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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 16
June 9th 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
Foundation Fitness and Wellbeing As part of our continued focus on student wellbeing all student cohorts (Foundation, 1/2, 3/4 and 5/6) will have additional lunchtime activities in Term 3 and 4 driven by student interest. The aim of these clubs is to develop connectedness between students and ensure they have fun, productive and engaging breaks from learning. Our Foundation cohort have already begun their Fitness and Wellbeing Club on Friday. This weekly session is supported by Rituals for Health, a local professional trainer focussed on healthy food choices and group exercise. Students have enjoyed their initial sessions and left energised with smiling faces. Currently we also have Chess Club, Minecraft Club, Oak Park’s Got Talent and an Art Club already in operation to ensure our students have additional lunchtime activities to support further student cohorts and utilise our SRC (School Representative Council) and School Captains. 
Staff Absences and Flu Season
All schools are grappling with major staffing shortages at present. A combination of COVID, the flu and extended absences is certainly placing pressure on many of our daily operations. The Department of Education is certainly closely monitoring these pressures on schools and over recent weeks some schools have had no other options but to return to Remote Learning platforms. With Term 3 being the typical peak for illnesses, please be assured that we are diligently planning ahead to minimise school disruptions next term. We understand parent nervousness about this matter and will continue to provide transparent updates through Compass and the Newsletter. Community Survey As part of planning for 2023 and beyond we're seeking feedback from our community in separate surveys (parent, students and teacher) regarding the creation of a fourth Specialist subject at Oak Park Primary School. The addition of this subject aims to ensure clarity between the curriculum taught by specialist teachers and our inquiry learning units (classroom teachers). This will also allow for upcoming industrial requirements around the allocation of face-to-face teaching hours. We need to ensure we select a learning area (subject) from the Victorian Curriculum. Further information here: https://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/ We also aim to ensure that the selected learning area (subject) is best taught as a specialist program and prepares our students for learning in secondary school. Schools in Victoria are required to offer a language program. The school plans to continue Japanese in 2023, during the best format available - ideally taught by on-site teacher. Currently (2022) the school is providing a Japanese program using classroom teachers and video driven lessons developed by our previous Japanese teacher. A big thanks to the Parent Education Subcommittee and community members that attending our annual general meeting to help develop and fine tune this short survey, https://forms.gle/2gyr8vnUKSUJAb656 Further reminder of Curriculum Days for Term 3 and 4 For future reference, please note the following curriculum days recently approved by School Council. Term 3 – Friday, August 12th – Staff Professional Learning Term 4 – Monday, October 31st – Staff Time in Lieu, supporting completed online courses Term 4 – Tuesday, December 20th – Additional Planning Day in preparation for 2023. Kind regards, Michael Gill Principal School Tours
Oak Park Primary School will be offering school tours on the following dates at 10am:
If you are looking at enrolling your child at Oak Park Primary school in 2023, or know of anyone in this position, please also email Fran to organise an enrolment form. Student Enrolment Information Form
A final reminder for families to please return the Student Enrolment Information Form. This is especially important if you have changed address or contact details Student Unexplained Absences
Letters were sent home on Wednesday with dates of students unexplained absences. Parents are required to complete the forms and return to school. You may also go into Compass and mark your childs unexplained absence with a reason. We ask that parents please note their childs absence on Compass in the morning if your child is absent due illness or any other reason. If your child is running late, parents/guardians must bring them in via the Office and sign them in. Please do not mark late arrivals or early departures via Compass, these are to be done via the Office so exact times are input. If you have trouble with Compass, please contact the office where we can assist you to upload the information. Year 6-7 Transition
Grade 5 News
CERES recount 2022 On Tuesday the 31st of May, a group of lucky 5/6 students learnt the detrimental effects of climate change and how it impacts our world today. We did fun activities, which included interesting worksheets that made us realise there is a problem with the way that we source our everyday items, and we even used some high tech gadgets to measure the temperature and the level of light in rooms around the school! Two of the best parts of this incursion were when we DIY’ed a plant pot out of newspaper to plant our very own silver beet, and when we held black and brown coal which were over 60 million years old! The 5/6s digitally explored the magical world of CERES which we learnt was a fun place to grow fruits and veg, hang out with friends, learn about our world and how we can improve it. Overall, we had an amazing experience we will never forget. Thank you so much to the CERES team for giving us this wonderful opportunity so we could realise that we need to act now before it’s too late. By Zara & Naida 5C
