From the Principal

Dear Families,

Parents & Friends: Last Friday, Kristy and I attended the first part of the P&F meeting at Napona. A great turn out and I encourage anyone else who would like to connect with a great bunch of families to add value to the school, to reach out and get involved. They have some amazing plans for 2023 and would love as many families to be involved. Even if you can only help at one event, it spreads the load and helps everyone. 

Who is Rhonda? Many moons ago the Department of Education engaged in a program called Chaplaincy in Schools. This has gradually merged to more of wellbeing in schools and OGPS was fortunate enough to have Rhonda Stubbings join the school in this role. The main role is pastoral care – not counselling or therapy but welfare type check ins and conversations. Rhonda is extremely skilful in this space and has been a wonderful resource for students and families. Sometimes she works with students on a family request and sometimes will work on mine or other staff requests to help students navigate various social worries. Her role significantly complements Andy McNeilly’s role in The Mental Health and Well being space and we hope it adds value to what you do at home with your children too. As good as they are in their roles, sometimes they may not be able to ‘fix’ or ‘solve’ the situation and will refer you or your family to a relevant resource external to the school. 

Emergency procedures: Evacuation procedures and drills are an essential element for all organisations and at school we continue to rehearse these in case of an event. On Tuesday 28th February, we will be conducting an evacuation drill.

We will be testing the following procedures:

• The evacuation siren will sound
• Teachers will quietly and calmly evacuate all classes to the oval
• Facilitators to select an area on the oval for year levels to assemble, seat individual classes in rows so that they can be easily counted
• Teachers must bring a class list and pen or access Sentral on phone or iPad to check that all students are accounted for
• Specialist Teachers access Sentral on phones or iPads to check the class lists, as it best reflects which students are at school on the day  
• Office staff are required to evacuate to the oval and bring a first aid kit
• Emergency Wardens (Scott/Kristy) to check with facilitators that all staff and students are accounted for

Please discuss the importance of these drills with your children this week in preparation for next week.

Mentor texts: On Tuesday afternoon staff engaged with over 150 new mentor texts and began planning lessons based on the 6+1 Traits of writing. I know Kerryn McKeon was in her element sharing the books (and her passion for literacy) with staff. Each teacher walked away with a number of books that will assist their teaching of the traits. This little project was enabled due to the Colour Run last year and the funds raised have put contemporary resources in each teachers hands - including the specialist team! Thanks to all who supported the colour run last year to make this happen and again, add value to your child’s education. Thanks! 

Playground: We have a few projects coming to an end and grand opening… The Inclusive Playground has a few finishing touches to go and should be open (fingers crossed) by mid March! This has been a long time in the making but it is nearly there and will certainly open up new opportunities and play spaces for the students. 

Basketball courts: Another set of rings and backboards have been installed on the lower court this week. Thanks to the students for their patience while the old rusty ones came down and new ones were installed. They should be ok by Thursday, if not, Friday! 

Amphitheatre Shade: Just after having the new rubber area revamped, we conducted an audit on all shade sails and structures. Unfortunately the amphitheatre structure failed and is required to be removed for safety reasons. It is currently cordoned off and we have notified DET about this and hope we will get financial assistance to reinstate a new structure. Keep your fingers crossed for Mrs H! She has worked tirelessly on improving the overall facilities and playgrounds at OGPS. 

Future works: Yesterday I received a call about our plans for making the school more accessible for students (accessible building program) and flood mitigations works. During the next month the plans will go to tender and we will have more works onsite. Mr Field has worked so hard to get these applications approved to ensure our school is as inclusive as possible. We will have new ramps, decking, balustrade and much more. Once this project starts, it will take nearly 6 months to complete and I know our students will do a great job at staying safe while works are underway. 

James Field: This Friday we say goodbye and good luck to James as he ventures off to extend his career and knowledge in the Disability Inclusion space. Many families may not know exactly what James has done in our school but there are several who don’t want him to go! He has been such a valuable asset in the inclusion space and just as important, has been a fabulous staff member. We have all learnt so much from him and he leaves OGPS in a much better way than when he started. Thanks James. You will be missed - but we will see you at pick up and drop off times with the kids! 

Have a great week everyone! 

Scott McCumber 

Principal