‘Your education is a dress rehearsal for a life that is yours to lead’. – Nora Ephron

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

I would like to take this last opportunity to sincerely thank everyone who has been involved with OSPS this year… and what a year it has been!

The resilience shown by the children during the two lockdowns was amazing. The amount of extra work and changes the staff made to provide a learning program that was meaningful and robust was exceptional. And you, the parents, must be commended on the effort you made to support your child’s education, quite often while you were working, during a very challenging time.

The Year 6 students have enjoyed their final week at primary school with lots of celebrations including their graduation ceremony last night and a hike today. A big thank you the Year 6 team and their parent helpers who have brought the celebrations to reality.

This year we have two staff members leaving to pursue other adventures, Andy Yeung and Morgan Mathison. Thank you both for your contributions to our school and I’d like to wish you all the best for your futures. We will also be welcoming a number of new staff commencing next year.

Please remember to keep reading over the holiday break. Whether it be a book or accessing Reading Eggs it is so important to keep practising your reading. Don’t forget to log in to Mathletics too to keep your maths skills up to date!

Lastly, I’d like to wish all of our OSPS community a very Merry Christmas and a happy and safe New Year. Enjoy this holiday period with family and friends and I look forward to welcoming you all back to what will hopefully be a ‘normal’ year in 2021.

Thank you everyone.

Ron Cantlon
Principal

LANDY

Boys Captain
Jacob K-C 5NH

Boys Vice Captain
Elliot L 5KP

Girls Captain
Amelia L 5NC

Girls Vice Captain
Isabella S 5HP

LIBRARY

Arshpreet S 5KP
Arabella C 5NC
Liam E 5NH
Rafaele F 5NH
Aanika K 5NC
Keisha S 5NK
Eliza H 5MS
Pranshu M 5NK
Erin G 5MS
Minjun K 5NK

GRAUDATION SPEECH BY SCHOOL COUNCIL PRESIDENT CAM DAVIES

Good evening everyone. To Mr. Cantlon, teaching staff, parents, and most importantly you – our graduating class of 2020 – thankyou for the opportunity to say a few words tonight on behalf of the School Council and greater school community.

Firstly Congratulations. You have survived one of the toughest Grade 6 years ever, and sadly missed out on a lot, but it is just the end of one chapter. So much more is to come for you. At some stage tonight I want you to think about the kid you were when you walked through the Oakleigh South gates the first time. You might have been scared, you might have been excited, you might have not wanted to let go of Mum….or Dad….or both. But whatever you were back then you are so much more now. You got smarter every day. You got better every day. Because you worked hard every day – just by turning up.

Heading to High School might be scary. There will be people you don’t know. School Grounds you don’t know, teachers you don’t know and a bunch lot of new information to take in. But you’ve already gone to a school for the first time. Way back in Prep…..when you were just a kid. So you are far more prepared for High School than you think.

Sadly we didn’t get to see you all in your production of Aladdin this year, but I thought I’d look to this classic tale for some inspiration as to what to say tonight. Some lessons not only to prepare you for high school but for the road afterwards. For a career criminal Aladdin sure has a lot to teach us about life.

Lesson 1 – Be yourself

19th Century Irish Poet Oscar Wilde is quoted as saying “Be yourself – because everyone else is taken”. Aladdin tried to be what he thought others wanted him to be when he asked the Genie to turn him into a prince. What Aladdin learned though was that you can change the outside all you want but it’s your character inside that really matters. When Aladdin was a ‘street rat’ he asked Jasmine “Do you trust me?” his character shone through because he really was trying to help Jasmine. It was when he asked her the same question while pretending to be a prince that she saw his character shine through. You’ll get lots of pressure to change, to conform, to be what other’s want you to be – from other kids, teachers, parents – but try as hard as you can to be true to yourself. If you are true to your own character inside, other will see you – just as Jasmine SAW the real Aladdin.

Lesson 2 – You get back exactly what you give

Jafar put nothing but negativity out there. He was toxic and tried to manipulate everyone around him. And we know how that worked out for him. Be positive. Be generous. Be grateful. Aladdin spends the opening scene evading sword wielding guards, jumping off buildings, walking on the back of sheep – all for a loaf of bread. Then when he gets it, he gives it away to a couple of younger starving kids. Even when I am sure all he wanted to do was eat the bread, he chose to be generous. And we know how that worked out for HIM.

