|
The Oak Leaf |
|
Address: Willett Avenue, Oak Park VIC 3046
T:(03) 9306 9182 E: oak.park.ps@education.vic.gov.au |
Issue 04
February 23th 2023 |
Oak Park Primary School will work collaboratively to provide a stimulating, safe and challenging learning environment that promotes resilient, innovative thinkers.
|
Calendar of Events
|
|
Principal's Column
A different kind of growth A kind thanks to Henry and his family for propagating this small Oak seedling and thinking of our school site. Year 1 students will nurture and care for the seedling that will hopefully grow and find another home onsite when it’s more sizeable. Appreciate your help with the planting Henry and May. 
School Council Membership
As there were the same number of nominations for School Council as there were vacancies, a ballot was not required this year. Many thanks to those who nominated, and re-nominated! A special welcome to our new council members, we appreciate your interest and support. The first meeting is scheduled for Wednesday March 8th, we look forward to working as a productive School Council once again. The School Council members for 2023 will be: Parent Members Andrew Ward Marta Kawinska Kirti Crute Lola Grech Dan Williams Jennifer Harding Elizabeth Bolte Mark Griffin Nick Karolidis Community Member Eugenie Baulch DET Members Michael Gill Sally Morath Melanie Schirmer Lauren Heard Meet the Teacher – Thank you! Thanks to every family that attended the ‘Meet the Teacher’ event this Wednesday. It was wonderful to see so many families on-site to build rapport with classroom teachers for 2023. Thank you to teachers for staying late to provide the opportunity for all families to meet – a very long workday, your flexibility is appreciated by our community. Kind regards, Michael Gill Principal Interschool Sports
Assembly Schedule - Term 1
Student Leaders 2023
Hi Oak Park community, we are the School and Vice Captains of 2023. Naida and Harper are the School Captains and Enes and Zara are Vice Captains for this year. We look forward to working with the school and all of the students to create a positive learning experience for everyone! Our job includes, having meetings with staff and students (SRC), running assembly and much more. Our number one goal is that we want to make our school a safe space for students to feel comfortable to learn and grow as unique individuals. 
Performing Arts Captains:
We are Rahael and Helena and we are very grateful to be the Performing Arts Captains for 2023. We are looking forward to speaking at Assembly, working with Melanie and bringing the joy of Performing Arts to all of the students of O.P.P.S. Our jobs are to host clubs such as Dance club and Singing club. We hope to achieve spreading confidence and happiness in the world of dancing, singing and acting. Thank You for taking your time to read this. 
Visual Arts Captains:
Hi, we’re Diya (5/6M) and Bella (5/6C), the Visual Arts Captains for 2023. We’re looking forward to working with David and helping him around the art room. As of now, we are cleaning out the storage and art room to make space for brand new supplies as it is part of our job as Art Captains. This year, we will be having art catch-up a couple times a week at lunch. We are hoping that this year we can get more kids to like and come to art enthusiastically. Thank you. 
Wellbeing Leaders
Adam 5/6M, Vihara 5/6C, Amany 5/6M and Selin 5/6M. These lovely Grade 6 students were chosen for their displays of respect, responsibility, resilience and commitment to helping others and improving the wellbeing of OPPS. Throughout the year the Wellbeing Leaders will be working with Kirsty Finter and Sally Morath. In this role, each student will be responsible for specific areas such as helping out with breakfast club, promoting healthy bodies and minds as well as helping students out on the playground to problem solve. Watch this space to hear of all the amazing activities our Wellbeing Leaders will get up to this year. 
Fundraising Captains
We would like to introduce our new Fundraising Captains for 2023. Elaa 5/6J, Maya 5/6M, Pyper 5/6J, and Roza 5/6C. We are looking forward to working with Jane and Jordan. We will be selling Zooper Doopers every Tuesdays and Thursday and we’ll also be hosting sausage sizzles from time to time. We hope to raise a lot of money for the school. This year we are looking forward to fundraise with new and different ideas and hope this year will be great. 
