Communication

Appointments with Teachers

If you wish to see your child’s teacher, he/she will be happy to chat briefly with you at the Morning Line up or meet you after school for a few moments any afternoon except Monday and Tuesday (as these are Staff Meeting days). If you require a longer discussion, please make an appointment. The school telephone number is 9809 2142.

Parent/Teacher interviews are conducted in term one and again after the mid-year written reports are sent home. Should you wish to meet with your child’s teacher at another time during the school year, you are asked to make an appointment outside school hours with the teacher concerned. NB On Mondays and Tuesdays after school, the teachers are required to attend staff meetings from 3:45 to 5pm, so other days would be preferable.

Emailing Teachers

Email may be a fast and convenient way for you to send messages but this may not be the case for many of our teachers. Teachers read emails at different times of the day and so an immediate reply is not possible.

Depending on the nature of the email, you may not receive an email reply at all, since the staff member will determine how best to contact you: by email, phone call or to schedule a personal conference.

To use email effectively in a school setting, we have developed the following guidelines for parents/carers:

Email is appropriate for:

Brief enquiries about general school matters
School related issues only
To pass on relevant information to the appropriate personnel e.g. minor issue
As a communication tool between teachers and parents.
When agreed between the teacher and the parent (following a face-to-face contact) email may be used as a form of regular communication about a student’s day at school in place of a communication book.

Email is not ideal for:

Your child’s academic progress. This is best addressed through a telephone conversation or a personal conference with your child’s teacher.
Use as a tool for in depth discussion but can be used to raise a topic to be discussed at a face to face meeting
Sending non-vital messages by this medium. For example, do not use email to inform the school that your child is to meet you somewhere when the day ends. Instead, use the telephone to contact the office to be sure that the message is received and clearly understood.
Threatening or offensive language

When sending email:

Identify yourself in the subject line of your email and if appropriate, the name of your child.
It should only be addressed to the intended recipient ( To: as the primary recipient)
The use of ‘Cc’ (Carbon copy) is to be used if you would like another recipient to be aware of your email as a secondary recipient but not as an invitation to respond
Ensure emails are respectfully written, as meaning can be misinterpreted.
Acknowledgement of emails received by staff should be given within 2 working days, between the hours of 8am and 5pm Monday to Friday. We ask that parents not email teachers on the weekend or during holiday periods.

We are big believers in pacing and segmenting life. So in the good name of practicing what we teach and ensuring that we can give you our 100% every time we are in touch, please note that we will endeavour to reply within 24 hours.

Your email will have been safely received and will be given all the attention it deserves as soon as possible.

Skoolbag App, Email, Website,

In recent years communication between the school and parent community has been updated to utilise a number of online and digital avenues. The school will regularly send information out via email therefore it is very important to notify us of changes to email addresses. We also have a Skoolbag App available to download on mobile devices by searching for ‘St Cecilia’s’ in the Apple, Android or Windows app stores. It is very important to download and install this as important and urgent information is communicated through the app.

Our school website can be found at www.scglenris.catholic.edu.au. On the website we have other important information and policies accessible and available for download. The school also utilises a number of Google Education suite Apps including, Google Calendar (accessible on the website and through Skoolbag), Google forms for permission forms and gathering feedback, and Google sites for classroom specific resources and information.

Whatsapp Group protocols

St. Cecilia’s School understands the benefits of using social media; however if misused, the school community can be negatively affected, such as by damaging the school’s reputation.

Any Whatsapp groups that parents may be involved in (with other school parents) is not driven, monitored or verified by the school. To ensure inclusivity, all of our school events will be advertised, promoted and inform parents via email/Skoolbag/Newsletter.

We appreciate the simplicity and ease of instant messaging online; and that keeping in contact outside of school can benefit the school community by keeping the school community closer.

We expect parents to behave in a civilised nature online and will not tolerate the posting of defamatory ‘statuses’ about fellow parents, pupils, the school or its employees. St. Cecilia’s has a Complaints Procedures Policy in place, to avoid parents broadcasting grievances online.