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The Oak Leaf |
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Address: Willett Avenue, Oak Park VIC 3046
T:(03) 9306 9182 E: [email protected] |
Issue 39
December 15th 2022 |
Oak Park Primary School will work collaboratively to provide a stimulating, safe and challenging learning environment that promotes resilient, innovative thinkers.
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Calendar of Events
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Principal's Column
Teacher Allocations for 2023 
We’re pleased to announce we were able secure classroom teachers for all classrooms in 2023. The nation-wide teacher shortage leaves many schools without adequate staffing to fulfill classroom and specialist teaching positions. I can’t overstate how fortunate we are at Oak Park to attract experienced and enthusiastic teachers to our school.
In 2023, Kate Ducie joins us to lead the Year 2 team with extensive experience at Banyule Primary School. Keryn Tuck joins the Year 1 team, coming from Sunbury Heights Primary School. Keryn and Kate attended the ‘Meet the Teacher’ event yesterday to connect with their new classes. We are thrilled to welcome them to Oak Park. We have several staff moving on to other opportunities in 2023. Meagan Ward has taken a year to work at Overnewton Anglican College and April Tarollo has picked up a teaching role closer to future home in regional Victoria. Ana Hodak has also taken up a teaching opportunity at another school. We also farewell Georgia Callaway, a wonderful Education Support staff member working with us this year, who continues to her studies in 2023. We will thank and farewell these staff at our final assembly for 2023 this Friday. Flexible Groupings – Terms 1 and 2, 2023 – Year 3/4 and 5/6
Our current intervention and extension program plans to ensure that the 3/4 and 5/6 cohorts receive flexible groupings to focus on Numeracy in Terms 1 and 2. This means these teams will receive three sessions per week with the additional assistance of our Learning Specialist teachers. Students complete pre-tests, and this data informs the focus for the flexible group cycle. This support ensures that every student in the cohort is working at their point of need with smaller group sizes for cycles of around 5 weeks. Student then complete a post-test to track their learning growth. This strategy is supported by our whole school learning data and the learning focus (reading, writing, mathematics) and targeted cohorts may change for Terms 3 and 4. We’ve used this approach in 2022, students have enjoyed the opportunity to work with different teachers and have provided positive feedback around the support and challenge within each group. We’re also continuing with reading intervention programs in 2023 within the Junior school, ensuring that all students receive the valuable support to develop their key reading and writing skills. Final Teacher Placement The end of the year often brings staff changes to schools, and Oak Park is no exception. The shortage of teachers across Victoria is a real challenge facing all schools at present. I’d like to announce a full roster of class placements, but at present we’re still working to fulfill a classroom role at Oak Park. We’re interviewing for this final teacher placement shortly, next week we’ll be able to announce teaching teams on Wednesday 14th December when students meet their new teacher for 2023. Curriculum Day Reminder – Final Day of Term Tuesday - December 20th. Early Finish 1:30 – December 19th. We have one final Curriculum Day this year, on Tuesday December 20th, so please flag this in your calendars, students will do not attend school on this day. Our final day of the school year will be Monday the 19th of December with an early finish at 1:30pm. Our end of year assembly will take place on the last Friday, December 16th commencing around 2:30pm with many performances and farewells. Kind regards, Michael Gill Principal Dogs Connect
Zoe had a great first 2 days at OPPS, but unfortunately, she’s been too unwell to come into school this week. Being a typical puppy, she has eaten something she shouldn’t have and ended up having a sleepover at the Vet on the weekend. She is sleeping a lot but improving every day. She is already getting back to being her cheeky self. Zoe will return to school early next year and being more mature, hopefully her little tummy will cope better if she eats something she shouldn’t. I thought you’d like to see some pics of Zoe resting. The photo in the blue crate is of her not wanting to get out of bed in the morning 😉. 
