Principal's Message

School Philosophy

Orchard Grove Primary School is committed to providing a safe, nurturing environment that engages curiosity, promotes learning, personal growth and wellbeing for all students. We strive to develop adaptability and resilience so students can become valued members of the local and global communities and be prepared for future life experiences.

From the Principal

Thank you to all of our community for your outstanding support and encouragement as OGPS has moved into such uncharted territory with Online Remote Learning.  None of us saw this coming and it is such a difficult time and situation for all of us. Yet, as a community, you have all been amazing and we have appreciated your patience and support as we all find our feet in this new space. We have been overwhelmed by the emails of support and encouragement, along with helpful feedback and, of course, with a huge dose of understanding by everyone thrown in, in the true 'Orchard Grove Way'.  

Are we sick of that song yet? "We're all in this together"... yet so true in many ways. We have been pushed to learn new skills and be flexible and resilient beyond what we thought we could be.  I wonder what skills and ways of doing things will continue on after COVID19 is a distant memory? Maybe online meetings will be more popular, using hand sanitizer and washing our hands more effectively.  I heard one doctor say that he believed that viruses generally wouldn't spread as much in our communities in the future as a result of our improve hand hygiene.  Will we ever go back to sneezing into our hands?

As we continue to navigate this space together, there is a fine balance between not enough communication between home and school and too much, so we have really tried to get into the Goldilocks zone of 'just right', and we will keep adapting to your needs and feedback. As you would understand, we can't adapt to everyone's suggestions, but we do give due consideration and then go with the suggestions that suit the needs of most of the students and families.

I know that many of you would be concerned about the long-term effects of remote learning and I was reading an article by John Hattie, one of the world wide gurus in education, where he spoke about this very thing. Have a read of the article below; it is an interesting perspective and certainly made me feel better.

ABC NEWS ARTICLE

Chris Atkinson spent two years persuading his teenage son he needed to be at school to learn, and just when he agreed, COVID-19 happened.

Key points:

• Schools in Christchurch, New Zealand, were closed for weeks following the 2011 earthquake and did not have access to online learning available now;
• Student results actually went up in the final exams and high school students did not drop out;
• Education expert Professor John Hattie says Australian students could lose a whole term out of the school year without falling significantly behind international counterparts.

The dad from Queensland's Sunshine Coast is among many concerned their child might fall behind or disengage with schools only open for supervision to essential workers and vulnerable students in term two. 

But John Hattie, a leading educator and Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) chairman, has good news for parents like Mr Atkinson.

Laureate Professor John Hattie says students will recover quickly from the COVID-19 crisis.(Supplied: John Hattie)

Professor Hattie was the adviser for the New Zealand Qualifications Authority that oversaw school examinations after the devastating Christchurch earthquakes of 2011.

Schools were closed for weeks and most students did not have the opportunity for online learning or discussion with teachers.

But results did not suffer and high school students did not drop out.

"The students' performance actually went up in the final exams," Professor Hattie said.

He said the difference was teachers focused on "what has to be learned" instead of getting through a lot of curriculum.

If you haven't yet checked out our Community Blog, please do so; it will be so much more effective if we all get involved. The purpose of the blog is to help to keep us all connected. It should be a bit of fun, so please contribute and see if we can put a smile on each other's faces.

I am trying to 'video bomb' each class at least once a week in an effort to connect with the kids.  In addition, I will use this time to personally announce the Principal Award for that week.  The award will be emailed to each family and we will have an official copy here at school that each recipient can collect when we  return to school.

Exciting news

On a totally different note, it is always nice to have some exciting news, and it gives me great pleasure to announce to the community that our wonderful Performing Arts teacher, Ms Gina Mets, is expecting a baby.  These occasions always cause me to have mixed feelings; as a mum, I am filled with excitement for Gina and her husband but, as the Principal, I am filled with disappointment that she will be leaving us for a time and we won't have the benefit of her wonderful program. However, I know I speak for all of you in wishing Gina and her family all the best for the next few months as they prepare for their little bundle of joy.  If everything goes to plan, Gina will be with us until early Term Three.

