TERM 4 WEEK 3/4 NEWSLETTER 2024
FROM THE PRINCIPAL
NAIDOC WEEK
Students and staff enjoyed participating in various activities throughout Orange NAIDOC Week. In particular, it was very exciting to watch our Kinder students, Stage 1 Dance Troupe and members of the Wula Gurray Choir perform at the NAIROC Eisteddfod. Congratulations to our Stage 1 Dance Troupe who placed third in the primary section and also to the Wula Gurray Choir who won the Uncle Neil Ingram Community Award. Thank you also to Miss Hay, Mr McGregor, Mrs Wright, Mrs McLennan and Mrs Hiney for their work preparing the students and supervising the excursion.
As a final celebration of NAIDOC, next Thursday, 14th November we are also holding special Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural activities between 9:30am – 1:10pm for all classes. There will be a range of activities that students and staff will take part in to learn more about and celebrate our country's first people and the oldest living culture on the planet. A reminder: to help celebrate the day, students are invited to wear casual clothes representing the colours of the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander flags (red, yellow, black, green, white and blue).
Due to the success of last year's event, we will also hold our Grandparents' Day on Thursday 14th November. We invite any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders and family members from within the Orange East community as well as across the broader Orange area to join us for our NAIDOC activities (commencing at 9:30am) or later for the Grandparent’s Picnic and Performance Showcase. The picnic commences at 1:10pm on the top playground with performances commencing at 2pm.
GRANDPARENTS PICNIC AND PERFORMANCE SHOWCASE
A reminder that we will hold our Grandparents' Day and Performance Showcase next Thursday 14th November. As in the past, the event will be held on our top playground starting at 1:10pm. All members of the Orange East community are invited to bring a picnic lunch and a rug and come together at Orange East to celebrate these important people.
To add to the excitement for the day, at the end of lunch (approximately 2pm) our K-2 Choir, Yr 3-6 Choir, Kinder Dance Group, Year 1/2 Dance Group, Year 3/4 Dance Group and Year 5/6 Dance Group will perform on the top playground to close the event. This is a good opportunity for parents or wider family members who may have missed earlier performances by these groups.
P&C Cake Stall
To add to this great event, the P&C will be holding a cake stall fundraiser. They are putting a call out to all those fantastic bakers in the OEPS community to support this event. Notes were sent home with all students on Tuesday about how to donate to the stall and you can also find a copy by following the link below. Items are asked to be delivered to the school office in the morning on Thursday, 14th November.
We look forward to our community joining us for this special event.
STUDENT LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES 2025
All of our Year 5 students have been involved in a talk about school leadership opportunities for 2025 and received a nomination form outlining expectations for Student Leaders and House Captains. Nomination forms were due to be returned on the 18th October for students wishing to run for a Student Leader and/or House Captain position.
Students nominating themselves for Captain, Vice-Captain or Prefect must present a speech outlining their leadership strengths. Speeches will be presented to the school this Friday, 8th November (Week 4), after which all students from Kindergarten to Year 5 will vote.
House Captain voting will take place on Monday, 11th November (Week 5).
2025 SCHOOL PLANNING
To assist with important planning considerations for the year to come, we ask parents/carers to inform the school as soon as possible if you know that you will be moving away from the area and hence your children will not be attending Orange East PS in 2025.
PRESENTATION DAY CEREMONY - TIME CHANGE
The date for our Presentation Day has been set for Thursday, 12th December to be held at Canobolas Rural Technology High School Gymnasium.
Please note that this year we are commencing earlier than previous years at 10am. The start time has been changed to take advantage of the slightly cooler morning weather as the gym can be quite warm. The ceremony usually runs for approximately 90 minutes.
STAGE 3 SYDNEY EXCURSION
Last week our 5/6 students travelled to Sydney for their Stage 3 camp. I was lucky enough to attend the excursion with staff and students and enjoyed spending the time watching them enjoy this experience. Students enjoyed a range of activities including a ferry ride, a tour of the Opera House, beach play, Maritime and Australian Museums, Taronga Zoo, a Lip-Sync Battle and more!