Concert News
The theme has been announced, auditions are being organised and now costumes are coming into focus! We always try to be as sustainable as possible when it comes to costumes and we try to reuse as many costumes as we can from past concerts. We do however have many animals in this concert so it you have any old/unused fake furs tops or African or animal prints items we would love to take them off your hands! Big Boxes Now is definitely the right time to purchase that huge TV or massive fridge! We love reusing large cardboard items around concert time so if you have any large cardboard boxes or know anyone who can get their hands on large cardboard pieces please let me know! [email protected] 
Physical Education
It is with great pride that I can announce that all of our inter-school sport teams have qualified for finals! This Friday we will see the footy team take on Glenroy Private at JP Fawkner Reserve, our netball teams take on Ilim College at our school grounds and the soccer team will fight it out against St. Matthews on a rescheduled date. This is the first time in my memory that we have qualified for finals all 3 sports! It is fair to say we have a very talented and hardworking crop of students representing our school at the moment and each team deserves to take home the chocolates. Stay tuned for this week’s results in the newsletter next week. Cross country has been postponed a second time and is meant to run on Thursday 9th, however the inclement weather has continued to delay the event. I will hopefully have some results to share next week. Thanks Liam Visual Arts
This week students have been adding some of the artworks they have created to their Seesaw or Google Classroom portfolios, to showcase some of the awesome work that they have been doing in art classes during Semester 1. The students have done some reflection on the pieces they have created by looking at materials and equipment used, what they enjoyed about making the artwork and finally what part of creating the artwork they think they could have improved. These artworks can be viewed during the student led conferences in the last week of school for Term 2. Please help celebrate the wonderful artworks the students have created this semester! Foundation Little Athletics Tournament
Over the last two weeks, Foundation students have been learning all about ordinal numbers. To help us better understand the concept, we decided to hold the Foundation Little Athletics Tournament! We came up with three team names – Ana’s Alligators, Lauren’s Leopards and Alex’s Bubblegums. Students had lots of fun choosing team songs and coming up with dance moves for our opening ceremony performances. The events included a running race, a crab walk race, tunnel ball, a hula hoop relay and many more! We loved figuring out who came first, second and third after each event. At the end of the tournament, there was only one point separating first and second – stress levels were high! The final results were Ana’s Alligators in third place, Lauren’s Leopards in second place and Alex’s Bubblegums in first place. The Foundation teachers were so impressed with the great sportsmanship and resilience we saw from all students. Well done everyone! 
Rubbish Free Lunch of the Week
Rubbish-Free Lunch of the Week: Good on you, Aadhya from 1/2B!
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Book Fair
OAK PARK PS - 2022 BOOK FAIR KEEPS BREAKING RECORDS! The final totals are in… Due to the generosity of our school community, we have had THE MOST SUCCESSFUL Book Fair ever at the school. The school now has $2091 to purchase new books and resources for the school library and classrooms. A big thank you to everyone for the overwhelming support of the Book Fair. All orders have been finalised, if your child has not received their order you need to contact me immediately. Thank you once again to everyone who visited, purchased or helped at the fair. HAPPY READING! PFA News
Dear Families,
Thanks to your support during May, more than thirty towels and blankets have made their way to the Lost Dogs Home to help keep the animals cosy on these chilly days. This month gives you the chance to clean out your cupboards and donate your old shoes! Drop them off in the tub at the front office at school (beside the stick insect cage). Donations will be accepted until 30 June. We are accepting:
School Council and PFA Food Waste Challenge
How are your entries going for the Food Waste Challenge? There are great prizes to be won, including edible greens grow kits and more! Claudia and Oscar have made chocolate mousse with overripe avocado, icing sugar, cocoa and orange juice -- delicious, nutritious and great for the planet! What ideas have you come up with? Need a reminder about what the Food Waste Challenge involves? See the newsletter of 5 May at: https://www.oakparkps.vic.edu.au/newsletter---5th-may-2022.html Parents & Friends Association
Team Kids - Oak Park Primary School Winter Flyer
Community News
School Contacts
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