Year 5/6 Production & F-4 Concert

And now for some disappointing news. As a result of COVID19 our much anticipated Years Five and Six performance of Shrek has had to be cancelled. At this point, we have no idea as to the restrictions around public gatherings and the like that may still be in place for the remainder of the year, so it is not feasible to go ahead with our plans. As Ms Mets will be leaving to have her baby early next term, it leaves us no time to get this production ready for a performance delivery. In addition, the Foundation-to-Year Four performance has also been cancelled. We are hoping that we will be able to run these very important programs in 2021.

Camps

Due to COVID-19, our camp program is in disarray. Companies that are running camps across the country are really flying blind at the moment and it is very difficult to know what events will be able to  be held by the end of the year. We are currently in negotiations over the Year Six Canberra Camp and a possible date by the end of the year but, unfortunately, there are no such options for the Year Four and Five camps so these will have to be cancelled for 2020.

Around the School

On a brighter note, we have taken advantage of the fact that the school grounds are very quiet at the moment and have been doing some work to improve our buildings and grounds.  You may have seen on Facebook the improvements to the amphitheatre area and the new rubberized toy car track on the steps.  It looks great and I'm looking forward to seeing the children playing in that space.

Last week we had a Pebblemix surface laid over the top of the unsightly orange tiles at the front of the school. We had been holding out in the hope that we would have had our much anticipated DET administration upgrade, however the deterioration of this space, and the OH&S aspect with tiles falling off, meant that we needed to do some sort of repair.  The Pebblemix has offered us a great result at minimal cost. In addition, we resurfaced the Pebblemix on the ramp and stairs on the Holland Road side leading on to the basketball court, which will give this space a new lease of life.

Over the holidays, we had carpet tiles put down in the Foundation building and in the two remaining Year Four classrooms that still had original carpet. Carpet tiles are a fabulous option in a school, giving us ease of cleaning, repair and replacement, and a nice clean look. We have also been doing some spot-painting in the classrooms where walls were looking a bit shabby. And the very exciting news is that the Level Three building refurbishment has begun and is running on-track. The plans and approval process for the next new section of the build is currently with the VSBA (Victorian Schools Building Authority). We are hoping that approval will come through promptly so the two projects can run on from each other. This project, as with all the projects I am mentioning, are all OGPS-funded, so are something of which we can all be very proud.

In the Meadow, we have finally been able to fix the drainage problem in the space where the playground is. This is a huge feat, after a real struggle to get a solution. I would like to give a huge shout-out to Ross Ploughman, a former OGPS parent, whose company came and saved the day with our problems in the Meadow.  Ross has provided all materials at cost for us and has gone above and beyond in the time and effort he and his team have gone to in an effort to fix our problem. The team also made a crushed-rock drive leading up to the new shed and married the path back in to the original concrete walkway. After the job was completed, Ross continued to visit the site to check the effectiveness of the work and to water the grass seed that was sprinkled to get the lawn going in that site. He also organised for all the rubbish that was up in that area to be removed, and flattened the Meadow area to make sure that, moving forward, it will be much more user-friendly for further development. Working with Ross on this project was an absolute pleasure and, after over twelve months of angst in getting this space in the Meadow right, it is a huge relief to me. Thanks, Ross! Now that the drainage has been fixed, the playground area can be finally completed, so this should be all done by the time the children return.

Over the holidays, CCTV was also installed across our site. This is an amazing set up with 4K video; it gives us fabulous coverage and will help us to monitor our grounds and, hopefully, reduce vandalism and poor behaviour around the school that regularly occurs out of school hours. The CCTV supply and installation was as a result of a grant from DET that we were very lucky to have awarded to us.

Well, that's all from me for now. I hope you are all doing okay during this time. We all miss our community very much and are looking forward to seeing you all again some time soon.

Take care everyone and talk soon.

Glenda Harry

Principal