Dear Parent/Guardian/Carer/Students and Staff,

Welcome back to Term 3. Our kids are back in action and are pumped for another superb Term. Congratulations to our Aussie of the Month recipients. Huge achievement! Below you will find an update on key items that have occurred during the Term already.

Thank you to all parents/guardian for attending Parent Teacher Interviews.

July Aussie of the Month: Nathanial N

"Nathaniel is a very deserving Aussie of the Month. Showing outstanding maturity both in his learning and around his peers, Nathaniel recognises the expectations and work habits required to be successful, whilst also demonstrating respect, trust and a voice of reason around friends. Nathaniel displays strong leadership skills in the way he interacts with, encourages and guides the younger students in the school. He consistently demonstrates our values, something that has been recognised by many teachers around the school. Nathaniel is a wonderful role model and it is no surprise that he is well-liked and respected by his peers and teachers. Nat, you are an absolute superstar! Well Done!"

June Aussie of the Month: Sophie K

"Sophie is a kind and considerate girl. She takes pride in our school and consistently demonstrates our school values. Sophie is often complimented on her willingness to help others both in the yard and in the classroom. Her warm smile and positive attitude make her an asset to the OPS community. Keep it up Sophie!"

NAPLAN School Performance 2024

It is with great pleasure that I share with you our school's NAPLAN results for 2024. In summary, our Grade 5 results are impressive and significantly higher than similar profile schools and Cardinia network schools as evident in the Panorama report (Department Information System for Principals) for Reading, Writing and Numeracy. Our results show significant relative growth for Grade 5 confirming students from Grade 3 to 5 have significantly grown further in their literacy and numeracy outcomes. Importantly there has been solid progress for these students since enrolling in Prep. Our Grade 5 Numeracy, Writing and Reading results also show a significant amount of our students attaining in the Strong or Exceeding category. Along with this I’d like to share that one of our Grade 5 students has managed to achieve ‘excelling’ in ALL categories placing them in top 25% of the state. Our students have worked very hard to achieve these outcomes. Congratulations to them.

Our Grade 3 results are very good and on par with similar schools for Writing. Although, we have had a slight dip in comparison to last year for Numeracy and Reading in Grade 3 our 'matched' cohort data (students who have been here since Prep to Grade 3) shows great growth and close to similar results to previous year.

In recognition of these results we will be hosting a celebration lunch for all our NAPLAN students this Term.

100 days of Prep

Our Preps celebrated 100 Days of School last Thursday. It was a fantastic day of celebrations, with awards, party food, activities, buddy visits and of course, some wonderful dress-ups!

It was awesome to welcome our families in throughout the morning to share in these celebrations! A big thank you to Miss A for her incredible efforts in making sure our Preps felt extra special!

NEW STAFF MEMBER: Student Enrichment Coach, Katie Blythman

Dear Officer Primary School families,

My name is Katie Blythman and I am very excited to be joining the team at Officer Primary School. I have been teaching for almost 14 years and have had experience working with most year levels. I love to travel and go on adventures with my 3.5 year old daughter, Tilly. I have a passion for dancing and enjoy most sports. I am looking forward to getting to know you all and working with some of your children in the Enrichment Coaching program this semester. Katie will commence from Monday Week 5 of this Term until the end of the year. Ms Blythman is replacing Ms Morris who is presently on Maternity leave.

VSBA Playground update

We are very happy to have recieved news that VSBA will complete all works to rectify our playground/underground pipes. These works total to $120,000. An ETA of 3 weeks from this week has been provided. Looking forward to our re-in statement.

Term 3 Fundraising

As the weather cools down, we have decided to swap out our Zooper Dooper fundraiser for a delicious Hot Chocolate! SRC will be selling Hot Chocolates for $2 on fortnightly Thursdays STARTING TOMORROW.

We also ask that if students would like to enjoy a Hot Chocolate, they will need to bring their own cup (no glass please) to encourage sustainability. This fundraiser will be organised by our amazing SRC.

All funds raised will go towards a Prep - Grade 2 excursion that will take place in Term 3 or 4.

In alternating weeks to Hot Chocolates, the Grade 6 students will be fundraising for their Camp with ‘Fun Food Fridays’. At the start of week 2, 4, 6, and 8 there will be compass/facebook communication on what will be on offer - this may include biscuit decorating, ice creams or jelly cups. Each item will be $2.

Koorie Cultural Leaders Day

In Week One, some of our Year 6 students attended Cardinia Network's Student Leadership Conference 😊. Hear from Jamison, Laksh, Sophie and Charli in their reflection below:

"It was a cold and wintery morning as we departed Officer Primary School to head to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Cranbourne. We met up with several schools from the Cardinia Network including Cardinia, Lang Lang, Koo Wee Rup, Nar Nar Goon, Pakenham Lakeside, John Henry and Pakenham Consolidated.

We began the session with Jaffa who is a Wurundjeri person. She welcomed us to Country and we learnt Bunurong words for land (Bik), sky (Warra Warra) and friends. She shared with us her knowledge of indigenous tools, hunting strategies and games. We learnt about how they respected the land and the native animals they shared their life with. With a wallaby as company, we played variations on cricket and Aussie Rules using a ball made from possum hides. We drank warm lemon myrtle tea and tried finger limes and Davidson’s plum, for a taste sensation! We threw womeras and learnt how to make and carry fire.

To end our day, we talked about Cultural Safety and what it looks, feels and sounds like in our schools. Cultural safety is when we can feel safe in our school environment and comfortable expressing our cultures and beliefs. We agreed that we feel encouraged and supported here at Officer Primary School".

Prep Offers for 2025

Our Prep offers have been made on Monday 29th of July for 2025. Parents have until 9th of August to accept their offer.

Parent Teacher Interviews

Thank you to all parents on attending parent teacher night. We had strong participation rates. If you were not able to attend please contact the school for alternative arrangements to be made to discuss progress.

Softball District

Last Friday our 5/6 Tee-Ball team competed in the Division finals at Toomuc Reserve! Off the back of their fairytale run in the Lightning Prem last term, our team competed strongly all day finishing fourth! Well done on your fantastic efforts.

Olympics Openings

As a whole school we followed tradition and completed a Olympic grand ceremony. Ms Waldron organised a competition for all our countries and we provided a badge for our 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. Congratulations to Kenya for coming 1st!

Little Learners Love Literacy

Our school will be introducing Little Learners Love Literacy from Term 4. Our staff are in the process of training which commences in Term 3. Our school will be adopting a Science of Reading approach including following Explicit Instruction across Prep to Grade 2. This is an evidence-based approach to teaching literacy. We are very excited about this coming to our school.

https://www.littlelearnersloveliteracy.com.au/blogs/what-is-llll/what-is-llll

August Staff Birthdays:

Phoebe

August Student Birthdays:

00 Aleyra

00 Ryan S

1/2 Scarlett

1/2 Lincoln

3/4 Lachlan

3/4 Akshay

3/4 Matilda

3/4 Jaxon G

5/6 Nathaniel

5/6 Laksh

5/6 Victoria K

5/6 Dom

Teaching and Learning

Student Enrichment Coaching