From the Principal 

Reminder: 

Last Day Of Term 1- Friday, 8th April 

Early 2.30pm Finish

Dear families, 

Meetings: each week staff engage in two meetings which may be a staff meeting, team meeting, an AIP team meeting or specific professional learning. On Monday, our Foundation - 2 teachers learnt more about phonological awareness and how to better use data obtained from recent English online interviews, to plan the next level of teaching, while the Year 3-6 teachers spent time on enhancing numeracy teaching and planning term 2 maths sessions. Then on Tuesday afternoon we split into our four Annual Implementation Plan (AIP) teams and progressed the work on our goals and strategies. I am so proud of how the staff engage in this work after spending the day teaching, caring, nurturing and having fun with your children. 

End of Term: Next Friday 8th April early finish at 2:30pm 

Curriculum Day: Date change from Friday 20th May to Friday June 3rd. Apologies for the date change. 

Hedge: We have 8 more plants to put in this week. Four from the Roberts (Ava & Milla) family and four from the Malecki (groundskeeper) family. Thanks so much for your donations. Looking forward to seeing it grow and develop. 

Cross Country: On the last day of the term, years 3-6 venture down to the beautiful Ocean Grove foreshore for our annual cross country event. This will be Mia Reece’s first as PE teacher and I hear there are a few tweaks to the course. We have organised the weather to be perfect and just need the kids to turn up with their running gear, drink bottles, snacks, sunscreen and SunSmart hats, asthma puffers or any medical supports and try their best. There will be some very keen runners and some keen walkers. Hope to see maximum participation and all students feel a sense of achievement. Any students leaving after this event must have their parents make contact with the class teacher.

New bikes & helmets: Rhonda (our Chaplain) was so excited this morning to share the news that we have had two new bikes donated to the school from Hendry Cycles in Ocean Grove. Thanks so much to the Draper family for this generous donation as it helps us help kids to learn to ride bikes at OGPS. The Draper family also helped us with the bike racks in the north-west corner of the playground a little while back too. 

Covid: like many other communities we continue to navigate the positive cases and household contacts. We miss all the kids and staff who have been impacted and look forward to seeing them back asap! We will continue to notify you when/if there are positive cases as we have been doing and encourage you to keep RA testing. It may be worthwhile discussing as a family what your contingency plan is if COVID-19 impacts your family. Thanks for your cooperation. 

Sausage Sizzle: The Parents & Friends have planned a BBQ this week - Friday 1st April and have sent out a survey to get an idea for catering. Thanks to those who have notified them and while a small event, it is the start of a rebuild within the pandemic. There are still rules we (the school and P&F) have to follow and we ask for your cooperation in advance. You will be asked for your proof of vaccination or your medical exemption. Have them ready to go. Thanks in advance. 

Last Friday: Walking around OGPS last Friday was a real pleasure - like every other day too - but there was a genuine buzz of school life with School photos on in the gym, STOMP dance sessions on the basketball court and kids doing some great learning in and out of the classrooms. I sincerely cannot wait to have families join in and be more involved in these activities when the restrictions in schools lift.

Canteen: As mentioned in previous newsletters a wonderful team of families are exploring lunch orders for term 2. A ‘canteen’ in its truest sense may not be available but lunch orders are being worked on. I have had many persuasive pieces of writing delivered to me by some talented writers in Year 3 this week who are super keen on a canteen. I look forward to seeing this come to life very soon. 

Seesaw: We introduced Seesaw to OGPS about 6 months prior to the pandemic to build stronger relationships with families and open up our classrooms to parents. The use of this technology certainly helped up navigate remote learning and we envisage it being used more to share what students are doing in the class again. It is important to note that sometimes students will post work to share with you that may not be the neatest, the best or the most polished piece of work - it will be authentic and genuine. Sometimes there may be teacher feedback on it or not. Your child can post work examples to you and the teacher will ‘approve’ the post when they can. All students from about Year 2 and above should be able to post something independently - ask them to share some work with you and feel free to provide some constructive feedback to your child. They love receiving it! 

Next week: Our final (and 11th) week of term… It has been a big term so far and we know students and staff and families are tired and hanging in for the holidays. Enjoy the magic weather we have been having, get some good sleep and rest so we can finish the term off strong and enjoy the holidays soon.

Have a great week everyone. 

Scott McCumber

Principal