Communication

 

We use several ways to communicate with you.

AT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR, you will have received a pack of information including a School Handbook which has a lot of information in it.

THE MEET THE TEACHER EVENING is usually held in the first two weeks of school.  This evening is so you can meet the teacher and hear about their routines and expectations.

OFFICE – the core of the school
The school office is situated in the Administration Block at the top of the driveway.  Any general enquiries are to be directed through the office manager.  If you drop something in for your daughter, please drop it at the office.  If it’s when the girls are in class, feel free to drive in and park in the carpark. The office is open from 8.15 am until 3.15 pm. The answer phone will usually be on until 8.15 am, at interval and from 12 – 12.30 pm while Mrs Nic Roberts, our office manager, has her breaks.

SKOOL LOOP
We use the Skool Loop app for absences, notices, organisational notices or last-minute sports cancellations.  It is free and available in both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.

In an emergency situation, all updates will be posted to the Skool Loop app, therefore it is important you have this downloaded to your phone.

Download the Skool Loop app, then select ‘St John’s Girls’ School’.

What can the App do?

• Absentee Messaging: A quick, simple and convenient way for you to report absences to the school. Please remember that we need to know why your daughter is absent.
• Notices – Our entire school community or a specific group (eg Kapahaka group) within our school community can receive notices directly from us.  Once you have downloaded the app, go into Notices and click on the icon on the top right of the screen to select the groups you wish to receive communications from. You will need to update this section each year as your daughter/s change classes and extra-curricular groups. Please make sure you have the ‘general’ group selected, and your daughter’s class.
• The School Calendar: The school calendar shows information by syncing with the school google calendar.
• Newsletters: The newsletter arrives via the app and is updated fortnightly so is available to read anytime.
• Contact: Parents can email the office directly.

SPORTY NZ

Most things sporty are done through the Sporty app.  Some urgent notices, reminders, postponements and cancellations are put on Skool Loop as a backup.

Sports registrations are accepted online, via the Sporty NZ mobile app or through our school website.  Sports details and sporting information is updated throughout the year as we receive them from the sporting codes.

To register your daughter/s simply download the free ‘Sporty NZ’ App from your relevant App store, find St John’s Girls’ School and go to ‘registrations’. If you have trouble finding us, search John’s and scroll down until you find St John’s Girls’ School.

If you are wanting to register from your computer, you can do so here.

There are no sports entry or affiliation charges to pay, for extra curricula sport organised by the school. This is part of the School Board donation (previously known as BOT).

If you have any questions regarding the sports on offer or the registration process, please feel free to email Rohan Russell, our new Sports Coordinator.

If you have a concern or a query, in the first instance, contact the coach.  If the query is of a general nature, contact our sports coordinator Mrs Russell.

Cancellations are sent out via Sporty NZ so it is important that you register.

FACEBOOK

We use Facebook for photos, advertising events, and items of interest. If you have a Facebook account, hit ‘Like’ to receive notice of new entries.

You don’t need to have a Facebook account to view the page.

EMAIL
Email is a fabulous tool for communicating information.  You can email teachers/office for absences or messages, but please, not urgent ones, such as that days after school arrangements.

Teachers often do not have time or the opportunity to check their emails during the day so if you have an urgent message, please phone the school office so it is not over looked.

Staff are not expected to reply to emails in their personal time.  It is likely that you may not receive a reply until the next day or even later, depending on the urgency of the matter.

GOOGLE CALENDAR
You can view our Google Calendar here.

NEWSLETTERS
Each teacher sends out a class newsletter to the parents of the children in the class, at the beginning of each term telling you about the routines, programme, events for that term.

School newsletters are emailed home on alternate Fridays. They are also put on the website.

REPORTING
Reports are sent home twice a year, at the end of terms 2 and 4.  15 minute interviews are held in the middle of Term 1 and at the end of Term 2, a week after the report has gone out.

ASSEMBLY
Parents and grandparents are always welcome at any assembly.  We like it when we have visitors and appreciate the effort that our regular attendees make, to come.  Assembly begins at 8.40am every day.

GENERAL
Like you, we want every girl to have a wonderful educational experience so we need to work together to ensure this happens.

If you have a concern, contact your daughter’s teacher to have a chat and to come up with a solution.  Email is the easiest way to make contact.

We regularly review how we communicate with a view to improvement.