15 June 2018
Newsletter Articles
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE
Welcome to the first version of our online School Newsletter. This format is an integral component of our plan to upgrade the way in which we communicate with families and our broader school community about what is happening at Sorell School. Another major initiative has been the upgrading of our School website.
We hope you enjoy the changes and it makes it easier for you to access the information you need. We are keen to continually improve so please let us know what you think. Our School Facebook page is a great way, but a phone call or email also works for us.
https://www.facebook.com/SorellSchool
Email: sorell.school@education.tas.gov.au
Phone: (03) 6269 1100
Thanks to Mel Symmons (AST – Middle School) and Chris Mitchell, our previous School Business Manager, and Shelley Spong, our new School Business Manager, for driving the changes.
Major Capital Works at Sorell School
By now most of you know that we are on the cusp of starting a major re-development of our School. After the election the State Government confirmed their commitment to provide $25.75M to the project and announced that additional funds will be dedicated to building an Early Learning Hub on the School site. The Hub will provide families with care, education, support and outreach services just like those provided in Child and Family Centres. It is an exciting addition to the project and a significant contribution to realising our vision to be a centre for birth to adult education, training and care for the Sorell and broader SE Region community.
Last week a commissioning brief was provided to potential architects for the re-development project. Submissions close in the next few days and a selection process will follow soon after. One of the first tasks of the successful applicant will be to conduct a consultation process with school community stakeholders.
It is an exciting time for Sorell. More news soon.
Mid-Year Progress Reports and Parent-Teacher Interviews:
Teachers are currently finalising assessments and writing your children’s mid-year progress reports. The reports are a valuable opportunity to take stock of what your children have achieved in the first half of the year and develop plans to enhance their learning over the next two terms. The reports for our Prep to Grade 10 students will be sent home on Friday 22 June. Our Grade 11 and 12 students’ reports were sent home earlier this term.
We aim to make the reports comprehensive, meaningful and accessible, but on their own they provide only a snapshot of what has been happening at School for your children. They give you an A-E rating for each subject, an outline of what you children have been learning about and provide a general impression of their learning habits. However the report cannot tell you about how kind and supportive of other students your child is, how resilient and determined they are when presented with challenges, how well they collaborate with other students and staff, how well they live up to our School values of Respect, Safety and Learning and the many other factors that make students successful learners and positive and productive members of our community.
The true value of the reports comes when parents, students and teachers have a shared conversation about how we can work together to optimise the outcomes for your children. We call it a learning partnership and we know when that sort of partnership is in place students flourish. Therefore I urge you to make an appointment for you and your children and their teachers to have a conversation about the report and to make a plan to work together for the remainder of the year. Parent-student-teacher conversations will take place in the last week of Term 2 (Monday 2 July to Thursday 5 July) and this year we are using the online booking facility on our new website & on Schoolzine in which the link will be available within a couple of days. I look forward to seeing you at School.
Andy Bennett
Principal Sorell School
SPORTS NEWS
Calym from grade 9 Sorell School has been selected in the AFL Tasmania Squad.
This is a fantastic achievement for Calym and a proud moment for Sorell School.
The team will travel to Adelaide from the 21st – 28th of July to compete in the SSA National Carnival.
This year the team will be coached by 5 time Burnie Dockers premiership player in Adam Bester. His assistance will be Adrian Goodwin (South), Nathan Warren (North) and Tim MacMichael (NW).
SORELL SCHOOL AGM
Tuesday 19th June is the Sorell School Association Annual General meeting. All positions will be declared vacant. Please consider coming along to show your support whether it is as a committee member or on a subcommittee. The meeting will be held at 3.15 pm at the Trade Training Centre.
Sorell School has a new app!
SZapp is a great way to keep up to date with our latest news and information. Using SZapp will give you easy access to information such as:
- Newsletters on the go
- Latest News & Reminders
- Calendar
- Policies and Documents
- Event Bookings
- Digital Forms
When subscribing to Sorell School please make sure that you add yourself to any of the applicable groups. This will ensure that you are receiving all relevant notifications.
SZapp
Learn how to install the app
Apple Devices:
- On your device, open the App Store.
- Search the App Store for SZapp.
- Download and install SZapp.
Android Devices:
- On your device, open the Play Store.
- Search the Play Store for SZapp.
- Download and install SZapp.
Find your School
Select your school's region.
Search for and select your school.
Register a User
Before you can add your school, you will need to register.
Enter your email and name.
Create your password.
Confirming your Email Address
Once registered you will be sent an email to confirm your email address. Open your mail program and click/tap the URL to confirm.
Upon completion, you will then be shown a confirmation screen.
Allowing Permissions
Upon installation of the update, you will be asked to allow access to storage on your device. This is required to ensure that SZapp can access the necessary files to store crucial data on your device.
Please click the affirmative options on each pop-up.
Note: The pop-up message you see may differ depending on your device.
Managing Notifications
Choose which group/s you would like to receive notifications from.
Groups with arrows indicate that there are sub-groups which you can join.
Home
The Home tab displays the most recent news item and links to important school information and tools.
Feed
The Feed tab shows a summary view of all news items which you have subscribed to.
Manage
The Manage tab allows you to customise what information shows in your news feed and what push notifications you will receive.
For more information please view our FAQs
Newsletter Sponsorship
We are pleased and excited to inform you that we’ll be producing a new eNewsletter with Schoolzine. The move to this new format will enable us to communicate with the school community across multiple channels. It will promote and enhance our engagement with parents, students and the wider community.
We believe you’ll find the eNewsletter highly engaging, as it will provide us with a more efficient and effective means of connecting with you. The new format will allow the inclusion of video, photo galleries, online bookings, mobile app, feedback forms, calendars and so much more.
The newsletter also has a sponsorship section which provides a great opportunity for local businesses to engage with our parent community. If you would like to be a part of this, please contact Schoolzine.
1300 795 503
advertising@Schoolzine.com.au
http://www.schoolzine.com.au/advertisers.html