There are many ways in which we share information with families here at St Dominic’s, both verbally and digitally. This year, we have attempted to streamline the digital channels through which information is delivered, with the goal of making information easily accessible, timely and available when needed. To this end, we have been trialling some of the functionalities available to us through our new school website. Below is an outline of the main communication streams we have put in place and have been trialling in 2019.
eNewsletter – Once a week (normally a Sunday), all families in our school community will receive an email with the subject line ‘Term ? Week ? eNewsletter’. This eNewsletter always contains a prayer reflection for the week, the next two weeks of events (taken directly from our online parent planner), and links to connect you with the Sunday Gospel readings and our local parish. In addition, under a section titled ‘Latest Notices’, there may be additional links to important notices. These notices are ones that generally apply to the whole school community.
eNewsletter Example
Latest Notices – Throughout the week, families may receive emails with the subject line ‘Latest Notices’. Notices displayed in these emails can be accessed simply by clicking on the image or title located beneath each section. Alternatively, clicking on the latest notices title will take you directly to our school website and all published notices. These emails may be sent to all families or individual classes depending on the subject, however, all notices are published on our school website.
Latest Notices Example
School Website – The school web site is the main hub for all information pertaining to St Dominic’s School and is where all notices are housed. Our school website contains a vast range of helpful information. Using the search button located in the top right hand corner of the site, is the quickest and easiest way to find what you need. Clicking on this icon will bring up a box in which you can type a key word. After typing a key word and pressing enter, a list of all the related posts will appear. Rather than searching through emails, we see this as a quick and easy way to locate any notice you may be trying to find.
School Website
SeeSaw – This year, after three classes trialed the platform in 2018, we rolled out the SeeSaw app across the school. Teachers use this app to share with families insights into their child’s learning and to provide reminders about upcoming events. If you haven’t joined your child’s class SeeSaw or would like help navigating your way around the app, please contact your child’s classroom teacher, who will be more than happy to assist.
Discover More About SeeSaw
Facebook and Twitter – St Dominic’s School currently has an active Facebook and Twitter account. We use these two accounts to share with the wider community general information/ photos regarding things that have been taking place at our school. Your ‘shares’ and ‘likes’ on these social media platforms help us to spread the good news about the wonderful things happening at our amazing school. If you haven’t connected with us via these platforms and would like to, the links below should assist.
Excursion Notes – Excursion notices have also changed slightly this year. In line with our communication strategy above, we are trialling sending home information regarding upcoming excursions via a ‘Latest Notices’ email. The notice contains all the information about the excursion, as well as links to a permission slip and an online parent helper form if required. Unlike a paper excursion note, which can be misplaced, information about an upcoming excursion can be easily searched for and found on our school website at any time. A hard copy permission slip is still printed and sent home with your child, however, if lost, a new copy can be easily downloaded via the link provided in the notice sent to families.
Excursion Note Example
Thank you for taking the time to read through the above information and for trialling with us this new communication strategy.
Leon Bolding
Principal