Orchard Park News

Principal's Report

Outdoor Film Night

As we announced on our Facebook page last week, we are thrilled to have locked in an outdoor movie night!!!! This event is taking place in one week's time on Friday 4th March here at the school. 

Once again we are partnering with Timbertop Residents' Group and Cardinia Shire to bring this event to you all. A flyer has gone home with all students today promoting this community event and providing some more details. We invite all of our families and their friends along to this fun-filled event. 

We appreciate it is very short notice however we hope for another big crowd coming together as a whole community. 

 

COVID protocols

All families have now received their second pack of Rappid Antigen Tests, which went home with all students on Monday. We will distribute further packs of RATs as soon as they arrive at the school. 

Thank you to all families for their continued support and understanding around ensuring that we maintain a safe learning environment for all. We appreciate that RATs are not a comfortable process (for adults and children) and are also only a recommended action. However twice weekly tests ensure that we are minimising the spread of COVID throughout the school. Whilst we are all stretched at the minute with the impact everything is having upon our own lives (both personally and professionally), I encourage our entire school community to continue showing empathy to each other as we work through this together. As always, if you or your family need support with anything around this, please don't' hesitate to reach out to the school. 

 

Year 6 Jumpers

We are so thrilled to announce that we now have Year 6 jumpers available for purchase. This has been a process we have been working on in the background for quite some time now and can't wait to see our Year 6 students in their jumpers very soon. Just a reminder that families need to purchase the jumpers by Friday 4th March at PSW. 

 

Interschool sports

At the time of reading this newsletter, our Senior School students will have now competed in their second interschool event for the year. Last week we ventured to Pakenham Primary School and today we have travelled to Nar Nar Goon Primary School. Students are competing in cricket, basketball and volleyball. In Mr Scanlon's absence today, I looked after our cricket team....hopefully I haven't blemished their perfect start to the season!! The feedback from staff (from OPPS and schools we have competed against) around the way our students have been demonstrating our school values has once again been overwhelmingly positive. 

Our students look so incredible in our sports uniforms that were kindly sponsored by Genuine Conveyancing, a local business that is supporting our students. We thank them again for their generosity and support. 

 

 

Car parking

The following piece also appeared in our previous newsletter. It has been pleasing to see an improvement in some of these areas, however our Stop and Drop Zone continues to be an issue with it being used in the scheduled times as a long term parking location. Parking Officers are regularly patrolling these areas now and have begun issuing fines. I would hate to see families receive fines and encourage everyone to read the following information carefully. 

 

As we grow as a school, pick up and drop off times will continue to become busier for all. With this increase in traffic, it will be incredibly important for the safety of all that we abide by the parking expectations around our school. These conditions have been implemented by council to ensure we are keeping everyone safe during these peak times. In order for this to occur, I ask all families to please remember and consider the following points;

  • Stop and Drop Zones. The closest 6 car parks at the front of the school on Pink Hill Boulevard are a dedicated stop and drop zone for families from 8:00am-9:30am and 2:30-4:00pm. This means that parents should not park in these areas if they plan to walk in to drop their children off or walk in to pick their children up at the end of the day. This will allow for the traffic in these parks to be flowing throughout these busy times. 
  • Parking on the median strip on Pink Hill Boulevard. We have noticed that in particular in the afternoons that some cars have been parking on the median strip. This is area is a no parking zone and the council have warned me that if this continues, fines will be administered to the offending drivers. This is the last thing I want to see happen to our families, so I ask that you find alternative locations to park. 
  • Staff car park. I have noticed that the staff car park is being used for some drop off and pick ups. The staff car park is not to be accessed by parents for this purpose unless you are utilising the disabled car park. In my previous experiences at other schools I have seen some near misses in staff car parks and as I outlined earlier, safety of everyone is our key priority. 
  • Consider other entry and exit points. We are very lucky to have indented parking on our eastern and northern boundaries to the school. Whilst the Pink Hill Boulevard is the entry/exit point that most of our families use, we encourage you to consider the other gate entry/exit points on Barnsley Road and Grant Parade where there is lots of parking available.