Principal’s Report
EPS School Leaders
Last Friday we congratulated and recognised all of our 2025 Grade 6 School Captains (Mia, Lachie, Reece and Elleny) and School Leaders, including our Grade 6 Councillors, Library and Art Squads, and our Grade 3 and 4 Student Action Team. What an amazing group of young people we have in these roles!
Mrs. D’Rozario and I are looking forward very much to working with them all this year to hear their ideas and the actions they would like to take to improve our school, and to watch their leadership grow throughout the year.
As a side note, we are very proud of the way the Grade 6 Students have started this year – demonstrating themselves to ALL be leaders and excellent examples to their peers – keep it up team!
Please come and join us for a Working Bee session followed by a BBQ on Saturday 22nd March, from 9.30am to 12pm. You are welcome to join us at any point during the morning.
Jobs will be weeding, clearing of Frog Bog, mulching and some structural work around the veggie gardens down the back. Come and join the EPS Parent Community Team and help to beautify our schoolgrounds for Autumn!
Hope to see you then!
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Students may be withdrawn from NAPLAN by their parent or carer.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.
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 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)
- Saturday 22nd March – Working Bee from 9.30am to 12pm
- 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
Grade 6 Leadership 2025
Star of the week!
This week …
There has been a key found in grade 1/2F. If you have lost a key in the last few weeks please see the lovely ladies in the front office.
Did you know that 2025 is the Year of the Snake? If you were born in the following years, you were born in a snake year – 2013, 2001, 1989, 1977, 1965, and you may be considered to be wise, charming, mysterious, and deeply intuitive.
In Japanese class, students from Grade 1-6 have taken part in a competition to celebrate the Year of the Snake. Juniors made a little wish board called an ema, drew a picture of a snake and wrote the word for snake – hebi. Seniors made new year postcards called nengajyo, drew a snake and wrote ‘Happy New Year’ in hiragana (Japanese writing). We celebrated all of the wonderful artwork with a display and students voted for their favourite artwork. Major prizes were awarded to the two students with the most votes. Special congratulations to:
Zoe D 3H and Mitchell A 5F.
And there were plenty of runners-up who won minor prizes. Congratulations to:
Jack S 1/2TM
Stevie K 6A
Fletcher F 1/2TM
Oakley K 5D
Alfie L 1/2 TM
Edith 6A
Cooper 1/2 W
Will C 6P
Luna F 3C
Ethan C 6A
Zoe C 1/2H
Chase A 6A
Clara G 3H
Campbell B 5F
Finley P 3K
Tommy M 5S
Ned 1/2H
Chloe S 6P
Congratulations to all students who did their very best work for the competition!
Sonia Sensei
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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