Every Day Counts

Recently, we shared a detailed message with families via Compass about the importance of regular school attendance. At Orchard Park Primary School, we know that being at school every day gives students the best opportunity to learn, build friendships, and fully engage in school life.

Our attendance data from 2025 showed that a significant number of students missed large amounts of school, with many missing the equivalent of half a term or more across the year. Over time, this level of absence can have a substantial impact on students’ learning, confidence, and connection to school.

We understand that absences can occur for a range of reasons, including illness and family circumstances. However, regular attendance plays a critical role in ensuring students can keep pace with their learning and feel connected to their class and teachers.

We encourage all families to take a few minutes to read the Compass post titled “Every Day Counts: The Importance of Regular School Attendance.” This communication outlines our attendance data, provides guidance for families, and explains how the school can support students who may be finding attendance challenging.

Working together, we can ensure every student has the best possible opportunity to learn, grow, and thrive at Orchard Park Primary School.

HARMONY DAY

We are very excited to be celebrating Harmony Day next week on Thursday 19 March. Harmony Day is a much-loved event in our OPPS community where we come together to celebrate the many cultures that make up our school.

Students are invited to come to school dressed in cultural dress or wearing the colour orange. At 9:00am, the whole school will gather in the gym for our Harmony Day Parade, where we will celebrate the diverse cultures represented across our community.

As part of the parade, students are invited to share a short cultural item with the school. This could include a cultural dance, sharing a cultural item or tradition, a short presentation, or another creative idea. Students may present individually, with friends, or alongside siblings/family members, and performances can be live or pre-recorded.

We would absolutely love to see even more students sharing something from their culture with our community, so if your child has been thinking about participating, please encourage them to get involved. It is always a highlight of the day to see our students proudly sharing their heritage with others.

Please ensure you have read the Compass post outlining how to submit your child’s performance details. All submissions are due by Sunday so we can finalise the parade agenda on Monday morning.

We look forward to celebrating Harmony Day together as a community.

MATILDA JR – SCHOOL PRODUCTION

We are very excited to announce that this year’s whole school production will be Matilda JR. Students have already been hard at work rehearsing their performances and are beginning to build great excitement for the big event later in the year.

Our school production will once again be held at Beaconhills College – Berwick Campus. This year, we have decided to present the production across two evenings, with half of the school performing on each night. Students have been grouped by their House groups, ensuring that siblings will be performing on the same evening.

Production Nights:

Wednesday 17 June – Marrum and Dulai Wurrung
Thursday 18 June – Wallert and Bunjil

Splitting the production into two casts means there will be fewer students on stage at one time, making it much easier for families to spot their child during performances. It also allows us to release more tickets, as last year’s production was a sold-out event.

Behind the scenes, there is a lot of work that goes into bringing the production to life. We are currently seeking parent volunteers to assist with set construction across selected weekend set-building days. If you are interested in supporting the production team, we would greatly appreciate you contacting the school administration team.

We are looking forward to another fantastic whole school production and can’t wait to see our students shine on stage.

EASTER RAFFLE

Easter is just around the corner! Our Parents and Friends Group will once again be hosting the much-loved OPPS Easter Raffle, which is always a highlight for our students.

To help support the raffle, we will be holding a Free Dress Day on Thursday 26 March. Instead of bringing a gold coin donation, students are asked to bring along an Easter item (for example an Easter egg or Easter bunny). These items will be collected and used by our wonderful Parents and Friends team to create Easter hampers for the raffle.

Families will have the opportunity to purchase raffle tickets, with the hampers to be drawn at our final assembly of the term on Thursday 2 April.

Earlier this week, members of our Student Representative Council (SRC) met with the Parents and Friends group and shared an idea to support the wider community. The SRC have suggested that a portion of the money raised through the raffle be donated to the Good Friday Appeal, which is a wonderful addition to this year’s Easter celebrations.

Thank you to our Parents and Friends group and SRC for helping make this a special event for our school community.

PLANNING WEEK – WEEK 9

We would like to let families know that in Week 9 (week beginning 23 March) we will be running a Planning Week.

During Planning Week, an alternate timetable operates across the school. This means that each class will attend all of their specialist classes on one day during the week. This structure allows our classroom teachers to be released at the same time so they can collaborate and plan together.

This time is extremely valuable for our staff, as it allows teaching teams to work together to design the learning units and experiences that will be taught in Term 2, ensuring strong consistency across year levels and high-quality learning opportunities for all students.

Important dates to remember