Principal's Message

School Philosophy

Orchard Grove Primary School is committed to providing a safe, nurturing environment that engages curiosity, promotes learning, personal growth, and well-being for all students. We strive to develop adaptability and resilience so students can become valued members of the local and global communities and be prepared for future life experiences.

From the Principal

Welcome back to Term 4!

What a fast-paced start to the term - with our much-anticipated production of Rock Bottom happening this week. I am so proud of everyone involved for their work and commitment. This is the first time in many years that we have had a whole school performance and the work put into it by everyone has just been amazing. A huge thank you to our Performing Arts teachers, Grace Jasinski and Suzanne Lichtenauer, for their hard work and dedication - as part-time teachers, this is an amazing effort. A shout-out also goes to the production team and all staff for helping our students shine on the stage. 

 

In other news - we have a bit of work around the school, which, while fantastic, will cause a bit of disruption to our movement around the school in the coming months. You may have noticed the small holes around the school - we are having our fire service upgraded and some of our fire hydrants replaced and others moved. There will also be a pump placed in the back area of the school on the Orchard Grove side. We hope this work will be completed in the coming weeks.

We are also going to have the steps to the front office and from the Holland Road car park replaced to include more inclusive ways of entering the school. We are very excited to have these, as the current access, especially to the front office requires attention. This will cause the closure of the current access points but we are very confident that the workarounds will be manageable. We will communicate these workarounds via Compass as and when they are required.

Our STEM building is now at the tender stage and the next step is to wait until the money is allocated to our building. We do not anticipate that this will be until next year.

 

We have our first Foundation 2025 transition session this Friday, so I would like to welcome new families to our community. We are also beginning to think about our 2025 classes, which might sound early but we take time and effort to make sure these are as balanced as can be in many different ways. Our first school transition date is the 29th of November, so we need to start early to have classes hopefully in place for this session. We do accept parent requests - as long as they are on educational grounds. These requests are overseen by the principal team rather than classroom teachers, as this allows us to ensure all requests are received and treated fairly and equitably. Please forward all requests to the principal team - either directly or via the school email on orchard.grove.ps@education.vic.gov.au. Email or written requests are accepted with a cut off date for requests being the 8th of November 2024.

 

Michelle Ogilvie

Principal