I would like to thank Miss Croker the excursion organiser as well as Mrs Pulbrook, Mr McGregor, Mrs Elliott, Mrs McLennan, Mrs McNabb and Mrs Roxburgh for their work supervising the group.
Photo bomb alert: below are quite a lot of photos from across the three days. I've also included below, a piece of writing by Chase Tucker-Forbes about his reaction to the excursion. Great work, Chase!
Sydney Recount
Sydney, one of the most impressive places ever built and I got a chance to visit! A Wednesday morning began our journey across Sydney and a Friday afternoon ended it. I did a whole lot of things in Sydney such as the beach, a guided tour of the opera house and a whole lot more!
What makes it so memorable was seeing the ocean for the very first time and being able to visit Sydney will just stay stuck in my head forever. What made the trip so funny was the ding-dong-ditchers at our accommodation, and they just wouldn’t stop it. It got so annoying that I chased the ditcher to their room so they wouldn’t come back and disturb us.
My favourite part of the trip was visiting the Sydney Opera House and getting to sit and view a theater that holds 2500 seats and having an amazing sight of the Harbour Bridge, which was my first time as well. I learnt at the Maritime Museum that they made battleship and submarine replicas to explore and teach people how the veterans survived on the ship.
I just hated the Zoo because Mr Bourke was running as fast as a cheetah so I couldn’t see half the animals there.
I learnt about myself that I can sleep without my Xbox and that’s pretty much my recount of a fantastic excursion to Sydney!
By Chase
DAY 1 - WED, 30TH OCT
DAY 2 - THUR, 31ST OCT
DAY 3 - FRI, 1ST NOV
CHANGE TO TERM 1 2025 START DATES
Recently the NSW Teachers' Federation and the Department of Education reached an agreement on a new 3-year consent award. The award relates predominantly to pay, work conditions, more flexible work arrangements and professional learning/planning time.
In particular, one aspect of this agreement relates to school development days. Starting in 2025, there will now be eight (8) school development days in total across the year, all at the start of each term:
- 4 days in Term 1
- 2 days in Term 2
- 1 day in Term 3
- 1 day in Term 4
This is a good outcome as it will further support our work in professional learning and planning to ensure that we continue to meet the needs of our students with high-quality teaching and learning. Staffing and funding challenges over the past several years have not always made this easy and so we welcome this step to support the ongoing development of our profession. Student start and end dates for all of 2025 can be found later in the newsletter under Upcoming Events.
It is important for parents to note that the student start date for 2025 has changed in line with these additional days:
- ALL students in Years K-6 will now start on Thursday, 6th February.
2025 Kindergarten
Parents and carers of our incoming 2025 Kinder students will also note that we have made changes to how the BEST Start Assessment will be conducted.
The BEST Start Assessment will now be held over the first 5 weeks of Term 1, with students coming out of class to complete the assessment during the school day. This means that Kindergarten students will also commence with the rest of the school on Thursday, 6th February.
As per previously, for the first two weeks of Kindergarten (Thur 6th Feb - Fri 14th Feb) parents/carers have the option of picking Kinder children up slightly earlier, from 2:30pm if you wish. Kinder students will still be supervised until 3:10pm if they are not collected early.
OFFICE VISITORS
A delightful Halloween-themed Chocolate Spider. Texture, flavour and portion size were great. I scored it a solid 9.5.
Some delicious Croatian food on this occasion. The Meat Cevapi scored a perfect 10 - balanced flavours, excellently cooked - just delicious. The Vegetarian Cevapi was also very good but there was just something missing for me......meat!
SCHOOL NEWS
SUMMER UNIFORM
As we finally start to feel some warmer weather, a reminder that during Term 4 it is compulsory for students to wear their maroon school bucket hat while playing in the playground, as well as during PE and Sport. Students not wearing the correct hat will be restricted to playing under the COLA/central lunch area.
