Principal's Message
Wawa, Wominjika.
Here at Old Orchard Primary School, we acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land we visit each day, the Wurrunguri and Woiwurrung people of the Kulin nation. We acknowledge and respect the elders and leaders past and present and the elders and leaders of all of the cultures and nationalities that are part of the Old Orchard Primary School community.We express our gratitude towards the orchards that were kept in place by the peoples on this land before us.We thank the traditional owners for sharing this beautiful land that we all love, and for keeping the land, sky, waterways and animals all in great condition for thousands of years, not only for themselves but for all the generations to come.
Year 6 Camp
Our year 6 students have spent the week at Camp Coonawarra in Gippsland. The 5 day camp provides a brilliant opportunity for students to develop their independence, try new and challenging things, cooperate with peers and build new friendships. We look forward to our year 5 students enjoying their camp in early term 2. Thank you to our staff Duncan, Ellen, Monique, Ben, Nicola and Mitchell as well as our parent volunteers Lauren, Leigh and Jacqueline for making the camp possible.
Prep Parent Information Evening
It was terrific to meet with our Prep families at the annual Prep information and welcome evening on Tuesday night. Our Preps have sailed into their schooling and we are so proud of them. Thank you to our prep teachers Beth and Milly for their presentation and the incredible job they have done so far in settling our newest members of the Old Orchard community.
NAPLAN Practice
Our year 3 & 5 students had a NAPLAN practice test early in the week. The purpose of this test was to test run the technology capacity to ensure that during the testing period we are able to provide a calm and ‘hitch free’ environment for our students. There were a few issues with headsets and frozen screens that are being addressed today by our tech David.
Home Learning
In the coming weeks your child (year 1 – 6) will begin to bring home their expected home learning tasks. Across the school there are varying ways for home learning to be recorded. In 2026 we are reintroducing school diaries to our senior students and more formal reading logs in the junior school. The idea of this is to assist with students understanding the importance of a regular home learning routine.
Please see below an excerpt from the Old Orchard Primary School Home Learning Policy:
At Years Prep to 2, a maximum 30 minutes daily, home learning includes:
• regular reading aloud - to, with and by parents/carers/older siblings
• practising the reading and writing of letters and high frequency words
• practising the reading and writing of numbers, counting patterns and
number facts
• tasks such as cooking, helping set up new equipment, writing shopping
lists, notes or cards, playing board / card games/imaginary play
At Years 3 and 4, a maximum of 30 minutes (Year 3) and 45 minutes (Year 4)
daily, home learning is set as an extension of class work by practising skills or
gathering extra information or materials. Home learning includes:
• independent or shared reading on a regular basis
• revising number facts and tables
• the use of a range of spelling strategies to learn from a list of personal
spelling words
• activities related to the current Inquiry Learning units
At Years 5 and 6, a maximum of 45 minutes daily, home learning is set as an
extension of class work, projects and assignments, and research. Home learning
includes:
• regular independent reading
• revising number facts, multiplication tables and activities related to the
weekly maths focus
• investigating and researching areas of specific interest.
This week marks the start of the Lunar New Year. We wish all of our families a happy year filled with prosperity and good fortune! May every day of the new year shine with hope and joy.
Warm regards,
Jen McCann and Clare Murray
Assistant Principals