On Wednesday this week the Year 1 students visited the Year 2 classrooms to experience life as a Year 2 student in preparation for next year! The Year 2 students were excellent role models and taught the Year 1s about some exciting things that they have to look forward to.

Our Preps had lots of fun doing PMP (Perceptual Motor Program) in the beautiful sunshine earlier this week.

Respectful Relationships

Old Orchard P.S. has been a lead school in our region for the Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships initiative since 2021. This means that we work with other schools in our area to implement the initiative, share ideas and support each or staff and students.

What is it?

Respectful Relationships became a key component of the Victorian Curriculum in 2016. The initiative focuses on teaching social, emotional and relationship skills to students, as well as assisting schools to create caring and equitable learning environments.

Respectful Relationships aims to prevent gender-based and family violence in future generations by helping students develop positive relationships, resist harmful social pressures, resolve interpersonal conflict and seek and provide help when needed. This is achieved by promoting equity and respect through targeted lessons but also through the systems and practices across the school.

This builds on the amazing work we have already achieved through the School Wide Positive Behaviour model and our core values of Respect to Self, Others and Learning.

Topics

Respectful Relationships is based on eight main topics, 6 of which we have already covered in Terms 1-3: Emotional Literacy, Personal Strengths, Positive Coping, Problem Solving, Stress Management and Help-seeking. In Term 4, we will cover the final two topics: Gender and Identity and Positive Gender Relations. We will share classroom activities linked to these topics in the newsletter throughout the term that you may also like to explore at home as well.

If you have any questions about the initiative, please don’t hesitate to contact Adam Todd at adam.todd@education.vic.gov.au.

Sustainability