The Harvest

Around the School

Assistant Principal's Report

The Cyber Safety Project

 

We have had overwhelming positive feedback from our student, staff and parents sessions with The Cyber Safety Project this week.  (Our year 5’s and 6’s will attend next week when the year 5's return from camp.)  Sam and Trent from The Cyber Safety Project are incredibly knowledgeable and engaging and the students enjoyed learning some really important messages.

 

A key message to come out of the sessions was the Me, We, See spaces.  This would be a really valuable follow up conversation to have in your home.  What are the apps / information that we keep private and just for ‘Me’ (eg. banking details)?  What information could be in a ‘We’ space?  A ‘We’ space is a space we might share with our friends and people we know.  What information and applications are used in a ‘See’ space (a space that anyone can see)?  In the staff session we talked at length about the information, pictures etc that may be posted on a social media platform and that very quickly can become ‘See’ spaces when shared or saved by others.  Building this awareness and working in partnership to set boundaries is what will help keep our students safe online.

 

Congratulations to the very many parents who came to the parent information session, we had a terrific turnout.  We have left some copies of the Family Digital Use Guidelines Proforma (handed out on the night) at the office.  Please feel free to drop past and grab one to assist in creating a Cyber Safe household.

 

Thank you to our Digitech working party for organising this event.

 

Reporting to Parents

 

At Old Orchard Primary School we have a formal reporting schedule for parents that is evenly spaced throughout the year.

 

Term 1 – Parent Teacher Chats

Term 2 – Written report

Term 3 – 3 Way Conferences (Student, parent, teacher)

Term 4 – Written report

 

We would strongly encourage parents with concerns or queries around their child’s learning to make contact with teachers either by email or by organising an appointment outside of these 4 reporting periods.  There will be times when a teacher may initiate a meeting midway through a term.

 

Our Parent Teacher Chats will take place in Week 9 of this term (25th – 28th March).  In the period leading up to these chats teachers will have a number of assessment pieces that they will draw on to paint a picture for you of the academic progress your child is making and to provide an outline of goals and future learning.  Teachers will also be able to speak to some of the learning behaviours (eg. organisation, or ability to work collaboratively) that each student demonstrates in the classroom environment.

 

Leading in to the Chats keep in mind the following

  • Following your chat please celebrate the learning with your child.  It is important that our students understand the purpose of chats is to build stronger partnerships not for them to ‘get in trouble’
  • Each child (even each child in a family!) will have different strengths, abilities and areas for improvement.  Comparison doesn’t improve outcomes.  We are very focussed on recognising individuals and tailoring learning goals to the individual needs of our students.
  • Take the time to talk to your child about their learning prior to chats.  What are the things that they are enjoying?  What are they finding challenging?
  • Allocated chat times are 10 minutes.  If you would like to talk about an issue at greater length please raise this with the teacher ahead of time and plan to have and additional meeting or discussion.

 

           

RIDE TO SCHOOL DAY, 2019 – RIDE, WALK, WHEEL

Students, parents, teachers and the school community are encouraged to get on their bikes for National Ride2School Day which at Old Orchard Primary School will be held on Friday 22nd March 2019.

 

Ride2School Day is a nationwide program delivered by Bicycle Network, designed to support schools to encourage, empower and enable more students to get physically active on their journey to school. The City of Whitehorse encourages all schools to participate to help build a healthy, active and sustainable culture in our community.

 

Something as simple as riding a bike can help get your students on track to a happier and healthier life. Students who ride or walk to school contribute to their minimum physical activity level of 60 minutes per day. They are also more focused and ready to learn compared to those who are driven.

 

As well as enhancing the health of kids, riding to school improves air quality, reduces our carbon footprint, and stops traffic congestion.

 

If some of your students live far from school, they can drive part of the way and ride or walk the rest of the distance. After showing it’s achievable, we encourage schools to keep up the momentum throughout the year. Families that have tried leaving the car behind on National Ride2School Day might set a routine of leaving the care behind once a month, once a week or every day.

 

Thanks to everyone for your participation during Walk to School Month last year.

A message from the Sustainability Team