This Week At OOPS
Education Week
Education Week is an annual celebration of public education in Victoria. This year's theme is Showcase your school, encouraging school communities to celebrate what’s great about their school. More information can be found here.
This year, Old Orchard Primary School will acknowledge Education Week from Monday 25 May to Friday 29 May with a range of events and activities, including:
Open Evening
Our School Community Open Evening will be held on Thursday 28 May from 5-7pm. Attendees can look forward to:
- Art Show in the Year 6 end of C Wing
- Sports Academy demonstration 5.00 - 5.30pm on the oval
- Cooking demonstration 5.00 – 5.30pm in the Kitchen Garden Room
- Choir performance at 5.30pm in Drayton Hall
- Performances from talented OOPS musicians throughout the night
- Sausage Sizzle
- Coffee Van
- Fun activities in every classroom
- A ‘Name our cow’ competition
- A chance to win prizes for finding all of the letters hidden in classrooms to spell a mystery word in the open night booklet.
Book Fair
The Scholastic Book Fair will run throughout our Old Orchard Education Week, with opportunities to purchase new books, stationery and posters before and after school from Tuesday – Friday and during Open Evening. The Book Fair is one of OOPS’s biggest fundraising events, with proceeds going towards new library books and helping to keep our collection as up to date as possible!
We look forward to celebrating Education Week with you!
Year 3 and 4 students have been exploring the states of matter in STEM through exciting hands-on experiments. Using bicarb soda and vinegar in a bottle, students observed a chemical reaction that created carbon dioxide gas, which inflated a balloon. This investigation helped students understand how gases are formed and how they take up space.
Kitchen Garden
Our Year 3 & 4 students had a fantastic time in the Kitchen Garden Program making delicious rice paper rolls!
Students practised important kitchen skills including hygiene, safe food preparation, and knife cutting techniques while working together to create healthy and colourful rolls.
Building Respectful Relationships Through Real-Life Scenarios
Some students recently took part in a social and emotional learning activity focussed on respectful relationships, communication and problem-solving. Working in small groups, students explored a range of realistic school-based scenarios (based on their own ideas) and discussed how their choices, words and actions can impact others.
Students collaborated thoughtfully, shared different perspectives and reflected on respectful ways to respond in challenging situations. The activity encouraged students to consider what is within their control, how to recognise emotions in themselves and others, and how to repair relationships when problems arise.
Scenarios explored included:
- Who can I trust?
- Speaking over others
- Talking back to the teacher
- Arguments growing bigger
- Giving others space
- Respectful tone
- Name-calling
Throughout the discussions, students reflected on:
- respectful communication and active listening
- recognising when someone feels uncomfortable or unheard
- managing frustration and disagreements calmly
- personal responsibility and self-regulation
- understanding the difference between joking and hurtful behaviour
- using empathy and perspective-taking
- making positive choices when emotions are heightened
Discussion prompts families may like to explore at home include:
- What makes someone a trusted friend?
- How do we know when someone needs space?
- What does respectful disagreement look and sound like?
- How can tone change the meaning of our words?
- What can we do when we feel upset or frustrated?
- What strategies help us stay calm during conflict?
- What does good listening look like?
These conversations form part of our ongoing work to strengthen respectful relationships, emotional literacy and positive classroom communities across the school.
Please contact me at adam.todd@education.vic.gov.au if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Adam Todd
Mental Health in Primary Schools, and Wellbeing Leader
