IMPORTANT DATES

Issue 37  –  23rd November 2018

IMPORTANT DATES 

Friday 23rd November
–  Yr 6 Camp returns

Monday 26th November
– Yr 6 Fire Education

Tuesday 27th November
– Yr 2 Production

Wednesday 28th November
–  Yr 2 Production

Thursday 29th November
– Yr 2 Production
– Yr 1 Pen Pals Excursion
– Yr 5 Leadership Day at South Oakleigh College

Friday 30th November
– Dress Up for Tigray Day

REMINDERS

– OSPS Statements – please pay outstanding items or return marked statement as per the enclosed instructions to the office

– Qkr! Year 5 Camp Full Payment Overdue
– Year 5 Camp Medical Forms Overdue

– Year 4 Craft Power Incursion Due Monday, 10th December

– Year 2 Production DVD Orders Due Sunday, 2nd December

– Qkr! Year 1 Pen Pals Excursion Due Friday, 22nd November

TERM DATES

TERM DATES

2018 – Term 4

8 October to 20 December
(2.30pm school students finish)
21 December (staff finish)

Last day of each term is a 2.30pm finish

2019 – Term 1

29 January (staff start)
30 January (1 – 6 start)
31 January (Preps start 9.30 – 12.30)
End of Term – 5 April

Last day of each term is a 2.30pm finish

In addition to the expo, the OSPS Year 3 students, took part in the ‘Engineers Without Borders’ unit workshop – a group who build basic water filters. Each team was assigned a different country and the budget, cost of materials, and instructions given all varied, depending on GDP and literacy rates of their assigned country.

The Year 4’s worked in small teams as part of their ‘Robogals’ unit to construct towers made from spaghetti strands and tape. The aim of the activity was to create the tallest, strongest tower and the team that built the highest tower that stood to support a marshmallow at the top won.

In conjunction with the Year 4 ‘Robogals’ unit, the Year 5’s built small, programmable robots further developing the skills they have learnt in the OSPS Robotics and Coding Program.

The Monash University Engineering Expo educated the students on the global application of engineering in 2018, and how recycling and sustainability is playing a big role in the engineering industry and the development of technology, why engineering and STEM subjects are important, and how the financial and educational status of different countries affects their quality of engineered products, how and what they are used for, and the how economic factors impact different countries.
Engineering is a rapidly growing, and diverse area that will continue to grow and provide interest and opportunities.

A huge thank you to Lindsay Guy, Alana Harries and the incredible students from the Monash Engineering Faculty, for their dedication and support in helping deliver such a wonderful learning experience for not only our school, but also students from outside the community.

Thank you OSPS from Tsefa Primary School in Ethiopia in Africa

With just a few weeks to go before Haftu Strintzos finishes Year 12, as his mother, we both wanted to take this opportunity to thank every Oakleigh South Primary School student and teacher who has supported the many hundreds of poor and disadvantaged children and students in Haftu’s community in Tigray, since 2012.

We consider ourselves extremely lucky that upon arriving in Australia in 2011, Haftu was given the opportunity to attend OSPS – initially in the last term of Grade 5, and then for the whole of Grade 6 starting in 2012. His short time at OSPS can best be described as formative, and he loved every minute of it. Its where Haftu learnt to read and write in English, study maths, science, history, geography and Japanese – a language he enjoys, has become proficient in, and is one of his favourite VCE Year 12 subjects.

OSPS is also the place where Haftu discovered his talent for running. From cross country to track, his first state level competition was running in the Green and White OSPS colours. Though in Grade 6 he found himself at the back of the racing pack, today he is leading the way from the front, and is currently Australia’s reigning U20 Cross Country and 5,000m athletics champion. In August this year, Haftu equalled Robert Castella’s record winning both the Australia and Oceania U20 Cross Country titles in Maleny, Queensland.

Apart from Haftu receiving the best introduction to life and schooling in Australia, he was made to feel at home and respected for the hardships he had suffered growing up an orphan in rural Tigray, Ethiopia. This was powerfully demonstrated when in December 2012, Grade 6 students, and eventually the whole of OSPS responded with extraordinary compassion and generosity towards helping poor children in Haftu’s impoverished community in rural Tigray, Ethiopia.

Seeing firsthand how a few resources, hope and opportunity had changed Haftu’s life, the efforts of OSPS students to change the lives of children less fortunate than themselves, has been extraordinary, transformative, and very moving.

Since 2012, this kind-heartedness by OSPS towards Haftu’s community and his old primary school – Tsefah Primary School – has just grown and grown, and brought about genuine change in poor children’s’ lives.  Thanks to these incredible community-to-community and student-to-student relationships, the following spectacular outcomes have been achieved:

• $20,350.25 raised for various education related projects
• Education packs comprised of exercise books, pens, pencils, text books, erasers and sharpeners provided to over 420 Tsefah School students and orphans on three occasions. Each education pack was enough to cover a student’s needs for at least a year. That’s 3 years of school supplies and books per student!
• Sports equipment (skipping ropes, soccer balls, volleyball net, volleyballs, frisbees) were given to the Tsefah School so that students can play and stay healthy and active.
• OSPS contributed to the development of a water well near the Tsefah School compound so that students no longer have to go to school thirsty.
• Contributed to the construction and set-up of the first ever Tsefah School Library. Built to Government standards, the Library has been successfully built (its beautiful!), and purchase of the furniture and books is currently underway. This is a huge and much needed project that will build the knowledge and know-how of all students; and it’s a legacy of Australian generosity that will live on forever. Equipping of the library is expected to be completed by the end of November 2018.
• Through presentations, displays of Ethiopian cultural items and talks at OSPS assemblies, students were able to learn about different cultures, social justice issues, and how poverty affects the educational outcomes of children in rural Tigray. These events were very successful and motivating, and helped OSPS students understand how in their own way they can make a difference in the lives of children on the other side of the world.

Finally, we have no words to express how grateful and overwhelmed we are by the generosity and love shown to us and the children at the Tsefah School, by the OSPS community.  Every single dollar has impacted the lives of poor children in a very meaningful way.  You can’t imagine the joy OSPS has given to the Tsefah School students – they can now go to school with all the learning materials they need, they have access to clean drinking water, and will soon have access to a proper library where they can study, read and learn new things every day.  This is what we call “empowerment” and “resilience building”.

Truly, we cannot thank OSPS enough.  We feel very humbled.

Maria & Haftu Strintzos

Village News

The Village are in desperate need of the following items

*    2L Ice Cream containers
*    Egg cartons
*    Newspapers

If you are able to help, please deliver straight to the Village.

Thank you
The Year 3 Team

Interested in tennis?

Come to our Club Open Day – it’s free.

Clarinda Tennis Club
4-14 Crawford Road
Clarinda

FREE CLUB OPEN DAY

WEDNESDAY, 19th December
4-6PM