Principal’s Report
We are making a further call for nominations for Parent Category positions on School Counci and I hope you might consider nominating yourself or another parent in our school community. Nomination forms are available at the office or attached to this message. Please drop completed forms back to the office or email to emerald.ps@education.vic.gov.au
Nominations opened Monday 24th February and closed on Monday 3rd March at 4pm. A further nomination period is open until Tuesday 11th March at 4pm. Positions on School Council are elected on a 2-year basis in 2025. If a 2-year position cannot be completed then the election process has a one year vacancy for that position.
This year we have:
2 Parent Category positions (2 years) available
Nomination can be through a person seconding your nomination or by self-nomination. Thank you to the people who have nominated so far.
Please note that this week’s whole school assembly is a special one – as it is the “EPS Student Leadership 2025 Assembly”, where the school’s student leaders are presented with their badges and congratulated.
The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy tests (NAPLAN) for Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 students are held in March each year. In 2025, the NAPLAN Online test window will commence on Wednesday 12th March and conclude on Monday 24th March. NAPLAN tests assess student knowledge and skills in writing, reading, conventions of language (spelling, grammar, and punctuation) and numeracy. The results of the tests provide information for students, parents, teachers, and principals and can be used, alongside of our regular assessments administered, to improve student achievement.
We encourage our students to participate in the NAPLAN Online tests and wish to reassure our families that just want our students to have a go and do their best on the day. Catch up tests will be available for individual students who are absent on test days up to and including Monday 25th March.
Support can be arranged for students with additional needs if the student regularly uses similar support for normal classroom assessment tasks.
Exemptions and adjustments may be granted. If you think your child is eligible for support or exemption, please discuss this with the classroom teacher prior to the tests. Parental consent is required before any support due to disability or exemption is administered.
Students may be withdrawn from NAPLAN by their parent or carer. This is a matter for consideration by parents and carers in consultation with the classroom teacher or Assistant Principal. If, after consultation, you decide to withdraw your child, please sign the relevant forms available at the front office.
The final date for withdrawals from the NAPLAN assessments is Monday 3rd March.
Later in the year you will receive your child’s personal NAPLAN report. The report will describe their skills and will also show how your child performed in relation to national standards.
The NAPLAN assessments commence next week. Please refer to the test schedule attached for your child’s assessment time.
We are looking forward to the exciting Grade 5 Camp to Phillip Island in mid-March this year – coming up soon! Information regarding the camp payments, permissions and medical information will be sent via Compass later this week.
In the last couple of years, NAPLAN has also been conducted during dates close to our camp dates. Due to a slight change towards the end of 2024, the first day of camp clashes with the sitting of the Writing test for NAPLAN for Grade 5 students this year.
Unfortunately, there was no option to move the camp to any other suitable dates this year, and the NAPLAN administrators were not able to permit us to move the Writing test, as it needs to be completed at the same time as all Grade 5 students around the state.
Thank you to Jason Dangerfield and the team, the departure time for the camp has been able to be delayed by an hour or so, to enable students to take the Writing tests before they leave for camp on Wednesday 12th March.
So, the arrangements will be:
- Students arrive at school by 8.45am
- Luggage left near front office.
- NAPLAN Writing session starts at 9.00am
- Volunteers to help load luggage onto bus.
- Writing session complete by 10.00am
- Students head to bus for departure at 10.15am
• Parents and Carers will be welcome to return at approximately 10.00am to farewell their children and wave to the bus!
Please be advised of the following student free days, when our staff will be completing professional learning activities or parent teacher interviews:
- Thursday 3rd July – Parent-Teacher Interviews.
- Monday 21st July – Curriculum Day: New Victorian Learning and Teaching Model 2.0.
For those families using the TheirCare childcare service , they are preparing to have students on the 21st February, 3rd July and 21st July dates: https://theircare.com.au/
One further day may be announced for Term 4, I will be in touch about that as soon as I can.
- March Events:
- Wednesday 5th March – No Preps at School
- Thursday 6th March – House Sports (Grades 3 – 6)
- Friday 7th March – Leadership Assembly
- Monday 10th March – Labour Day Public Holiday
- Wednesday 12th March – Preps Attend Full Time
- Wednesday 12th March – Monday 24th March – NAPLAN (Grades 3 & 5)
- Wednesday 12th – Friday 14th March – Grade 5 School Camp
- Wednesday 12th March – Divisional Swimming (Selected Students)
- Friday 21st March – Assembly
- Friday 21st March – Regional Swimming (Selected Students)
- Wednesday 26th March – World Maths Day
- Thursday 27th March – EDEC Athletics (Grades 3 – 6)
- April Events:
- Wednesday 2nd April – School Photo Day
- Thursday 3rd April – Colour Fun Run
- Friday 4th April – Values Awards Assembly
- Friday 4th April – Last Day of Term 1
Emma Clark
Principal
This week …
EarlyAct is underway for 2025 and we have an exciting project coming up but before we can get started we need your help.
We require about 25 empty plastic 2 litre drink bottles.
If you have any that you could spare, please leave them outside Mrs Forsythe’s classroom.
We look forward to sharing our new project with you very soon!
If so please bring them to the Emerald SES to be recycled. Emerald Primary School is now a registered donation partner with the Victorian Container Deposit Scheme. So your rubbish can be recycled and each empty container earns 10c. Please donate the money you collect to our school, so we can fundraise for more drink taps on the school oval.
If you pack a juice box or an up and go in your child’s lunch box, please inform them that there will be a designated bin in their classroom for the ten cent bottles and cartons to be collected in.
In addition, parents can donate eligible containers from home directly to the SES and nominate EPS to receive the funds. This is a great opportunity to support our school.
Kind regards the Early Act Team
If you hold a current Concession Card, please come into the Emerald Primary School Office to collect and submit your form with a copy of your Concession Card.
Could families please log into the SSB system to reallocate their SSB to School Activities if they want to use it for camps/excursions or sports events. Could you also please complete the form which was sent home and return it to our lovely office staff.
Link to School Saving Bonus website below:
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