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.

Welcome

I extend a very warm welcome to all our existing Old Orchard students, staff and families as we return for the new school year. In particular, a very special welcome to our new Prep families and other families who have joined the Old Orchard community for the first time. 

The students have settled in extremely well and it has been terrific moving around the school this week, seeing how positively our students have reconnected with their teachers and peers and how they have engaged with their learning, establishing class norms and routines. The tone in classrooms and the playground is very positive and our students are to be commended on their endeavours. Please take some time to chat with your children talking about our Learning Launch, class norms and expectations, as well as the other exciting things they have and will be doing.

In particular, our new Prep students have had a fantastic start to their school life. The few tears that I saw were mainly coming from a few parents and grandparents and it was lovely to witness that emotion on a special occasion as the students commenced their formal educational journey.

As our students settle into Term 1, we look forward to them adapting to their new class and teachers, forming new friendships, challenging themselves with new learning and engaging in the many other opportunities they are presented with. We look forward to many special activities and events including:

• Student leader and peer mediator badge presentations 
• SRC elections and badge presentations
• PFA elections
• School Council elections
• Prep information evening
• Year 6 camp
• District swimming event
• School photos
• NAPLAN testing
• Parent - Teacher Chats
• Old Orchard Cross Country event (Years 3- 6)

PFA (Parents & Friends Association)

You will have received an email seeking nominations to join our PFA for 2025. The closing date for nominations is Friday February 7th and we are extremely keen to hear from anyone who has an interest in being part of this group. The PFA can and does play a crucial role in developing community engagement, creating events and activities for school community members to participate in and to coordinate various fundraising events to support our students. The PFA generally meets twice per term and I would love to hear from anyone who is thinking about becoming involved.

School Council Elections

Information relating to the 2025 School Council Elections will be distributed in the coming weeks. 

Chickens

A special thank-you to the following families who cared for our school chickens over the school holiday period. We greatly appreciate your help.

• Mandy Parke (staff)
• Malloy family
• Chamberlain/Gomez family
• Moyson family
• Tsorbaris family

Important Information for Parents

The commencement of the school year is incredibly busy for many reasons, not least the dissemination of important information and updates to the community. You will soon receive an important email containing information about school policies, procedures and other events and activities. We ask that you take some time to read through the information and familiarise yourself with the content. Copies will also be available on the Sentral Parent Portal for your future reference.

Staff

Our staff have been extremely busy over the past week or so preparing their classrooms and planning for the school year. We are excited to welcome the following new and returning staff members:

• Lucy McMillan, Kim Dellevergin, Meg Brouwer
• Kara Alexander, Tonia D’amore (ongoing members of our education support team)
• Kate Buckley (newly appointed Student Wellbeing Mentor - further details on Kate’s role to follow)

A complete staff list will be distributed next week.

Student Leaders

Congratulations to our Student Leaders who are being presented with their badges at assembly next Friday. Former students, Ava Knight and Marc Petheriotis (School Captains in 2018) will be special guests to assist with the badge presentation. Our Peer Mediator and SRC badges will be presented in due course.

Sentral

Parents & carers are reminded that Sentral is the primary form of communication between school and home. Please ensure that you have the updated Sentral Parent Portal app on your phone/device and ideally, have the notifications settings ‘on’ to ensure that important messages are delivered and received in a timely manner.

Victorian Parents Council

For those parents who enjoy accessing great information on social media, you may like to consider following the Victorian Parents Council page. The VPC provides regular information on topics that are relevant to all parents, and I always find their posts / articles to be extremely insightful and informative.

As much as we endeavour to ensure that our communication is of the highest standard, there will always be questions or queries that you have. Please don’t hesitate to touch base with your child’s class teacher, the admin / office team or a member of the Principal team to clarify any concerns or address any potential issues.

I wish all our school community a very happy, successful and productive 2025. Please don’t hesitate to remind me of your name and which child(ren) you ‘belong’ to. As always, please feel free to touch base with me or one of our Assistant Principals at any stage, either formally or informally. Our Assistant Principals are:

• Clare Murray
• Jen McCann (Monday to Wednesday)