From the Principal 

Dear Families,

I hope you have all had a great week so far. Great to have a few more options with community sport back on! 

Prep 2022: We currently have 69 Preps enrolled for 2022 which is great! Hope you have enrolled your child if they are coming in 2022! If not, please pop in ASAP so we can continue to plan. The prep team are doing a wonderful job welcoming our new families via Seesaw and we look forward to seeing the new Preppies during transition times. Please remind your friends and neighbours if they have school aged children to enrol!

Operations Guide: After each announcement, schools receive a revised and updated Ops Guide relevant to what we can and can’t do. Sometimes we find the information easy to decipher and how it will look at OGPS and at other times it is challenging! Things are going very well here and a lot of this is due to your support and work outside the fences and at home. Thanks for keeping an eye on our comms and following what we ask. It is greatly appreciated.

Supports: At various stages of life we all need some help. Sometimes our supports come from within the family, friends and sometimes from external agencies and schools. Just a reminder that we have Rhonda Stubbings (Chaplaincy in schools program) who has been at OGPS for over 10 years and has the best set of ears to listen with and then some great ideas and suggestions for families to potentially follow up with. Andy McNeilly as our MHAWC (Mental Health and Well Being Coordinator) is doing a stellar job at upskilling staff, liaising with agencies and regional school supports and visiting kids in class. Then we have James Field who is our new Disability Inclusion Coordinator who will be pivotal in guiding us and families through accessing supports for students with funding (by DET) and then the new wave of Disability and Inclusion work that our area and network are part of. These three, plus Kristy and I and the teachers will always do our best to support you and your children however we can. Please reach out if you feel you need some support.

NAIDOC Week: What a great week to celebrate our First Nations people and become more educated about the traditional land owners. I am so proud of how our students embrace the learning and take the extra opportunities provided to enter various competitions – and win! Kim Kenny and Kristy Dodds were instrumental with their team to raise the awareness around NAIDOC week and enable our students the opportunity to be part of a competition. We have had several winners that have been published in a digital book! Keep reading for more info from Kim and Kristy.

Supervision: Just a reminder yard duty supervision begins from 8:45am. We have great people at Camp Australia if you require supervision earlier! 

Athletics: Mr Hughes is pumped! I think I saw him out in his running gear around the cliffs of Jan Juc on the weekend! The Olympics are inspiring him to put on another great day of Athletics for Years 3-6 soon! We are all crossing our fingers that nothing stops this great day from happening. Keep an eye out for more info in newsletters and Seesaw. 

VSBA Tree stump removals: Unfortunately the weather forecast last week made the stump removalist postpone their works. Hopefully this weekend and maybe the following weekend it will take place. Stay tuned for any changes!

Anaphylaxis Training: Yesterday afternoon, Sandra Beasley took staff through the training for Anaphylaxis. All staff are required to complete an online module and then a practical exam with Sandra or Jenny in the office. We take this training very seriously to ensure student safety. If your child does have anaphylaxis, please ensure the injector and plan are all up to date! Thanks.

Assembly: Kristy and I met with the School Captains recently to put a COVID Assembly plan in place! The leaders will be hosting a whole school assembly via the PA system in the Admin block and award recipients will be announced and acknowledged in their class. Teachers will share a photo to parents via Seesaw. We hope we can get back to some regular assemblies soon and have families join us to strengthen our community. We will let you know when assemblies are back to a regular format.

Have a great week everyone.

Scott McCumber

Principal