Dear Families,

Curriculum Day: THIS Friday 16th August - pupil free day. Camp Australia are still taking bookings if you require care/supervision for the day. Staff will be engaging with Literacy expert, Misty Adeniou to improve our teaching capacity of literacy.

Drawing Us Together: Harry T, Adele M, Eddie O, Everly T, Pepper A, Harry T were announced as winners of the ‘Drawing Us Together’ art competition recently and their work will be on display in the Gateway Plaza, Leopold from 5th September. Thanks to Kim Kenny who organises this opportunity for our students to enter the competition.

Family Engagement: Just a friendly reminder that there are numerous ways families can be involved in school life at OGPS…

School Council
School Council sub committees (Finance, Fundraising, Facilities, Sustainability, Inclusion)
Class helper
Camps & Excursions
Parents and Friends committee
Manage the new garden area (we’d love some dedicated people asap in this space)
Start a new initiative or pick up an older or existing one (such as Mother’s/Father’s/Carer’s Day stall)
Volunteer in other areas

Please contact the office by phone or email (ocean.grove.ps@education.vic.gov.au) and let us know what you would like to do and we will connect you with hopefully a group of like-minded people to enhance school life for your children.

Trivia Night: Friday 30th August is the date to have your team ready, table booked and enjoy a social night to stretch your brains. “Olympics” is the theme! Please see more information in the newsletter. Thanks to the P&F for your work organising this event.

P&F: Our amazing team of families do a great job at organising some major events (Apple Fair, Trivia Night, Movie Night, May Day to name a few) but are not responsible for all activities. We need others to help out and organise events that the community want and value. An example earlier this year was around Mother’s Day. Currently we do not yet have a committee dedicated to Father’s Day or a Carer’s Day or Mother’s Day. If this is an area you would like to be involved in and have ideas, I am more than willing to help coordinate a group of people to drive this or other initiatives forward. Please leave your details at the office asap.

Book Week: Week 6 will be a great week celebrating literacy with a Book Week dress up day on Friday Aug 23rd. A parade will take place on the lower basketball court from about 9.15am. It will be noisy with very excited students so if your child would like to wear noise cancelling headphones, they are most welcome! No doubt Mrs McKeon will have more details in the newsletter soon.

Compost: Our new composting system across the school has started with Jo Earle coordinating and leading the process as part of the Resource Smart School accreditation. We hope students learn more about recycling, reusing and reducing resources and how we can compost and reuse the materials in the future. Mr K-T will be setting up something near the STEM room too, so keep an eye out there!

Vandalism: Over the weekend, we unfortunately experienced a number of episodes of vandalism by some visitors to the school grounds who also, illegally entered the school buildings. Can I encourage the community who may be around the school on the weekend to call 000 if they see any vandalism, illegal entry to buildings or unsafe behaviours. Thanks to staff who cleaned up on Monday morning before students and families arrived.

Outdoor Learning Area: The Gordon crew are continuing to work on the vision of our outdoor learning area. The Gordon Students are preparing for the concrete this week after the rocks have been placed. Keep encouraging them to continue with their great work.

Emergency Management drills: Every term we rehearse a variety of Emergency procedures. On Monday we conducted an Evacuation Drill, and it was timely as we had the Regional OH&S officer, Rosie Bright, onsite. She anticipated it would take us approx. 15 minutes to be all accounted for… I am so pleased to say that we safely conducted the drill with over 600 students and around 70 adults in 5 mins and 50 sec – our new record! We were all outside in less than 3 minutes which is amazing and then accounting for everyone went extremely well too.

Have a great week everyone and if your child wants to wear a hat due to the magnificent sunshine, please feel free to do so!

Scott McCumber

Principal

Book Week 2024