Here you will find a list of all the Frequently Asked Questions by parents.

Office Hours

The school office hours are 8.30am until 4.00pm daily. The school phone number is 9740 8666. You are welcome to call or come in and see us during these times.

Compass

Families are asked to download the Compass app if you have not already done so. Compass is our primary communication tool with up-to-date information about events and everything happening around our school, as per the recent compass post about communication. Compass is where you must log your child’s absence prior to 9.15am daily. Compass is also used for student of the week notifications (invitation to attend Assembly if your child is getting student of the week), sick bay, behaviour notifications, parent / teacher interview bookings and access to student reports.

If you have forgotten your Compass password, you are able to rest it yourself without contacting the school. You will need to know the email address or the mobile number that is associated with your Compass account to do this. - DET website for absences 

Notices

Notices such as excursions, canteen, FOSW will be available on Compass. Generally if a hard copy is sent home the eldest child in each family receives notices unless it is pertinent to your child. We ask that you check regularly with your child/ren if they have any important notices for you.

Assembly

Assembly will be held on Friday afternoon from 3.00pm – 3.25pm, parents and family members are welcome. At the end of Assembly students will return to their classroom for end of day briefing / messages, and to collect their school bags. Students will be dismissed from the classroom when the bell goes.

Messages for Students

Whilst we understand there are important messages that must be passed on to students throughout the day, please discuss pick up arrangements (meeting locations etc) with your child/ren in the morning rather than calling though to the office.

 Our office is a business place and our primary responsibility is to manage the daily operations of the school, first aid, notices home, counter enquiries and parent payments for school activities. It becomes increasingly difficult when we are required to pass on messages to individual children in classrooms, especially when these classes might be in varying locations. It is also disruptive to the classrooms in question.

If an unforeseeable change to arrangements has occurred please phone the office and a message will be passed on at the end of the day, however please bear in mind that the end of the day can be extremely busy. (Do not email us with a message for a student, we are diligent in checking emails, however there are times when office staff are absent or not at their desks for lengthy periods of time and may not see the email before the 3.30pm bell. If you call the office, you will always speak directly to someone which will ensure we have received the message to be forwarded).

Please call the office only if you are running more than 15 minutes late as the yard is supervised until 3.45pm. Children in the yard after this time are taken to the office by the yard duty teacher.

Uniform

We remind parents of our Dress Code Policy which can be found on the website.

A very brief summary includes:

• Hats (red) – bucket hats / sun smart hats must be worn outdoors from 1^st September until 30^th April
• No jewellery other than studs, sleepers and watches (no smart watches)
• Clear nail polish only, nails must be short and smooth
• Shoulder length or longer hair is to be tied back to help restrict the spread of nits and lice and for student safety. Hair must be of natural colour.
• No generic black or other coloured jumpers may be worn.
• Generic, black only, bottoms may be worn but they must not be branded (ie NIKE etc).

Second Hand Uniform

The school has a very limited supply of second-hand uniform (mainly polos and jackets). These can be purchased from the office.

Lost Property

Please ensure that all your children’s clothing, drink bottles, lunch boxes etc are clearly labelled. Items do get lost, and we would like to be able to return them immediately to their owner. The unnamed lost property is stored in the admin hub.

The school cannot be held responsible for the loss of possessions and thus, it is preferred that precious items are not brought to school.  Personal goods / private property brought to school by students is not insured and neither the school nor the Department of Education is responsible for any loss.

Emergency Contact Information

Student details are emailed home at the beginning of the year for you to check. If details change throughout the year, please inform the office as soon as possible. It is important that this information is kept up to date so we can contact you if necessary.

