Dear Families,

Education Week: This week is Education Week, and the theme of 2026 is Showcase your school, encouraging school communities to celebrate what’s great about their school. We are so fortunate to have a great school and community that we have much to celebrate and be grateful for. From terrific teachers with years of experience, to amazing students and supportive families. The opportunities OGPS provides for students from in the classroom, out of the classroom, excursions, camps, guests, to a rich curriculum that challenges them… we have so much to celebrate.

Open Morning: We invite families to classrooms this Thursday between 9.30am and 11am to see their child in their learning space. We do ask families to be respectful of other learners and aware that having several adults in the room could be overwhelming for some. At 11am, we encourage you to meet your child in the playground for a picnic/snack and watch them in the playground. Students will return to class at 11.30am.

Prep 2027 Information Night: Last night we hosted an Information evening for prospective families. Special thanks to all the Foundation/Prep teachers and other staff who attended the session to help families make their decision and gather more information about our school.

School Tours: Today Kristy and I led school tours for prospective families and had a wonderful turn out. We hope the new families learnt about what we do, who we are and potentially join our community next year.

Annual Report: Last night before the official school council, meeting, the 2025 Annual Report was delivered. It was an opportunity to reflect on the successes from last year. It is also available on our school website.

School Council: Last night we also met as a Council and heard from a few key members of the community in Steph King, delivering a roundup of the Apple Fair. It was an opportunity for the Council to acknowledge the work Steph led and the overall result to be celebrated again. Thanks for attending Steph. Then we had a presentation from Ryan Baltetsch, our Inclusion leader at OGPS. He demonstrated the process DE has in place for NDIS in Schools in relation to administering the policy.

Gordon Institute: Yesterday we welcomed the first crew of GI students back to OGPS. They will begin work around the Amphitheatre area to extend the steps with timber and create some more garden areas while giving this space a bit of TLC for us. Please welcome and support the young adults as they learn onsite within our grounds and add value to the school.

Reconciliation Week: As May is the month of National Reconciliation Week, I wanted to share some resources that may support our ongoing learning, reflection and action as we continue strengthening our commitment to First Nations children, families and communities. Reconciliation is an ongoing journey of listening, learning and acting with respect, honesty and accountability. Small, consistent actions and conversations help build stronger relationships and create more inclusive spaces for children and families.

A few resources you may find valuable:

National Reconciliation Week Posters & Resources: https://www.reconciliation.org.au/our-work/national-reconciliation-week/posters-resources/ (Translated resources available)
Narragunnawali – Reconciliation in Education: https://www.narragunnawali.org.au
SNAICC – National Voice for our Children: https://www.snaicc.org.au
Healing Foundation: https://healingfoundation.org.au
Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative – https://wathaurong.org.au/

Asbury St Entrance & Bikes: We will be having more temporary fence arranged up near the bike shed as more ramps are being installed near the Year 4 classrooms. In an already busy area with so many bikes, we will need to carefully put bikes in racks and work together to keep this area organised. The Student Voice Committee (SVC) are working on some ideas to help resolve the bike rack use and area but that will take some time. The SVC surveyed students and found that over 50% of students ride their bike at least once per week! Great stats and no wonder the kids are fit and healthy. We just need to put bikes in racks to enable all of us to use this space.

Mid Year reports: Just a reminder that we will be providing student achievement reports for Semester 1. The reports will be published on Sentral during the last week of the term. The reports will continue to provide important details about student learning attainment, but full descriptive comments and curriculum content statements will not be included as a result of industrial action taken earlier this term by the Australian Education Union.

We will of course be pleased to discuss with you, your child’s progress at our next parent-teacher interviews scheduled for early Term 3.

Somers Camp: Next Tuesday 10 OGPS students will head off for a magnificent opportunity to Somers Camp over on Western Port Bay. 160 students from across Geelong and the Bellarine will be attending and it is a great time to meet new people, create new friendships and work through being out of the comfort zone of OGPS. We wish them all the best and we look forward to hearing about the adventures when they return.

Enjoy the week.

Scott McCumber

Principal

Education Week 2026