From the Principal 

Dear Families,

Friday: Following the Acting Premiers announcements this afternoon, and a briefing with the Department of Education, we can confirm the following:

The settings we expect to be in place for Regional Schools, including Ocean Grove Primary School, are that all students will return to onsite learning for all year levels on Friday, 4th June.

Therefore, we will see all students back onsite on Friday 4th June – as originally hoped! If this changes, I will be on touch ASAP!

I had the newsletter written last night and now we have pivoted and changed again! I won’t elaborate on how I was feeling during  the past week but no doubt we experienced similar thoughts – some positive and some challenging. Well, as you know, I choose the positives so let’s focus on that. We are back on deck on Friday. It’ll be great to see the kids again and staff will no doubt be relieved to have them back in the classrooms again.

Preparations: Be prepared for announcements if cases are located along the Surf Coast or Bellarine, or even Regional Victoria and if there are changes, I will be in touch ASAP!

iPads: As part of the ‘Bridging the Digital Divide’ policy introduced by DET where certain families were eligible for an iPad, we have begun to distribute devices and thank you for your patience in receiving them. It has been a monumental effort by our techie, Hayden, to ensure they are ready for your child’s use. Staff would love your children to continually bring these devices to class as often as possible. We also encourage other families to continue to bring their device too. We will be distributing over 120 devices from our fleet and only receive various percentage reimbursements from DET, therefore we won’t have another 120 new devices at school. When your child returns to school with their device, class teachers can assist students in setting up the device ready to access our school network and apps etc.

Excursions: It is likely that excursion/incursions will be on hold for now. This includes the Year 5 & 6 Lightning Premiership that Mr Hughes will or has already communicated about.

Remote and Flexible Learning: During this circuit breaker, students are not required to upload any completed work to Seesaw. They may do so if they wish to, but it is not compulsory. The programs have been designed (based on feedback from previous lockdowns) to decrease the amount of screen time and encourage green time (outside play). 

Camp Australia: Open for business this week. Call us on 1300 105 343 Email: oshc@campaustralia.com.au

Onsite supervision: Just as we did in previous lockdowns, onsite supervision from teachers for students whose parents are ‘authorised workers’ begins at 9am. Jo from Camp Australia will bring the kids out to meet the staff at the top Basketball court at 9am. Camp Australia is available after school from 3:20pm too.

We look forward to seeing the students on Friday 4th June, unless we are advised otherwise. 

See you soon,

Scott McCumber

Principal