Principal's Message

School Production - Lion King Jnr.

What a memorable two nights we had at Old Orchard this week with the Year 3-6 School Production of Lion King Jnr. The show was outstanding with superb individual performances by the main cast and fantastic contributions by every other student involved, whether on-stage or helping behind the scenes. As I mentioned on the night, we are very proud of our concerts and productions that provide opportunities for those with ‘dramatic flair’ to excel in the spotlight, but which also provide every other student with a memorable and positive experience, knowing that they have had fun and contributed to the overall success of the show. The quality of individual performances was superb, with main cast members embracing their roles; I am certain that every member of the audience was as impressed as I was with the students’ singing, delivery of lines, emotion and humour.

Concerts and productions are an important part of the primary school experience for our students; as well as having fun, they develop skills and attributes such as commitment, teamwork, resilience, confidence, creativity, problem solving and much more and the students will have long lasting memories of their experience.

Congratulations and thank-you to all student performers - you were amazing! Thank-you as always to our fantastic staff team; events such as these would not be possible without their commitment and hard work and we are extremely appreciative of their efforts. In particular, a very special thank-you to Rhiannon Trimby for her superb leadership, as well as key contributors, Nan Ternai, Lucy McMillan, Bec Mitchell, Tracey Ding, Heid Kelly, James Roche, Fiona Kirby and Sheree Knight.

A big thank you to the Johnson family for driving out to Hurstbridge to pick up some of our props.

Finally thank you to the parent & carer community for your continued support of school events such as these. We remain mindful that attending events such as the production can be an expensive undertaking for many families and we appreciate the value you place on your child participating.

Additional Specialist Survey

We had a fantastic response to the Google Survey seeking community input on the option of an additional specialist class in 2024, with 80 responses in total. There was great variety in the responses, accompanied by detailed comments and these have given us great insight into the thoughts of our parent/carer community and the areas you see as priorities for your children.

The next stage in the process is to collate the responses, alongside similar surveys that staff and students have completed and to identify key themes, prior to fine tuning our plans and decision making. I will continue to keep the community informed as we move forward.

School Camps

Our Year 3 (Phillip Island) & Year 4 (Rumbug - near Foster) students head off on their 3 day camps over the next couple of weeks. Camps and excursions provide a valuable educational experience for our students which are complementary to their learning, as they provide access to resources, environments and expertise that may not be available in the classroom. Camps are seen as an integral part of the school curriculum at Old Orchard, enabling students to explore, extend and enrich their learning and their social skills development in a non school setting.

The aims of our camping program are:

to provide students with the opportunity to participate in a camping program linked to social, cultural and educational outcomes for students.
to provide shared class and year level experiences, team building and a sense of group cohesiveness.
to reinforce and extend classroom learning.
to provide a program that delivers skills and knowledge that may lead to a lifelong involvement in worthwhile leisure pursuits.
to provide a program that promotes self-esteem, resourcefulness, independence, leadership, judgement, cooperation and tolerance.
to further develop problem solving and life survival skills.

ICAS Testing

The annual ICAS Testing is taking place over the next few weeks; students will already need to have registered for these assessments. Please check the Sentral calendar and notices from the school for specific details.

Comedy for a Cause

Thank-you to those who attended the very successful Comedy for a Cause fundraiser / social event last week. It was a great night with much laughter and fun had by all and valuable funds raised for the school. Thank-you to Leah Delaney and the PFA team for their great work in organising the event.

Greenhouse

We have a new greenhouse at Old Orchard to support our kitchen garden and environmental studies programs. Special thanks to the Andreatta family who donated the greenhouse. (The family also generously sponsored the van required for collection and return of the props for our school production.)

Kind regards

Duncan