Lesson 3 – You are Greater than your Situation

Walt Disney himself was told many times that his ideas weren’t good enough and discouraged time and time again. But he went on to found one of the greatest organisations the world has ever seen which has brought joy and happiness to millions – maybe billions – of people for decades. All of you are from somewhere different. Different families, different houses, you each have a unique situation. Aladdin had to overcome his situation and funnily enough Jasmine had to overcome her situation too. As different as they were. Each of them broke down perceptions of who they were to eventually show people who they really were. You guys are not yet fully polished – but you are all diamonds in the rough. Ready to shine.

Lesson 4 – Be the best part of someone else’s day

At the end of the movie, when Aladdin could have used his final wish for anything – including making himself a prince so he could marry Jasmine – yet he chose the happiness of someone else. He freed Genie with his last wish. That is next level generosity. You may have heard of YOLO – You only live once. That’s true and that philosophy can give you some good times but it ultimately it is pretty selfish. Instead think of TOLO – THEY only live once. And by THEY I mean the person in front of you at the time. It might be your mum, your sister, your friend, or a new face at your new high school. THEY only have one life so how can you make it a little better in that moment? Live life with that in mind you’ll be surprised how great you feel.

And finally….one last piece of advice

If you ever find yourself in a magical cave and you are told not to touch anything in there except the magic lamp……

DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING IN THERE EXCEPT THE MAGIC LAMP!

So……thank you to everyone who has been a part of making tonight as special as possible in unique circumstances. On behalf of all parents of our graduating class I would like to thank not only the Grade 6 teachers from this year but ALL STAFF that have cared for and guided these kids over the past 7 years. And well done Grade 6, we are all so proud of you and can’t believe how far you’ve come from day 1 of Prep. I am sure you will continue to do the school proud.

Cam Davies
School Council President

TERM DATES

SCHOOL MATTERS

LIBRARY OPEN DURING SCHOOL HOLIDAYS FOR YEAR 3 – 5 STUDENTS

School leadership have decided to open up library borrowing for students in Years 3 – 5 (and Year 2 students who are on AR), during the school holidays.

Library borrowing will continue this week and next week for students in Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 (and Year 2 students who are on AR) and students may borrow up to 4 books. Please note all overdue books are due back to the library (students may re-borrow them).

All Year 6 students must return their books to the library this week.

Staff encourage all students to continue their good reading habits during the school holidays. Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 students are still able to access myON, Reading Eggspress and EPIC during the holidays. We wish our Year 6 students all the best in Year 7 and encourage you to read your Year 7 novels over the holidays.

The library will be open between 9.30 – 11.00am on the following Mondays. Please enter the library through the glass doors in the courtyard (the main school doors will be locked).

Monday 4th January
Monday 11th January
Monday 18th January

Thank you Mrs Bahnsen and Mr Cantlon for opening the library at these times.

myON READING CHALLENGE

During the school holidays all OSPS students have access to our wonderful reading program – myON.

From January 1st Oakleigh South Primary School invite all interested students to participate in the myON Reading Challenge.

All you have to do is log on to your profile, read a myON book and complete the myON quiz if one is available. Prizes will be awarded to a student in each year level with the most points for the period January 1st  – January 26th.

Winners will be announced during a whole school assembly next year and be published in the newsletter.

REMINDER THIRD INSTALMENT OF ESSENTIAL LEARNING FEES

A reminder that the third and final instalment is due this month – please see payment structure below.

• First instalment: October: $85.00
• Second instalment: November: $80.00
• Third instalment: December: $80.00

Thank you to the OSPS Parent Group and Max Martinucci and his team at OBrien Real Estate Oakleigh for their joint contribution to providing new flouro yard duty vests to all the OSPS staff.

Thank you also to school council for their support in the project. It is an important health and wellbeing excercise to we wearing and washing our own clothing in these times.

We really appreciate the offer of donation in a year where it has been so affected by the pandemic.

We look forward to engaging with all our donors, sponsors and the community again in 2021. However, if you or your business would like to contribute to the school at any time, we look forward to hearing from you.

STUDENT SHOWCASE

JAPANESE NEWS

2020, will be remembered as a year full of challenges but also a year we as educators had to be creative in the way we delivered the curriculum to ensure students were still able to develop their language skills and enjoy at the same time. As teachers we had to put a lot effort into finding creative ways to teach via Zoom, which through careful planning we were able to execute a number of new methods which was great for both students and teachers. We would like to make a special thank you to the parents who supported us from home which meant a lot to us and I’m sure to your children as well.

