Principal’s Report
We are all very excited for the Colour Fun Run tomorrow – Thursday 3rd April.
Just a reminder for students to come to school wearing clothes and shoes that they are prepared to get colourful and possibly stained. It has been recommended that white is the most effective to highlight the vibrant colours of the powder.
Parents are welcome to attend and running kicks off at 2:00pm
Please note for Friday the last day of term students are to wear their school uniform and it is early dismissal at 2:30pm
Teachers have completed Progress Reports for all of their students. These will be available Thursday 3rd April, in the afternoon, via Compass. This report is designed to give you a snapshot of how your child is going in regards to their effort in class, work habits and learning behaviours for Term 1. This is a new approach for 2025 to help keep parents and carers informed – please let me know if you have any queries.
** If you print out your child’s Progress Report, you will see all of the information below also.
Progress Reporting at EPS captures a snapshot of a student’s learning behaviour within the classroom each term. These Areas of Assessment (AoA) cover a selection of executive functioning skills that educators deem important to overall student engagement and success at EPS.
Progress reports differ from end of semester reports in that:
- They provide a ‘snapshot’ about how your child is demonstrating and applying their learning habits, rather than their academic progress.
- They show your child’s progress on a 5-point scale rather than progression points or comments
- You will be able to track your child’s progress in these AoAs across the year, with termly progress reports.
PREP to GRADE 2 AREAS OF ASSESSMENT DESCRIPTORS
Students aim to demonstrate the following AoA achievements:
BEHAVIOUR: *Follows classroom expectations and school values; *Makes positive choices to manage themselves and their learning; *Focuses on tasks without distracting others or being distracted. *Listens to instructions to enable them to begin tasks straight away.
ORGANISATION: *Organises their belongings and keeps a tidy workspace; *Locates specific books and materials for learning.
ENGAGEMENT IN LEARNING: *Listens respectfully to others; *Uses class time effectively; *Actively participates in tasks; *Completes tasks to their best standard in the given time frame; *Asks questions to improve their understanding.
EMOTIONAL REGULATION: *Expresses and regulates their emotions appropriately at school; *Shows awareness of the feelings of others.
RESPONDING TO FEEDBACK: *Happily accepts feedback to support their learning and implements the recommendations.
ACHIEVEMENT SCALE: Excellent – Very Good – Good – Acceptable – Needs Attention
Grades 3-6 AREAS OF ASSESSMENT DESCRIPTORS
Students aim to demonstrate the following AoA achievements:
BEHAVIOUR: *Follows classroom expectations and school values; *Makes positive choices to manage themselves and their learning; *Focuses on tasks without distracting others or being distracted. *Listens to instructions to enable them to begin tasks straight away.
TIME MANAGEMENT: *Regularly uses class time effectively to complete tasks to their best standard, and in the given time frame; *Begins tasks in a timely manner (a self starter).
ORGANISATION: *Organises their belongings effectively and maintains an orderly workspace; *Locates required books and materials relevant to their learning; *Comes to school with their required resources.
INDEPENDENCE IN LEARNING: Has agency over their learning by having a growth mindset by setting and striving for achievable goals; *Locates and understands the lesson learning intentions and success criteria; *Consistently displays effort to maximise their learning.
ENGAGEMENT: Maintains focus and mental engagement throughout explicit instruction and independent work time; *Asks questions to improve their understanding.
ACHIEVEMENT SCALE: Excellent – Very Good – Good – Acceptable – Needs Attention
Our rescheduled first Working Bee for the year is on next weekend, Saturday 5th April. We are planning on having a BBQ on the day and an Easter Egg Hunt! It will be held from 10am to 1pm, and we will be doing mulching, weeding and maybe even some construction! We hope to see lots of families there for a day of fun and fruitful hard work!
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
- Friday 28th November – Professional Practice Day
For those families using the TheirCare childcare service , they are preparing to have students on the 3rd July, 21st July and 28th November dates: https://theircare.com.au/
- April Events:
- Thursday 3rd April – Colour Fun Run
- Thursday 3rd April – Term 1 Progress Reports Avaliable from 4pm
- Friday 4th April – Growth Mindset Awards Assembly
- Friday 4th April – Last Day of Term 1 – Students dismissed at 2.30pm
- Saturday 5th April – 10am – 1pm – Working Bee with BBQ and Easter Egg Hunt
- Term 2
- Tuesday 22nd April – First Day of Term 2
- Friday 25th April – Anzac Day – Public Holiday
Emma Clark
Principal
This week …
Last week all students from Prep to 6 completed an E.P.S. Student Survey. The survey contained questions about how they are feeling about their learning within their classroom and also their general wellbeing at school. This gave the students the chance to give feedback, in order to help us identify any areas we can focus on improving so we can better support all students at E.P.S.
The survey questions covered how students are feeling about:
Care– Do they feel seen and heard by their teacher?
Challenge – Do they feel like the level of challenge for them is too easy, too hard or just right?
Clarity– Do they feel their teacher explains things clearly and provides extra instruction when needed?
Consolidation – Do they feel they can get help, and also that they actively seek help themselves, when they don’t understand?
Captivate – Do they feel school is interesting and they get to do a mix of activities?
Confer – Do they feel they get feedback from their teacher and then work together to set goals for themselves?
The survey also checked in on how students feel about their Wellbeing and Connection at school including whether they feel safe in specific areas of the school, if they understand their own emotional zones of regulation and whether they feel a sense of belonging.
Our wonderful Year 6 councillors read the questions aloud to the students from Prep to 2 and it was lovely to see them being such supportive leaders.
Thanks to Monty, Khan, Huddy, Isla, Ethan, Chase, Jensen and Maddi for your AMAZING help!
Cathlin Smart
Leading Teacher – Data, Curriculum and Engagement
Cathlin Smart
Leading Teacher – Data, Curriculum and Engagement
In Year 6 we have been learning about the Australian Government and other rulers of our world throughout history. As part of our learning the Year 6’s answered the question: “If I was Prime Minister I would…” here are some of their responses.
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
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