Principal's Message

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

Well, we are at the end of the term and what a time it has been. I want to give a huge shout-out to all of you for the magnificent job you have done working with your children with the remote learning program. There is no doubt this has put you all under pressure, but you have done a mighty job and, from our perspective, we believe that together we have done well and the children, on the whole, have coped with the situation as well as we could have expected.

What a great example of how wonderful our OGPS community is, showing how students, teachers and parents can work so well.  Hopefully, a few weeks into next term, we can have all students back on site and life can return to something a little more 'normal'.

Yesterday we had our second three-way conferences for the year.  85% of families made a booking for interviews, which was an outstanding response. The conferences gave the children a great opportunity to learn about taking responsibility for their learning and to help them understand that they are part of the reporting process; they can see their parents and teacher working together with them to help them improve and grow. I hope you found it helpful.

As you know, the first week of Term Four is still remote learning for all our children and any on-site attendance needed by families will still be accepted under the present criteria. The second week, beginning October 12th, sees the Foundation-Year Two students returning to onsite learning while the students in Years Three-Six remain on remote learning. We will attempt to keep the process around the return to school as similar to last time as we can but, as usual, we are still waiting to hear from the Department about any rules, requirements and regulations around the return to school process for next term. We will endeavour to keep you as informed as we can. Rest assured, the additional cleaning regime will be in place and the general handwashing and sanitising protocols, along with staff wearing masks when not face-to-face teaching, will also continue.

I would like to wish you all a lovely iso-holiday time with your children. I am sure you will all enjoy some relief from the remote learning pressure. Thank heavens that the playgrounds are now open, and fewer restrictions around meeting up with others outside does help and is a welcomed addition. Let's hope that the number of COVID-19 cases continue to head south and we can move to a further reduction in restrictions. Take care everyone and stay safe; we are hoping and praying hard that we can all be back together as soon as possible.

Talk soon.

Glenda Harry

Principal