“Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you.” — Walt Whitman

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Oakleigh South Primary School was certainly buzzing last Saturday as we provided the space for the polling booth for the Federal Election. It was a wonderful opportunity for our amazing Parent Group to get back to what they do best, bring our school community together and fundraise for our school.

So, with the sausages sizzling on the barbecue all day, the smell of freshly brewed coffee and the scrumptious cakes being sold, it was reminiscent of a mini fete day. A huge thank you to the Parent Group and volunteers who worked on this day and to the families who made cakes or sent monetary support to make this a very successful fundraising day.

It was great to see former parents and students at the school who were amazed at our facilities and excited about our building project and refurbishment.

Mr Albers has been administering the NAPLAN catch ups for students who were unable to attend on their specified day. The extra week extension to do this has provided the time needed to for the children in years 3 and 5 to complete their tasks.

We are currently installing the shade sails from our last successful grant application to increase the outside shaded learning areas. They are being installed in the robitocs courtyard and between the hall and the year 3 portables. OSPS is currently applying for the next round of shade sail grants for the new sustainable area.

We are presently waiting on the Department of Education to issue us with information that can be released to the school community on the building refurbishment project and can’t wait to share the latest with our community. Once approved, we expect the works to start in June.

Next Wednesday 1st June, the teachers will be taking part in a professional development day. This means that it will be a pupil free day at Oakleigh South PS.

Have a great week and enjoy the sunshine.

Ron
Principal

TERM DATES / QR CODE

SCHOOL COUNCIL

SCHOOL COUNCIL NEWS

School Council has had a busy start to the year with the approval of the school budget and annual report. Keep an eye out for the Principal’s Report with news regarding exciting school projects coming soon.

In the meantime, I would like to take the opportunity to welcome to the School Council new parent members Nadia Beauchamp, Sri Chinnareddy, Melissa Clubb, Jon Couston and Tina Tzanopoulos and DET members Nikki Virtuoso and Anthony Rowe. They join Alex Koulaouzos, Anushi Rajapaska, Sarah Tilsley, Steph Cash, Ron Cantlon, Erik Albers, Helen Paroukas and myself to form the 15 members of School Council. I extend a warm welcome to our new members and look forward to working together over the course of the year.

Parents may attend School Council meetings as visitors, the dates of the meetings are on the Compass Calendar and on the school website ‘Parent Tab’, ‘School Council’. We ask that any parents wishing to attend, please notify Ron or the School Council President of their intention, 24 hours notice at the latest prior to the meeting time and date schoolcouncil@oakleighsouthps.vic.edu.au. Please familiarise yourselves with the legislation around visitors to School Council meetings. This can be found in the governance handbook located at https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/school/principals/governance/governanceph.pdf

A big thank you to all those parents who contributed to the school’s election fundraiser on the weekend. From baking goodies, cooking sausages, making coffees and everything in between – the efforts of all those who volunteered their time and effort have been greatly appreciated. A special thank you to those Parent Group members who spent a lot of time organising and setting up the event. Everyone’s effort contributed to a very successful event.

Finally, I know a lot of families (including my own) who have been very busy making plans, cancelling plans and then remaking plans, trying to balance the competing demands of their health and their social lives. So over the coming months, I wish everyone good health and a little extra patience as we work our way through these interesting times.

Kind regards,

Maria Gaitan
School Council President

SCHOOL MATTERS

SMILE SQUAD

The team from Smile Squad have finished the dental check-ups of the children who participated in the program.

The mobile treatment van should be arriving onsite at the end of next week. The Oral Health Therapist will be seeing any students who still need to be seen for dental check-ups (mostly in Grade Prep) and she will also provide treatment to a handful of students where parents have consented. The majority of students have already been to our base clinic in Clayton to have their treatment done.

Thank you to every family who utilised this service. It has been a fantastic government initiative and very well supported by our community.

The Victorian Government offer a Sports, Camps and Excursions Fund for families who hold a valid means-tested concession card are eligible to apply. A special consideration category also exists.

