Principal's Report
& School News

From the Principal...

Easing Covid-19 Restrictions & Guidelines

Things continue to change in terms of the easing of restrictions and guidelines for schools. Therefore, the school is modifying existing conditions and moving to a more relaxed operational mode for next week. This means we will no longer require staggered pick up times, so all children will enter and exit the school at our usual times (arrive from 8:50am and all students dismissed at 3:30pm).

All parents/carers are asked to abide by our COVID-Safe guidelines of not congregating inside the school grounds and making sure they wear a mask as we cannot guarantee the appropriate social distancing measures with all children on site. We ask that if you require a meeting with an individual staff member, that you contact the school rather than attending on site without an appointment. The staff are aware of the progress Victoria has made to ensure the COVID safety of all and we are committed to ensuring the final few weeks of term remain orderly for our Ormond PS students and families.

Tutoring in 2021

Every school has been allocated additional funding for tutoring next year to ensure students can catch up on any lost learning during the pandemic. The Department of Education and Training will provide schools with guidance on a range of implementation models based on best practice and evidence-informed strategies to support student learning.

A register of prospective tutors will be maintained by the Department. Over 16,000 prospective tutors have currently registered their interest. Even with the very best efforts of our teachers this year, there will be some students who have not been able to engage as fully in the remote learning program as they would have been able to in the usual classroom teaching program. This is likely to include students at all ability and achievement levels. Schools will be supported to identify which students should be provided targeted intervention in 2021. I will communicate more about this initiative in follow-up newsletters.

2021 – Staffing

We are delighted to welcome back Ms. Margot Hudson in 2021. Margot took 12 months leave to work in an educational regional placement. Unfortunately with COVID disruptions, the year was not totally what she anticipated but she has maximised her own professional growth and development at every opportunity. I spoke with Margot this week and she is very excited to return to OPS and see all the students she worked with over the past few years.

We also have a number of staff leaving at the end of 2020. This has come about for a number of reasons. Earlier this term, the school recognised that enrolments would be slightly lower due to a large cohort of Year 6 students leaving. Staff on contracts were encouraged to look for positions at other schools, ensuring their own job security moving in to 2021. We were also aware of a family leave staff member returning to OPS. This resulted in Laura Bainbridge and Jack Capicchiano successfully obtaining classroom positions at two other schools. I wish them well at their new settings and I am a firm believer that teachers needs to broaden their professional repertoire in different settings to grow and develop.

On a different note – Elani Gibney has long been seeking an educational teaching position in a Japanese immersion school or as a specialist teacher of this language. We are delighted to announce that she has picked up such a position and will be transitioning to this role in 2021. We wish you well Elani for this unique opportunity! Amelia Delaney will be taking 12 months leave without pay. She did apply for leave for the 2020 calendar year but due to COVID these arrangements were unfortunately cancelled. We wish her well for her endeavours in 2021!

New Staff

We are very excited to welcome new staff to Ormond PS in 2021. These staff have been successfully appointed after a rigorous recruiting process. All panel members were impressed by the quality of applicants we have had during the interviewing process. Sometimes this can be a little hit and miss but not on this occasion!

We welcome Anna Bui as our brand new STEAM specialist teacher. Anna has had the opportunity to not only work in a STEAM centre at another school but also set one up from the beginning. She has all the credentials to make our STEAM program highly successful in 2021. Two other new staff members will join our senior team next year and they are both highly experienced educators. Both new staff members have worked as teachers in other settings and one of them has worked in educational leadership and abroad.

Teaching teams have been constructed to maximise strengths and different skill sets. Our whole school transition activities will commence next week with opportunities to learn about 2021 experiences, then moving on to meeting the teaching team and finally meeting the home group teacher in the final week of term. The students are looking forward to all these transition events.

Policy Updates

To reflect the growing reliance and the increased use of social media in our community, School Council has been working on creating new School Policies relating to social media use and communication from the School to parents. Please see the new 'Social Media Policy (Parents and Carers)' and the new 'School to Community Communication and Engagement Policy' attached below. Both these policies were ratified by School Council on 18th November 2020. Please take a moment to familiarise yourself with their content.