Every year, the Japanese department at OSPS run a special activities and events such as the Japan trip, exchange program with a Japanese school, a lunch time club called Black Belt Club and Japanese cultural day where students get to dress up in Japanese costume. Unfortunately due to the Pandemic this year, we regretfully had to cancel some of these activities and events. However, we didn’t want students to miss out so we arranged to connect with a few schools in Japan to do multiple Zoom session with them.

Our Grade 4 and 3 students got to practise their Japanese skills with native speakers and once again they found the experience thrilling to challenge themselves to speak to someone in another language. It was an amazing experience for both OPSP and schools in Japan where students from both schools got to share their experiences through these unprecedented times. At the end of the Zoom sessions, students committed to each other that we would do this again to keep this special connection into the future.

We were glad we were able to make the most of this year with a number of challenges for both students and us as teachers. We look forward to next year and with some of the learnings we can take from this year, we will be creating a number of exciting activities and events to develop the students in 2021. Wishing you all happy holidays and look forward to seeing everyone for our exciting program in 2021.

VALUED STUDENT AWARDS

VALUED STUDENTS AWARDS WEEK 10

Congratulations to all our ‘Valued Student Award’ recipients for Week 10.

YEAR 3-6

Aditya 3JR
Excellence
For always working hard and giving his best effort across all learning areas.

Nick 3JR
Excellence
For displaying excellent questioning skills and always participating in class discussions.

Alexa 3JR
Respect
For being a wonderful and hardworking member of our class who has been helping her classmates construct paper butterflies.

Akshaj 3JR
Respect
For his improved attitude to classroom tasks and for working hard to make good choices. Well done Akshaj!

Harley 3JR
Excellence
For approaching all tasks with a positive attitude and always being the first to help a classmate. Well done Harley!

Jinu 3MT
Working Together
For being a great worker in the village garden.

Laura 4CW
Excellence
For always putting an incredible amount of effort into the presentation of her work. Well done!

Jasmine 4CW
Excellence
For working cooperatively with everyone on her table and being kind to others. You’re a super star!

Lachlan 4CW
Excellence
For always using his incredible imagination in all his work. You’re fabulous Lachlan!

Tiya 4CW
Excellence
For always being an active and enthusiastic participant in classroom lessons. Thank you Tiya!

Spatika 4FF
Respect
For always showing respect and courtesy to her classmates and teachers.

Jethro 4FF
Excellence
For working exceptionally well this year, especially for his efforts in Mathematics.

Miah 4FF
Excellence
For her achievements in Mathematics including 183 cups in EA – 1st in the class!

Kingsley 4FF
Working Together
For being a kind a caring class member who always looks out for others.

Joshua 4FF
Working Together
For being a good team player and friend to his classmates.

Seona 4FF
Integrity
For always telling the truth.

Sean 4FF
Excellence
For being an exceptional learner in all areas of the curriculum.

Lucia 4FF
Excellence
For showing leadership and for setting the standard in our class.

Elian 4FF
Resilience
For showing great resilience when life gets tough.

Ayushmaan 4FF
Excellence
For academic excellence. Well done on a tremendous year!

Fionn 4FF
Excellence
For having an excellent year and showing great leadership.

Adir 4TM
Working Together
For his willingness to assist his peers and teachers with tasks and challenges on a daily basis!

Angelina 4TM
Excellence
For her contribution to whole class discussions and assisting her peers in small group work.

Dhruv 4TM
Excellence
For his commitment to working hard and focusing during writing groups! Well done!

Alexander 4TM
Excellence
For his commitment to working hard and focusing during writing groups! Well done!

Steven 5HP
Excellence
For trying really hard in class every single day. So proud of your achievements!

Baani 5HP
Excellence
For an amazing performance at our whole school assembly.

Maaniya 5HP
Excellence
For her amazing performance at whole school assembly. Well done!

Michelle 5HP
Excellence
For striving for excellence in all areas of the curriculum. Well done!

Avanith 5HP
Resilience
For showing resilience this year during remote learning, Well done!

Sofia 5HP
Resilience
For displaying resilience during remote learning. Well done Sofia!

Osher 5KP
Resilience
For checking in with the teacher and making adjustments to his work with more of a positive mindset.

Shania 5KP
Excellence
For her brilliant biography about Mary Reibey – a convict and face on our $20 note.

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.