Canteen

The canteen will operate on Wednesdays & Thursdays for lunch orders and over the counter sales at lunchtime only. Lunch orders must be placed through Qkr! by 8.30am to allow preparation time. Parent helpers are welcome in the canteen, please contact the office if you are interested. You must have a Working With Children Check which must be presented to the office. Throughout the year canteen also runs various meal deal / treat days. Canteen (sunburywestps.vic.edu.au)

Payments

Our payment options are:

1. Qkr! Our preferred payment option – Qkr! is a secure free app that can be downloaded through the app store for iPhone and android phones. If you require assistance with Qkr! please see the office.
2. Cash If a notice requires a reply and / or money, please ensure that you place these in a secure envelope. Mark the envelope with the child’s name, grade and write the purpose and amount of money. The school has its own printed money envelopes available for use at the office.
   It would be appreciated if parents who are paying any accounts at the office can have the correct money as no change is held at the office. All money is banked daily.
3. Eftpos payable at the office
4. Direct Deposit BSB 063 548                 Account Number 00800429
   Please use your child’s name in the description field
5. If you are a CSEF recipient and wish to you your funds for any sports activity, excursion or camp, please clearly mark this on the permission form.

If you are not paying via Qkr! when returning excursion notices please ensure you send the notice and the payment together as this will assist both the classroom teacher and the office to keep track of notices and payments. Notices come via the office and are not given to the classroom teacher until they are stamped PAID.

It can often be confusing for both the office and the classroom teacher when payments and notes are received separately.

We reinforce the importance of getting payment and permission forms back by the due date as we often have to book instructors/guides, buses etc for excursions.

Please note: if permission and payment is not received by the due date your child may not be able to attend. Staff do not have the capacity to continuously chase up late permission slips / payments. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

The school offers payment plans. If you are experiencing financial difficulties please contact the office to make arrangements as soon as you receive an excursion or camp notice.

Alternatively you may at any stage pay money into your child’s school account which will be left in credit to go towards school activities. This can be done using Cash, Eftpos or Direct Deposit.

Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund - CSEF

Families holding a valid concession card or temporary foster parents are eligible to apply for the CSEF - $150 per year is paid for eligible primary school students. Payments are made directly to the school and are tied to the student. The funds can only be used for students to attend camps, sports and excursions.

If you are a CSEF recipient and wish to use your funds for any sports activity, excursion or camp, please clearly mark this on the permission form.  

If throughout the year your financial situation changes and you are eligible for a Health Care Card please contact the office immediately and depending on the timing we can lodge an application for you to receive the payment.

First Aid Including Medications

Basic First Aid is administered at school. Minor cuts and abrasions that only require band aids may be managed in the yard or classroom. For more serious injures or ailments the child will be sent to first aid for treatment and you will receive a compass notification. You will be contacted by phone if deemed necessary. If there is a serious concern eg immobility, breathing difficulties, significant blood loss or where there has been or is unconsciousness, an ambulance will be contacted before or at the same time the parents are being contacted.

Medicines will not be given by staff to students unless ‘written’ permission and clear medical instructions are sent by parents to the school.  (Medicine may be administered by staff in a lifesaving situation, such as an acute asthma attack or anaphylaxis).

Medication forms can be downloaded here:

Ongoing Medication Form 

Short Term Medication Form

The medication is to be brought to school labelled with the child’s name and in the original packaging as this is a department requirement. 

To avoid disruption to your child’s learning medications  will only be administered at either 11.10am, 12.00pm or 2.00pm, with the exception of Asthma medication which will be administered as needed.

Anaphylaxis

At our school we have a number of children who are Anaphylactic and require lifesaving treatment should they come into contact with various allergens. For some of these children, even skin contact after handling nut products is enough to cause a reaction.

To avoid placing children in life threatening situations we attend closely to the things over which we have some control.

We are asking parents of children in these classes to help us support the children with allergies. You can do this through the careful selection of the food you include for your child for recess and lunch breaks. Being mindful of certain foods such as peanut butter, nutella and many muesli bars is a positive action of support. We do not allow the sharing of food.

Birthday Treats

We appreciate that parents may wish to send along birthday treats throughout the year. Before doing so please discuss this with your child’s classroom teacher as an alternative may need to be provided for children with allergies.

