PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Dear Parents and Carers,

WELCOME BACK EVERYONE!!

I can’t begin to tell you how pleased I am to see everyone back at school ready for an amazing term. Seeing the children’s happy smiles as they walked through the gates and the parents even bigger smiles as they said their goodbyes, was absolutely fantastic. Not to mention our wonderful teachers who were so excited to see their class once again. School is ticking along nicely once again… it’s like we have been here all year!

Thank you once again to parents for all your hard work in supporting your children during this most difficult time for everyone. At OSPS, we understand the enormous pressure this put on many families, but you all hung in there and got through to the other side. The teachers and I’m sure your children, greatly appreciate the effort you put into helping deliver the learning program that they planned for their class each week. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Finally to the wonderful staff, whether you were working at school to support the onsite learning program or working from home planning lessons, recording videos, correcting work or running Zoom sessions, you have all been amazing and I thank you for doing your job so well. I am very proud of you all.

Now we are back, it will be a busy term making sure that each child is on track with their learning, is reengaging socially, and is back to enjoying school each day. The wellbeing of each child at OSPS is paramount and all teachers will ensure that lessons around wellbeing will be taught throughout each week.

I hope you have all had a good start to your week without remote learning, and that you have got a little bit a normality back into your lives.

Enjoy the rest of the week.

Ron

Principal

TERM DATES

COVID SAFE REMINDERS

Parents are encouraged to drop their children at the front of school and not to enter the school grounds. The Department of Education has stated:

‘Parents should enter the school grounds only when absolutely necessary’ 

Parents who do wish to wait and walk their child to the gates are reminded to social distance on the oval and continue to move on once they’ve dropped their child off at the gate. 

Late arrivals and early pickups: Parents must sign the google form located at –

https://oakleighsouthps.vic.edu.au/  and click on the ‘Early Pick Up Form’ link https://forms.gle/TZvthWXKEkg9eBnc8

Hygiene Practices

• All staff and students will undertake regular hand hygiene on arrival at school, before and after eating, after blowing their nose, coughing, sneezing, using the toilet or shared equipment.
• Where soap and water are not readily available, hand sanitiser will be provided in every occupied room and hallway entrances and exits. This will be administered by staff.
• Please bring another box of tissues to help restock our supply.
• Depending on weather conditions, doors and windows may be open to maximise fresh air flow indoors where practical.
• All students must ensure they bring their own pencil case and do not share stationery.
• Staff will use gloves and may use a mask when first aid care is provided to students.
• Students must ensure they have their own water bottle at school every day. Water bottles can be refilled at the taps but there will be NO direct drinking from the water fountains.

To help protect the broader school community we request all families observe the health and safety guidelines. In order to minimise the spread of infection, you MUST keep your child at home if they are unwell and they must not return to school until all symptoms have ceased.

If your child becomes unwell whilst at school, they must go home. You will be called and required to pick up your child within an hour of being notified. You will need to ring the school 9570 1016 on arrival and then wait just past Gate 1 at the ‘Early Pick Up From School Meeting Point’ and wait for your child.

For more information about Managing illness in schools and early childhood services during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Please refer to the link below:
https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/about/department/covid-19/managing-unwell-students-covid19-factsheet.pdf

SCHOOL MATTERS

ACCESS POINTS & WALKWAYS

Please use the following pathways to enter and exit the school (if you have children in multiple year levels please try and use the pathway for your youngest child).

Yellow GATE 1 (Robotics Room)
Prep & Year 5

Blue GATE 2 (Hall)
Year 2, 3 & 6

Green GATE 3 (Art Room)
Year 1 & 4

GATE 4 (Laneway)
All year levels

ORIMA PARENT OPINION SURVEY – 2020

Our school is conducting a survey to find out what parents think of our school. The Parent Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education and Training that is conducted amongst all parents. It is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of parents’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour, student engagement and experiences of remote and flexible learning. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies.

All parents will be invited to participate in this year’s survey (one survey per family). All responses to the survey are anonymous. This year, the Parent Opinion Survey will be conducted from Friday 16th October to Friday 13th November. A parent invitation email will be sent with details on how to complete the survey and a personalised PIN. Please note: only one parent (Parent A) will receive this email.

The survey will be conducted online, only takes 20 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time within the fieldwork period on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones. The online survey will be available in a range of languages other than English. These include: Arabic, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Chin (Hakha), Hindi, Japanese, Somali, Turkish, Punjabi and Greek.

This year we have been provided with translation guides for parents to assist them with completing the English survey online. Please click on the following link https://oakleighsouthps.vic.edu.au/parents/#survey  to direct you to the available translation guides.

Please contact Erik Albers erik.albers@education.vic.gov.au if you would like more information.

LOST PROPERTY

OSPS staff are committed to returning lost property to students every Thursday.

Parents and carers please ensure that all your child’s clothing and belongings are labelled clearly with a first name and surname so that it can be re-united with your child with ease if it makes its way to the lost preperty tubs!

STUDENT SHOWCASE

P-6 REMOTE LEARNING SNAPSHOT

During Term 3, our students were very busy learning remotely from home and some students at school about all kinds of things! The Preps enjoyed a Zoo excursion while the Year 1 students were very busy travelling around the world and cooking pizza! There Year 2 students had a fantastic ‘Silent Disco’ with each other where they danced to their favourite music with their friends and teachers.

The Year 3 students enjoyed learning about reptiles, in particular snakes and frogs! Year 4 students learned about measurement and applied their knowledge to cook all sorts of yummy dishes! The Year 5 students studied adaptations and wrote some incredible poems during Remote Learning while the Year 6 students created a gaming website and some fantastic travel brochures showcasing countries from around the world.

SCHOOL EVENT

FOOTY DAY – Thursday, 22nd October 

In some positive news it is great to announce that Footy Colours Day will still be going ahead! It will be held on Thursday 22nd of October which is the week of the AFL and NRL Grand Final and hot on the heels of the Suncorp Super Netball Grand Final and NBA Championship Finals too!

Obviously, we can’t all be together like normal but we are still going to find a way to make things fun for the OSPS students. Students are encouraged to wear the colours of their favourite sporting team as we normally would. It is always great to see the variety of sports and colours that are on show!

We will still be doing the popular kicking contests however there will be no mixing of cohorts which is in line with COVID-19 protocols. Prizes for the winners of course! There are also heaps of online resources which are being made available to staff to use in the classroom on Footy Colours Day as well.

With no staff vs students or boys and girls footy league we have been very creative and are having a schoolwide Padlet for students and staff to post a video or picture of in the lead up to Footy Day. It might be a video of you kicking a goal or shooting a 3 pointer like one of your heroes… Or it might just be a picture of you in your football attire. It’s up to you!!! It will be so cool to see the whole school connected- albeit virtually!

https://padlet.com/nicholasmorrey/3wtd0xrln1gxyqif

As always, we are doing Footy Colours Day for the Fight Cancer Foundation. They provide care, treatment and support for young cancer patients and their families as well as funding vital research into cancer treatment and cures. Normally it is a gold coin donation and last year as a school we were able to raise $1455. This year donations can be made online and although it is optional, I think it would be great if we could at least get to $1000.

Donations can be made via this link: https://footy-colours-day-2020.raisely.com/ospsfootyday

I know that the students will be incredibly excited to know that Footy Colours Day is still happening. Yes, it’s different, but I’m determined to make the best of the situation and hopefully deliver some much needed enjoyment!!!

A link to a Footy Day Video Promotion can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/oakleighsouthps/videos/888438174896589 

Thanks in advance for your support!

Mr Nick Morrey

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.