Things to know
COMMUNICATION
How we communicate at Ripponlea Primary School binds us together. At the heart of our school community is our ability to communicate effectively. Communication between the school, parents and students is about finding the right information for the purpose we all seek. Parents are encouraged to connect with the day-to-day life of our students via a number of new and existing channels operating throughout the school such Seesaw, COMPASS, Specialist Blogs, our newsletter and most importantly face-to-face.
Specialist Timetables:
On Monday all families will receive a class timetable that will specify your child's spread of curriculum subjects. This timetable will also help you to know when students will have their particular specialist programs (Physical Education, Performing Arts, Visual Arts & French/Italian) and other activities related to the year level. The timetables will be stored in the school documentation tab and will be sent directly to your class via COMPASS.
Seeaw:
Mr Griffiths is in the process of setting up new accounts for all families and students. We have subscribed to online portfolios and other new features on Seesaw. There will be lots of information sent by your classroom teachers about this, but please know it does take a little while for all classes to set up their profiles and start posting classroom events and all other student posts.
COMPASS:
Compass has many features, please check out the following guides to assist you in navigating the portal and if you need any one to one tutorials. Please do not hesitate to contact Meagan.
Calendar:
Tip: Run your mouse over the calendar event and you will find more information and details.
School Documentation Tab:
Tip: This is located under the community tab and will store a range of documents if you have lost anything.
Attendance:
Tip: Please don't forget to add an absence note on Compass via the app or in browser mode.
Permission:
Tip: If you haven't completed the parent permission forms you will find them in your compass news feed. Click proceed and follow the prompts. These consents forms must be completed by the 14th February.
Meagan Brake our Administration officer is our main communication officer for Compass. She receives communication from teachers, leadership, parents and ripper families and posts information via the portal. Given a school can have a large number of daily information to distribute, we take the following approaches depending on the importance of the correspondence.
- We can email and SMS the information (will alert you)
- We can email (will alert you)
- We can just SMS (will alert but disappears quickly on iPhone)
- We can just post and save making the correspondence live for the period (no alert)
Please note:
- Reminders are occasionally sent as alerts, but not always
- All communication drops off after the event has concluded
- All minor correspondence drops off after 7 days
- All permission closes off by the due date for planning purposes
- All notices can be found on the school documentation tab
We highly recommend that all families make it a regular habit to check COMPASS on a weekly basis to avoid missing important information.
iNEWSLETTER:
A celebration of events that have occurred across the school, information on events to come, calendar of events, only comes out every fortnight on Wednesdays.
SCHOOL MORNINGS - SOFT STARTS
The school offers students a ‘soft start’ to promote punctuality as a personal responsibility and to maximise learning time so teachers can commence the day’s program promptly at 9am. Staff are in their learning areas from 8:45am and students are able to go straight into their learning spaces. Once inside, students are able to get settled and organised for the school day. Each year level will have a special routine for the start of the day, so please check in with your teacher for some clarification around this.
Given teachers are supervising children from 8:45am each morning, they are unable to have parent meetings during this time. Parents are always welcome to make an appointment at other times that are more convenient by contacting the office or leaving a message on the voicemail of the teacher.
We kindly request that students and families do not enter learning spaces until the yard duty teacher with the high-visibility vest is out in the yard at the basketball end at 8:45am. Some parents prefer to take their children directly to their learning spaces at 8:45am; however, we strongly discourage leaving children unattended if a teacher is not present.
On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, staff attend a briefing until 8:45am, which may see that some staff are not in their learning areas at exactly 8:45am but maybe a minute or so later.
NB: Staff are unavailable during the following days and times:
Tuesdays 8:30 to 8:45am (Staff briefing) & 3:45 – 4:45pm (Staff Professional Learning Session)
Wednesdays 3:45 to 4:45 (PLT Meetings)
Thursdays 8:30 to 8:45am (Staff briefing)
RIPPONLEA'S LEGO PROGRAM
Every Thursday lunch time for the next 8 weeks Ripponlea's Lego Program will be running in the library. Please see the attached flyer for more information.
