Orchard Park Public School

Great school, glad to go here

it was pretty cool

The Olsonator is a sick nickname for the principal

Please note that this review is not for the school in general, which has several great teachers and enthusiastic students. The principal, Wendy Olson, does seem to care about the school and its students. This review is for the Gifted program at Orchard Park.Orchard Park was blessed with half of London’s gifted students and hosts both a grade 7/8 and 5/6 class for some of London’s brightest kids.Unfortunately, the school has done a terrible job with this program.Of particular note is Mrs. Morris’ grade 5/6 class. Mrs. Morris’ degree in Recreation and Leisure Studies does not give her the depth of knowledge or breath of experience to stimulate or engage these enquiring minds. Instead she simply copies random assignments from the internet and hands them out without proper instruction. In some cases, it is clear that she has not read or understood the assignment herself before handing it out to the students. Occasionally she will “modify” these assignments and has made some of them pointless or impossible because she did not understand them herself. At least one of her modifications was obvious from the spelling and grammar errors it contained.Of the assignments and projects we were able to observe, they rarely seemed to come with clear instructions, objectives, or learning goals. The rubrics were vague or missing in several cases, only showing up after parent complaints.Returned assignments rarely had explanations or tips on how to improve, and marking and evaluations were often confusing. Students could be graded for spelling on a math assignment, or the art work on a reading assignment.We were expecting an “enhanced” education experience where our child could learn the standard curriculum and also explore some aspects in greater depth. Instead we found that Mrs. Morris simply assigned a huge volume of pointless “busy work” to keep the kids occupied. Several of the students spent hours at home and on the weekend trying to complete these assignments. When we compared the material being covered against the Canadian curriculum, we discovered that Mrs. Morris’ coverage was spotty at best, and many critical topics were being skipped, like long division or multiplying decimals. The grade 5 science curriculum was omitted entirely.Although Mrs. Morris’ posts schedules, rubrics, and other material to make it look like she’s organized, we found that the kids frequently missed physical education class because Mrs. Morris couldn’t keep to the schedule, so they would miss their allocated time slot. The rubrics were frequently pointless, and she would sometimes have the students make them up.When talking to other parents and students I found that the students were stressed out and did not find the class stimulating or engaging. At one point when a student complained, Mrs. Morris said that “a gifted class is not supposed to be fun”. I think this pretty much sums up the way the gifted program is being handled at Orchard Park. Instead of producing keen, enquiring, and enthusiastic students, they are sucking the joy and curiosity out of some of London’s finest. My child lost their enthusiasm, curiosity, and love of learning in this class. They also developed several behavioural problems from the stress and anxiety created by this environment.Outside the gifted classrooms the school also has an issue with “gifted discrimination”, where members of the general population ostracise the students in the gifted program. The “norms” may be ridiculed if they associate with the “gifties”. Also, the staff outside (and inside for that matter) of the gifted program do not understand the special needs of the gifted student who may lack certain social skills or have heightened sensitivities to certain things.In summary, sending our child to the gifted program at this school did them a great disservice and they ended up much further behind academically and socially. I cannot recommend the gifted program for any student at this school.

Great School

mrs olson was too cheery. and also Would Not Leave Me Alone because I was troubled". mrs spenler was okay though"