Welcome back!!

Welcome to the 2025 school year! It has been wonderful to see our school buzzing with energy, enthusiasm, and a strong sense of community right from the very first day. A special welcome to all our new students and their families—we are delighted to have you as part of the Orchard Park community and look forward to sharing this exciting journey with you.

Our Prep students have had an incredible start to their school life, settling in beautifully and embracing new routines with enthusiasm and confidence. It has been heartwarming to see their smiles, curiosity, and eagerness to learn. A huge thank you to our dedicated Prep team for creating such a warm and welcoming environment for our newest learners.

Across all year levels, students have demonstrated a positive attitude towards their learning and have quickly reconnected with friends and teachers. The sense of excitement in learning communities and the playground reflects the strong relationships and vibrant learning culture we are so proud of at Orchard Park.

Thank you to our wonderful staff and families for your support in making the start of the year so successful. We look forward to a fantastic year ahead, filled with learning, growth, and memorable experiences for all.

Car parking

As we begin the new year, can all families please read through the following reminders around parking at pick up and drop off times to ensure all members of our school community arrive and depart safely. I encourage all families to please work together and ensure these steps are followed.

Stop and Drop Zones. The closest 6 car parks at the front of the school on Pink Hill Boulevard are a dedicated stop and drop zone for families from 8:00am-9:30am and 2:30-4:00pm. This means that parents should not park in these areas if they plan to walk in to drop their children off or walk in to pick their children up at the end of the day. This will allow for the traffic in these parks to be flowing throughout these busy times.
Parking on the median strip on Pink Hill Boulevard. This area is a no parking zone. It creates unnecessary risks with students tempted to cross at locations other than the school crossing. Cardinia Council regularly administers parking fines for this breach, so please avoid this option.
Staff car park. The staff car park is not to be accessed by parents unless you are utilising the disabled car park. In my previous experiences at other schools I have seen some near misses in staff car parks and as I outlined earlier, safety of everyone is our key priority.
Consider other entry and exit points. We are very lucky to have indented parking on our eastern and northern boundaries to the school. Whilst the Pink Hill Boulevard is the entry/exit point that most of our families use, we encourage you to consider the other gate entry/exit points on Barnsley Road and Grant Parade where there is lots of parking available.
Avoid using Kurmboon Kindergarten car park. With growing kinder enrolments, we ask that you do not use this car park unless you are dropping off or picking up kinder children.

Finally, please remember to observe the speed zones around the school. Let’s work together to ensure the safety of all students and families during these peak times.

School assemblies

Whole school assemblies will continue to take place on Friday afternoons from 2:30-3:00pm. As such, this is where all students will be dismissed from. We absolutely love to see our parents, grandparents, younger siblings and other family members come along and join us for assembly. Our assemblies are an opportunity to celebrate achievements of our students in their various successes here at Orchard Park PS. A weekly celebration that will occur at our assemblies is our ‘Orchard Spark’ awards, where one student from each class will be recognised for an aspect of growth and/or achievement throughout the week. Families will be contacted in advance so you can hopefully come along and celebrate this special moment with your child. Our Student Leaders will continue to take the lead throughout these assemblies with some support from staff. Our Prep students did an incredible job last week for their very first assembly and will only continue to improve their stamina the longer the year goes.

School Carnival

It is now only a few weeks away from our School Carnival. Parents and Friends have been doing a power of work behind the scenes organising rides, attractions, food vans and all of our stall holders. This event is designed to create an opportunity for our school and wider community to come together and have a day of fun and connection. We invite all of our school families along with your extended families, neighbours and friends to join in the festivities. An exciting addition to the carnival this year is the dunk tank!! There will be a range of staff who will sit in the dunking seat throughout the day, giving everyone the chance to dunk them. Let’s hope the weather is nice and hot for those being dunked. Don’t forget, unlimited rides tickets can be pre-purchased at a discounted rate before 15th February.

Upcoming Curriculum Day Wednesday 5th March - Student Free Day

With any Curriculum Days here at Orchard Park PS, we always want to update our families about what happens on these days. Curriculum Days are the few opportunities throughout the year we have to bring our whole staff together and complete some intensive learning around specific areas of focus.

On Wednesday 5th March, our staff will be completing the 3rd day of our professional learning around the Berry Street Educational Model (BSEM). The BSEM is evidence based practice of how to keep students engaged and how to support them to have an improved capacity for school achievement.

Day 3 focuses on Stamina – how to create a culture of academic persistence in your classroom by nurturing student resilience, emotional intelligence and a growth mindset and Engagement - motivating students with strategies that increase their willingness to learn.

All staff are looking forward to this day of professional learning. Please remember, this is a student free day and full day care will be available through Camp Australia.

OSHC tender process

Some of you may have seen on our Facebook page today, that School Council has made the decision to go to tender for our next OHSC provider contract. Our current contract with Camp Australia concludes at the beginning of Term 2 and School Council made the very considered decision to consider all options for our next provider contract. We will update the school community on the outcome of this process at its conclusion.

OFFICER AUSKICK