Grove Gazette

From the Principal 

Scott McCumber

FUNDRAISING - OGPS Christmas raffle

This year the OGPS fundraising team is running a Christmas raffle https://www.rafflelink.com.au/ogpsxmasraffle21

We are excited to be able to give away a huge range of amazing prizes  from local businesses, just in time for Christmas and New Year celebrations.  We have vouchers or prizes from:

  • Sea All dolphin Swims,
  • Camera and Photo - Ocean Grove
  • Leopold Swim School
  • The Dunes 
  • At the Heads
  • Baie Wines
  • Bunnings Warehouse
  • Adventure Park
  • COGG
  • Wish Fish
  • Blackman's Brewery and Burger bar
  • Strapper Surf
  • Searoad Ferries
  • Active Feet
  • Ocean Grove News Xpress
  • Ocean grove Supertoys
  • BT Cafe
  • Ocean Grove Denture Services
  • Elm Lifesytles.

Funds raised will support the school to purchase a wonderful new climbing frame to improve our school playground. Get in quick to nab yourself some prizes as the raffle will be drawn on the 10th of December! 

 

Dear Families,

 

Art Show: How good was the Art Show! How talented are the artists amongst us? A real credit to the Art team (Amanda, Andrea and Amy who filled in for a bit). And to all the helpers that helped hang the artwork, set up The Hive gallery and make this event another success for OGPS kids and families. A special thanks to The Hive (Karen and Will) for enabling this event to happen, letting us take over the gallery and sharing the space with our community. I hope the new addition of artwork purchased by families is sitting in pride of place at home.

 

ogpsXmasraffle21 Fundraiser: As you know the raffle is open until Friday! So many great prizes available and all funds raised will go directly into the new playgrounds being installed soon. The team that has put this new initiative together have worked tirelessly. Normally at a Fair we all have to pitch in with time (and then money) but this year, it’s only a few simple and easy clicks and you are in the raffle. Thanks to those who have purchased tickets already and to those who have been meaning to… stop reading, click on the link and buy now -  www.rafflelink.com.au/ogpsxmasraffle21

 

Surfing: Another fantastic surfing program done and dusted! It was so pleasing to see the Year 6’s smiling, laughing and having a ball while catching waves, falling off and strengthening lifelong friendships. Thanks to the Year 6 team for the planning that goes into this and to Heather and the instructors, we thank you too.

 

Playground works: I met with Angelo this morning. Angelo will be leading his team to make our playgrounds fantastic over the holidays. His team will begin setting up fences and their site infrastructure very soon. Let’s give them space and time to get the works done safely, especially over the holidays. By the end of Term 1, we should have 2 brand new spaces with some great spaces to play in. Your support (Colour Run & Xmas Raffle) has certainly assisted with enhancing this project.

 

Prep 2022: I am very excited to see our new Preps again tomorrow. Their first transition was yesterday and another one tomorrow. Please make the “Little Grover’s” feel welcome and part of our school. Thanks to the 2022 Prep Team (Megan, Jake, Mel and Em) for your work and to the Year 6’s for looking after the current Preps. They had a fantastic first session and made some great little reindeers! Let’s hope the rain holds off so we can meet and greet our new families properly and let them know more about our school.

 

Werribee Mansion: Andy McNeilly has reported back that his excitement from last week was still there, and the day was ‘sensational’. He was super proud of the Year 2’s and enjoyed getting to know them even better. Another opportunity created by the staff to enhance school life for the students, and we appreciate the family support by getting permission notes etc back on time.

 

Junior Sports Day: The oval was mowed, lines painted, the rain came and went, and the athletes converged on the main arena. What a day! So many fun activities to participate in, have some fun with friends and a good laugh at the eggs dropping off the spoons. Thanks to Ms Charles and Mr Hughes for setting up the event and creating a fabulous opportunity to create more OGPS memories.

 

School Council: Last night School Councillors met for the final time in 2021. It has been a successful year for the Council with many highlights. Each of the sub committees has worked extremely hard and have been publishing their highlights in the recent newsletters. I’d like to thank Simone Shanahan for her leadership of the Council as President and the other councillors for following her lead, achieving so much but also having things that will come to fruition in 2022. On behalf of the community, I thank all School Councillors, DET reps and their families in supporting them to attend meetings and sub committee meetings to help us progress the school.

 

2022: School leadership has been in consultation with staff around the set up for 2022. We have never had so many changes from families moving in and out of the zone to staffing changes which all have an impact on budgets and class sizes. I endeavoured to have the 2022 Staff to year levels completed and published today, but more changes have occurred. Ryan Baltetsch will be staying on as the Acting AP at Mirripoa PS in 2022, a number of staff have applied for leave without pay and I am pleased to say Andy King, who has been here for 21 years and drives an hour each way, has landed a job 7 mins from home! Congrats to Ryan and Andy on these roles and while we will miss you, we know you’ll do a great job!

 

Classes: As mentioned in previous newsletters, we will be decreasing the number of classes from 28 in 2021 to 25 in classes in 2022. We have a number of support mechanisms in place for the classes that will have slightly larger grades than what they may have experienced before but on average, our classes will be 24 students. Some will be larger, some will be smaller. Some classes will have shared teachers as we have some more staff returning from family leave on a part time basis.

 

LOTE: 2022 will see the return of Indonesian lessons with Chelsea Perinac and Kate Greskie team teaching in the Camp Australia room 2 days per week. This is not only a challenge for the two of them but exciting in re-establishing a genuine language program. We will support them, and I may have to try and stretch my Indonesian past “Apa Kabar?” and some numbers.

 

Performing Arts/Music: Next year the wonderful Dallas Holden will be taking some Long Service leave in Terms 2 & 3 and due to extremely tight budgets in 2022, we will pause the program until she returns in Term 4. We will certainly be having Performing Arts/Music in Term 1 and hope she doesn’t miss us too much in Terms 2 & 3.

 

Art, STEM & PE: All these subjects will continue in 2022, albeit with a small change… Mr KT will continue in STEM, Andrea Thompson and Jo Chapman will run the Art room, but Mr Hughes has indicated he will be taking his final lot of Long Service Leave and then move into retirement early 2022. Therefore, we need a new PE teacher and I will announce that as part of the overall staff plan very soon. Thanks, Mr Hughes, for all your work and sharing your knowledge and passion for PE & Sport with over 600 kids each year. Enjoy retirement!

 

School Magazine: I have been able to have a sneak peek at the 2021 School Magazine. It looks great and I love the Year 6 reflections. These magazines capture the highlights of the year and sometimes we forget the struggles we have in between the highs. That’s life! I hope you have all ordered your magazine.

 

Staying or going: If you haven’t enrolled your child for Prep 2022 or are new to the area and need to enrol, please contact the “A Team” in the office and they will assist you. Similarly, if you are leaving (not Year 6’s), please notify us ASAP so we can keep preparing 2022 with accurate numbers of students.

 

SWAG & SEL awards: Students With Amazing Grades and Students With Amazing Growth will be awarded at our final assembly next week, along with the SEL (Social & Emotional Leaning) awards. Staff will take a photo of award winners and post on Seesaw for families to receive. 

 

Only 1 week more to go! Remember we finish at 3:20pm next Thursday and Friday is a Curriculum Day for staff to prepare for 2022.

 

Have a great week.

 

Scott McCumber