School Hours / Bell Times

The school day is organised has follows:

Soft Start

We use a soft start approach in the morning before school. The bell will ring at 8.50am signalling the students to enter the classrooms. This gives children 10 minutes to unpack their bags, hand in their communication folders, and prepare for the start of the day at 9.00am sharp. Parents are asked not to enter the classroom at this time as staff are actively on duty supervising students.

Contacting your child’s teacher

We are always happy to speak with families, staff are generally outside during dismissal time if you wish to have a brief chat. Please be mindful however that all staff have meetings after school on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. If you require a longer discussion, please contact the office to arrange a mutually agreeable time.

Attendance

Regular attendance is important as it helps school progress, social adjustment and the development of dependability.  However, home is the place for a sick child.  A sick child cannot work well and may pass his/her illness onto other children and staff.

The Department of Education requires notification for all your child’s absences.  All absences must be logged on Compass prior to 9.15am daily. If you are going on a holiday or know your child will be absent in advance for any reason you can log this on Compass at any time.

If you haven’t logged the absence by 9.15am Compass will automatically generate a message asking you for an explanation. You are then required to log the absence immediately.

Early Arrival

We wish to remind parents that the school yard is supervised by staff from 8:45am each day and as such, children should not arrive at school before this time. If students need to arrive before 8.45am they should be enrolled in Before School Care - Complete Kids 9740 2111.  Out of School Care (sunburywestps.vic.edu.au) 

Late Arrival

Students should not be arriving at school late. This is disruptive to classrooms, unsettling for the students and does not reinforce positive routines. It is important that all students arrive at school on time, every day. Parents are reminded that if late to school, children MUST be accompanied by their parent to the office to be signed in as after 9.00am the school grounds are not supervised. This is for the safety of your children.

Early Departure

In cases of emergency or short notice, parents who want to collect their children early must come to the office and sign their child out. Your child will then be called to the office. We discourage this during assembly time to minimise disruption.

After School Yard Supervision

Staff are on duty after school until 3.45pm. Please ensure that you have a meeting point and reassure your child not to panic and see the teacher on yard duty if you are not there right on the bell. If your child has not been collected by 3.45pm they will be taken to the office. If you are unable to collect your child by 3.45pm on a regular basis you should make alternative arrangements or enrol them in After School Care – Complete Kids 9740 2111.  Out of School Care (sunburywestps.vic.edu.au) 

Playground

Students will not be permitted to play on the major playground equipment before school as there is no supervision. Staff on duty from 8.45am are monitoring pedestrian traffic and student arrivals.

After school they can play on the equipment under the direct supervision of their parents.

Car Parking

The school parking signs are there to enforce the safety of all in our school community.  Parents are asked to obey the parking signs around the school. Signage will be reinstated once our fencing in completed. Police and parking officers regularly patrol the streets and around the school.

We are still experiencing problems regarding misuse of the staff car parks. The Cornish street car park is strictly for admin staff, school liaison personnel or deliveries. The Elizabeth drive car park is for staff use only. In the past we have had a number of parents who used these car parks to drop off and pick up children, putting their own, and other children at risk.

There is 1 disability parking bay in the Cornish street car park. This is strictly for vehicles that display the appropriate disabled sticker. Parents and carers using this bay must exit their vehicle and accompany their children to and from the car for safety reasons as children are not permitted to be in the carparks without authorisation. We are currently working with local council to provide disability parking bays on Cornish street. We will advise families of any update to our traffic management policy once this has occurred.

In the interest of safety, parents and students are asked to use the allocated footpaths and gates to enter the school grounds as staff car parks are out of bounds to all pedestrian and motor traffic other than staff themselves. We ask for parent support in this matter for the safety of all children and ask that parents are not offended if asked to move.

School Policies

When enrolling your child at Sunbury West Primary School you are agreeing to abide by our school policies. All our policies can be found on our website.

Visitors and Parent Helpers

All volunteers and parent helpers must have a current Working with Children Check which can be obtained online at www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au a copy of this must be held at the school office.