Address: Willett Avenue, Oak Park VIC 3046
T:(03) 9306 9182 E: [email protected] |
Issue 23
August 5th 2021 |
Oak Park Primary School will work collaboratively to provide a stimulating, safe and challenging learning environment that promotes resilient, innovative thinkers.
Calendar of Events
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Principal's Column
Smooth Return to Onsite With students returning from lockdown last week, our teachers have been closely monitoring their transition back to school, with a particular focus on their wellbeing & connectedness. I’m delighted to report for the vast majority of students, the transition back to school has been quite smooth. We look forward to some great upcoming school events – modified to be possible according to our COVID-safe Operations Guide. Our Foundation Students will have their 100th day of school this Friday August 6th, we look forward to celebrating this momentous occasion by dressing up and sharing some activities on-site. Our Athletics Carnival is scheduled for August 20th, as an event with just Oak Park students we can continue to operate. Liam, our P.E teacher has put the call out for volunteers, so if you can assist, please email him to offer support. Separate Play Spaces – Thanks Students As part of the updated operations guide, where possible we need to ensure cohorts of students remain apart, including at break times. Foundation – Year 2, Year 3 & 4 and Year 5 & 6 have been enjoying their separate play spaces. A few Year 3/4 students have given me some strong feedback that they miss their playground, I’ve assured them as soon as we have further flexibility we’ll return to our usual system. Thanks to all our students for being responsible and resilient during this time. Maintenance Crew Thanks to students over the last week for their assistance during lunchtime to remove leaf litter from the schoolyard. We appreciate your ongoing support to help keep our school tidy, it is most appreciated, especially this time of year when our oak trees have dropped their many leaves. Like many of the great sustainability processes around the school, it’s great to see students taking pride and demonstrating respect for our grounds. Special thanks to Audrey (4T), Helena (4T), Rahael (4T), Charlie (3C), Mary (3C) and Eliza (3W) for their enthusiasm. Assemblies and Student Leadership Our WebEx assembly with the whole school was led brilliantly by our Student Leaders. It was great to acknowledge all our WOW award winners to congratulate them on all their efforts, hearing the cheers from classrooms was heart-warming. Our Student Leaders are also undertaking a suggestion process to name our school houses beyond just their colour. Once they’ve collected enough suggestions and feedback, leaders will determine names and mascots to represent our school houses. Kind regards, Michael Gill Acting Principal Wildlife Xposure Postponed
WILDLIFE XPOSURE NATIVE AND ENDANGERED ANIMAL EXPERIENCE This event was due to take place on Friday 6th August but current COVID-related advice does not allow for incursions to take place and as a result this event will have to be rescheduled. All permissions and payments provided will be carried over to the new date (date to be confirmed soon) and anyone who has not provided permission/payment is encouraged to do so as this event will take place after rescheduling and will be a great experience for students. We are very sorry that this has had to be postponed for the second time – the lockdowns and COVID restrictions placed on schools have meant we have not been able to stage the event as planned, but rest assured, both the school and the people at Wildlife Xposure are keen to make it happen so we plan to have a new date very soon! SPECIALIST
Art OPPS PFA/Kids Art Works Fundraiser 2021 It’s time to get the students’ creativity flowing to design some awesome artworks for the PFA Kids Art Works Fundraiser. All students in the school will be creating a piece of art that will be able to be printed on greeting cards, calendars, diaries, sketchbooks or mousepads. The theme for this year is “Free Expression” for Grades 1-6. Foundation students will be working on an abstract shape design. The students will create their artwork during two art classes. If unfinished, it will be sent home for completion and needs to be returned to the Art Room by Thursday August 26. Sustainability
John has spent some time today with the Sustainability leaders (Tahlia 6HL and Lucia 6D) showing them how to access and get information from the solar panels we have installed on the gym roof. They will be putting some information in our newsletter each week, and occasionally would like to make an announcement at the virtual assembly (for “record breaking” weeks of solar energy production etc.). The intention is to take the raw figures which are generally in kWh (kilowatt hours) and relate them to real life operations such as how many loads of washing you could do with that power or how many times you could charge your phone etc. – this is provided on the website portal where we monitor the energy we’re creating. We actually had our best day so far of solar energy production yesterday (Thursday 29th July), which yielded 60kWh of energy (which is enough to power my house for about 10 days!) so it really has the potential to do some great things for our energy bills and carbon footprint. John P.E Inter School Sports
I am also hoping to find some volunteers to help out with a big special event for all F-2 students on Friday 20th August (Week 6). I need about 15-20 students to help out on the day. It is important to note that this event is on the same day as our local athletics carnival for students in Grades 3-6. So if you choose to help out with this special event, that means you will choose not to participate in the athletics carnival. If you are interested in helping out, please read the information below. "Olympic Games Extravaganza" You will be responsible for helping to run a mini Olympics for OPPS! Some of the roles you will be in charge of include:
I have provided a link below with some details about the event. Please email me if you are interested in being a leader for the day. https://kaboomkidsports.com.au/olympic-games-extravaganza/ Thanks, Liam Performing Arts
Hi families, If you have any of the following items at home we would love to borrow them for the school concert-
Also, if you have any of the following to donate-
Grade 3 News
The Grade 3s have been learning about multiplication and arrays. 3W designed quilts to show arrays. |
Thank You
Oak Park Primary School is extremely grateful to Luke from 1B’s family for going through the process to win our school library a donation of 6 Indigenous books. The competition and donation was provided by Australia Post. All 6 books will live happily in the school library for anyone to borrow and enjoy reading. Having books from all cultural perspectives is imperative for students to be able to relate to characters, cultures and Australian history. More so, books allow us to delve deep into worlds that we may not have experienced before, to share stories we may not have heard and to hear different ways of being. Books ultimately, help us develop kind and respectful students that understand all cultural backgrounds. Thanks so much to Luke and his family for helping us enhance our wonderful wide range of books available at Oak Park Primary School. P.F.A
The next PFA meeting will be on Monday August 2nd at 8pm on zoom. Zoom details on Compass Hope to see you there! PFA Community News
School Contacts
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