Principal's News

Showtime !

Our students from Prep to Year 3 are set to shine in the Junior Concert ‘You Belong Here’. There are two performances, on August 13th and 14th at the Crossway Centre in Burwood East, with a rehearsal during the day on Monday. The Performing Arts are an important element of the Victorian curriculum and provide our students with an opportunity to display their talent, to work together as a team and to share the experience with family and friends.

Congratulations to the following students who excelled in their UNSW Science Competition recently. Each student received a Distinction, placing him or her in the top 11% of participating students from around Australia.

Year 3 – Tess Gumley
Year 4 – Matthew Rogers, Yunlong Wu
Year 6 – Jacob Senior

Our Wellbeing team has been working extremely hard throughout this year, focussing on the introduction of School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS). SWPBS is a key goal within our Annual Implementation Plan and is endorsed by School Council.

SWPBS is a whole-school framework, which provides school professionals with an approach to promote positive behaviour at school. It has been developed from evidence and data with research indicating success in improving school culture and increasing academic performance.

The key attributes of SWPBS include preventive activities, data-based decision making, and a problem solving orientation. SWPBS is a framework with four core, defining features:

Outcomes: Supporting social competence and academic achievement
Systems: Supporting staff behaviour
Data: Supporting decision-making
Practices: Supporting student behaviour

SWPBS uses a tiered intervention framework, which invests in:

Primary prevention (tier 1): School and classroom-wide systems for all students, staff and settings (approximately 80% of students)
Secondary prevention (tier 2): Specialised group systems for students with at-risk behaviour (approximately 15% of students)
Tertiary prevention (tier 3): Specialised, individualised systems for students with high-risk behaviour (approximately 5% of students)

(It is important to note that students are not ‘defined’ by a tier – a student may spend most of his her time in Tier 1, but may for example display Tier 2 or Tier 3 behaviours at particular times or in particular situations.)

We will be holding a SWPBS Parent Forum during Term 4 and will continue to share information about its implementation.

We are fortunate to have many volunteers who support and enrich our school community. In the coming weeks, I will be highlighting some of our volunteers and the fabulous work they do in supporting our students, staff and the school in general. The first of those is our Kids Hope Program.

Kids Hope is an early intervention, school-based mentoring program that has been operating in Australia since 2004. The program aims to develop emotional and social resilience in children, and so enhance their capacity to learn. The model is built on a long-term partnership between a local school and a local church. Carefully screened and trained mentors from the church meet the children for one hour per week at the school. Over 10,000 children have been matched with mentors in primary schools all around Australia. The results show is the program changes lives. It is important to note that all mentors are trained to respect the secular nature of education and there are strict guidelines about using any religious content or materials used during the mentoring hour. The focus is purely on the social and emotional development of the child through the mentoring relationship. Depending on the interests of the children and the sills of the mentor, sessions may include craft, cooking, puzzles, construction and much more.

At Old Orchard, currently have eight Kids Hope Mentors who do an amazing job in supporting our students. The positive 2-way relationships that we see develop over the years are inspirational and the final ‘get-together’ at the end of Year 6 is always quite an emotional one. On behalf of our students and families, I offer my sincere thanks to Jayne Deluca, Doug Petering, Rosemary Buckingham, Ros Long, Alison Main, Janine Carnell, Kirra Lewis, Holly Williams and Frank Deluca for their fantastic work. Thank-you also to St. Alfred’s Church for their ongoing commitment to and support of the Kids Hope Program.

Our school facilities are extensive and we work very hard to maintain and improve them. Recent works have included:

Replacing shade-cloth over the playgrounds
Erecting a new picket fence near the sandpit and chicken coop
Finalising the fantastic new play area at the end of B Wing – this will be officially opened next week so watch out for photos and more information

Best wishes to Year 6 student, Finn Castor who heads off to Newcastle next week to participate in the School Sport Australia 12 Years and Under Boys National Hockey Championships. It is an outstanding achievement to be selected to represent Victoria and I’m certain that the experience will be a memorable one for Finn.

Congratulations also to Michael Georgakopoulos who recently travelled to the U.S.A. to compete in the World Futsal Championships. The team finished third, losing to the eventual winners Rio de Janeiro in the semi-final. The tournament, at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando Florida, was an amazing experience and a great learning opportunity for Michael and his teammates.

Warm regards

Duncan