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 wellbeing 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

Well, we now have the roadmap from the State Government and a plan for the return to school. You are probably all over the details but, just in case, I will outline the basics here as to how it affects us at OGPS, so we are all the same page (all quotes are from the Government website).

Until the end of term and the first week back (5 – 9 October) of fourth term:

All schools will continue to provide remote and flexible learning.

"On-site supervision for children of permitted workers and vulnerable students will continue to be provided consistent with existing guidelines."

From the 12th October (Week 2 of Term 4)

"Students in Prep to Grade 2 return to full-time on-site schooling. The existing remote learning program will not continue for these year levels."

We will have a staggered start and finish to the school day as we had earlier in the year. We will follow the same model.

"Remote and flexible learning will continue for all students in Grade 3 to Year 10, other than for children of permitted workers and vulnerable students."

After 26 October when:

The daily average number of cases in the last 14 days is less than five state-wide and there are less than five cases with an unknown source in the last 14 days (state-wide total), then:

"Schools will see a potential staged return for onsite learning for Grade 3 to Year 10 subject to public health advice."

So, in short, Years Three to Six will not be back on site until 26th October at the earliest, depending on COVID-19 cases. That is Week Four of Term Four.

Junior School online disco

On a brighter note, we had positive feedback on the Junior School disco held last Friday. I was able to sneak into some of the class Meets held after the disco and thoroughly enjoyed listening to the students chat about their dance moves, favourite parts, best songs and Ruby the dog's song choice. Our aim was to give the children something different and enjoyable for them to be part of and hopefully put a smile on their faces and, overall, I think we achieved our aim. Even Ruby was sporting her crazy headdress!  

Works around the school

We are continuing to try and take advantage of the situation and do works around the school that are usually difficult to do during the term. The section of grass out the front of the school office is always a problem and has needed to be reseeded for years with a more robust grass. Usually, the only time we could do that is during the summer holidays, which is not good timing. COVID-19 has given us the opportunity to do this at the best time, which is now at the beginning of spring. We have gone with kikuyu and perennial rye mix; in the end, the kijkuyu will be the winner and is a great grass to use in high traffic areas such as ours.  The rye grass will establish first and will look great, and provides good competition for weeds whilst the kikuyu gets established. We used a hydroseeding process on top of a freshly dressed surface and, with regular watering, it will put the odds more firmly in our favour for a good outcome. 

Year Six Graduation

The Year Six Graduation is firmly in our minds at the moment, and we are trying hard to think of different ways to be able to give the children a wonderful celebration. Obviously we will need to work around the restrictions at the time but, most likely, we will have to move to a daytime graduation and, at best, only one parent in attendance. We will be looking to hold the celebration in the Wicking Centre if possible but, if an outdoor venue enables more people to attend, we would be able to hold it out the front of the school, hopefully on our beautiful new grass and refurbished front of the school. We will be looking to live stream the ceremony, still have a meal together with the children, have a photo booth and, if it is held outside, a great sound system in place. We definitely will be doing our best to come up with a great solution to our 2020 Graduation Ceremony. 

In addition, we still do have our booking for the Year Six Camp to Canberra in the first weeks of December. This would be fabulous if it could go ahead and would be a great way for the Year Six students to finish off the year together. However, it is still reliant on the restrictions in place at that time.

School Photos

As you will have realised, the annual school photos have had to be postponed a number of times. Our new date is Wednesday 18th November. Depending on the restrictions at the time, we may only be able to do the junior school and only the individual photos. If that is the case, I will organise to take class photos myself - maybe not as good as the professional ones, but I will do my best and at least we will have a record for 2020.

Well, that is all from me for this week.

Take care everyone and stay safe and let's hope we can all be back together again sooner rather than later.  Not the same without you.

Glenda Harry

Principal