From the Principal

Dear families,

I want to extend a huge thank you to our whole community for your incredible support. Our Inflatable World event and raffle have raised significant funds for our school, which will directly benefit our students.

Events such as these simply wouldn’t be possible without the hard work and commitment of our P&F, nor would they be successful without the wonderful support of our families and wider community. Thank you to everyone who contributed, attended, purchased raffle tickets, volunteered or supported the events in any way. We are incredibly grateful.

Welcome Lisa Phillips

As we wish Aaron and his family all the very best while he is on family leave awaiting the arrival of Baby Jones #2, we are pleased to welcome Lisa Phillips to OPS.

Lisa will be Acting Assistant Principal during Aaron’s absence. We are excited to have Lisa join our team and look forward to drawing on her knowledge and expertise, particularly in the areas of intellectual preparation, curriculum and lesson design. Lisa has already worked with some of our team leaders, so it is wonderful to now welcome her more broadly into our school community.

2027 - School Review Term 1

In Term 1 next year, OPS will undertake our four-yearly School Review. This is an important process that provides us with the opportunity to reflect deeply on our progress, celebrate our achievements and identify the areas where we can continue to improve. The review will inform the development of our next School Strategic Plan, which will set the direction and key priorities for our school over the following four years.

The timing of the review is particularly valuable for OPS. We have already been working incredibly hard on our school improvement journey, strengthening our curriculum, teaching practices and approaches to student wellbeing. The review gives us an opportunity to consider the impact of this work, where we are now and, importantly, where we want to go next. It will allow us to establish a strong and focused direction that keeps our students and community at the centre of our work.

As part of the review process, schools undertake a range of audits and compliance checks. We have already begun working with the Department’s compliance team on our Child Safe Standards, and this process has gone very well. There will be opportunities for our community to contribute to the review process, and I will continue to keep families updated as we prepare for 2027.

Parent and Carer Opinion Survey

A reminder that the Parent and Carer Opinion Survey is now open. Details and the survey link were sent to families via Compass last week.

I kindly ask families to take the time to complete the survey. Your feedback is genuinely valuable to us and helps us understand what we are doing well and where there may be opportunities for further improvement. The results will be particularly beneficial as we head into our School Review next year and consider the future direction of OPS.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to share your feedback.

Website Upgrade

This week, we are beginning the exciting process of developing a new OPS website. Considerable groundwork has already been undertaken by last year’s Community Engagement Subcommittee of School Council, and we are now ready to move into the next stage.

Our website is an important window into our school and all that we do at OPS. At present, we don’t feel it fully reflects the breadth of opportunities we provide, the strength of our teaching and learning programs or the connected community that makes our school so special.

As part of this process, and alongside the introduction of our new school values, we are also considering our visual identity, including our school logo, and whether it continues to represent OPS as we move into the next stage of our improvement journey. We know there is an incredible range of expertise within our community. If you are a parent or carer with experience in graphic design or branding and would be interested in contributing your expertise to this process, please reach out. We would love to hear from you.

ICAS

Today from 11.30am-1pm is our 2nd ICAS test for those students who have registered for the ICAS Assessments.

• Students do not need to bring any materials or resources; OPS will provide all relevant resources.
• An OPS staff member will be supervising the ICAS Mathematics Assessment. 
• If any students are absent on the day, we will have a catch-up date later in the week. 

Good luck to all students who are participating in the assessments, we know you will do yourselves and OPS proud. 

Community Storytime

Our last Community Storytime is on Wednesday 02 September. 

We would love to see more local families join us at one of our upcoming sessions. Please see the flyer below for future dates and feel free to share this opportunity with friends, neighbours or families who may be interested.

We have a huge week coming up so please continue reading for many more updates and important information.

With thanks,

Anna-Marie