Dear Community
We are officially half way through Term 1 and it has been great to see how well our students are settling into their new classrooms and routines. We are also delighted to have been able to invite parent helpers back into our classroom. Your contributions to our morning routines in particular are greatly appreciated. Please look out for communications from your classroom teachers that may outline opportunities for you to come in and support in class.
Please read on for some important information around
- Communication with school for 10 -12 March
- School Board
- Online Services Consent
- and, Attendance
Communicating with the School 10-12 March
Next week, between 10 -12 March our school will be effectively ‘offline’ as we have our school server upgraded. This means that from midday Wednesday until close of business on Friday we will have no computer or internet access on school site. Our ability to monitor and respond to emails and access any information on the school system will be limited during this time.
Whilst we will still be able to check emails intermittently, if you have an urgent message or one that needs to be responded to in a timely manner, please call the school office on 9222 9200.
School Board
In the last newsletter, we advertised 1 parent representative vacancy. I am delighted to advise that that position has been filled by Mr Paul Monaghan, who will be taking on another tenure on the Board.
However, since the last newsletter, Ms Nicole Stallard has had to step back from her position. This means that we are looking to fill another parent representative vacancy. It will be of a 3-year tenure and will commence as soon as it is filled. You will need to be a parent at Scarborough Primary School from 2021 until 2023 to be eligible.
Should there be more than one nomination, all parents will be offered the opportunity to vote. Candidates will then be asked to provide a 250 word brief and a portrait style photograph to include on the voting slip. New members of the Board will undertake training and will have a mentor allocated to assist with induction onto the Board. If you are interested, please email to sarah.dawson@education.wa.edu.au or express your interest in person to the front office. Nominations close at 3:00pm, Friday 12 March, 2021.
The Board’s role is required to help the school deliver a quality education experience to our children by:
- establishing and reviewing the goals, priorities and policies of the school at a strategic level;
- supporting the development of our School Business Plan;
- planning for and endorsing school budgets;
- evaluating the performance of our school in achieving the goals set; and
- promoting our school within the community.
I would like to thank Ms Stallard for her contributions to the Board over the past two years, particularly in undertaking the role of Board Chair in 2020. Her ideas and contribution in the area of public relations will be sorely missed!
Finally, our first meeting for the year is due to be held on Wednesday March 10 from 6pm at the school. All meetings are open to the public, so if you are keen to come along and check one out, please email me on sarah.dawson@education.wa.edu.au to let me know you are interested in attending.
More information on the Board can be found on our school website.
Online Services Consent
Our school provides online services to students only for learning related activities and make every reasonable effort to educate and protect students from exposure to inappropriate online material and activities.
As part of the online learning program, the students access a range of Third Party Service Providers of online applications. These are any organisations, who render online services or products to schools and include services such as Mathletics, SeeSaw and Literacy Pro.
In order to stay in line with updated Department policy, this year we are required to notify parents and seek consent to use many of these online services. Next week, there will be forms coming home with your children with the lists of these services. Please look out for these notes in your childrens’ bags and sign and return as soon as possible to the office.
Attendance
At Scarborough PS, we want your child to achieve their very best. To get the best education, they need to attend school every day. Developing a habit of going to school every day is vitally important so your child does not miss out on important ideas and skills they need for future learning.
At Scarborough we monitor attendance by reviewing attendance levels of individuals over 3 week periods. Where a child has fallen below 90% attendance in consecutive attendance periods without a reasonable cause (see below) the school is required to notify parents via a letter. In some instances, this is just information to alert parents to the fact their child’s attendance has dropped. In others, where persistent low attendance is evident, the school may ask for a meeting with parents to find a solution and lift attendance levels.
Some letters will be sent home to families next week. Please contact me if you have any queries.
It is important that children stay home when they are unwell, as is outlined below and again further on in this newsletter. Our monitoring system takes this into consideration, as it only targets students whose attendance is low over consecutive 3 week blocks. Hence, if your child misses a week’s school with the flu in one monitoring period but their attendance is at acceptable levels in others, then it would not be cause for alarm.
The Department of Education provides the following guidance and information on attendance:
Why is going to school so important for my child?
- At school, many concepts including literacy and numeracy are taught in a sequence. Missing school means missing out on learning – which can often make it difficult to catch up later. This is particularly important when essential foundation skills are being taught.
- Going to school every day helps children learn the important life skill of ‘showing up’ – at school, at work, to sport and other commitments.
- Research from the Western Australian Telethon Kids Institute shows that every day at school counts towards a student’s learning. Students who attend more, generally do better at school and in life.
When is it OK to not go to school?
An OK reason is one that prevents your child from getting to school. This could include:
- when your child is sick or unwell
- attending cultural or religious observances such as sorry time and funerals
- an unavoidable natural event such as flood waters or a cyclone
- an unavoidable medical appointment
It’s NOT OK to miss school if your child:
- is celebrating a birthday
- is going on a family holiday
- is visiting family and friends
- has slept in or had a big weekend
- is looking after other children
- has sport or other recreational activities that have not been approved by the school
- has appointments such as haircuts and minor check ups
As always, if you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to call or email me on sarah.dawson@education.wa.edu.au
Sarah Dawson
Principal
