Principal Report 

Oatlands from My Point of View

Term 3 at Oatlands Primary School has been a very positive one thus far. We have had a number of special events across the term, including many dress up days, 100 days of school celebrations, book week activities, author visits, year level excursions, swimming lessons, cooking competitions, athletics events, Grandparents Afternoon and Father’s Day breakfast. While these days are a great fun for our entire school community, one of the most impressive things to observe here at Oatlands is the wonderful balance our students have between having fun and focussing on their learning. It is quite remarkable to be able to visit classrooms before, during and after these special and fun occasions and see really settled and respectful classrooms full of students enjoying themselves, while still behaving responsibly and sensibly.

There is no doubt about it, we have fantastic students and staff here at Oatlands, which makes it such a wonderful place to be.

Grandparents’ Afternoon

Last Friday we opened the school in the afternoon for grandparents to come and visit. Classrooms were open and grandparents were able to spend some time with their grandchild, completing an activity together, playing a game and or looking at some schoolwork. We also had our School Choir performing in the Stuart Daly Gymnasium, which was thoroughly enjoyed by those who attended. It was wonderful to see the huge number of grandparents visiting, it was a wonderful way to finish the week.

Father’s Day Breakfast

This week we held our traditional Father’s Day Breakfast. While we don’t have any figures to back this up, the general consensus was that this was one of the largest crowds we have had. The gym was packed with dads, uncles and grandparents all there to listen to our guest speaker, Billy Brownless. Billy spoke about being a dad and the importance of being present in your child’s life. He also shared a few funny stories about his days playing footy and his time in the media. Then, like grandparent’s afternoon last week, the classrooms were opened up and all the grades had a fun activity planned. To finish off the morning, everyone returned to the gym for an egg and bacon muffin and a cuppa.

To have such high level of engagement from our school community across these two days in particular is brilliant. We really value these days and looking forward to holding them annually for many years to come.

Matthew Kenny – Assistant Principal