Open communication between home and school is extremely important. It enables us to meet your child’s needs and also ensures that parents and carers are well informed and active members of Ivanhoe East Primary School.
Accurate Contact Information
It is important that the school has accurate contact details for parents/carers and emergency contacts. This includes address, phone, mobile and preferred email addresses.
If you change your contact details during the year, receive correspondence to an address (electronic or postal) you no longer wish to use, or become aware that you have not received correspondence, please contact the school office to update your details and preferences as a matter of priority.
Modes of Communication
Ivanhoe East Primary School uses multiple forms of communication, targeted for different needs and time-sensitivity requirements. These are reviewed regularly for their effectiveness and appropriateness and include:
- Personal and Group meetings
- Telephone
- Printed media
- Online (website, parent portal, apps, blogs, social media etc)
There are various channels of online communication we use to communicate important information to parents:
Compass
Ivanhoe East Primary School utilises a parent portal called Compass. This portal is used by our school community – teachers, student’s families and administrators to stay in touch and up to date on all administrative tasks relating to your child at school. Compass provides immediate real time information and payment facilities for school fees, excursions and incursions etc
Each family requires a Username and Password.
New families will receive a letter containing a Username and Password as well as instructions on how to navigate Compass prior to their child’s commencement date. If the child lives in different households, each household will receive a login.
The Weekly Bulletin
The electronic Bulletin is issued to parents via email every Wednesday evening. The Bulletin aims to educate, inform, advertise and inspire the school community. It is the primary source of all schoolwide related news and includes an up to date school calendar.
All back issues of the Bulletin are available on the school website.
School Website
The school website provides a range of information about the school and is the public face of the school to the greater community.
Communication of Events
IEPS has developed clear communication timelines for whole school events, cross year level events, and camps.
It showcases the multiple stages of event planning and parent engagement through various channels, including Compass (for event forms, payments, and consents) and WhatsApp (for reminders).
Key points include:
- The timeline begins up to a year prior to an event (camps) with booking and risk assessments.
- Different communication points are scheduled, such as sending out payment and consent forms, requesting parent volunteers, and providing general event information.
- Reminders are given through WhatsApp closer to the event and during the week of events.
- During camps, daily updates are shared via Seesaw or Compass, with ETA alerts for parents about return times.
This streamlined approach emphasises multiple communication channels (Compass, WhatsApp, Seesaw) to keep parents well-informed and involved at each stage of school events.
Contacting the School
School Office
The school office is the primary point of contact for the school in person, by telephone and email. The school office is open from 8am until 4pm.
Class teachers are contactable by email via Compass and is appropriate for non -time-sensitive requests. Staff will endeavour to reply to all enquiries and requests within 24 hours during business hours.
Communications Boards
Classrooms will have a communications board for notices and class information, providing a quick visual guide to both students and parents/carers as to what is happening in the class and school.
Class Room / Communications
Modes of communication vary for each class and Learning Community. Teachers may or may not use any of the following modes of communication. At the commencement of the school year, you will be informed what mode of communication will be used by your class teacher.
- Communication Book / Reader Folder
- Student Diary
- Term Newsletter
Each of these modes of communication will be overseen by the class teacher as advised.
Telephone
You may leave a message for your child’s teacher via the front office. Please be aware that teachers are usually unable to talk during teaching contact hours. If a call back is required, teachers will endeavour to return the call as soon as practicably possible.
How to Organise a Meeting with a teacher
Class teachers are the first point of contact for parents and students in relation to a student’s academic progress and wellbeing. Should parents have any questions, concerns or information to share about their child throughout the year, we encourage them to arrange a meeting with their class teacher at a mutually agreeable time.
Please be aware that it is not always possible or appropriate to discuss issues in-depth immediately before or after school without arranging a meeting time as teachers have both a duty of care for the class and often other school commitments to perform.
If you have a concern about your child, please make contact with your child’s teacher in the first instance. A quick and early phone call will prevent a small issue becoming much bigger, or make an appointment at a mutually convenient time.
Members of the Leadership team are more than happy to arrange a time to talk to you, or should concern not be addressed after first talking to the class teacher.
Attendance
To comply with attendance requirements, parents are asked to enter their child’s impending absence on the Compass site which will immediately inform the school of your child’s whereabouts
On the day of their return to school, teachers should be informed, by a note of the reasons for any absence. An email is not suitable in their instance. A telephone call informing us that your child is unable to attend on the day is appreciated.
Please notify the school if your child has an infectious disease or is going to be absent for an extended time. The early notification could also prevent other children from experiencing a similar condition especially those with lowered immune systems.
Urgent Student messages
Should parents/guardians wish to contact students during the day for an urgent reason, or leave a message or instructions for school pickup etc, messages can be left with the front office. Please allow a practicable time for office staff to pass on the message. This would be, if possible, 2pm at the latest to ensure the student receives the message by home time.
In the event of sickness, injury, or incident (behaviour etc.), the school will contact the student’s parent/guardian or designated emergency contact (EMC) should the first and second preferred contacts not be contactable by phone.
Whole School Community
Where an incident affects the whole school community and is a time-sensitive notification, the school will use Compass to communicate with parents and carers. If it is a notification of an event that has occurred and is not deemed time-sensitive, other forms of communication may be used.
In the unlikely event of a more serious incident, the response will depend on the circumstances. The first and greatest priority will always be to look after student safety and wellbeing. The second priority will be to give parents the fullest possible account of events as soon as possible.
Reporting progress to parents and carers
Parent-Teacher Meetings and Written reports
Term 1
The Term 1 parent-teacher meetings provide an opportunity for parents and teachers to meet each other and discuss your child's needs, including establishing learning goals for the year.
Term 2
The Term 2 written report outlines what your child has achieved so far and their learning goals for the remainder of the year.
Term 3
Parent teacher interviews in Term 3 allow teachers to share your child's progress based on the goals that were set at the end of Term 2. Students are welcome to participate in these discussions.
Term 4
The Term 4 report highlights your child's progress throughout the second half of the year and their learning goals for the following year.
Leadership and Governance
School leadership
The Ivanhoe East Primary School Leadership Team are more than happy to talk to parents /guardians and enter into constructive dialogue with suggestions and or concerns. Please arrange a time with the office staff if leadership members are unavailable when you enquire.
Principal: Tom Boyle
Assistant Principal: Benjamin Phillips
Assistant Principal: Amanda Dwyer
Learning Specialist: Sophie Herbert
The School Council
The School Council is responsible, within the framework of overall State policy guidelines, for setting the schools major directions. It is also responsible for the planning and the upgrading of buildings and grounds, budgeting and proper accounting for all the monies provided to the school, parents and community participation in the school, the use of school building by outside bodies the canteen and some community education
The composition of School Council is structured to represent the collaborative concern and responsibilities which teachers and parents have for the educations of their children’s. There are eight elected parents, four elected department of Educations and Training Reps, the school principal and two co-opted members to represent the wider community interests. School Councillors are elected for a two-year term. To learn more please use the following link: