Newsletter continues...with an added piece!!

Hi everyone and welcome back for another school year. As we continue to grow and learn together, we have added a new feature to our school newsletter. As well as there being written reports from myself and Ms Sutherland, along with celebrations and updates from throughout the school, I will also be including a video newsletter update. Now the video will not have any new or different information that isn't written within the newsletter, but for some people they may prefer to listen to the updates to take in all of the things happening within the school. We hope some of our families find this valuable and helpful. The link for this week's video update is below:

https://youtu.be/KaB1UQVhdxc

Welcome Back

It has been an incredibly smooth transition back to school for all of our students. We have been so impressed with how they have returned to school. We have lots of new students and staff joining our school community this year and I am so grateful for the way others have made them feel so welcome and supported them in this transition. This week has also seen all of our Prep students come into the school for their 1-1 interview with their teacher. They have done such a great job in being so confident and independent during these interviews. The information our Prep teachers have gathered provides them with such a valuable insight into all of our students and gives them the perfect platform to begin the school year with. We are now looking forward to seeing all of our Prep students commence their school year officially this coming Monday. There is more information below around what this first day looks like for our Prep students and their families.

School Assemblies

This year we are changing our school assembly times. They will now run from 2:30pm-3:00pm on Friday afternoons in the school gym. We invite all parents and families to join us for our assemblies. There will be a sign in station in the foyer of the school gym and we ask that all parents sign in upon arrival. For assemblies only, you do not need to sign in at the office. We look forward to seeing lots of our families join us on Friday afternoons.

Supporting your child to begin the day positively

As you know, the Learning Communities open their doors at 8:35am each morning. This provides our students with a 10 minute window to enter the space, unpack their belongings, greet their teacher and classmates and prepare for the morning learning session. The learning for the day then commences at 8:45am. It can be extremely overwhelming and unsettling for students when they arrive late and we encourage all families to make 8:30am your school arrival time goal to allow every child the positive and calm start to their school day they deserve.

Just a reminder also that 3:00pm is our school dismissal time.

Prep Celebration

As you would know, our first official day of Prep is Monday 6th of February. On this morning, we will be celebrating with you all outside the Learning Community from 8.30am. We will have lots of ‘first day of Prep’ signs and teachers will be coming around to take photos of families. We will then ask students to enter the Learning Community independently. Whilst we understand that it is a big moment saying goodbye, we strongly believe in the importance of creating independent children and entering independently is essential to setting your children up for success. We thank you in advance for your support with this. Additional staff, including Mr Jagoe and Ms Sutherland will be present to support with any students who might need some additional assistance at this time.

We still think it is of great importance that both you and your children get some time together in school on their first day. To do this, we are inviting parents/families to join us in our afternoon session. This will be as follows:

2:00pm- Parents are to meet in the admin building. Please enter through the main admin school entry.
At 2pm, there will be a short welcome and some start up information for parents. During this time, students will be in their Learning Community having their rolls marked. We kindly ask that you do not head to or enter the Learning Community during this time.
2.15pm- Parents will head over to the Learning Community. Here you can find your child and have some time to draw a picture of you and them at school for you to take home. If you have time after this, you may choose a book from the bookshelves and read with your child, or they can show you around the Learning Community. We ask that ALL students remain in the Learning Community at all times. Please feel free to take photos with your child, however please be mindful not to photograph other students.
2.45pm- parents will exit the learning community and students will need to find their teacher. Students will then be taught how to pack up for the end of the day.
3.00pm- students will be sent out to their parents waiting outside the learning community.

We hope that this combination of events gives you some quality time with your child in school on their first day, whilst supporting them with a positive and independent transition into Prep.

Colour Run

Parents and Friends have been doing lots of work in the background to bring this exciting school fundraising experience to Orchard Park PS. For those of you that have been involved in a colour run before, I am sure you will agree that this is an afternoon filled with fun and laughter for all. Our Colour Run has been locked in for Friday 17th March. More information will be sent out within the next week around how your child can get involved in fundraising for this whole school event and how the afternoon will run.

If you are interested in joining our Parents and Friends group, please don't hesitate to contact the office and your details can be passed on to the group.

Voluntary Contributions

Thank you to all of our families who have made a contribution for student materials and other educational costs through Compass. These contributions are greatly appreciated and ensure we are able to continue to provide rich learning experiences throughout all areas of the curriculum for our students. If you require any support around how to do this, please do not hesitate to contact the office and the team will be more than happy to provide this assistance.

Updated traffic conditions and safe practices for pick up and drop off

As you can see, the traffic light installation looks to be very close to completion. This will allow for students and families to cross the roads at these points safely in the mornings and afternoons. The changes traffic conditions mean that cars cannot turn right off Pink Hill Boulevard into Barnsley Avenue.

With our Prep students commencing school on Monday, we are clearly going to have more traffic during pick up and drop off times. Our key priority at all times is to ensure all students and their families arrive and depart school safely. Therefore, I encourage all families to ensure they are parking in legal and safe locations during these times. The last thing we want is for an unnecessary accident to occur with a child crossing the road at the wrong location or for a car accident to occur because a car is parked illegally. Please remember there is lots of parking on the eastern and northern boundaries of the school as well.

Don't forget that we also have our drop off and pick up zone on Pink Hill Boulevard at the front of the school. This is for quick drop offs and pick ups. If you choose to park in these parks, please do not leave your car unattended. The purpose of these spaces is for safe and smooth drop offs and pick ups to occur and for the traffic to keep flowing. We really appreciate your support with these parking arrangements.

Year 5/6 Camp

Originally we had locked in our Senior School camp for later in Term 1. However, we discovered that there was a clash with our Summer Sport Lightning Premiership. As we didn't want our students to miss out on this great event, we have managed to reschedule our camp, which will now take place on 8th-10th May in Term 2. The camp we are attending is Golden Valleys Camp, located at Flinders. This camp has been booked through the Positive Start Camps and Excursion program, which means the costs of this camp will be significantly less than usual. More information about the camp will be sent home to families later in the term. For now, students and families can check out the camp at https://goldenvalleys.com.au/

Term 1 - Important Dates and Upcoming Events