Dear Parents,

In term three of each year, the Department of Education randomly selects a number parents to complete a survey about the school their child/ren attend. This is known as the Parent Opinion Survey, and the results of these surveys assist schools gauge how well they are meeting the need of parents and their children.

Feedback from parents in previous years suggests that they are unclear as to what some survey questions are referring to. To assist with this, over the course of this term we will be detailing some of the work we do that perhaps goes unnoticed, yet may assist in completing the survey from a more informed point of view.

For this edition of the newsletter, we begin with the area of Parent Community Engagement. This area asks questions such as "The school gives me opportunities to participate in my child's education" and "Teachers communicate with me often enough about my child's education".

In building stronger relationship with parents the school has introduced a number of initiatives over the past few years to strengthen this. For example we introduced 'Meet and Greet' sessions in term one of each year. These sessions are an opportunity for you to tell us all the important things we should know about your child right at the start of the year so we get to know them as an individual. Your feedback to us has been very positive regarding this.

You may also remember school council seeking your input on the updated report format introduced last year. This new format has more information regarding your child's progress in an easy to read format. In addition, we increased the length of parent-teacher interviews to give you greater time to discuss the contents of the report, and your child's progress generally.

Less formally, but equally important, we introduced our Education Week Expo each May so you can explore your child's learning with them, be that in the classroom, art room, The Hive or gym. And of course we have loved having parents back post-COVID to events such as our whole school athletics day. We enjoy having parents at our Kaboom Day, Colour Fun Run, our production last year as well as our days of significance such as ANZAC Day, Day for Daniel and National Sorry Day.

As schools are quite dynamic places, things do not always go as planned. There are now a number of key personnel available to discuss issues that may arise. Your child's classroom teacher is always a great place to start as they are well equipped to deal with the majority of issues, and they can also link you with other key staff should the need arise. These include our Mental Health in Schools Leader, Tanya Lindsay-Clark, our Wellbeing and Inclusion Leading Teacher Jo Wood, our Student Agency Learning Specialist, Lauren Wishart and our principal class personnel Kylie Kennedy and Simon McGlade.

We take parent concerns and feedback seriously, and are keen to address issues in a responsive manner , discreetly and with a view to finding solutions. As we have a strong relationship with a range of stakeholders beyond the school, we can also link parents and families to these groups to support those in need should that be required.

To access any of these staff, parents can phone the office, message the school through our XUNO app, or just pop in and speak with staff in the front office.

We hope this first article regarding Parent Community Engagement has been useful. Stay tuned for our next article focused on Safety.

Regards,

Mackellar PS

Education Expo 2024