    • Thursday 25th June – Parent Teacher Interviews
    • Friday 26th June – Assembly
    • Friday 26th June – Last Day of Term 2 – 2.30pm Finish

Emma Clark

Principal

This Week…

Star of the week!

For being a terrific learning partner and trying his best all the time.

For showing commitment to learning by working hard to read, spell and blend CVC words.

For showing persistence in all of your writing this week. You should be so proud of your ancient Egypt persuasive!

For her wonderful persuasive writing about Ancient Egypt and her all round fabulous effort!

For listening carefully to feedback, using it to grow, and being a great role model for others. What a star!

For the excellent effort he put into his Egyptian pyramid craft, showing creativity, careful detail, and pride in his work. What a STAR!

For having such a positive attitude towards your maths. You are smashing it!

For being a responsible classmate who always works to the best of her ability.

For trying your best in all learning tasks lately! Keep it up legend!

For taking initiative and ownership of her Market Day project when her group members were away. She worked hard and met the challenge of working independently with an amazing positive attitude! What a STAR!

For her excellent persuasive piece and her constant desire to improve. You are a writing star!

For a positive start to EPS in our 6B classroom! You work hard, do your best and it’s lovely to have you in our grade.

For being a wonderful example for your Prep buddy! It is so lovely to watch you together and see your relationship blossom.

For giving writing a go and listening out for the sounds in words.

For doing a fantastic job sounding out words and having a go at writing!

For making great choices with his reading this week, choosing good fit books!

For always being respectful in class and facing our cold write with focus and a positive mindset.

For writing an excellent persuasive about why Ancient Egypt is the best inquiry topic. What an impressive star!

For always being such a bright, happy classmate and a fabulous helper!! What a STAR.

For settling in so well at EPS. We love having you as part of 3K!

For your empathetic nature, kind heart and resilience to work through a maths challenge. You ROCK!

For showing 110% focus in all learning tasks! What a star!

For their resilience, kindness and generosity since Mrs Forsythe has been away. You are all totally amazing! Grade 5 Superstars!

For showing persistence in her subtraction test and always aiming for her best. You are a resilient star!

For being such a wonderful role model and person. You truly show our school values everyday and are a terrific asset to 6B.

For your excellent efforts in your learning. I’m already loving the start of your persuasive text on why kids should play sport. Your passion comes through, strengthened by your use of persuasive devices. Well Done.

For working hard to form your letters neatly and accurately.

For always listening carefully, following instructions and making excellent choices every day!

For writing a fabulous persuasive piece about Ancient Egypt, and for always striving to do her very best!

For jumping into challenging writing tasks and drawing on his resilience to help him learn & grow.

For her excellent work during Maths on Fact Families, especially when creating her own. She showed great perseverance and focus in completing the task.

For consistently working hard and always willing to share her ideas! What a STAR.

For the phenomenal improvement he has made solving addition sums – you have an amazing math mind Xav!

For your passion and persistence to dive into the learning pit. Your application of addition strategies was incredible. You’re a Hardworking STAR!

For maintaining a ‘Growth Mindset’ when tackling mathematical challenges. Her positive attitude and persistence is allowing her to nail a variety of new fraction skills. What a STAR!

*Student Award*

For always concentrating in class and listening to the teacher. You are a student Superstar!

For creating a clear and accurate side-by-side column graph in Maths. You made the data easy to read and compare. Well done! You’re a MEGA STAR!

For your persuasive piece of writing, encouraging people to make a change and understand what ‘freedom’ really means.

🏃EDEC Cross Country 🏃

By Jack W and Redmond

When we arrived, we saw huge grassy hills and lots of playgrounds near the water park. Before the race, we were told to put on wristbands and were given different colours for each age group. It was surprisingly sunny considering how bad the weather had been in the days before.

At the start of the race, Red was at the front of the huge group of kids. The hardest part was halfway through because we realised how much further we still had to run. The stretch of sand at the end was also really hard to run through.

After the race, we all felt tired and a bit queasy. Marley from Cockatoo came first, Flynn from Macclesfield came second and Red came third. One thing we would change next time is having fewer walking breaks during the race. Reve, Peyton, Willem and Hayden also made it through to Divisionals, along with Red.

🎶 Hills  Ukulele Festival 🎶

When I arrived, I noticed all the people watching the performances around the school. I was excited to perform but also nervous at the same time. I could hear the ukuleles in the room next door. I watched the performance before ours and listened to all their songs.

When it came time to perform, I gripped my ukulele and started to play. It felt great playing song after song and hearing the cheering crowd. One thing I loved was performing for lots of different people and hearing their happy shouts. There were lots of shops and stalls all over the school, some with ukuleles and some with food. You could also buy raffle tickets and, if you were lucky, win one of the many great prizes.

Overall, the ukulele festival was fun and exciting. I felt proud and thrilled to play this year. It was great fun and such a good experience.

It was definitely worth going, and you should 100% check it out next year!

Miller, Logan, Aiden, Nathan

Meet your School Captains…..

Maths at home 😊

A picture can spark 1000 maths concepts and ideas.

Please click on the picture to enjoy using this space prompt to inspire your child at home.

Walk Safely to School Day – Friday 22nd May 2026

Please see Mr Stella if you would like a “Walk to School” tattoo to wear on the day!

Upcoming Events…

Community News

Share This Newlsetter!

Canteen News!

Friday Meal Deal 

Ravioli

 &

Glee Tropical treat

Sparkling fruit juice

$8.00

SCHOOL EVENTS

Events

Calendar of Events

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
0 events,
0 events,

1 event,

1 event,

1 event,

1 event,

0 events,
0 events,
0 events,

1 event,

Open Day “EPS in Action” tours
Open Day “EPS in Action” tours
0 events,
0 events,
0 events,
0 events,

1 event,

0 events,

1 event,

0 events,

1 event,

1 event,

1 event,

0 events,
0 events,
0 events,

1 event,

0 events,
0 events,
0 events,
0 events,

1 event,

1 event,

0 events,

1 event,

0 events,
0 events,
View Calendar

Recent News