Dear Families,

Education Week: This week is ‘Education Week’ – but every week in school is Education Week! Education Week is an annual celebration of public education in Victoria. DE’s website states “All children deserve a place to learn and thrive in. This year’s theme Celebration of Cultures highlights the diversity of our communities and the importance of every child feeling safe and welcome at school. Throughout Education Week, students, parents/carers, teachers, and school communities are encouraged to celebrate and share ideas to promote the wide range of cultures and cultural connections in Victorian schools. To help inspire your Education Week, check out https://www.vic.gov.au/education-week

School Saving Bonus (SSB) & Voluntary Contributions (From Lara our Business Manager): Thanks to the families that have supported OGPS so far with paying the voluntary contributions. We do have a significant shortfall at the moment from what we estimated we would receive compared to last year. There has been some confusion around the SSB - this cannot be used for the Voluntary Contributions. SSB is for camps, sports, excursions, and/or uniform purchases only. The office will be reconciling all SSB at the end of July once the Department has completed the ‘behind the scenes’ transactions to make it accessible to be used. Voluntary contributions will remain on Sentral and can be paid in part or full or let us know if you are not paying them and we’ll remove them from Sentral for you. If you have any queries, please contact the office. We will also be running information sessions next Tuesday at 9am & 3pm for any parents who wish to attend.

The Gordon Institute: This week many students from The Gordon will be onsite to add further value to our school grounds. They are adding more concrete in front of the sheds on the oval, a retaining wall along the edge of the oval with steps up towards the trees and a stage-like structure will be added in the south-west corner for students to play on and create little shows or performances. Please make them feel welcome as they are learning how to apply their trades in real life with us.

School Council: We held our May School Council meeting on Tuesday night and discussed all things Finance, Fundraising, Facilities, and much more. If you are interested in joining a sub committee of School Council, please contact the office and we will put you in touch with the chair of the committee.

Emergency Procedures: As part of our emergency procedures, we rehearse various events throughout the year which includes evacuation drills and lock downs. Yesterday we rehearsed what to do in the event of a lock down and staff were very pleased at how the students responded during the event. We ask that you follow up with your child, have a positive conversation about why we practice these drills and give them a pat on the back!

School Visits: Occasionally staff or the leadership will visit other schools to see how they do education. We share ideas and sometimes collaborate on joint projects. Recently we have worked with Montpellier PS where we have visited them and vice versa. Tomorrow, Lara and I are visiting Bellaire PS to look at aspects of financial management, curriculum development and wellbeing. We hope to learn new things and bring any good ideas back to OGPS for more improvements.

Cross Country: Congratulations to all our runners yesterday who ran at the District Cross Country at Eastern Gardens. Some outstanding results achieved by OGPS students. We will have a few heading to the next level of cross country soon. Congrats to all runners and we wish those progressing, all the best at the next level.

Andy McNeilly: As our Mental Health and Well Being leader across the school, Andy has been conducting parental information sessions sharing his practical knowledge in this space. While Andy is not a psychologist as such, he has offered ideas and suggestions to families that may help with various aspects of school and home life. Thanks to those who have attended and thanks to Andy for presenting the information in a clear manner that allows families to choose strategies that may work for them.

Sustainability: This week we received our third star as we move towards a 5-star rating for the ResourceSmart Schools program. This milestone was for Biodiversity and it has been great to have so many native plants added to the grounds which has attracted many new species of birds and the blue banded bee – yes, a blue bee! Keep an eye out in the new garden for them!

Enjoy the rest of the week.

Scott McCumber

Principal

OGPS Parents & Friends Club