Principal Report & School News

From the Principal...

Welcome again to our new members of school council and for the work that has already commenced through sub-committees such as finance and the P&F team. I would like to acknowledge the role Jo Feather played during her time as School Council President and I know she is already being a terrific support to Nerida, as part of the official handover. I look forward to working with you all as our school heads into a school self-evaluation period and then on to the whole school review early in 2023. It only seems like a fleeting time ago that the school under-went my first review here at Ormond PS. The review process is such a productive experience as it brings community together to unpack what is working well at the school and areas for growth and development. I will be keeping the school community informed of the expectations, timelines and input required by stakeholders, throughout 2022.

This week, my SEIL (Senior Educational Instructional Leader) visited the school to meet with me regarding my accomplishments and achievements over the past five years. The meeting was valuable in that it allowed me to have an open discussion about the work the school has done from 2018 onwards. This included the work of school council and sub-committees. It was interesting discussing the years of greater challenge in both 2020 and 2021. What was clear was the significant changes that occurred to both pedagogy and community connectedness. In 2022, the school is making significant gains with bringing us all back together to improve school processes for the benefit of all students at OPS. This was evident at the walkathon last week where families, staff and students engaged in a fundraising activity that was fun, active, and full of opportunities for everyone to connect. I genuinely enjoyed being part of this event! Likewise, our election day sausage sizzle was a true success. I want to thank all the volunteers on the day and again the P&F team out did themselves.

In 2022, OPS officially launched our professional learning communities (PLC) approach across the school. In a nutshell, the main purpose of a PLC approach is to ensure scheduled meeting times have student learning at the heart of what we do, that we are not overburdened by administrative conversations and that collaboratively we work together to improve student outcomes. This involves a cycle of exploring data, identifying a reachable target, and then providing all team members with strategies and resources to change current practice. All staff have found the PLC approach to be especially useful and very productive.

This term our school completed NAPLAN online. This was the first time OPS had conducted the tests in this manner. I am used to counting and collating paper tests at the end of the day and storing them securely in a locked space at the school. To hit submit on a device has profoundly changed the way this assessment is completed. 

I thank the students for their focus and dedication during a busy week of testing. Emma McIntosh and Joshua Woollan were our Year 5 and Year 3 NAPLAN coordinators, and they truly supported staff and students during this time. Thank you to both for their leadership and follow-up when students were absent on certain days.

The term appears to be racing along with many events and milestones still to come. We have two camps scheduled, with the Year 5 heading off tomorrow. We wish staff and students a happy and safe time at Camp Kookaburra. 

Students in Years 4 to 6 will participate in the Attitudes to School Survey over the next couple of weeks. I urge families of these students to read the departmental information recently sent out on COMPASS. 

Also, due to an extremely short and busy nine-week term, the school improvement team (SIT) decided to schedule parent/teacher interviews in the first week back of Term 3. The opportunity to book in for these will be open shortly, so that parents can lock in a time to meet with their child’s class teacher. Staff have been working hard on assessing students, preparing report formats, and moderating in teams. I want to thank Gregg Workman for the time he has devoted to whole school assessment and reporting procedures.

Finally, the school has two curriculum days remaining and one of these will be used for end of year assessment and reporting. Please lock these dates in to your calendars as they are both pupil-free. The dates for these curriculum days are:

• Monday 31st October – Assessment and Reporting
• Tuesday 20th December – 2023 Planning & School Review Preparation

SAVE THE DATE - Working Bee - Sunday 19th June

Please pencil in the above date for an upcoming working bee to give the school ground some much needed TLC. Bring your gardening gloves and tools. More info to follow shortly. 

Kerri McLeod

Principal

School Tours for 2023 Enrolments

We provide regular tours to showcase our wonderful school – 2022 school tour dates are:

• Thursday 26th May – 930am
• Friday 3rd June – 230pm
• Tuesday 21st June – 930am
• Wednesday 13th July – 230pm
• Thursday 21st July – 1130am
• Friday 29th July – 930am
• Monday 8th August – 230pm
• Tuesday 16th August – 1130am
• Thursday 25th august – 930am
• Friday 2nd September – 230pm
• Tuesday 6th September – 1130am
• Wednesday 14th September – 930am

To book a school tour, please contact the office on 03 9578 1327. Please notify the school if you need to cancel or reschedule your tour booking. Tours are subject to change depending on Government Health Advice at any time.

Covid-19 Updates

Continuation of Schools Rapid Antigen Testing & Changes to Household Contacts

The Victorian Government has announced it is extending the rapid antigen test (RAT) screening program for the first 4 weeks of Term 2. The screening recommendations will remain the same next term for students and staff:

• Mainstream schools – recommended to test at home twice a week
• Specialist schools – recommended to test 5 days a week due to the higher risk of severe illness for medically vulnerable children. 

As each new RAT Kit becomes available, they will now be sent home via your child/children's classroom. 

Please continue to notify the school in writing should your child test positive, as well as register the positive result to DHHS. Positive cases are to remain isolating for 7 days, or longer until well enough to return to school. 

Students who are now deemed 'household contacts' and are without symptoms no longer need to isolate for 7 days and can attend school as usual. However, we strongly recommend that they continue to wear a face mask at all times when at school. 

Cyber Safety Continued

As part of our Cyber Safety program, the Term 2 parent online session in the Healthy Families Webinar series is just 2 weeks away!  

This term the details are as follows: 

Managing Anxiety & Other Big feelings for Tweens 

Presenter: Carley McGauran 

Date: Thursday 2 June  

Time: 7.30pm (60 min) 

This webinar will focus on Practical ideas and strategies for understanding, and better supporting, your tween struggling with big feelings, including anxiety. 