Social Media Policy (Parents and Carers) - Ratified 18-11-2020.pdf

School to Community Communication and Engagement Policy - Ratified 18-11-2020.pdf

Curriculum Day - Friday 11th December

Friday 11th December will be a curriculum day for 2021 planning and preparation. Out of School Hours Care is available on this day for those families in need.

Families not returning to OPS in 2021

As we start building the class profiles for 2021, we ask that if you have plans to relocate from our area and/or enrol your children at another school and have not yet let us know to please email the office as soon as possible.

**This is not necessary for departing Year 6 students **

School Payments

A reminder that all 2021 School Payments are now available for processing on Compass. Thank you to all families who have so promptly made payments and generous donations to both the Building Fund and Grounds& Maintenance Fund. We truly appreciate your support.

Outstanding Absences

End of year student reports are currently being complied by teachers, and a part of the reports is student attendance. So that the most accurate data can be uploaded into your child's Semester 2 Reports, could all parents please ensure that they approve and process any outstanding absences for their child on Compass by Friday 4th December 2020. If you have any issues regarding Compass please contact the office.

Finally, I want to thank the staff for their efforts in monitoring and responding to changes in students after their return from lock down. All schools across the state are acknowledging some differences in behaviour and also with the emotional wellbeing of their students. These children had not presented with these issues in the past. We continue to tap in to support services offered by the department and we encourage all families to contact the school if they are experiencing differences at home as well.

The staff are currently writing and preparing academic reports for this final semester. These reports will be distributed in the final week and families can organise a time to discuss them with the classroom teacher if they feel it is necessary. There are no formal parent teacher interviews, so therefore these catch-ups would be organised directly with the class teacher. Work is also underway to plan and prepare for Year 6 Graduation and I will keep the community aware of any changes to the event as restrictions ease. Enjoy your weekend and these glorious sunny days!

Kerri McLeod,

Principal

Out of School Hours

Curriculum Day

The program will be open for the curriculum day on Friday 11th December.

Please text your booking 0439 111 026 or call the program during session times on (03) 9578 5826. All bookings must be received by Monday 7th December 2020.

Hours - 8.00am to 6.00pm
Cost - $60.00 per child

Pupil Free Day Care Requirements:

Children are not required to wear their school uniform.
Children need to bring lunch, morning & afternoon tea.

Out of School Hours Enrolment 2021

All families requiring Before & After School Care or Vacation Care for 2021 must submit an enrolment form to the school office by Wednesday 9th December 2020.

Any new families to the program must include their child's immunisation certificate with their enrolment form.

2021 Out of School Hours Care ENROLMENT FORM.pdf

January School Holiday Program 2021

The January School Holiday Program schedule is available on compass or below.

Program Bookings must be received with a 2021 enrolment form and submitted to the school office by Wednesday 9th December.

2021 School Holiday Program JANUARY BOOKING FORM.pdf

Foundation

This week the Foundation students have been learning to order the days of the week and match important events to the days also. We had a great time hearing about what cheeky Cookie the cat got up to each day of the week.

Year 1 News

This week we have been revising division as sharing into equal groups. The students have worked collaboratively to solve problem solving tasks using their choice of manipulatives. They have enjoyed many hands on activities and discussions around strategies such as arrays, equal grouping and repeated subtraction. Next week we will revise shapes including the names and properties of 2D and 3D shapes eg. Sides, corners, faces, vertices, edges.

Year 2 News

Physical Science – Machine Makers

Year 2 students are putting their knowledge of simple machine to work. They have been working hard to build a toy that can move on land, water or in the air. Look out for their completed work in the next newsletter. Here are a few photos of the students working hard to plan and design their toy.

Year 4 News

Year 4 students have made the most of the recent ease of restrictions to get out in the sunshine, play some team sports and let off steam. They’ve certainly earned it. What a beautiful summer's day we scored last Wednesday for the ‘Big lunch in the Park’ special treat. Summer is here and everyone one is well and truly ready for it.

Year 5 News

Students in Year 5 are busily working on their market plans and stall designs for their up- coming market day next Thursday. They will be setting up their stalls for a ‘Market Day’ next Thursday morning to sell their ‘products’. Unfortunately the business groups won’t be able to actually make and sell their products due to the current situation. The groups had to prepare a business and financial plan along with an advertising campaign, business name, sustainability forecasts, procedural texts and other areas associated with running a small business. Their ideas have been terrific and the groups have been very innovative in their abilities to cope with the restrictions imposed by Covid. Well done team.

