Annual Reminders

In case you missed it...

General Office Opening Hours

The General Office is always the first point of contact for parents/visitors/contractors when attending the school or making contact with staff or students during school hours.  

All visitors to the College must sign into and out of the College using the Compass touchscreen kiosk in the General Office. Appointments are recommended and can be made by email or telephone.

We are available to answer any questions you may have in the first instance or help find the right person for you to contact.

New hours of operation for 2024:

Mon-Thurs         8:00am - 4:00pm

Fri                          8:00am - 3:30pm

Annual Reminders for our School Community

Each year we are required to distribute the following information to families. If you are at all unsure about any of these matters, please get in touch with the General Office to have your questions answered.

Up to Date Enrolment Record

Have you moved house? Do you have a new mobile number? Has Grandma moved into a retirement village and can no longer be an emergency contact? It is vital the school has all your current contact information so you can be contacted in the case of an emergency, so you don’t miss out communications or, for example, NAPLAN results when they are mailed out and cannot easily be replaced. It is very easy for us to email you your child’s entire enrolment record which you can make your adjustments to. Just contact the General Office to get that sent to you.

Privacy

Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy.

Please take time to read our school’s collection notice, found on our website here. 

For more information about privacy, please refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents. 

This information is also available in ten community languages:

Use of student photos in Compass and Newsletters, etc is also covered by this policy.

Refunds for Camps & Excursions

Every year there are circumstances that prevent students from attending a fully paid excursion/camp/sporting event, and we learned during the last few years that events can get cancelled outside the control of not only students and families, but also outside the control of the school and the department. 

We always work with our providers to agree on the most flexible of terms, but often it is not possible for them to be able to refund charges at late notice, and large portions of event costs are fixed (such as buses and venue hire). 

Families therefore need to be aware that whilst we make our best efforts to facilitate refunds for non-attendance or cancellation after the due date of an event, it is not guaranteed that a refund will be possible. Travel insurance can cover these sort of eventualities, and parents and guardians can purchase such insurance policies from commercial insurers.

Injuries

As parents can probably imagine, students sometimes get injured in the normal course of school life. Thanks to your Parent Contributions, we are able to have a Registered Nurse on staff during school hours who provides a wonderful level of first response, but we cannot stress enough that the following are NOT covered by any school, or department insurance policy:

• personal accidents or ambulance costs for students
• private property brought to school by students, staff or visitors

This includes a mobile phone or musical instrument that may have been lost, stolen or damaged. 

Parents and guardians can purchase insurance policies to cover these from commercial insurers.

Full details on insurance arrangements for schools can be found here: 

https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/insurance/policy

We strongly encourage families to be members of Ambulance Victoria, as we do not hesitate to call an ambulance should our staff determine it in the best interests of an unwell student – and the cost of one emergency road transport is in excess of $1,200!

Please follow this link for more information: https://www.ambulance.vic.gov.au/membership/

Arriving Late to School

This procedure has changed. Students are expected to be at school at 8.30am. The first bell rings at 8.40am and classes begin at 8:45am.  If you are aware your child will be late to school, parental approval should be submitted in the Compass portal, or by notifying the General Office.

To maximise learning time, students arriving late should head straight to their timetabled class where the classroom teacher will update the roll. Due to a change in policy by the Department of Education in 2023, students will no longer be marked late in the roll. Instead, teachers will create a Late chronicle which will be used to monitor student punctuality. Parents will be able to see the chronicles in Compass, and can discuss with their child the importance of being on time to class, but they will no longer show as unexplained. This will surely be a welcome change for the many parents who rightly objected to adding an attendance note using the ‘parent choice’ explanation when clearly they did not choose their child to be late!

Parents should continue to enter approvals for late arrivals where they are aware of the situation. Should a written note from a parent be provided with the student when they arrive, it should be brought to the General Office at recess or lunchtime and it will be entered in Compass.

Please see our regular General Information page for more information, including Student Absences and leaving school early.

Peter Cameron 

Business Manager