A payment of $125 for eligible primary school students and $225 for eligible secondary school students will be paid directly to the school to be used toward camps, sports and excursion costs for the student’s benefit.

CSEF payments to schools will commence from 1 March onwards. Schools are able to continue processing applications until the end of Term 2.

Click here for further information CSEF Website

Please click here to apply – https://www.education.vic.gov.au/PAL/csef-application-form.pdf

STUDENT SHOWCASE

LITERACY CORNER

I agree that dogs are better than cats because they are really playful and cute.
Cats don’t like to play with you. Dogs are also trained to help people guard their houses, do tricks and some, not bite. Cats can’t do any of those.
Small dogs are cuter than cats because small dogs have floppy ears, cute eyes, don’t bark too much and have soft fluffy fur. But, cats don’t have floppy ears and cute eyes.
You can tell if a dog is happy or not because if a dog wags its tail it is happy. If not, the dog is sad. You can’t tell if a cat is happy or not. If you train a dog, it will do what you tell it to do. But a cat won’t.
Dogs can play racing with you. But cats won’t.
Dogs have 10 to 12 lives and cats have 9 lives.
Dogs have excellent sense of smell. Cats don’t have a very good sense of smell.
Dogs can run a long way. Cats can’t run a long way.
That is why dogs are way better than cats.
Ria 1NM

It is clear that the beach is better than the park, you wait and see.
Firstly, you can play in the water. The water is cool on hot hot days.
Secondly, there is so much sand to play in. You can even put sand all over you.
Lastly, you can eat ice-cream on the hot days. Imagine eating ice-cream on the sand.
Don’t you agree that the beach is better than the park?
Janaya 1MT

RESILIENCE PROJECT

YEAR 1 RESILIENCE PROJECT

We have been learning about gratitude and how to be grateful for all of the people and things we have in The Resilience Project.

Students have been able to verbalise and discuss people they are grateful for, toys they are lucky to have and even share special things in their life that make them happy.

One of our TRP lessons was creating leaves and writing on them different things we are grateful for. It was beautiful to see students really engage and understand how to show gratefulness; they took their time with their leaves and shared with their classmates the people and things in their lives that they are thankful for.

1AM was able to then transform all of their gratitude leaves into a gratitude tree, which now shines brightly outside their classroom!

YEAR 1 GEM

G- I feel grateful for my family because we do fun things together like watch the footy.

E- I feel empathy for others if they don’t have someone to play with. I would help them find a friend on the playground or play with them. I’m lucky I always have my friends around me.

M- I like to lay in bed and listen to all of the different sounds that I can hear. It helps me feel relaxed.

Reyan, 1JG

GEM RECIPIENTS

Congratulations to the following students who received GEM awards recently.

NUMERACY NEWS

OSPS TOP MATHLETICS STUDENTS & CLASSES

Congratulations to the following Prep – Year 6 students and classes who achieved some great scores in week 4 of Term 2.

It’s very important to understand that even though getting 1,000 points a week is great it’s more important that students are challenging themselves at their own level and completing work that supports their learning at school.

Congratulations to those students who completed their Mathletics in week 4. Well done!

LIBRARY NEWS

OSPS SPORT

YEAR 6 INTERSCHOOL SPORT WINTER  RESULTS

PARENT GROUP

PARENT GROUP MEETING

Wednesday 1st June at 7pm – Staff Room 

This meeting will be a great opportunity for new parents to meet the existing committee members. It will give you the opportunity to ask questions and get more information about Parent Group and different ways that you could contribute positively to our school. A great way to meet new parents and get involved in the school community. 

We also welcome parents who may not be able to commit to being a member to still come along if you are available and interested and we can reach out to you as a Helper from time to time. 

We look forward to welcoming everyone who is available and interested in joining. 

Please email- osparentgroup67@gmail.com for more information.

CAMP AUSTRALIA

COMMUNITY NEWS

Disclaimer – The organisations advertised in this newsletter are not affiliated with and have no relationship to Oakleigh South Primary School. The publishing of these advertisements does not imply endorsement or recommendation of these products or services by the school. They are provided as a community service.