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.

NAPLAN

All of our Year 3 and Year 5 NAPLAN testing has now been completed and we commend all students on their positive approach to the testing. We look forward to receiving the individual student reports later in the year as well as the various other reports that we are able to use to analyse school programs. Old Orchard has always adopted the approach of taking NAPLAN very seriously with a view to maximising student performance, while at the same time, keeping it in perspective as a one off test or snapshot of student ability and progress. We prepare students for testing to ensure that they are familiar with the testing format, examples of writing prompts, etc. However, it is not our practice to complete numerous practice NAPLAN tests as we believe this distracts us from our primary function of teaching the curriculum. Thanks again to our NAPLAN coordinator, Rebecca Mitchell, who has done an outstanding job of organising the testing program, including catch-up tests for students who may have been absent for some of the testing days.

Buddies Picnic

Yesterday was our annual Prep and Year 6 buddies Teddy Bears’ Picnic. This is always a wonderful occasion where the children sit down for a picnic together with their respective parents, and of course, their favourite teddies. Thank you to all of the students, the parents who were able to attend and the staff for organising the event.

Kiss & Drop Zone

Many of you would be aware of the ‘Kiss and Drop’ zones at the front and rear entrances of our school. These zones are specifically designed to allow for quick drop offs of students and quick collection of students at the end of the day and as the signage indicates, there is a two minute time limit with drivers not permitted to leave their vehicles unattended. We have been monitoring this closely of late and will speak with parents who may not be clear about the expectations. For clarity, there are detailed guidelines about the Kiss and Drop zone in each copy of the Harvest, and I encourage you to read them closely. All traffic and road safety rules in and around the school are in place in the interests of the safety of our students, families, Eleni (our crossing supervisor) and other pedestrians and road users.

Parent teacher chats

Thank you to the many parents and carers who have been able to attend the parent teacher chats this week. The feedback that I have received from teachers and the parents & careers that I have spoken to, has been extremely positive. These sessions will continue next week.

SRC badges - Years 1 & 2

Our final student badge presentations for Term 1 will take place tomorrow with the Year 1 and Year 2 SRC members being presented with their badges.

Barefoot Bowls

The PFA have an exciting barefoot bowls event at Blackburn North Bowls club this Saturday night. Ticket sales have been positive however, for those yet to purchase a ticket, there is still time to do so today or tomorrow. Please make an effort to come along with some family members or friends. (adults only) and let’s make this a fantastic opening event for 2025. Details on how to purchase tickets can be found in the "From the Office" section of the newsletter.

School Cross Country

Our school cross country for Years 3 to 6 will take place next Friday, March 28th at Koonung Reserve. This is always a fantastic event for our students and also an ideal one for parents and carers to attend and cheer on the students. Thanks to our temporary PE teacher Charlotte Read, who is organising this event in James’s absence.

Staffing changes

Our congratulations to Craig Gooding who has been appointed as Acting Assistant Principal at Canterbury Primary School for the remainder of 2025. This is a great opportunity for Craig and we wish him well in his endeavours. Laura Feltham and Zahn Hobson will step into the Year 4 team in Craig’s absence. We are fortunate to have two very high quality teachers who know our students well, available to join our team.

Warmest regards

Duncan

Sport