From the Principal 

Dear Families,

Thanks: To all families on behalf of the staff here, we thank you and greatly appreciate the levels of support you are giving in these trying circumstances. Keep doing your best as that’s what we ask the kids to do too. Mistakes will be made, meetings will be missed and various feelings will well up. Acknowledge them but also look to find the positives where you can.

Kindness: I hope you are all being kind to yourself and those around you. I know I have found myself feeling a range of emotions and having to model them to my kids at home appropriately too! I have found myself becoming more self-aware of my thoughts and feelings during this lockdown more so than others. We work hard on the Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) framework at school and if you have a few minutes I encourage families to visit https://casel.org/ and explore the 5 core elements we focus on and enhance your own knowledge of these.

On-site supervision: Last weekend was frantic for you and us! We survived and the wonderful Admin team and I have discussed how we can improve this process. So for next week..

10-11am Wednesday (today): Link for request for supervision will be emailed to all families ASAP

1pm Thursday: Onsite Supervision Request Link closes. An email will confirm your request soon after we review the requests.

By 10am Friday: Workers Permit and attendance forms to be emailed back to ocean.grove.ps@education.vic.gov.au and the school confirms staff rosters/ratios for the following week.

No late requests can be accepted as staffing ratios will be in place.

What if I am called in for work for next week after these times? Call the office before 3pm on Friday to discuss the situation with us as we will be confirming staff rosters for Monday and supervisor ratios. An email to the school over the weekend does not guarantee a placement for the Monday but where we can accommodate, we will. Please do not expect a reply over the weekend.

Book Week: Mrs McKeon will be wanting many celebrations for book week so keep your eyes on Seesaw and in the newsletter for the plans! I think I heard her talk about a family dress up at home!!! That sounds like a bit of fun! And I think she mentioned having another dress up day at school when we are all back together. Stay tuned!

Student Support Group Meetings: Thanks to the families who have engaged in these meetings with Mrs H and class teachers. We appreciate your time and support. Thanks to the team at school too.

Prep 2022: If you have NOT enrolled your child for 2022, please do so now! Sometimes we forget as parents that the youngest or the next one ALSO needs the paperwork done too! I may have been guilty on this in the past… don’t worry if it is you, just fill in the paperwork and send it through. Perhaps remind a friend or two as well!

NAPLAN 2021: NAPLAN results will be released to schools soon, even though it sounds like the Media already has them! No matter how your child performed, you are proud of them, just as we will be! We use the data to help inform our teaching, identify trends in what we do well and where we can improve too. I look forward to celebrating our results soon.

Keep up the great work in our great community. We can do this!

Scott McCumber

Principal