Principal Message
Dear Families,
What a start: Thank you to all families for preparing your children so well for the start of the 2024 year. Upon visiting all classes yesterday, I was blown away by how ready to learn the students were. No doubt we have all had some mixed feelings and emotions in the lead up to the start, but I can assure you, the students were magnificent yesterday and we had the best start we could have asked for. Special thanks to the staff too, for preparing and planning for the year ahead.
Thanks: A special thanks to Dr Cheryle Osborne who replaced me while I was on leave in the second half of the year in 2023. I wish Cheryle all the best for 2024 in yet another new school! And to Kristy (Mrs H) and the staff who continued to support the learning of students and the overall facilities improvements too. Great job team!
Foundation 2024: Thanks to all our Foundation families for supporting the staggered start on Tuesday. It certainly helps create a calm environment for our new students to enter the school. The Foundation students have also been given exclusive access to the playground this week to assist in their transition too. It was so pleasing to see some of the new Foundation families socialising after their first drop off yesterday! The social side of school is so important for the children but equally as important for the families too!
Uniform: Our school looks great when we are all on the same team, wearing the same uniform and again, I thank families for sending students to school in their uniforms, hair tied up and SunSmart hats ready to go. Our Uniform Policy is on the school website.
BYOD: Bring Your Own Device (iPad) has been around for a few years at most schools now and here at OGPS, we encourage students to bring their iPads to school to add value to their learning. We do supply some devices but would love to see students with their iPad in class time – not at playtime or before/after school.
Mobile Phones & Wearable technology: The Department has a policy for Mobile phones that we enact and ask families to support us in. This can also include the use of wearable technology. We want to keep our students focused on their learning and would appreciate any wearable technology for communications be set appropriately for school times. If you need to communicate something to your child, please contact Jenny or Mel in the main admin office and they will follow up at break times.
Meet & Greets: We are currently planning to host Meet & Greet sessions in Week 3 (Monday 12th & Tuesday 13th Feb) where it is a chance to inform the class teacher a bit more about your child. We want to establish great partnerships between school and home and this 10 minute meeting is vital in helping build the relationship for success. Keep your eyes open for the booking period to open in Sentral soon.
Parents & Friends: A huge thank you to all our members in the P&F team, who have worked hard to secure money and enable the STEM gate entrance to be concreted over the holidays. We will continue to work at beautifying that area over the next year but without the P&F support and work, this project could not have happened! Thanks to Georgia and her team for this improvement around the school.
PARENT PAYMENT ARRANGEMENTS AND BOOKLISTS 2024: Our new process of classroom stationery supplies for students being ordered in bulk and delivered straight to the classroom ready for the commencement of the new school year, was a great success for teachers and families.
The student stationery contribution and other voluntary contributions will be placed on Sentral in the next week. You can choose to either pay the full amount, part pay or pay by instalments. If you are not paying the contributions or only paying part, please inform the office so we can adjust or remove them. Also contact the office if you would like further information.
It is with great pleasure that I announce and congratulate the following students as our distinguished school leaders for the year 2024.
Leaders for 2024
School captains
Gemma Vallance
Gil Noble
Miranda Petty
Poppy Teague
Buddy Guilford
Performing Arts captains
Emerson Stenner
Bella Best
Visual Arts captains
Tahlia Fisher
Yuki Howell
STEM captains
Wynne Jackson
Arthur Garnier
Wellbeing captains
Lucy Polgar
Sadie Jackson
Sofia Pascoe-Leahy
First Nations Ambassador
Jaxon Price
House captains
Konmoyt Snakes
Samuel Boyd
Jed Hamilton
Banheep Sharks
Eamonn Lake
Jemma Gilroy
Lok-Lok Eagles
Zarah Gilmour
Harlow Smith
Barna-Karreek Spiders
Mia Rose Johnson
Samuel Johnston
Sustainability captains
Hugo Byrne
Evie Burke
Hannah McKelvie
Rhys Hyne
LOTE captain
Anaiah Harvey
Lola Denning
Hope you have all had a fantastic start to the year and beginning to re-establish or create new routines.
Have a great week.
Scott McCumber
Principal