Principal’s Welcome

Orbost North Primary School is a small, friendly, semi-rural primary school set in large, spacious, well-maintained grounds at the top end of town. It is a school that prides itself on catering for the individual needs of all its children, within its safe, nurturing environment. It offers small, multi-grade classes with an excellent student/teacher ratio and a comprehensive curriculum. In fact, whilst Orbost North’s key focus is literacy and numeracy, it also offers Art, Digital Technology, LOTE (Indonesian), Science, Geography, History, Cyber Safety, Respectful Relationships, Health/PE and Music.

To reinforce our commitment to improving literacy and numeracy in all grades we have a comprehensive assessment program implemented at the start of the year to provide staff with the data they need to cater for all students at their point of need in small, flexible groups. Data is updated regularly through the year as the student progresses.
We run a thorough Kinder to Foundation transition program in Term four each year in order to assist with a smooth transition for each child into the school. There is also a comprehensive Year 6 to 7 transition program, strongly supported by Orbost North.

Additional Programs

At Orbost North we provide a wide range of dynamic, flexible programs, both within and outside school hours. These range from a very popular Sporting Schools Program twice a week after school for an hour, Breakfast Club five days a week, a healthy eating and cooking program, soup and toast in winter, arts council performances, Junior School Council special lunches and activities; weekly lunch orders; and a comprehensive cluster based swimming and sports program for all year levels.

We also make available at a subsidized rate, swimming lessons with specially trained swimming instructors at Lakes Entrance Aquadome in term four each year. This has become a popular, important part of our swimming/sports program, as it prepares the children with the swimming skills they need for the summer season.

Our camps program begins in Foundation with a school sleepover and follows through to year 6. It is regularly updated with new opportunities. However, it does involve day trips in our nearby region, such as Lakes Entrance and Cape Conran and up to week-long camps away to Canberra and Melbourne.
Ready access to our school owned bus means that students can be stimulated and educated through enjoyable excursions to local events and locations at minimal or no cost to families.

We promote positive behaviours and achievement through a set of school values, designed and agreed on annually by the students. The staff are trained in Restorative Practices which are aimed at sorting out issues by rebuilding relationships through negotiating with all involved.

We are committed to ensuring a happy, safe environment with no tolerance for bullying and policies regarding acts of violence as well as cyber-bullying issues. We encourage a values program within the classroom and the playground and an understanding of respect for others.

We include a number of outside agencies and programs to enhance our curriculum and support the welfare of the students. These include: SAS (Secret Agent Society) which promotes resilience and confidence in students; a Counsellor who works with children one on one using play therapy; I-Connect programs; Journeys of Hope through Save the Children and other Healthy Eating and cooking opportunities.

Orbost North Primary School prides itself on providing a safe, caring, stimulating learning environment for all individuals through a consistent, unified approach to education. This provides a smooth transition of learning throughout the school to assist all children in reaching their full potential.

At Orbost North we run a unique primary timetable with small classes and a rotation timetable from Years 2 to 6. This provides the very best learning outcomes for all students. The whole school runs an intensive three hour Literacy and Numeracy block in the mornings, broken into three, one hour sessions, with recess in between. Students move in their small groups to the classroom of the teacher taking Reading, Writing and Maths with the Prep/Ones staying in their own room. The afternoon sessions are spent with Specialist Teachers covering many other areas of the curriculum.