From the Principal
Dear Families,
Geelong Cup Holiday: I sincerely hope you all made the most of the amazing weather yesterday and managed some time for yourself or family! Fingers crossed we have a few more of those days in the near future.
Athletics: I won’t steal Mr Armstrong’s news here but like him, I am very proud of the OGPS students who qualified for the Regional Aths earlier this week and to those who progressed to the State Aths - what an achievement! I wish you all the very best at the next level and look forward to hearing the results!
Rotary: Congratulations to the Year 6’s who have engaged in the Rotary Challenge program in 2022. It was wonderful to see the confidence these students have developed and to hear about the knowledge and skills they have learnt. Year 5’s attended the information session on Friday to hear about various projects and determine if they may be involved in 2023. Thanks to Tony and Linda from Rotary for working with our students and presenting them with not only an award but the opportunities to grow into great community members!
Trivia Night: A massive thanks to our wonderful P&F team led by Georgia Fiske, for the fantastic trivia night for over 170 members of our community! What an achievement and it’s so great that our families are reconnecting and making the most of the opportunities through school too. Thanks again Georgia!
School Council: We met on Tuesday night and went into overtime as we had so much to update each other on from all our sub-committees. We have new cleaners, a new photocopier company coming on board soon, we discussed the redirection of funds from the pyramid structure (that can’t be placed where we thought due to fire service water pipes) and prioritised the Kitchen Garden area near the Year 6 classrooms to be upgraded and made functional. Julian Teague and Seb Earle have developed a plan and just need some helpers. We heard updates about the 2023 Apple Fair planning too!
Kate Mitchell: At the end of next week, Kate will be leaving us at OGPS to take on a new role with Blue Light Victoria. She did her best to try and negotiate starting next year but unfortunately for us she begins in November. We thank Kate for her work and passion in Year 6 and hope she can pop back in for a few of the final celebrations with her class. Bec Bradbury, a long standing staff member at OGPS will take on 4 days per week with Adam Brown, a frequent CRT, will fill the Friday. Please thank Kate for her work and welcome Bec and Adam.
2023: Around this time of the year we begin to try and cement plans for the following year. In my experience, plans always change!!! We will have some staff in different roles, some with us part time and some for only parts of the year.
Changes for 2023: We will be moving to a different timetable. We currently operate in 6x50min periods but next year we move to 5x1 hour sessions. This helps align with the the 2022 VSGA (EBA) and enables us to provide various allocations of work to staff.
The day may look like:
9-11am: in class
11-11:30am: Recess (pack snacks for in class breaks around 10am too)
11.30-1:30pm: in class
1:30-1:40pm: eating time
1:40-2:20pm: lunch break
2:20-3:20pm: in class
3:20pm: Dismissal (no change to this time)
2023 Classes: Just like in 2022, we had to change some year levels from 4 classes to 3 due to numbers. We always aim to keep our Preps as low as possible with around 18 students per class but overtime this becomes unsustainable with funding too. We then attempt to add extra support to various teams where they move from 4 to 3 classes. Our three year trend sees approx 70-75 prep enrolments annually with larger cohorts of year 6’s leaving, hence a decline in our student numbers.
Next year we envisage 586 students, 24 classroom teachers, 5 specialists areas (2 of these will be semester based) and a range of various support roles for classes.
Upon completion of our recruiting and teacher organisation, we will publish teachers, grades and locations. Please be aware that this is a challenging process that takes time and is likely to change.
2023: If you have any educational requests for me to consider when staff begin forming next years class lists, please email the school and let me know. Please do not request teachers as this often leads to disappointment as the teacher may be moving from that year level. I will consider education and social concerns. Please trust the staff on how they create the grades. They are diligent and spend many afternoons sharing relevant information. 99% of requests to me are already considered and done by the time I review class lists!
Network meeting: Kristy and I spent today at the Network meeting with 27 other schools. Andy was also invited to help share his work and processes we have developed since his role began as an MHAWC. Next year 400 new MHAWL’s (L for leader now) begin across the state and no doubt we will be called upon to share with them again.
Parents Victoria (PV) & John Hendry: On Tuesday I had some special guests drop by to hear about how we are going with Relationship based Education. Gail and Leanne from PV were genuinely interested in our work and want to support us even more! Andy and myself are guests at their upcoming conference online next week as we look to strengthen our work in this space. I’d encourage you to visit the PV website and seek out the resources they offer. They were also extremely impressed with the trivia night too!!!
Art Show: Don’t forget the Art Show on Friday at the Hive Gallery! See you there! Thanks to Jo Chapman and Andrea Thompson for all your work and it wouldn’t all come together without the great support of Kath Wade and Ellen Smith. Thanks to The Hive for hosting us again!
Nearly the weekend already!
Scott McCumber
Principal
Scott McCumber
Principal
