Principal Report
Dear families,
It’s hard to believe we’re already beyond the halfway point of Term 1 — and what a full and busy few weeks it’s been. It has been wonderful to see our students demonstrating such positive behaviour, supporting one another and representing our school with pride. Classrooms have settled beautifully into routines, and the seamless start to the year has created a calm, focused environment where learning is already well underway.
Earlier this term an incredible mural was painted on the external wall of the gym, facing onto the oval. Staff member, Kirsten Trewarn, engaged with Indigenous artist Merindah-Gunya (meaning beautiful spirit) to paint a mural that was purposeful and meaningful with consideration of Indigenous culture, as well as the values, history and essence of Oatlands Primary School.
Merindah-Gunya drew inspiration for her colour choices from our house and school uniform colours. When reflecting on the finished mural, she shared that her goal for every mural is to ensure that everyone’s favourite colour is incorporated somewhere throughout the mural, so everyone feels represented. Have you spotted your favourite colour on the mural?
On the left end of the wall, the 7 arch symbols drawn are called journey lines. These journey lines represent each year level travelling throughout their journey at Oatlands Primary School. The first and biggest arch is to represent the Prep students who take the biggest step coming to school for the very first time. Each year level has their own journey line to represent their adventures throughout school with the Grade 6’s journey line continuing off the side of the wall - as their educational and life journeys continue beyond Oatlands Primary School.
The five large circles painted on the right end of the mural represent our five school values; respect, effort, kindness, resilience, and creativity. This is a reminder of the values students and teachers in the Oatlands community uphold every single day.
Throughout the mural, there are also symbols representing people - these look like upside down shoe horses. Merindah-Gunya purposely created the symbols of people using different colours, shapes and sizes to signify and celebrate the individuality of every person.
Aboriginal people believe the land was created by Bunjil the Eagle. As Bunjil is a bird, all Indigenous art is created from birds eye-view. So, when you’re looking at our beautiful mural on the wall, imagine that you are soaring through the sky looking down.
A big thank you to Kirsten for all her work behind the scenes on this project and congratulations to our Deadly Kids Club members for participating in the brainstorming and planning of our mural. Your voices and creativity were an integral part of this process, which is now a part of Oatlands Primary School forever.
If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to view our mural up close, I encourage you to stop by and take a look. It is a magnificent piece of artwork and a wonderful addition to our school.
Deanne Morgan
Assistant Principal