Also a reminder as we move to our summer uniform that we have a high expectation for all students to be in the correct uniform. Wearing the uniform is not only important for the self-esteem of our students but promotes the school as a positive and proud part of the community. I have included the following table with the uniform requirements for Term 4 to assist parents/caregivers.
SELECTIVE HIGH SCHOOL/OPPORTUNITY CLASS APPLICATIONS
Selective high schools and opportunity classes are one of the ways that the department supports students who have high intellectual potential. These are students whose intellectual potential exceeds that of students of the same age. Students sit a placement test and qualify for a place based on their results.
Selective high schools are for students in Years 7 to 12. The current application process is for students in Year 7 in 2026.
There are 4 types of selective high schools:
- fully selective high schools (17)
- partially selective high schools (25)
- agricultural high schools (4)
- Aurora College – providing online opportunity classes for rural and remote students.
Opportunity classes are for primary school students in Years 5 and 6. The current application process is for students in Year 5 in 2026.
There are 87 opportunity classes in NSW. The types of opportunity classes are:
- primary schools with full-time opportunity classes (the closest to Orange is located at Bathurst PS)
- Aurora College – providing online opportunity classes for rural and remote students.
Aurora College
The department's Aurora College provides online opportunity classes for rural and remote students.
Students attend their local ‘host’ NSW public school and join Aurora College’s online opportunity classes for science, technology, and mathematics (Primary) or english, mathematics and science (High School).
Applications for selective high school and opportunity class entry in 2026 will be open from 7 November 2024 to 21 February 2025.
Further information can be found at: https://education.nsw.gov.au/schooling/parents-and-carers/choosing-a-school-setting/selective-high-schools
CLOTHING POOL
The Clothing Pool is open every Wednesday and Friday morning from 8:40 - 9:10am. Afternoons are by appointment only. A reminder that the Clothing Pool has moved to what was formerly the General Assistant/Cleaner's Shed - next to the disabled toilet.
The Clothing Pool also welcomes donations of any clothing. Please drop items off at the office or clothing pool on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
STUDENT ATTENDANCE
All schools are expected to implement rigorous attendance policies. This includes monitoring whole day and partial school absences as well as patterns of non-attendance. The policy requires that parents ensure a high level of school attendance by their children and that all student absences are explained either verbally via phone call, or via a written explanation or through the School Bytes app, on the day of absence or as soon as possible following. As a school we must comply with this policy but most importantly our goal is to achieve the best possible educational outcomes for each and every student. As always, the key to this success is a great partnership between home and school.
Students with significant absences or patterns of non-attendance without explanation may be contacted to attend a formal school meeting, and if attendance continues to be of concern, by the Home School Liaison Office. Class teachers will also make phone calls home regarding unexplained absences.
CURRENT FORMS/PERMISSION NOTES
| WHAT | COST | WHEN/WHERE | WHO | DUE WHEN |
| Infants and Primary Choir Ascott Gardens Performance | NIL | Wed, 12th Nov Ascott Gardens | K-2 and Yr 3-6 Choirs | Tues, 12th Nov |
| Canobolas High School Transition Days | NIL | Tues 19 & Wed 20 Nov CRTHS | Year 6 Students attending CRTHS in 2025 | Tues, 12th Nov |
UPCOMING EVENTS
TERM 4 SAVE THE DATES
As Term 4 is such a busy time, see below for advanced notice on a number of events. Please note that occasionally dates may change due to events out of our control. We will endeavour to give as much notice as possible for any changes that may occur.
