Assistant Principal's Report 

Welcome back to everyone! It is so exciting to be welcome ALL students back on-site. It has been so long since having written a newsletter contribution. Obviously these past few months have been incredibly different as we have had to transition our Teaching and Learning programs online for students to learn remotely. We know that remote learning poses a number of challenges for students, families and staff. However, I must say that the willingness of families to ‘roll their sleeves up’, embrace the challenge of remote learning and do their very best to facilitate this at home has been commendable and I am incredibly proud of our entire community.

Students have missed seeing their friends, they have missed the face-to-face interaction with their teachers, missed learning collaboratively with their peers and just missed being at school. However, their application to remote learning has been incredible. We know that there have been challenges and it certainly hasn’t been easy, but it really goes to show just how much our students value education and are wanting to learn. 

The resilience displayed upon our return to on-site learning has been equally as exceptional. As a staff we did considerable research around what we could expect from our students upon returning to school after such an extended period and some of the challenges that could present, especially from a wellbeing perspective. However, on the whole, they have hardly missed a beat. Where Teachers prepared a lot of wellbeing sessions, in particular around emotional regulation, students just craved getting back into a routine and stuck into more academic based learning. Even the learning stamina of the students seems to be relatively similar to what we were seeing earlier in the year. Teachers are incredibly pleased and proud, and certainly families need to take a considerable amount of the credit for the incredibly positive way in which students have returned to school. 

Similarly, families really appeared to embrace the challenge and we know that for most, it wasn’t necessarily smooth sailing. Viewing the home as a place of school-based learning was an incredibly difficult transition for some students to make. As was not having their Teachers and peers in the room with them whilst having family around as they were trying to do their schoolwork. We know that most students had moments, and days, where motivation was low (trust me – Teachers did too!) and there were days where the learning got parked completely. We know that many parents were juggling the demands of remote learning, often for more than one child, in addition to their own workload. But on the whole, families seemed to really understand the importance of the curriculum content that was being delivered and rose to the challenge. We can’t thank you enough for all of your hard work through what for many were very challenging times.

Finally, remote learning poses a number of enormous challenges for Teachers as well. Adjusting content then planning, recording and editing lessons, developing an understanding of the platforms being used, checking in on students, acknowledging and providing feedback on work as it is submitted, attending meetings, supporting with on-site care and supervision. The list could go on forever. And whilst we have an incredibly resilient, professional and passionate Teachers, our Teachers also thrive on the interactions with students which was sadly taken away from them. However, our staff adjusted, persevered with challenges, supported one another and presented the curriculum as best they could, in a way which was designed to be as student and parent friendly as possible. Again, we couldn’t be prouder of all our staff – Education Support staff and Admin staff as well. Each had their own unique challenges and roles to play, but similarly, each member found ways to adjust accordingly and perform their role to a high standard.

But here we are, WE ARE BACK! And we couldn’t be happier. As I outlined above, the students on the whole have returned in an incredibly positive fashion, as have our somewhat weary staff. There has been the same ‘buzz’ walking through the Learning Communities again with students hard at work, celebrating growth, and Teachers excitedly doing what they do best once more. 

Our students have certainly remembered and been demonstrating our school values to a high standard. This was reflected in the number of students in the ‘Spark Buck Prize Shop’ on Thursday, cashing in their well-earned Spark Bucks for prizes. Our Spark Bucks, if you remember back at the beginning of Term Three, are a key component of our whole-school acknowledgment system for students who are demonstrating our school values. These are provided by staff as they see students demonstrating a value, and collected by the student until such time as they would like to exchange them for a prize.

We have also had two assemblies now in which we have been able to celebrate the amazing learning taking place through our Orchard Spark awards. 

Another very exciting development at Orchard Park Primary School is around our Prep transition program for our 2022 Preppies. This was supposed to start last term until COVID intervened. However, we were thrilled when the Department of Education and Training recently announced that these could again commence. We welcomed our 2022 Preppies on Wednesday morning and they had an amazing time together. They are coming from many different Kindergartens, but even in the hour that they had together, connections and friendships started to develop and as a whole, they were so excited to be in school. We will have 2 more transition sessions on November 24th and December 7th which will help to ensure that our Preppies commence the 2022 school year feeling comfortable, confident and connected. 

There is so much going on in Learning Communities now as our Teachers make the most of this time we have face-to-face, getting current assessment data and ensuring that each child is ready to transition into a new year level next year. Teachers are now in the process of drafting student achievement reports for Semester Two. In line with revised department expectations, these will look a little different given the current context and that so much of the semester was spent learning remotely. Further information and explanations will be provided in coming weeks. 

Similarly, there is a lot of work now going on behind the scenes to ensure that we are well prepared for 2022. It’s hard to believe that the first year of Orchard Park Primary School in operation is nearly complete. It’s been a crazy journey! But a very exciting and rewarding one too. Our workforce has nearly been finalised with some final appointments to be made next week, whilst we are in the process of finalising student class groupings and our teaching teams.

Many thanks again to our entire community for your support, your resilience, your flexibility and your understanding during these past few months. I look forward to seeing you all around in coming weeks. Let’s finish 2021 on a really positive note!

Until next time, take care.  

Danny Forster

Assistant Principal