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

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all well and not too many of you were badly affected by the storms and the power outages that hit some suburbs of Melbourne. As I mentioned in one of my Compass alerts last week, my daughter and family have moved in with me, as they live in Kalorama and were very badly affected by the storm. They were told last night that the expected date for them to be reconnected is July 8th. The footage that they have been showing me of the damage to homes and properties is horrific. So many families are doing it really tough at the moment and will have months of trauma ahead of them to rebuild. I am very grateful our community has been not been affected.

We have received new advice about the use of QR codes at school. All visitors and parents/carers who enter school buildings must check in using the QR code. We have placed them around the administration area and it is important that you do this if you are entering the school office to sign a child in or out.

Today we received the new Operations Guide from DET and excursions and incursions now have permission to resume. This means that the Kaboom Kids sports incursion will be going ahead next Friday and we look forward to a fantastic fun-filled day for the students. Let's pray the weather is great.

Last Friday, we said goodbye to Naomi Elias, as she left on maternity leave; I think we could open a staff creche with all the babies being born to our staff in the last two years.

We look forward to hearing when her little one arrives and will keep you posted.

To replace Naomi in the Performing Arts role, we have appointed Mrs Kate Hill. Kate has been working with us off and on all year as a CRT and comes highly qualified in the performing arts area. Next term, Kate will be joined in the role by Gina Mets, who is returning from family leave. Gina will be working on Monday and Tuesday and Kate will do the remainder of the week.

Also, we have appointed Mrs Susan Tate to replace Georgia Syme in the Art Room. Georgia gave birth to a gorgeous little girl, Primrose Belle, a couple of weeks ago and Susan will be able to continue the great job Georgia did in the Art room. We are looking forward to Susan joining the team next term.

We are very hopeful that we will be able to welcome parents back into the school next term. We miss having you around, and parents add so much to our programming, whether it be in the kitchen and garden program or reading with the children. You are highly valued and we miss your input. I know the kids do too.

On another note, we are looking for volunteers that would be interested in helping in the Uniform Shop. Over the last year, we have struggled to get consistent parent helpers

(COVID, of course, hasn't helped this) but, the bottom line is that, without parent help with the uniform shop that we have on-site, we will not be able to continue to run it from school. SPARTAN, our uniform supplier, is opening a shop in Mt Waverley and are keen for us to move to this model. Parents would be able to go directly to the shop or order online. If orders were delivered to the school it would be free. However, delivery to your home would incur a $9.90 postage fee. This is a viable option, but most of the uniform items would go up a few dollars if we moved to their store. Our preference would be to keep the cost down for parents and keep our uniform shop on site, but we need your help to keep our uniform shop a viable concern. So, if you think that you would be able to volunteer to work in the shop for a couple of hours a week, a fortnight or even go on a monthly roster, please contact the office and register your interest.

You also may have heard that our student leaders have been investigating the interest amongst the girls at school on adding a new dress to our uniform list. To have student voice in decisions around the school and in their education is an important part of building that sense of belonging and pride in their community, and research tells us that it is beneficial to their desire to be engaged in their learning.

The dress that is being proposed is a tartan in our school colours and is being well received by the girls. The students put a proposal about the dress to School Council on Wednesday night and the Council would like to get feedback from the parents. The students will be sending out a little survey next week to get your opinion on the dress. If the results are positive we have a short window to order the dresses and get them into stock ready for next year. If successful, the dress would be introduced over a two-year period; for two years, girls will be able to wear either dress and then, in the third year, it would be just the new dress that would be available. Look out for the girls' survey and, upon looking at the feedback from students, parents and staff, School Council will make a decision.

Please remember that next Friday, 25th June, is the last day of Term Two and dismissal is at 2:30pm. Any students not collected at this time will be sent to TeamKids. If you have holidays booked for the vacation I hope that you will be able to travel.

Enjoy the weekend and keep warm.

Glenda Harry

Principal