At Macquarie we understand the importance of reciprocal communication for developing partnerships with parents and carers and ensuring a productive and enriched education for each child.
We encourage regular communication between families and school about children’s learning. We ask parents to let the school know if issues or situations develop that affect or upset your child so that appropriate sensitivity and understanding can be exercised.
Please make a time to meet with your child’s teacher if you want an update on your child’s learning at any time during the year. Teachers will also contact you if there are any concerns or exciting news to share. Appointments with teachers can be made by contacting the teacher directly.
Appointments with staff can be arranged through the front office.
We encourage families to take advantage of the range of opportunities provided for sharing information about learning programs, school life and children’s learning progress:
- Newsletter: The school newsletter is the main communication link between school and home and includes information on upcoming activities and events, education programs and other information. The newsletter is distributed via email on Thursdays. It is also available on the school website. A hardcopy of the newsletter can be requested from the front office. Families are welcome to celebrate student achievements outside school through contributions to the newsletter.
- Term Overview/Letter: At the beginning of each term a term overview/letter is sent home to families. This includes information about important dates for the term, general reminders, and a brief overview of the learning intentions for the term. Term overviews/letters are sent home on Monday of week three each term.
- Student Information Sheet: Early in term one we send home a sheet asking for information about your child to assist the class teacher to better understand how to support your child at school. This is sent out in advance of ‘Getting to know you’ interviews to enable the interview times to be most useful.
- ‘Getting to know you’ interviews: This interview is an opportunity to share information to enable your child’s teacher to best support learning.
- Parent information sessions: During the year we hold a range of information sessions on various topics such as ‘helping your beginner reader’, volunteering, parent engagement, cyber safety, NAPLAN etc.
- Portfolios are a collection of student work demonstrating progress towards the Australian Curriculum achievement standards that are tagged so you know the purpose of the student’s work and how it relates to the curriculum. Portfolios are presented in hard copy format for preschool students, and digital format for years K-6. Portfolios are first seen at Learnings Journeys in term three.
- Learning Journeys: Learning journeys are held in term three and provide an overview of student’s classroom experiences. Learning journeys are an opportunity for students to reflect on their learning and to share this with their families.
- Semester Reports are sent home twice yearly, at the end of term two and term four.
- End of semester parent-teacher interviews: Families are invited to meet with teachers after reports have been distributed to gain more information about student progress and achievement.
- Class Dojo: ClassDojo is an online communication platform that teachers, students and families use to share what is being learned in classrooms through photos and videos. Parents are required to complete a third party provider consent form. MPS does not use the points reward system or private messaging function of Class Dojo. For more information on Class Dojo, please visit their website.
- Permission Notes
- Website: The Macquarie website provides information for families about our school and preschool, enrolment, curriculum, community activities, volunteering, access to the Digital Backpack and information for payments.
- Assemblies & morning lines
- Facebook: The Macquarie Primary Facebook page provides information about the latest happenings at school. We encourage you to ‘like’ this page.
- SMS absence texts: You will receive an SMS/text message around 10.00am if your child has been marked absent from their class. Please use the SMS/text message as a reminder to contact school and provide a reason for your child’s absence. We also use SMS/text messages to advise of last minute changes to events happening and the school and send general reminders
- Display pockets near the front office include spare copies of permission notes and other information.
- Noticeboards: There are noticeboards near the front office and in the corridor near the staffroom. These are used to display whole school initiatives, events and collaborative work.
- Corridors/hallways: The corridors/hallways display samples of student work. Please feel free to take a look.