Home-School communications
Communications
The school always endeavours to make parents feel welcome when visiting or telephoning the school to discuss matters of interest or concern. Please feel free to take advantage of the opportunity to contact the school whenever the need arises. Where possible please try to plan communication before or after school, or during the lunch breaks.
Children like to see their parents at school, whether you are attending a working bee, helping in the classrooms or library or talking to a teacher. Such visits are encouraged. Visitors are asked to report to the office, register and take a visitor badge.
School newsletter: 'Comments'
A regular school newsletter called ‘Comments’ is emailed home in weeks 1,3,5,7,9 of the school term. Please read it carefully as it contains information important for the effective running of our school.
Sharing information
Events in family life such as a major illness, visits of significant relatives, accidents, and the death of close relatives, friends or pets can cause major concern or change in the behaviour of your child. Please share this information with your child's teacher so that they may best support your child if needed.
Raising Concerns
From time to time, parents may have a concern arising from matters that occur in the school. We believe these concerns are best addressed in the school and the following procedure should be followed:
If it concerns a class issue:
- Arrange a mutually convenient interview time with your child's teacher.
- Clarify issues involved in the concern at the beginning of the meeting (or prior to the meeting if possible).
- Share available information about the issue.
- Give the teacher an opportunity to tell all he/ she knows of the issue.
- Take steps to resolve the concern (even if a resolution does not occur they may be a useful exchange of information).
- If not resolved, then an appointment should be made with the Principal or Deputy Principal within that area of responsibility. Parents are requested to follow the protocol, as it is important that concerns are raised as early as possible so that the escalation of difficulties may be prevented. This procedure allows a calm approach where satisfactory resolutions result in win/win situations.
School Reports
A comprehensive program of written and oral reporting is in place:
- Parent/ Teacher interviews at the end of Term 1 and Term 3 by request.
- End of semester written reports twice yearly. Written reports will be sent home to parents at the end of Term 2 and Term 4 via email.
- Parent/ Teacher contract over issues of mutual concern is strongly encouraged. Appointments need to be made at a mutually convenient time to allow teachers adequate preparation time, especially before school.
Parent teacher interviews
Parent teacher Interviews are an extremely important part of developing the parent – teacher - student support team. Parents are offered interviews in term 1 and term 3 and we encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity.
From time to time parents may have an issue or concern they wish to raise with a teacher. Our teachers usually spend mornings preparing for the day and it is not always possible to stop the work at hand for an immediate interview. Parents wishing to talk to teachers should make appointments through the office so that arrangements can be made to keep interference with the teaching organisation to a minimum.
Telephone messages
For the most part school Administrative Officers handle telephone messages; however, the Principal, Deputy Principal or Business Services Manager will always make themselves available to return calls to those who wish to speak to them. Teachers are not called to the telephone during teaching sessions but messages will be passed on to them.
Email
A convenient way to communicate is via email with our teachers and staff. Please contact the office for their email. If you do not receive a prompt reply (within 48 hours), please follow-up via another communication means as staff may be absent etc. It is often best not to write emails when upset or angry and a great idea to have someone else read your email if you are making a complaint as this ensures a positive working relationship between home and school.
Assembly Days
All parents are invited to join us for assembly each week for information, performances and the awarding of certificates for students.