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Year 6 High School Transition CRTHS
8:45 AM - 3:00 PM |
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RDA volunteering
9:30 AM - 11:00 AM |
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FINAL Infants (K-2) Assembly
2:00 PM - 2:30 PM |
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Debating Grand Final
8:40 AM - 3:00 PM |
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Stage 2 - Learn to Swim
12:30 PM - 2:30 PM |
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RDA volunteering
9:30 AM - 11:00 AM |
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FINAL Primary (Yr 3-6) Assembly
2:00 PM - 2:30 PM |
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Canobolas High Enrichment Day
9:00 AM - 3:00 PM |
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Stage 2 - Learn to Swim
12:30 PM - 2:30 PM |
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RDA volunteering
9:30 AM - 11:00 AM |
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PBL Award Assemblies
9:20 AM - 11:00 AM |
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Yr 6 Farewell Dinner/Disco
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM |
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Presentation Day
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM |
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Last Day of School for Students
18 Dec 2024 - 19 Dec 2024 |
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Yr 6 Graduation Assembly + Clap-Out
2:30 PM - 3:10 PM |
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FRIDAY ASSEMBLY
ASSEMBLY INFORMATION
In 2024 we will continue with our regular alternating Friday Assembly with parents and carers invited to attend. The assembly commences at 2pm on Friday in the School Hall. Each week the assembly will alternate between Primary (Yr 3-6) and Infants (K-2).
On Friday mornings from 8:40am, either Infants or Primary students (corresponding with the assembly weeks listed below) are invited to bring their lots of 10 Blue Merit Awards to the office for stamping. During the day, we will also process Principal Awards and Homereading Awards. These awards and the Safe Respectful Learner Awards will be presented at the assembly after lunch.
Parents will receive a notification early in the week via the School Bytes app if your child is receiving a Principal’s Award.
Photos of the award recipients will continue be included in the newsletter the following week.
Please note the roster below:
Term 4
- Week 4 - Friday, 8th November (Infants, K-2)
- Week 5 - Friday, 15th November (Primary, 3-6)
- Week 6 - Friday, 22nd November (FINAL Infants, K-2)
- Week 7 - Friday, 29th November (FINAL Primary, 3-6)
- Week 8 - Friday, 6th December (PBL Awards Assemblies)
- Week 9 - Thursday, 12th December (Presentation Day)
- Week 10 - Wednesday, 18th December (Yr 6 Graduation Assembly)
TERM 4 WEEK 1 PRIMARY ASSEMBLY AWARDS
TERM 4 WEEK 2 INFANTS ASSEMBLY AWARDS
CLASS OF THE WEEK
TERM 3 WEEK 8 - 3/4 WALLABY
TERM 4 WEEK 1 - 2 KOALA
TERM 4 WEEK 2 - 5/6 GALAH
TERM 4 WEEK 3 - 1/2 PANDA
P&C NEWS
CRAZY CAMEL FUNDRAISER
This term the P&C have organised a Crazy Camel fundraiser. Over the next week, students across all classes are completing an artwork that can be used on the various products produced by Crazy Camel.
Further information and how to order can be found at: www.crazycamel.com.au/16207. Information was also sent out with students on Thursday.
Please note that orders and payments can only be processed via the Crazy Camel website - the school office will not be take any money/orders.
ORDERS MUST BE PLACED BY FRIDAY, 15TH NOVEMBER.
P&C MEETINGS 2024
Term 4 Meetings
- Week 8 - Tuesday, 3rd December @ 6:30pm
Meetings are held between 6:30 - 7:30pm in the Staffroom with access from the Spring Street entrance (see map below). Meeting length is strictly limited to one hour or less if possible! New members are warmly welcomed. Do not hesitate to contact the school office if you would like further information.
Parents and carers can also opt to join via Zoom. Zoom participants will need to create a registered account and use the details below:
https://nsweducation.zoom.us/j/68062125227?pwd=ur9M6o1EamW7B6aBhA5BgQAoZb3Icx.1
Meeting ID: 680 6212 5227
Passcode: 643932
JOINING THE P&C OR VOLUNTEERING
We love parent involvement at Orange East. You can volunteer in the classroom, working bees, help cook at BBQ's, share your professional or special interest skills, join a committee and more. Please complete this online form to register your interest and the P&C will email you details of upcoming events and P&C meetings for your calendar.