The Harvest

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.

 

Shrek Junior - The Musical

What a magical couple of nights we have enjoyed this week, watching our Year 3, 4 5 & 6 students performing Shrek Junior. Our school productions remain a feature on our school calendar and this year was no exception. The students excelled themselves with brilliant acting, singing, dancing and costumes. I am always delighted to see how much fun the students have as part of the school production, whether they are part of the main cast, ensemble, dance groups or backstage crew. The production brings our school community together with many, many people contributing to its success. Our entire staff team played their role in a multitude of ways; our parent & carer community supported the show with costuming, props, encouragement and being an enthusiastic audience; former students assisted backstage with make-up; and the team at Karralyka were again a fantastic group to work with. Very special thanks must be reserved for our amazing Performing Arts teacher, Rhiannon, who has been working on this project for many months. Rhiannon has an incredible capacity to produce shows that allow all students to be actively engaged, to challenge themselves, to work together as a team and to have fun! It was beautiful to observe many, many students express their sincere and unprompted gratitude to Rhiannon immediately after the show. Special thanks also to Sheree who managed so many of the logistics of the show.

 

To all of our students, congratulations and thank-you. I’m sure the production will remain as one of your primary school highlights.

 

Pupil Free Day

Next Monday, August 25th, is a Pupil Free Day. Staff will be working with Literacy Consultant, Riss Leung, focussing on the 6 +1 traits of writing:

  • Ideas
  • Organisation
  • Voice
  • Word Choice
  • Sentence Fluency
  • Conventions
  • Presentation (only applies to published pieces of writing)

 

We will share a summary of our work in next week’s edition of The Harvest.

 

2025 Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey

Invitations to complete the 2025 Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey have now been distributed. The PCGOS allows us to actively engage with families, and provides an important indicator of how well we are meeting the needs of students. The survey is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour, and student engagement. We will use the survey results to assist in identifying areas for improvement and professional development needs in the school, to target school planning and improvement strategies. The survey will remain open until Friday September 19th. Participation is optional but actively encouraged.

 

School Council

We currently have a vacancy in the Parent / Carer member category of our School Council. While there are no qualifications required to be on Council, we would be particularly interested in hearing from anyone with expertise in finance. If you would like to know more about what the role entails, please contact me at duncan.cant@education.vic.gov.au or 0401145975.

 

District Athletics

Next Friday we have 63 of our students from Year 3 to Year 6 participating in the District Athletics competition at Bill Sewart Athletics Track. The students have been training hard over the past month or so under the expert guidance of James Roche and we wish them well in their endeavours.

 

Hats are back

It’s been great to see so many of our students quickly adjust to the ‘Sunsmart’ practice of wearing hats when outside. Tomorrow will be the final day of ‘gentle reminders’, before the “no hat, no play” policy comes into force on Tuesday.

 

Kind regards

Duncan Cant