Principal Message

Dear Families,

Assembly: For those who were at assembly on Friday, I am sure you will agree with me that our brand new school leaders did an exceptional job leading and managing their first assembly! Not only was there over 600 students including the Foundation students, but we also had Hon. Libby Coker MP join us to present new flags to the school. Congratulations to Gemma, Gil, Poppy, Miranda and Buddy. Keep an eye out in the newsletter for the various assemblies from Whole School, Junior (F-2) and Senior (3-6). 

Laurie: Many of us know and love Laurie, our ever reliable crossing supervisor on Draper St. He is there in the sun, rain, hail and wind to help us ensure safe travel. Laurie will be taking a break until about September he thinks, and we will have some new faces to meet and greet us. Helen is there this week so let’s make sure we give her a warm welcome to OGPS. Rest up Laurie and we already look forward to seeing you return. 

Camp Australia: We welcome Ben to the role of coordinator this week as Jo has been given a promotion to be a Regional Manager. Jo started around 5 years ago and has done a great job at building the program up to where it is now and ensuring high standards. We wish Jo all the very best and look forward to seeing her in her new role very soon. Good luck Jo. 

New staff: Another warm welcome to our new staff – Mel Swan and Jonathan (Jono) Marsay in Year 2, Paul Coverdale in Year 3 and James Hathaway in Year 4. 

Meet & Greets: Sentral bookings for 10 min slots will open Thursday 8th Feb. Please book via the Sentral portal where you can also manage your bookings up until it closes. The Specialist team will be in their teaching spaces during the Meet & Greets for families to visit. A great way to get a sneak peek at the program too! 

Cyber safety: We all know how important cyber safety is and we all want our children to be safe online. We do need to explicitly teach and remind our young people of appropriate and acceptable behaviours online and in real life! We have Brainstorm Theatre Company coming to OGPS on Feb 15th to help convey the messages around cyber safety. This links nicely to Mr K-T’s work in setting up our school agreements and distributing to the community. Let’s all work together to keep our students safe online. Please continue to have conversations with your children about cyber safety.

More info at: https://www.esafety.gov.au/newsroom/whats-on/safer-internet-day

Prep visits: Last week Kristy and I had a number of the Foundation classes come and visit the admin area and our office. It was so nice to see their eager faces and hear about their start to school. I hope all our Foundation families have had a positive start to 2024 and the routines are beginning to take shape.

School Council: We have 4 vacancies on School Council this year and this is a call for nominations. You can be nominated by someone else (and I hope they let you know they are nominating you) or you can self-nominate. Should we receive more than 4 nominations, we will hold an election process. Closing date for nominations is Wednesday 14th Feb, 2024. Please collect a nomination form from the Admin team or feel free to speak with Kristy, Lara or myself about the role of School Councillor. We will also have a number of Sub-committees running again where you may feel you would like to be involved. Reach out and we can put you in touch with the chair of that sub-committee. 

Have a great week everyone.

Scott McCumber

Principal