Thank you to all parents who were able to complete our recent online Home-School Communication survey. Over a quarter of families responded to the survey, which is a very good response.

What we learned;

 Preferred Channels

• The preferred channels for communication are the school newsletter (88.9% read it every fortnight) and the Skoolbag App (100% of families downloaded Skoolbag)
• Facebook (72.2%) and Instagram (69.4%) are the most frequently used social media channels by families, although only 44.4% (Facebook) and 25% (Instagram) of families wanted to receive school information via those channels
• The school website was generally not accessed by families
• Parents wanted to receive different types of information e.g. notes home, school fee notices, student reports by a range of channels e.g. email, Skoolbag or sent home with child (see graph below)
• The majority of parents (63.9%) wanted to receive urgent information (such as school closures, Sports Carnival cancellations, etc) via text message
• 75% of parent respondents wanted to receive individual updates on their child’s learning/progress via the See Saw App (currently being trialled in Year 1 and Stage 3); and 22.2% responded ‘maybe’.

Parent Forums

• Only 44.4% of parent respondents had attended a parent forum in the past 12 months
• Families are more interested in attending for topics relevant to their child’s learning rather than for parent networking – this means that niche topics around learning for various grades/groups (e.g. children with disabilities, learning difficulties) may be preferable to larger school forums
• The majority of families preferred Friday or Saturday daytime forums or evening forums with Monday, Tuesday and Thursday the preferred days

 Concerns and Feedback

• The majority of parents felt comfortable raising a concern about their child (69.4% mostly and 27.8% sometimes) and most knew to approach their child’s classroom teacher (91.7%)
• Only 36.1% of parents felt their concerns were mostly listened to and responded to appropriately; 44.4% felt their concerns were sometimes listened to and responded to appropriately; and a minority (2.8%) didn’t feel their concerns were listened to or responded to appropriately; a portion (16.7%) indicated they didn’t have concerns
• The majority of families believe that St Michael’s listens to parents feedback, ideas and suggestions (55.6% mostly; 36.1% sometimes; 8.3% never)
• Over two thirds of families (69.4%) think introducing an email/suggestion box would be a good way to get feedback from parents – the other 30.6% weren’t sure

 Overall Communication

• The majority of families are generally happy with school communication although there is room for improvement (27.8% Great; 44.4% Good; 27.8% Needs Improvement)
• Overall families would like more information that is relevant to their child’s learning, events and calendar information and more readily available information for parents on policies and school matters

 Recommendations

• For St Michael’s to continue with a multi-channel communication approach with Skoolbag and the newsletter priority channels for school information
• To consider Instagram in addition to Facebook as key social media channels for those that like to use them
• To review the school website and newsletter to provide greater relevance to parents to support their child’s learning and make information on the website more relevant and accessible
• To review teacher-parent-student communication about learning in the classroom/subject area and introduce informal, regular ‘reporting’ on student progress
• To review timing of parent information sessions (nights preferable) and niche parent forum topics to be more relevant to children’s learning (this would also help with communication on student progress)
• To introduce a formal channel for parent suggestions and feedback
• To look at the introduction of a parent portal in the future to become a one-stop shop for home-school communication

The next step is for the school leadership to look at each of the recommendations to continue to improve school communication with families.

Parent/Carer Skills Audit

A parent/carerskills audit was also undertaken as part of the survey.

What we found:

• The key areas where parents would liked to be involved are:
  • Arts & Crafts
  • Cooking/healthy nutrition
  • Technology/STEM
  • Environmental (SEMP, gardening, maintenance, etc)
  • Marketing/Communication/Video production
• For class-related volunteer opportunities Fridays and Thursdays day times would be the preferred days
• For working bees, non-class volunteer opportunities Saturday days would be the preferred day

Recommendations:

• To look at areas in the school/learning programs that could benefit from these skills and identify opportunities for potential parent involvement, eg:
  • Parent-led arts and crafts sessions, cooking classes, STEM/IT programs, environmental programs like the veggie garden, etc
  • Parents to work with students on a school video for enrolment marketing, etc
• To start building a volunteer database of parents with specific skillsets
• To look at high schools for sources of additional volunteer support

The next step is for the school leadership to look at each of the recommendations to identify opportunities for great parent/carer involvement and volunteering.

Thank you again to all those who completed the survey and we will keep you updated of progress on these recommendations.

Book Week and Grandparents Day 

Important Information 

The theme for Book Week 2019 is ‘Reading is my Secret Power’. Book Week will run from the 19th - 23rd of August 2019 and so this year St Michael's will be celebrating Book Week on Friday 23rd August in conjunction with Grandparents day. 

To celebrate this wonderful occasion we are inviting all students from Kinder to Year 6 to come dressed as their favourite book character or around the theme of 'Reading is my Secret Power’ for our school book week parade on Friday 23rd August. Logistics of this will be sent out prior to the date. 

Timeline: 

• Book Week Parade: 9:45am

Come one and come all to see the wonderful students at St Michael’s parade around as their favourite character from a book. 

• Morning Tea: 10:30am in the school hall

Morning Tea will be provided for our lovely grandparents 

• Recess with the students: 11:00am

Grandparents can join their grandchild on the playground at recess time.  

• Open Classroom: 11:30-12:30am 

Grandparents are welcome to come to open classrooms to help the students engage in fun & exciting Literacy Activities around the Shortlisted Books for 2019. ALSO in this time go to the bookfair to purchase a book for our wonderful school. 

• Prayer and Blessing for grandparents:  The day will conclude with a prayer and blessing from 12:30- 1:00 pm. 

In the school library from 11:30am - 12:30pm there will be opportunities for families to buy a book to donate to our library. There will be cash only. 

Disco - Normal (mufti) clothes 

The school disco on Thursday 23rd of August.

K-2 Disco: 5.30pm - 6.45pm and Yrs 3 to 6: Disco 7.00pm - 8.15pm. Tickets will be sold at the door at for $5 per person, which includes entry and a sausage sandwich.  Glow sticks will be available at the door. Please dress in normal clothes. 

From the beginning of Term 3, St Michael's will be changing over to a new system for the digital storage of all school information. The new system is known as Compass and is the system all Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Wollongong will be using. This includes a Parent Portal, at the next P&F Meeting in Term 3 - Friday, 16 August 1.30pm to 2.30pm) a representative from the CEO will be joining us to explain and share how to use and access the portal, in particular the full capabilities of the new communication system. We look forward to seeing you there.

School Garden

As a part of our initial stages of our landscaping project we now have a beautiful place on playground one for a school vegetable garden. To assist us in the design and maintenance of the garden we are looking for any parents or grandparents to help our Year 6 leaders in designing and caring for this space. If this is something of interest could you please make contact with the school office. At this stage we are still looking for any volunteer support to have this underway in Term 3.