Principal Message

Dear Families,

Graduation: What a night!  Mr Grubb has again excelled with our Year 6 cohort and their families. The wonderful Sam Sheahan and her team did an amazing job in coordinating the entire night. Special thanks to Jess Henry, Steve Taylor, Sacha Bosman, Anne Crockett, Jodie Kiddle & Karolina Wendelkin for their help in making the night such a success. There was a beautiful, relaxed atmosphere set amongst the gardens and the weather was perfect! The night was a huge success and will be remembered by all the students and families as their last hurrah at OGPS. Congratulations to all the students on their 7 years of primary schooling. We sincerely wish you all the best in secondary school and we know you have a solid foundation of skills to build on as you spread your wings. And we hope you enjoyed Adventure Park today too!

Lost Property: A huge thank you to Emily Penman, Bec Condon, Emily Rouhan and Angela Brommeyer for their year-long efforts in sorting, washing and returning lost property to families. This is one of those jobs that often goes unnoticed, but as parents ourselves, we know just how appreciative families are to have precious jumpers, hats, drink bottles and lunch boxes returned to their owners. All labelled uniform items have now been returned; however, there are still some unclaimed items available for collection from the trolley near the Prep rooms. Please check if any of your child’s belongings are there before these items are added to the second-hand uniform shop. As always, a friendly reminder to ensure all of your child’s clothing and belongings are clearly named so they can be returned easily. 

Transition: Students will visit their new classrooms and meet their 2026 teacher/s and classmates tomorrow. We will welcome some of our new families, a new classroom teacher, Kate Lawrie and Performing Arts teacher, Becky Beckwith. The process of creating classes is never an easy one and with many complex requests this year, made this even more challenging to accommodate. We have honestly been altering classes right up until this morning to get the best outcome. Will they be perfect? Probably not from some families’ perspectives, but please TRUST the decisions we have made. Your role is to continue to help your children prepare for next year. Speak positively and embrace the opportunities to make new friends. Old friends will still be your friends before school, at recess, lunch and after school too.

Reports: Staff have been diligent in their reporting and assessments this term and the reports are planned to be published on Sentral this afternoon – Damien & Jess have been working hard in the background. It has been a pleasure to read the reports with Mrs H and see the growth, achievement and development of our students. Congratulations to all the students on their results and to the staff on their hard work this year. Also, to the families, your support and encouragement is essential to our success.

Calendar: While winding down this year, we have been planning next year and will have a calendar of dates for families to download via the newsletter, print and stick on the fridge. This will be available in the new year.

Staff: Each year we have some changes to our staff profile. Sometimes teachers and staff change schools, contracts end, or they may retire etc. We thank Lucas Chadwick, Bec Condon, Emily Penman, and Dallas Holden for their work and contributions to OGPS. We sincerely wish them all the best in their next adventure whether in education or something new. I’d like to acknowledge and thank all our valuable CRT’s who have assisted the continuity of classes when staff are away. Several of our Family Leave teachers also return in part time capacities too and Julian Teague and Jo Ellis remain on leave in 2026.

Thanks: An enormous thanks to all staff at OGPS. Our wonderful ES team, admin team, specialist team & classroom teachers. To Kristy, Ryan Kerryn and Alyce – your robust conversations and commitment to the school and delivering high quality curriculum, adjustments where needed and advocating for all, is an absolute pleasure to be a part of, while leading OGPS. To Andy, Ryan & Rhonda in your wellbeing capacity – Thank you for supporting staff, students and families with kindness, compassion and empathy. Staff have again risen to the challenges and rigours of teaching and deserve a break over the summer. I hope you get some time to reflect on your achievements this year and please pass on my thanks to your extended families for supporting and enabling you to be your best at OGPS each day. I greatly appreciate it.

Volunteers: To our wonderful volunteers who give so much to the school, from Kath Wade who has laminated thousands of books, guided the Art Show, supported classroom teachers and so much more, to all the classroom helpers, those who have read with students, have attended excursions, camps and so much more, to our wonderful Parents & Friends committee who volunteer so much time to keep our OGPS community connected, thriving and full fun throughout the year, we sincerely thank each and every one of you! We hope you will sign up again for another action packed 2026 and add even more value to the school.

Holiday and Facilities work: There will be continued ramp modifications occurring all throughout January and they hope to be finished before Day 1 2026, and Mr Kev will be around for some maintenance work too.

2026: The new year will roll around fast enough so please take some time to refresh, plan and organise things for a smooth start to the year. Enjoy the break and time with family and friends. The admin team will be back on deck from 9am on 27th Jan, and we look forward to seeing everyone (Year 1-6) on Thursday 29th Jan for a 9am start. Foundation parents – your program will be sent via Seesaw from the Foundation team.

Have a wonderful holiday everyone! 

Scott McCumber

Principal