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

One more week of winter to go! I think everyone is looking forward to Spring and the warmer weather.

Year 3 Camp

Our Year 3s are currently at ARRABRI LODGE in WARBURTON EAST for a three day camp. It’s quite chilly but they are having a wonderful time!

Science Week

Both staff and students had a lot of fun working alongside each other to utilise their science inquiry skills to identify specific mystery powders! Each year level was given one of the powders listed below:

PLASTER

BICARB SODA

SALT

CITRIC ACID

SUGAR

CREAM OF TARTAR

FLOUR

Everyone used their knowledge of known properties to differentiate between the powders.

For example, you can easily differentiate between some of the powders by the appearance of the granules. Another approach was to test the solubility in water. Still another approach was to add vinegar to see if there was a chemical reaction. In the process, the students developed basic laboratory skills in safely handling mystery “substances”. This was an exciting challenge! Well done to every year level who correctly identified their mystery powder (including the Principals!).

Many thanks to Mrs Bird, our Science Coordinator, for coming up with our challenge for the 2019 Science Week.

Wellbeing @ OGPS Celebration Afternoon

This will be held on Wednesday 4th September from 2:50pm – 3:30pm in your child’s classroom. You will join in on a range of wellbeing activities from the Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships (RRRR) curriculum, eSmart (cybersafety), Smiling Mind and Peaceful Classroom & Peaceful Kids programs. We hope to see as many parents and carers stopping by as possible, and participating in a truly valuable part of our curriculum.

Year 5 Market Day

Monday the 19th was the Year 5 Market Day and the students did a great job of designing their goods and services to run tiny businesses for a day. From traditional lemonade spiders, chocolate slice, jelly cups and cupcakes to clever mini basketball, chocolate toss and quoits, the range of goods and services encouraged the whole school to come and enjoy the market setting. The Year 5 students experienced the excitement of running and spruiking their wares and did a terrific job of setting up and cleaning up the Wicking Centre.

The life skills the students have learned; self management, teamwork, planning and working to a deadline, are certainly beneficial - as are the financial and economics aspects of the curriculum taught during this unit of work.

We raised over $3000.00, which is a fantastic amount to donate to the Australian Quadriplegics Association, which is a not for profit organisation that does an amazing job on very limited funding.

The Year Five and Six students first met two of the mentors from this association a few weeks ago. This inspired the Year 5 students to put any money raised on Market Day towards people who, for many

reasons, find themselves injured and confined to wheelchairs. To watch the kids interacting with Naz and Wayne, who themselves have faced challenge for twenty years or more, has been one of the most moving experiences so far this year.

Naz, has represented Australia at four Olympics playing wheelchair rugby since injuring his spinal cord jumping off the pier at St Kilda. It was wonderful to watch the kids admiring his abilities and seeing past his disability after hearing his story.

The students will be visited by representatives from the AQA to receive the donation in the next few weeks.

Thanks to the entire school community from the teachers and students of Year 5, for their support, both in time and effort, and financially.

Leeanne King

Acting Principal

Foundation News