Lunch Orders: Important
There is a cut-off time for ordering lunch orders each week, which is 11am on a Thursday. Orders placed after this time, will roll over to the following week. Students and parents have advised their child did not receive a lunch order on the Friday, when in fact, the order was placed after this time of 11am on a Thursday. We thank you for ensuring your childs lunch order is placed by the correct time. Please also find below, details regarding cancellation of orders 
Healthy Eating
At Oak Park Primary School, we have a Healthy Eating policy, and we have implemented a “No Food Sharing” Practice. This includes no food sharing for birthday celebrations as we have many students who either have anaphylaxis or food allergies and it is dangerous for some students to eat certain foods. We are happy for parents to bring in small items for the class to share, such as pencils, stationary etc and non-food items, to celebrate a birthday. We thank you for your assistance in regard to this. Staff Car Park
We ask again, that families dropping off and picking up their child, do not park in the Staff car park. This week we have noticed many parents driving through the staff car park to drop their child to school. This means that when staff arrive to school, they are unable to park there. We ask you to respect our space. Compass Notification
When your child will be dropped at school late due an appointment or similar, we ask that you do not do a Compass notification until you bring your child into school. You will need to sign them in at the office when they actually arrive at school. Please do not mark a late arrival (or early departure) from home as this causes a discrepancy in their attendance. Year 2 News
Smoking Ceremony & Welcome to Country
We are excited to share that Mandy Nicholson from the Wurundjeri group Djirri Djirri will be holding a Smoking Ceremony and Welcome to Country at a whole school assembly on the 28th February at 10am. We are very lucky to be holding such a special event for our school community and students. To prepare, classrooms have been developing their own Acknowledgement of Country to share each morning, have a look at some below:
If you would like to read about the Djirri Djirri, their website is below:
https://djirri-djirri.com.au Parent Hacks
We’d love to get your parent hacks to share with our community. Please forward to Fran at frances.macdonough@education.vic.gov.au Parent Hack No 4: ***Using the online platform for the school lunches has been really great for me. I put the order in early in the week (when I’m less busy) and then I never miss the lunch order deadline. Give it a go, it’s a time saver! Specialist
Performing Arts Grade 3/4 students are being introduced to their focus book, ‘Fox’ by Margaret Wilde. Through drama, students will explore the meaning of friendship, loyalty and independence. In class this week students worked in pairs and created a visual representation of the words ‘powerful’ and ‘vulnerable’. Using their partner as ‘thinking clay’ students were able to move their partner into a position which they believe showed a good representation of these words. The clay statues were then put in a ‘museum’ and students could discuss similarities and differences between the powerful poses and vulnerable poses. Next week students will be exploring the vulnerable and powerful characters in the book and making text-to-self connections with the characters. 
Physical Education
As we continue to progress through a new school year, I’d like to share some of the key values that we prioritise in our PE program at Oak Park:
We believe that these values are essential to our PE classes and to the overall development of our students. Thank you for your support, and we look forward to another successful year ahead Science
Science is everywhere! Our junior school students have been very engaged in their science lessons and love sharing what they know and what they are curious about. As parents and care givers, there are many ways in which to engage your children with some fun science at home! You won’t need fancy equipment or lots of time. Many simple science experiments only require items you can find in your kitchen, bathroom cabinet or garden. By exploring science at home, you can provide the perfect opportunity to encourage your child to think critically, build connections and understand the world around them. For anyone with young scientists at home here are some easy and fun experiments to try with your kids at home. https://www.weareteachers.com/easy-science-experiments/ And here is our tried and tested Fluffy Slime recipe for all those keen junior scientists who loved making it in the science room. What you will need
Japanese News
Here are just a few of the benefits of participating in a Japanese Language Program According to the Victorian Curriculum:
Visual Arts
Looking for something artsy to during the Moomba Festival with artist Briony Barr for kids aged 5 to 13? Why not give the “Tape It!” event a go? Please see below for details regarding booking and ticketing information.
Imagine a drawing that has become bored of paper and wandered off the page in search of new adventure…Welcome to Tape It! Over three days of the Moomba Festival, we will be experimenting with expanded, collaborative drawing, using colourful tape to draw on the floor and walls of ArtPlay Birrarung Marr behind Federation Square in Melbourne. Tape It! will feature both free-drawing areas and rule-based regions. And on the last day of the installation, the un-drawing stage will begin! Participants will be invited to make sculptures out of ripped up tape…Sometimes deconstruction is just another stage of the creative process!
Please ensure your child is within this age range (Children must be accompanied by an adult). 
For more information please visit the City of Melbourne website at:
https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/arts-and-culture/artplay/whats-on/Pages/moomba-festival-tape-it.asp Student Phones
A reminder that all students must hand in their phones to the Office on arrival at school. The phones are kept safely locked away during school hours. Pedestrian & Traffic Count
Merri-Bek Council will be conducting pedestrian and vehicle counts in the vicinity of Oak Park Primary School in the upcoming months. The counts are being conducted by an external traffic survey company and will involve the use of video cameras to capture the data. Council wishes to advise that no persons can be identified in any video footage captured for this survey. All images are automatically blurred by the camera at the time of capture and all footage is automatically permanently deleted once the count is completed. Further to this, the count is undertaken by computer software, so no person will actually view the video footage. Year 6-7 Transition
The process for Year 6-7 Transition starts in Term 2. The placement information pack will be sent home to all families of current Grade 6 students at that time. The parent/carer pack contains:
Please keep an eye on the newsletter as Open Days and School Tour information will be posted as it is received. For those families wishing to enrol privately or at Catholic Schools, you will need to contact them directly as their transition process has already started. If your child has been accepted at a Catholic or Private school, you will still need to state this on the Application and return to the Office. 
Community News
|
|
Penola Saints Netball Club
Oak Park Football Club
School Contacts
|
