MEET VICTOR!!

One of our teachers, Di Parkin has recently become a Puppy Educator with Assistance Dogs Australia and now has Victor, a beautiful black Labrador Retriever puppy to train. Di teaches students in our Tutor Learning Program on Tuesdays and Thursdays. As such, Victor will be on-site with Di on these days. Victor was introduced to the school community at assembly this afternoon.

As we have recently been communicating through Compass and our newsletters, department regulations state that dogs and other pets are not permitted on school grounds throughout the day, as well as drop off and pickup times. Because of the special training that this puppy is undertaking, we are permitted to have Victor on the school grounds. Victor has special permission to go into shopping centres, libraries and other places where he may be required to go when supporting a community member in the future.

Students are being educated around how to interact around Victor in preparation for him beginning to come on-site from next week. Essentially the approach we (all staff and students) have been advised to take, is pretend Victor is invisible. I know this will be extremely challenging to do, but this is the role we will all play in supporting Victor during this training phase. You may see Victor around the school on Tuesdays and Thursdays wearing a blue with red trim jacket with an “L” and ADA logos on each side, like in the picture below.

The goal is for Victor to learn to be a responsive, reliable and a well-behaved companion. These skills will be used in supporting someone in the community who needs assistance once training is completed. As a school, we are proud to be able to support the training of an Assistance Dog, who will be of invaluable support to a member of our community in the future.

RECENT EXCITING EVENTS

HOUSE ATHLETICS

Today, we celebrated our House Athletics event. Students engaged in a number of events throughout the day and enjoyed wearing a splash of their house colors. All of our students gave it their best effort today, with many ribbons handed out for students placing in a range of events. Check out some of our pictures below.

YEAR 5/6 EXCURSION

On Wednesday, June 12th, our Senior School students travelled to Social Fair in Cranbourne. The students had an absolute blast in the indoor activity centre, navigating the high ropes course, playing mini golf, and enjoying the climbing arena. Following their session at Social Fair, the students headed to Cranbourne Botanical Gardens for lunch and some exploration of the local park.

YEAR 1 INCURSION

On Wednesday, June 12th, our Year 1 students participated in the Cool Kids First Aid incursion. This was a celebration of their physical health unit. The students learned all about how we can be healthy and help ourselves, our families, and our community.

SOUTHERN METRO REGIONAL CROSS COUNTRY

On Wednesday, June 12th, we had Remy represent OPPS at the Southern Metro Region cross-country event. Remy did a phenomenal job to reach this stage, having been a top performer at school, district, and division levels to get to this point. Remy ran well against some tough competition and we couldn’t be more proud of his efforts. Well done, Remy!

YEAR 2 INCURSION

Last week, our Grade 2 students had an unforgettable experience with a special incursion featuring an ex-army truck and a visit from an author! The kids were thrilled to explore the mighty vehicle and learn about its history and uses. They also enjoyed an inspiring storytelling session, where they heard first-hand tales and asked the author questions.

They even got to sit in the back of the truck and the cab.

A special thank you to Ian and Paul for coming in to share the magnificent stories with the Grade 2s

LIGHTNING PREMIERSHIP SPORTS

On June 7th, our Senior School students headed off to their Lightning Premiership Winter Sports competition. Lightning Premiership is a culmination of our interschool sports program, where our students compete against all of the neighbouring schools in their chosen sports. We couldn’t be more proud of how our students represented OPPS, showed phenomenal sportsmanship, and most importantly, had a day of fun.

STAFFING UPDATES

At the end of this term, we will be saying farewell to Bridget Stein, who has accepted a position at St Margaret's Berwick Grammar School. Bridget was an inaugural member of staff who supported the opening of Orchard Park Primary School. Bridget is looking for a new experience and will be taking on a full-time role at her new school. While we are incredibly sad to see Bridget leave, we are so grateful for the time she has been here, and we wish her the very best in her future teaching career.

Tegan Peebles will also be taking on a leadership role within Orchard Park Primary School commencing Term 3. Tegan will fill the Mental Health in Primary Schools leader position while Hannah Dullard commences her family leave early in Term 3.

As both Bridget and Tegan were grade sharing 34C, we have appointed a full-time teacher into the classroom and are excited to welcome Andrew Hemmes to the Orchard Park team. Andrew comes with a wealth of experience and has already come in to meet the class and begin forming relationships. Andrew will be visiting us next week for our staff planning day and will be able to once again say hello to our 34C students before the holiday commences.

As communicated earlier in the term, Connor Benwell decided to return to Tooradin Primary School and we have been extremely grateful to Claire Ferlauto for filling this vacancy until the end of the term. Claire has now officially been appointed to Orchard Park Primary School and will be continuing in 1C until the end of the year. Claire has already forged strong connections with the students in 1C and we couldn’t be more grateful for her commitment to ensuring this has been a smooth transition for our students. We would like to frontload the families of 1C that Claire will be absent for a short period early in the term, but rest assured she is committed to ensuring our students feel comfortable during this period.

PLANNING WEEK

We wanted to give all of our families a heads up that next week we will be running an alternate timetable as we have our planning week. This means that all students will have all of their specialist classes fall on the same day, rather than scattered across the week. This is to ensure each teaching team is able to begin their planning for Term 3. Classroom teachers will still be present at school and greeting their students in the morning. Classes will be dismissed by one of our specialist teachers.

END OF TERM REMINDER

Just a reminder that our term will conclude in two weeks, on Friday, June 28th. As such, the school day will finish at 2 p.m. Therefore, our last assembly for the term will be next week (Friday 21st June) at the usual time of 2:30 pm in the gymnasium.

INSIGHT - For Families