Key dates & important information for parents 

School Activities  & Contact Tracing

Please note that we are currently awaiting advice from DET re planned school activities onsite and offsite,  and school excursions. Guidelines are constantly being updated so please check Compass carefully for the latest information.

DET guidelines now require schools to provide excursion venues with contact tracing details for students on school excursions.  This information will be collected via Compass Events.  Parents are asked to provide their preferred contact phone number for their student.  Venues will be collecting student names and contact phone numbers for a legitimate purpose and are subject to Victorian privacy laws so will handle the information securely and only retain it for the required 28 day period.

Attendance

Daily Attendance is important for all children and young people to succeed in education and to ensure they do not fall behind.  Students are expected to attend Sandringham College during normal school hours all day, every day of each term unless

• There is an approved exemption from school exemption for the student
• The student has a dual enrolment with another school and has only a partial enrolment in Sandringham College
• The student is registered for home schooling and has only a partial enrolment in Sandringham College for particular activities

It should be noted that during this period any unwell students should remain at home and get tested for COVID, even with the mildest symptoms.

Parents can assist the school be ensuing that their student attends schools all day, every day when the school is open for instruction and by accurately entering attendance notes in the case of the student being unwell and not able to attend school. 

All attendance data is recorded via Compass.  Parents may view their child’s attendance data on Compass and may also use Compass to enter attendance notes.

If your child is going to be away please add an Attendance note to advise the school.  To do so:

• click ‘Add Attendance Note (Approved Absence/Late)
• A note screen will open.  Select the applicable reason from the drop down list, add any additional information in the details/comments box.
• Select the start and finish date/time of the absence and click save.  Note that if you do not adjust the time the absence will be recorded for the entire school day.

If your child has been marked not present without an explanation you are required to add an attendance note.  You will be alerted to this via a text message or an alert on your home screen.

• Click on the sms/alert and it will take you to your child’s ‘unexplained’ attendance tab where you will see the sessions for which they have been marked as not present or late
• Select the session that you are adding a note for and then click ‘Explain with attendance note’.  This will cause the Attendance Note screed to pop open
• Select the applicable reason for the absence and add in the relevant details/comment. Click ‘Save’. This will assign the attendance note to the sessions you selected and they will update to no longer show as unexplained absences.

PLEASE NOTE: It is within the rights of the school to override the excused absence of Parent Choice, with a Truancy or School Refusal, should the school believe this to be a more accurate reason for the absence.