Dear Oakdale Community,

It is hard to believe we are already at the halfway point of Term 2. Autumn has certainly arrived in our part of the world and I absolutely love driving to work each morning seeing the changing landscape and our beautiful grounds shift with the season. As we move into winter, our classrooms continue to be warm, welcoming and full of learning. A reminder to please ensure all jumpers and jackets are clearly named and that students continue to wear their winter uniform with pride including black shoes Monday to Thursday.

At this point each term, I aim to share a brief update to our community on our School Excellence Plan — what we are working on, where we are up to, and how we are tracking as a school community. This helps keep us aligned and focused on what matters most for our students.

Growing Student Potential at Oakdale

This term has already provided many opportunities for our students to grow and shine across the different domains of potential at Oakdale.

We celebrated Charlie.W from 3/4M and Charlie.W from 4/5C at our Monday morning muster this week. Charlie.W (3/4M) continues to demonstrate his passion and skill in softball, recently progressing through representative tryouts beyond the local level, while Charlie.W (4/5C) will proudly represent our community at the regional cross country carnival. Both students are wonderful examples of achievement and commitment within the physical domain.

We are also seeing strong growth in creativity across the school. Students involved in Hume Conservatorium have made a fantastic start learning drums, guitar and ukulele, and we are very proud to now have our own drum kit at school. Our upcoming art gallery fundraiser next week will also provide a wonderful opportunity for students to showcase their creative work. Families are reminded that it is never too late for students to sign up for the Hume. Contact the office for more information.

In classrooms, students continue to be challenged and supported in their learning, particularly in writing, spelling and numeracy, as part of our Strategic Direction 1 focus on student growth and attainment. This includes our current Spelling Bee and the continued work of our Learning Support Team in supporting student growth in numeracy. Report season is now well underway, with staff writing student reports, and information regarding parent-teacher interviews later this term will be shared with families next week.

Across the school, we are also seeing students develop confidence, resilience and connection through Peer Support, playground initiatives and opportunities to work together in positive and meaningful ways. It has been great to see students not only engaged in their learning, but also growing as kind, capable and connected members of our school community.

Road Safety and School Security

Road safety remains an ongoing focus at Oakdale. As a rural school, we are very aware of the importance of building strong, early understanding of safe behaviours around roads and vehicles.

Recent events in the broader community, including a motorbike accident involving a high school student along with an incident this week where a student moved into a roadside area and was quickly supported by staff and community members. The situation was managed very well, with all appropriate processes followed to ensure student safety. These are both timely reminders of why this learning is so important for our young people.

In response, all classes are currently engaged in road safety learning as part of PDHPE, reinforcing safe habits and decision-making.

Alongside this, we are continuing our work with the Department around site safety and secure fencing. This provides an important additional layer of protection for all students, particularly for students with additional needs and our neurodivergent learners, where clear boundaries and secure environments further support safety and regulation.

Thank you to families for your ongoing support in using the Burragorang Road entrance during school hours and for your help in maintaining our locked gates and site procedures. It has been lovely seeing so many familiar faces and friendly waves as people come past my office during the school day.

Learning and Wellbeing in Action

As part of Strategic Direction 2: Connect, Belong, Succeed, one initiative already having a strong impact is our playground approach of “play first, eat last.”

We are seeing great success with this initiative. Students are calmer and more settled during break times, with increased flexibility and choice. We are also seeing reduced food waste, fewer playground incidents, and stronger support for students who benefit from additional regulation and wellbeing support. Staff are also enjoying more meaningful conversations with students during eating time, which continues to strengthen relationships across the school.

The impact on student wellbeing has been significant. In one cohort, behaviour incidents have reduced from 84 in Term 1 to 15 in Term 2. Overall, negative wellbeing incidents across the school have reduced by 76% from Term 1 to Term 2.

Looking ahead, we have built on our recent successful visit to Berrima Public School, where we saw strong practice in action and excellent examples of student engagement and learning. Our focus now is on continuing to grow our vision of curious, confident and courageous learners through strong teaching and learning across the school. A key priority is developing shared learning habits and a common language for learning to help students better understand themselves as learners. This includes dispositions such as resilience, empathy, grit and persistence — skills that support success both in and beyond the classroom.

If there are particular learning habits you would value seeing developed at Oakdale, I would genuinely welcome your feedback at the back gate.

Growing Healthy Learners

We often think of our school like a garden — for students to grow and thrive, we must focus on the “soil” that supports learning and wellbeing, including sleep, nutrition, routines, and mental health. When these foundations are strong, children are best placed to learn and flourish.

The NSW Health Primary School Mobile Dental Team recently visited our school and shared oral health recommendations for families, including encouraging water as the preferred drink during school hours, limiting sugary foods and drinks, and brushing teeth twice daily with fluoridated toothpaste. While we continue to see many healthy lunchboxes and support students through our Breakfast Club program, juices and other sugary drinks are common across the school.

Thank you, as always, for your ongoing support. Oakdale is a special place because of the strong partnership between home, school and community, and I feel very fortunate to be part of what we are building together for our children.

#LoveWhereYouLearn

Warm regards, 

Nathan Vanderwey 

Relieving Principal