Principal Message
Dear Families,
Art Show: Another magnificent afternoon of Art on display at The Hive Gallery last Friday night. This was our 5th year of Karen and Will hosting over 600 pieces of student art. A massive thanks to The Hive’s ongoing support of this evening and a huge congratulations to both Andrea and Jo for their work in coordinating the event, teaching the kids and enabling their creativity to be on display. To all the volunteers who helped out and to those lucky enough to purchase some art, we thank you too. Thanks to The Lions Club who worked tirelessly on the BBQ too. Overall, another outstanding OGPS community event with students at the centre of it. Well done artists! If you would like to purchase your child's artwork for $5, you are still able to do so at the school office.
2025 Foundation transition: There was a buzz of excitement in the playground on Monday morning as the 2025 foundation students joined us at school and spent time in various specialist subjects. No doubt there were some tired little Grovers on Monday night, but these sessions are such a vital stepping stone before next year. Thanks to all the new and returning families. I sincerely hope you as adults, get to make new friends too.
The Gordon: We have been so fortunate to build and establish a great working relationship with The Gordon and their students who have constructed the new outdoor learning area near the library and then planting it out more recently. A special thanks to John Mitchell for enabling this connection and we hope to continue to provide more opportunities for The Gordon students while also adding value to OGPS.
Plants and trees: Have you started to notice many new plants and trees around the playground? One of our families (Steph King) wrote an amazing grant application for the Victorian Schools Garden Fund. Then, upon receiving the grant, Warners Nursery then donated 20 Japanese maples which will be planted this week. John Mitchell (parent) from The Gordon has also been great organising the plants and planting them with his students. Keep up the great work Steph and John. If any other families or community members are keen to write a grant to improve the school, please reach out to us.
Assembly: Last Friday at assembly we celebrated so many aspects of school life with awards in SEL, mathematics, athletics and more. It was a fantastic assembly hosted by our Year 6 Captains who have continued to grow in this role throughout the year. They have a few more assemblies to go before our final one on December 13th in the park.
2025 classes: As we head towards the end of the year, we also begin to plan for 2025. We have nearly settled the staffing profile and in a few weeks, we will form classes. We aim to construct equal classes at each year level that consist of gender balance, academic levels, social considerations and so much more. If you have an educational consideration that you would like me to know about, please send an email to school. I do ask that NO requests for a certain teacher be made. We have not yet finalised staff planning and this does not usually resolve itself until the end of the year. Our staff spend considerable amounts of time on constructing classes and we ask you to be patient and enable staff to write reports, proofread reports, teach and plan and then construct classes soon enough.
Teachers to Grades: Teachers to grades will not be announced until after our final School Council meeting in December. Please be patient!
Classes: Our transition sessions are planned for the last few weeks of school and in the short term, new groups of students may be trialled so we can build the classes for 2025. Please do not assume that this IS your child’s class for next year.
School Leaders 2025: Our current Year 5’s have been undertaking learning around leadership and will be applying for various positions soon. As part of the process, the students get to vote on how the announcements will take place. Lots of options are explored and for 2025 Leaders, positions will be announced on December 13th at the Final assembly in the park – as voted on by the students. Our current Captains will ‘hand over’ to the new captains! As always, there will be some disappointment from those unsuccessful and we strongly encourage families to have open and honest conversations in the lead up to this that helps students prepare for the outcome so we can all enjoy the moment.
Have a great week everyone.
Scott McCumber
Principal