Topics Include: 

• Is this anxiety and if so, how do I best support my child?  
• What’s “normal” and what’s not? Should I be worried?  
• How do I manage meltdowns, especially anger? When I grew up no one really talked about feelings so how do I best support my tween?  
• What’s some resources you can recommend?  

Here is the link for you to register for the webinar: www.bit.ly/managingtweens 

Once you register (with an email address and name), you will be emailed a link to the session, a reminder email on the day of the webinar as well as 15min before start time. The following day, you will receive a link to access the replay. Therefore even if you are unable to attend the live webinar, please register to ensure you can access the replay. 

Library News

OPS library would like to say a big thank you to all the wonderful parents that have donated new books to the school library. The choice of books for the students is growing and is just wonderful the commitment the local school community provides.

Book Club – Issue 4

Each term OPS library sends out the scholastic book club catalogue for parents and family friends to purchase from.

This is the only fundraising that the school does for the library, so we would like to say a big thank you for your continued support in purchasing books through book club.

Issue 4 will go home with students on Monday 23rd May. 

All orders will close Friday 3rd June 2022.

Year 1 News

Como House Excursion 

On Wednesday 11th May the Year 1 students went to Como House to learn about the past, as part of our Past and Present inquiry unit for this term. We learnt that Como House was once occupied by the Armytage family and were lucky enough to take a tour of their mansion and practice dancing for a pretend fancy ball. We learnt all sorts of things about how they lived, what they wore and the games they played. We explored the gardens of Como House while taking part in a Garden Mystery and got to play some olden day games. We also learnt about the servants that looked after the Armytage family and experienced servant training by learning to wash clothes and carry drink trays, all while having lots of fun.

Year 2 News

Shrine of Remembrance 

Year 2 students enjoyed a wonderful and informative visit to the Shrine of Remembrance recently. Here is are some recounts from what the students thought:

Charlie: I learnt that Poppies were the first living thing that grew on the battlefields.

Caelan: I learnt that the Shrine of Remembrance is a place to remember the men and woman who fought in war.

Millie: I learnt that the Shrine of Remembrance building was built between 1928 to 1934.

Sophie: I learnt that once a year at 11am on the 11th of November, the light shines on the word LOVE.

Hana: I learnt that Simpson and his donkey saved over 300 lives.

Milena: The Eternal Flame has been extinguished only three times.

Year 4 News

What's beneath our feet? SOIL! The Year 4 students are comparing 3 different soil types to explore and describe the features of soil. As they are discovering, Soils 'ain't Soils!

Year 5 News

Cross Country 

We were incredibly proud of all the students who took part in the Cross Country at Karkarook Park earlier this Month. The resilience of all students was a joy to behold, and it was wonderful to see students supporting each other to do their very best. The Year 5 teachers were busily cheering students on, and manning check points and we forgot to take photos! We would all like to thank Mr Pannam for organizing a fantastic event and the parents for supporting. Congratulations to all the students selected for districts! 

Walkathon 

We would also like to congratulate the students and OPS Parents and Friends Association for a wonderful Walkathon. On Tuesday, the students excitedly bounded into classrooms to check out all the crazy hairstyles! The positivity, effort and enthusiasm of students, staff, parents, and furry friends was abundantly evident throughout the event at Wattle Grove Park. It was such a fun and well organised event! Don’t forget to hand in your sponsor money by next Friday.

Year 6 News

Students have been participating in Book Club meetings focussed on differentiated sets of chapter books. Students collect ‘thinking codes’ throughout their independent weekly reading and elaborate on their notes before sharing their evidenced understanding in formal meetings at the end of the week. Students have been recording meetings as episodes for podcasts and reflecting on their successes and setting goals for deeper thinking. A key aim is to actively listen and respond to members thinking and add to or challenge ideas. 

PE/Sports News

Year 3 – 6 District Cross Country 

What a brilliant effort by our cross country running team! The team came 4th overall. This has been our best result in many years. Conditions were tough with a stiff South Westerly blowing across the course. Well done to Emma on winning her age group overall!

The following go on to the Division Cross Country Carnival in a few weeks time;

• Emma H – 1st 10yo Girls
• Jazmine K - 8th 10 yo Girls 
• Sophie A – 2nd 11yo Girls
• Alex Y - 6th 11yo Boys
• Ruby M - 2nd 12yo Girls
• Noam C -  8th 12yo Boys.

Good luck Team Moorabbin!

Full Cross Country results are below. All students should be very proud of their achievements.

STEAM News

Hello, from the STEAM room. During the past two weeks, Foundation students have been discussing the weather and looking at various weather symbols. They have also been using our Blue-Bot robotic toys and experimenting with the forwards and turning buttons to make the Blue-Bot move to a certain weather card. Year 1 successfully programmed the Blue-Bots to carry out algorithms they created for their paper robots and the Year 2 students watched a Cyber Safety webinar and learnt all about why it is good to take some time away from their iPads and have some screen free time.

Year 3 students have spent the past two weeks creating obstacle courses for the Blue-Bots to move through. They were also required to write down the algorithm they programmed into their robot so that it moved through the course successfully. It was wonderful to see them using various materials in the room to create their courses and constantly debugging/correcting their algorithms. Year 4 students are currently designing floor mats for our Blue-Bots to move along. These floor mats are based on a familiar fairy tale and will be used by the Foundation students to build on their programming skills with the Blue-Bots. Year 5 students have now completed their 3D models of the sun, earth & moon. They are currently working in groups to research and collect specific information on a planet of their choice. This is part of our long-term project with Ms Kupfer in the art room. Year 6 students experimented with a different coding platform this week, Code.org and worked through an express course which consolidated their understandings of block coding.

Mrs Markou

STEAM Specialist