From the Principal 

Not long until the holidays. School finishes at 2:30pm on Thursday 1st April! 

Dear Families,

Emergency management: Last Friday we enacted a practice lock down as part of our evacuation procedures. Lock downs and evacuations are a compulsory part of our OH&S requirements and I’m proud to say that all kids did a great job. Our staff have identified how we can improve this procedure from this experience. Please have conversations with your children about the experience too. 

Trades people: Over the holidays we will have Damian, a Handyman onsite to complete many jobs, Mr Kev will be around and a number of others painting, cleaning and hopefully finishing off the ramps and improved accessibility projects. If you see them, make them feel welcome. 

Goal setting: Staff have been trialling some new ways to manage goal setting via Seesaw. I have been so impressed with the staff and their willingness to give this a go. We will have goals, evidence of the work students are completing and evidence they have achieved their goal. Sometimes there will be mistakes in the children’s work that may not be corrected by the teacher - it all depends on the main purpose of the task. 

Enrolment: 5 Preps for 2022 so far! We have opened enrolments and if you have a child joining us in 2022, grab an enrolment form, complete the form and enjoy the rest of the kinder year. Julian will link you into Seesaw so you keep updated too. Please share this with your friends too. Prospective Preps (2022) and new family tours will be advertised soon! 

Music: Thanks so much to the parents coming along to support their kids and watch them perform live in the Music Room last Friday. From all accounts, they smashed it! To those parents who missed out on Tuesday, keep your eyes peeled for possible new dates. 

Art: I wish you could all see the great work being made, constructed, drawn, painted etc in the art room! You are very lucky to have a talented team working with your kids! 

PE: Cross Country tomorrow. Dress up in House colours and for the runners wanting to progress to Districts or Regional, good luck and to those who don’t want to, make sure you enjoy a jog or walk on one of the best beaches in the world! Each competitor that finishes contributes to the House points!!! Be a contributor and part of your House team!

STEM: Mr KT has been telling me all about what the kids are doing in STEM and he has appreciated the feedback from parents via Seesaw too. If your child has an iPad, I’d encourage you to let them bring it to school to add to their tool kit (or pencil case etc) to further enhance their learning. 

Behaviour management: Next term we will be sharing a draft policy around behaviour management and student engagement that staff have been working on and trialling. Will we get it perfect? I’d doubt it! Will we be able to predict and cater for all behaviours??? Maybe not! But as I’ve stated before, we are all on the same team and we (parents and staff) need to be consistent and have expectations of great behaviour from our children. We know they will make mistakes and we will have a few tough times and conversations - because we care!!! Stay tuned for more. 

Bikes: Great to see so many bikes being ridden to school. Please keep safe, wear your helmet and lock your bike up at school. Please keep having conversations with your bike riders at home too! 

Weekend & Holiday damage: A very big thank you to the members of our school community and staff that alerted us to the damage that occurred at Ocean Grove Primary School over the weekend. We are grateful for your fast action and communication. It is disappointing that OGPS often experiences vandalism and damage, often by those not connected to the school. As you are all aware, OGPS is under 24 hour surveillance. Hopefully this will assist us to investigate the matter further. If you see people doing the wrong thing at school during holidays or weekends, please call 000 immediately. 

Assembly on today: No assembly tomorrow! School leaders will host the assembly on Wednesday. Kristy and I have a meeting in Geelong so will be an apology. Our Year 6 leaders don’t need us anyway!!! 

Generation Celebration: What a great morning tea and time to reminisce with some past students! Mrs H did a great job organising this and having the newspaper visit to capture the story too. Thanks Mrs H and to all families involved, it was great to meet you and hear about how you had to get the axe from the principal to cut the wood for the fire!!! 

It’s hard to believe Term 1 is nearly done! We have had some great learning, excursions, sports, music, arts, made friends, fallen over, learnt new things, enhanced prior learning, improved in maths, become better readers, tried the SMART spelling strategy and may have even had some hard or challenging times! I’m proud to say we have got through them and we deserve a break!

Thanks to staff (teachers and Ed support) for your unrelenting commitment to the students and their families this term. 

Thanks to the A Team (Admin) for your support of the staff and families. 

Thanks to the families for your support of the teachers and most importantly- your children. 

Take care over the break, rest up and enjoy the Autumn weather! 

Scott McCumber

Principal