Staff Car Park
We again remind parents to please not park in the staff car park. Each day this week we have noted numerous families parking in here to drop off or pick up their child, causing staff to have difficulty entering the car park. While we understand the difficulties finding a car park around any school zone, it is frustrating to staff not to be able to park when arriving to school due to this issue. Please do not park in the Disability car park unless you are entitled to do so. Grade 6 Uniforms
An update to let you know that we have been informed that the 2023 Grade 6 uniforms will be delivered to school in Week 1 of term next year. Many thanks for your ongoing support, Mrs. Hamilton, Jane & Martha Grade 6 Graduation
Due to Melbourne’s unpredictable weather, we have decided to move the Graduation ceremony into the Gym. The details now are as follows: Students arrive from 4:45pm. The student dinner will be served in Amy’s classroom, off the gym at 5pm. The ceremony will begin at 6pm sharp, so families and guests can begin to arrive from 5:45pm. There is seating available, but it is not allocated. We expect that students are inviting parents, siblings and grandparents. We do ask if extended family attend the evening, that they allow parents to be seated first. The ceremony will take approximately 2 hours with a light supper provided to families afterwards. The event will conclude at 9pm. Library
All Library books should have been returned to school. If you still have books at home, please send them to school ASAP. There will be no more Library sessions for students this year. Online Japanese Exchange
Oak Park Primary School has an ongoing relationship with Ritsumeikan Primary School in Japan. This relationship helps promote and embed our Japanese language program for the students. Due to COVID-19 and the restrictions in international visits from either country, last year some Grade 2 students engaged with the other Grade 2 students from Ritsumeikan Primary School on a virtual online exchange. Given its success, we decided to do it again!
This year, the exchange was held online via WebEx. 1/2B did the exchange on Friday December 9th and 1/2F on Tuesday 13th December. Due to the amount of Grade ½ students participating this year, children worked in small groups so they could have a 15 - 20 minute conversation with a few Grade 2 Japanese students. The conversation was structured so they had time to ask questions, talk about their favourite things, their culture and the Japanese students taught our students how to make a simple origami sculpture. See pictures of the online exchange. After the session, students from 1/2B wrote thank you notes to the Japanese students.
Although there were a few technical difficulties and some language barriers, the online exchange was a great success! OPPS students had an opportunity to talk and learn from students from Japan and about their culture. It was great for our students to learn about our similarities and show respect, responsibility and resilience. Fabia and Kirsty were so proud to see all their students be great role models and representatives of Oak Park Primary School. Well done 1/2B and 1/2F! And a massive thank you to Janiele from Ritsumeikan Primary School in Japan for organising such a wonderful exchange and thank you to all of the Japanese students for being such wonderful teachers of origami. We hope to do it again next year!
Term 4 Chess Report
The winner of our Term 4 chess tournament was Charvi FH. Charvi scored 7.5/9 to win the event after a very strong start winning her first 6 games in a row! In second place on 7 points was Santiago 5C, while third place was shared by Saraansh 6D and Adem 5M (both on 6 points). The Most Improved Player award went to Ken 1/2B, who beat several of the top seeds and finished in 5.5 points in the end. Sharing =2nd in the Most Improved Category were Henry 3/4W, Roman 3/4T and Frankie FH. Roman was particularly impressive winning his last 4 games in a row - a hard thing to do in any tournament. Thank you to all the Year 6 students who will be leaving us at the end of term - you've been a pleasure to teach, and hopefully you continue playing chess in high school! I'm looking forward to working with the rest of you next year! Full results (9 rounds): 7.5 Charvi FJ 7.0 Santiago 5C 6.0 Saraansh 6D, Adem 5M 5.5 Ken 1/2B, Henry 3/4W, Oscar 1/2M, Roman 3/4T 5.0 Cagan 6D, Kiran 3/4P, Stephanie 1/2H 4.5 Lewis 3/4P, Ben 3/4P, Leo 3/4S, Marlo 1/2H 4.0 Lachlan 6D, Santiago 1/2A, Zoha 3/4W 3.5 Samuel 1/2H, Eva 1/2A, Maggie 1/2H, Frankie FH 2.0 Eleni 3/4S, Harriet FH 1.5 Hayley 1/2H Team Kids Holiday Program
Team Kids have another amazing SUMMER Holiday program planned!
Head to teamkids.com.au to secure your spot! 
Community News
AFL All Girls Footy A reminder about our All Girls Come & Try on the 18th of January at the Essendon Football Club! We would like to invite your female students who may not have played football before to come down and give it a try! No experience needed! Shannon Gore (She/Her/Hers) Participation Coordinator EDFL Region Victoria M: 0499 899 591 
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School Contacts
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