The year five inter-house Friday Sport Competition continues with a very tight leader’s board. The teams have so far competed in Hotshots tennis, 20/20 style cricket, rounders and softball. These are all sports that are possibly on offer for competition during year six summer, inter-school sports competition in 2021.

This week is the last round before finals.

Year 6 News

Year 6 students are excited to be out on the oval training each Friday for the up-coming Lightning Premiership next Friday 4 December. Please make sure you have processed your child's permission & payment on Compass.

The Lightning Premiership this year will decide the summer sports winner. Ormond will compete against Valkstone, Mckinnon, Tucker Road, Bentleigh West, Moorabbin, East Bentleigh and Hughesdale primary schools.

Ormond will be competing in cricket, girl's tee ball, Hotshots tennis and rounders.

We wish them all the best for their matches. Go Ormond!

Korean News

Year 6 Video Conferencing with Korean Students

This morning we had the one in a lifetime opportunity to meet up and share our interests and hobbies with other Korean students in Korea. This had been made and gestured into a fun activity in which we had worked on during remote learning- the Who Am I? Activity.

This activity featured clues, facts, and interests about ourselves and allowing the Korean students to guess who we were. One by one, we presented ourselves and shared two clues about us, allowing the students from Korea to have a chance at guessing who we were after the two points. And it continued like that for the rest of the lesson.

This was one opportunity to understand and study one another’s culture and lifestyle.

My personal opinion of this activity we had done this morning was stunning and very new to all of us. The teachers and students were welcoming and provided effortful clues, and had been very enjoyable! It was something that we would’ve never experienced without Ms Park, and will definitely thank Ms Park so much for letting us have an amazing experience like we had today!

By Angela Z

On Thursday the 19th of November, my class had a conference with Gamcheon Elementary School in Daegu. I had such a great time communicating to another country and seeing what they’re interested in. My buddy was Seoung-Woo. It took them 3 guesses to get my name! I’d like to thank Gamcheon Elementary School and Ms Park for making this possible during an unexpected time.

By Elliot C

The conference day with Saerom Elementary School in Daegu was a thrilling and very fun experience. It made my day! I really enjoyed seeing the students and how enthusiastic they were. I loved the challenge of trying to guess who the person was and the Korean students did very well considering that English is not their first language. I loved it when I went to Korea and missed the people. Doing this conference made me remember just how lovely Korean people are (even though I love BTS and they’re Korean). I’m incredibly grateful we had this experience and this wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for technology. I’m excited to be getting a Korean pen pal from this experience and can’t wait to get to know one of the students more!

By Annabelle T

During remote learning the year six’s took part in an activity called ‘who am I?’ With the year six’s in Korea. Each student was given the opportunity to create a ‘who am I?’ based about themselves and share it with Mrs. Park (the Korean teacher) and then on the 19th of November we all went on video chat with the Korean students to do the activity and give them a chance to guess who we were and for us to guess who they were. We each got 3 guesses each. We spoke in Korean and they spoke in almost fluent English. It was very fun and interesting to see everyone’s separate reaction to it all. They were all happy and impressed with our Korean. This was a memorable experience.

By Emma N

Today was a day we’ve always been looking forward to, a chance to talk to people from across the globe in Korea, and most importantly learn about them while we play a game- who am I?

This game consisted of our hobbies and what we liked. Sharing about them to the Korean students. The second we walked in we were greeted with ‘hello’ and ‘nice to meet you’. It was as friendly as it could be, we laughed. Exchanged words and had an astonishing time with them, we also wished if we could meet them again.

It’s always been clear that we would definitely love this experience, at the end this was an experience to remember. The fun was endless, the laughs were endless, our appreciation was endless. Subsequently the game had finished, but it wasn't who won or lost, it was all about the fun and all the new things we learnt.

It was time to wish each other farewell, we crowded around and said one last goodbye. We were so happy to meet people from a different country, a different culture , a place where they experienced different things in day to day life. As we walked back to our classroom, we all felt superior , we made new friends , understood lifestyles and most importantly had a fantastic time together. This was a truly amazing experience.