Thank You
I take this opportunity to wish you a safe and refreshing long weekend. With the cold and wet week that we have just experienced, I think we are all looking forward to being with family and staying warm at home. It has been a great week none-the-less, with lots of amazing opportunities for learning and inspiration, both in and out of the learning spaces.
Thanks to Our Team
I am especially thankful to our staff team for their patience and kindness, which they show in so many ways; a good example being the way the staff in the middle of torrential rain, have gone the extra mile to get children safely in and out of cars. Thank you to the parents who have acknowledged this by sending a quick email of ‘thanks’. Your appreciation and encouragement goes a long way.
Our Amazing Admin Team
I also would like to take this opportunity to thank and acknowledge the brilliance of our admin team; Mrs Maree Lee, Ms Bronwyn Brown, Mrs Lulu Mitchell, Mrs Karen Wiggins, Mrs Kathy Clare Rochester, Mrs Danielle Maidment and our School Nurse, Ms Sallie Neville. We must never take for granted how hard these ladies work to support the students, teachers and especially helping parents and our many visitors so efficiently, with their many daily requests and inquiries.
At Claremont, it is important for us to create a sense of warmth and welcome, and I am sure that you would agree, that our admin team is truly exceptional in achieving this. In our 2018 Parent Feedback Survey, our admin team was in fact regarded so highly by Claremont parents, who indicated a 95% level of satisfaction (75% being very satisfied, and 0% indicating no level of dissatisfaction). This data is benchmarked against the data of 353 other independent primary schools across Australia who complete the same survey. In comparison to the total of 12 812 respondents, our admin team scored 9% higher than the national average. Our admin team really is amazing, and we are so grateful.
Communication and Working Together in Our School Community
One way that you can support our admin team, teachers and wider staff team is to comply with the communication systems, behavioural expectations and other protocols that we have developed. Clarity in communication between the school and the school community is vitally important to ensure the success of all that we do together.
Towards the end of last year it was brought to our attention during P&F meetings that there were too many avenues for communication at Claremont - Claremont College app, emails, SMS, newsletter, and Seesaw just to name a few. This year has seen us try to simplify the process, and our newsletter has become the main source of information to the school community. To assist you, we thought it might be helpful if we offer you some tips when reading our newsletter.
As a trial, the newsletter link will be emailed to all parents each Friday afternoon, and will also be available via the school app.
When you read our newsletter, please be advised that there is a key on the right hand side. You can click on any item which will direct you to all the relevant information. In particular, there is a section titled ‘Action Items’. This section will show you all the upcoming events for your child/ren’s grade, and by clicking on the links, you will be able to access the event note, and give permission via your parent portal. In some instances, such as whole school events, the link will take you to a google form to complete. We have been informed that next term the Parent Portal functions should be possible from your mobile phones but more on that later.
We appreciate that some weeks our newsletter can be quite lengthy and some of the information may not be relevant to your child/ren’s grade/s. For this reason, we have also introduced a concise grade segment, within the newsletter, written by each teaching team, containing information on all the wonderful things that are happening inside and outside your child/ren’s classroom, when applicable.
Our responsibility each week is to issue you with a comprehensive newsletter containing correct information. Your responsibility is to read the information, and to respond to the ‘Action Items’. This will ensure that,
- Parents will be informed of ALL aspects of their child/ren’s education at Claremont College; and
- Administrative resources will be used most effectively.
If occasionally we make an error, or the information we have provided at the time of publication changes, we will make sure we rectify this and we hope you will understand.
If you should have any queries in relation to the newsletter, please do not hesitate to contact our admin team on office@claremont.nsw.edu.au, or 9399 3217, as the team is always here to help.