Principal Message

Dear Families,

Lost property: As a school that is working hard on sustainability, we have an abundance of lost property. So many new items are not named, and our trolley is overflowing. If there is a family that could spare a few minutes each week to help sort the lost property, possibly wash some items and pop them in the second hand uniform shop, reach out to Jenny or Mel in admin as they’d love your support. Jade has sorted it today but we’ll need continued parent support to keep on top of it.

Meet and Greets: A massive “Thanks” to all families who engaged in this process during the week. It is a pivotal time in developing home and school partnerships and also developing relationships with the teacher. Thanks for taking the time to share more about your child with their teacher. Thanks to Mr Horbury, Jen and Mel for your work coordinating the meeting schedule too!

iPads: Great to see a number of iPads coming to school for classroom use. This is a voluntary option for families to consider. You don’t need to purchase any apps. We use a school based secure system called Mosyle to distribute apps we use. We also have between 6-8 iPads in each class for student access too. 

Parking: Another reminder to park legally around the school. Unfortunately, we have had a number of issues with cars being parked over driveways and in designated disable parking bays. Please be considerate of others and park safely and legally. Model great car etiquette to your young passengers! 

Early arrivals: OGPS is a wonderful place to work and play and we have a great OSHC program that provides supervision of students out of school hours. Staff are not on supervision duty until 8.45am and are often busy preparing in their classrooms up until then. Please support our staff and keep our students safe by coming into the playground closer to 8.45am and before 9am, ready for school.

School Council Nominations: We have another vacancy to fill on School Council this year, so we are looking for 5 more families to join in and continue the momentum of some great work the previous members have put in place. Please consider your involvement and how you can support OGPS into the future. Pop into the office or send an email for a nomination form.

OH&S Audit: Yesterday we underwent a 7 hour OHS audit process to help us continually improve the overall Safety of our site. Indicatively, our results were quite strong in many of the areas, and we will wait for the report in a few weeks to see where we can make the improvements. Special thanks to Sandra Beasley (HSR Rep), Lara Field and Mel Roberts who support Kristy and I in the organisation of all the documentation and to Kristy for her work around inductions and contractors and overall safety of all at school.

Extreme Weather: This week has been another week of 50 seasons so far! On these days or extremeness, we often call for an inside play/break time. Yesterday we called for the second half of (was all lunch) lunch to be inside, and we avoided the wild winds that hit us. We always consider the conditions and respond as best we can and as quickly as we can. Staff are amazing at ensuring safety.

STOMP: Yesterday we had Madi from STOMP begin work with the cohorts for the upcoming dance concert. Not only were the students enjoying the session but some great moves by our talented staff were in action too. Special mention to the Year 4 team on their performances yesterday! Well done.

Parent Helpers: Our staffroom was bursting at the seams this morning with Kerryn McKeon leading our “parent helper” course. Great to see many checking in for their annual refresher and even better to see many more new faces. Your involvement in classrooms and across the school is pivotal in our overall success. Keep your eye out in the newsletter for more dates coming if you missed out today.

Have a great week everyone.

Scott McCumber

Principal