Dear Parents/Caregivers

19 January 2017

Dear Parents/Caregivers,

On behalf of our School Council and staff, I would like to welcome you back for another year and I would like to wish you a Happy New Year.

I would also like to extend a warm welcome to all our new students and parents who will be starting at Blue Hills College this year. You are now part of the Blue Hills family and I sincerely hope that you will enjoy being part of our College.

We would like to improve our communication processes this year. Letters and newsletter quite often land at the bottom of the school bag, or never reaches home and it is always a challenge to us. To be more efficient in relaying information to you, we will be introducing new programs via the internet that will see us significantly reduce the amount of paper we annually use. As we are all aware of our duty to our environment, we eventually hope to become a “nearly” paperless College. Listed below are a few of our communication challenges and the new strategies we are introducing to improve in these areas.

At the conclusion of this letter, there is an attached form, which will have required information for you to complete that will enable us to update our records and include you in these new programs. Please return this form as soon as possible to the College.

CORRESPONDENCE AND NEWSLETTERS

1) Our newsletters are available via email. This is a cost effective and time efficient form of delivering our newsletter to you and you will be able to experience firsthand what activities the school is undertaking and the latest information on academic, health, sport and other areas that may interest you. The eNewsletter also gives you the opportunity to share school news by forwarding this to family and friends with email.

2) We can now also email correspondence relating to class news, excursions, school activities, absentee notes etc., which will allow parents and other caregiver’s current access of what is relevant to their child.

3) During 2017, we will be setting up Fee Statements via email. Could you please complete the appropriate form on the attachment with your preferred billing email address?

4) However, if you prefer to receive correspondence and newsletters via the “paper system”, this facility is still available, but please be aware that normal mail now takes much longer to reach its destination. Again, please select your preference on the attached form.

WEBPAGE: www.bluehills.nsw.edu.au

Our webpage will include a section for correspondence, permission notes, medical forms and ‘application for leave forms’ as well as our fortnightly newsletters. This site will be maintained on a daily basis, if required, so that you can access information immediately, or download any documentation you need. FACEBOOK (FB)

Our FB page is much easier and quicker to update with the latest information and we will endeavour to keep it up-to-date with the latest information. Please visit our FB page and ‘Like’ it. This will also help with the distribution and marketing of our College.

SCHOOL ATTENDANCE

Attendance is an essential component to a student’s academic success. Often, the number of days that students are absent, accumulate without parents realizing how many days have been missed. By missing just one day per fortnight every year will result in a student losing more than an entire year across their school career.

All schools are required to submit attendance records to the Government every year and all long term and high absence rates have to be reported to the School Liaison Officer. If you are planning to take your child out of school for more than five (5) consecutive days, you will need to submit a formal application to the school. Application forms are available on our webpage or at the Office.

If your child is absent from school for whatever reason, could you kindly inform the College on the day, by either phoning the Office, followed by a written note for our records, or by emailing [email protected] .

Another new program, which will commence shortly, will be sending an SMS to your preferred mobile number informing you if your child is absent for that day. This message will be sent out after the morning roll has been recorded. This will also enable you to reply back stating that you are aware your child is not at school and to give a reason for the absence, which will be recorded on our database. You will need a smartphone for this to work effectively.

LATE/LEAVE PASSES

If your child arrives late to school or has an appointment during the day, it is imperative that parents come to the Office to obtain either a late or a leave pass. Apart from keeping our attendance records correct, this is also a security matter in the case of an emergency. Primary teachers will ask to sight a leave pass when a child is being collected from school. Secondary students must come via the Office to obtain either pass as well. If you have a secondary student, can you kindly inform them of this necessary procedure, as they will need to present their pass to their respective teacher before they will be allowed to leave the class, or join the class in the case of a late arrival.

MEDICAL FORM

As part of the legal requirements we have to meet at the beginning of each year, we require you to complete the attached Medical Form for every child you have enrolled at this College. If we do not receive this form back, your child will not be permitted to engage in any off campus activity. We do appreciate your cooperation in this matter

MEDICATION

If your child needs to take medication during school hours, can you kindly submit a permission note along with the medication as well as the necessary instructions, which will allow our staff to administer it correctly.

Panadol – Secondary Students If you wish our staff to administer Panadol on request for your child in High School, please complete the relevant note on the attached form. This will alleviate the need to contact you for permission, which at times, we are not able to do so and therefore we are not able to administer this medication.

Each family will receive a calendar on the first day of school, which will help you in planning ahead for events at the school. We try not to make changes to our calendar, but sometimes we have no options because of circumstances outside of our control. We will endeavour to communicate any changes to you well ahead of time.

We thank you for choosing Blue Hills College, for your loyalty and your trust in our College. I would also like to thank you for your attention to the attached forms and may God bless you abundantly as we all work together for a great year ahead.

Yours sincerely

Mr Carel Neuhoff Principal PLEASE COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING FORMS AND RETURN TO THE COLLEGE eNEWSLETTER

NAME: ______

EMAIL: ______

STUDENT’S NAME/S: ______

IF A SECOND EMAIL IS REQUIRED PLEASE COMPLETE

NAME: ______

EMAIL: ______

*******************************************************************

FEE STATEMENTS

NAME: ______

BILLING EMAIL: ______

*******************************************************************

PERMISSION NOTE FOR PANADOL (Secondary Students)

I (name) ______give permission to

Blue Hills College First Aid staff to administer Panadol for my child/ren ______

______on request.

Signed ______Date ______

PLEASE COMPLETE THE OVERLEAF PAGE AS WELL SMS

NAME: ______

MOBILE NUMBER: ______

IF A SECOND NOTIFICATION IS REQUIRED PLEASE COMPLETE

NAME: ______

MOBILE NUMBER: ______

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CORRESPONDENCE & NEWSLETTERS VIA PAPER COPY

NAME: ______

IF A SECOND COPY IS REQUIRED PLEASE COMPLETE

NAME: ______

STUDENT’S NAME/S: ______STUDENT MEDICAL INFORMATION

STUDENT’S SURNAME: ………………………………………………….

STUDENT’S NAME: ………………………………………………………

DATE OF BIRTH: ……………………………..

Medicare No: DETAILS a) Heart Problems Yes No b) Respiratory Problems Yes No c) Allergies Yes No d) Blood Pressure Yes No e) Travel Sickness Yes No f) Operations Yes No g) Epilepsy Yes No h) Asthma Yes No Please give details of asthma plan on the back page i) Anaphylaxis Yes No Please give details on back of page j) Recent Illness Yes No k) Injections and when (eg Yes No Tetanus) l) Medication Yes No reactions/allergies (eg Penicillin Allergy) m) Medication required Yes No n) Phobias Yes No o) Ambulance Member Yes No p) Private Health Insurance Yes No MBF/ MEDIBANK / ACA / OTHER

(Policy No…………………………) q) Other concerns Yes No

(Please complete the back page as well)

In an emergency, please contact:

Name & Surname: ……………………………………………………………………………………….

Relation: …………………………………………………………….

Phone: ………………………………………Mobile:……………………………………….

Address: ………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………….

………………………………………………………………………………….

MEDICAL TREATMENT

I consent to the school, in the best interests of my child, and as it considers necessary or expedient (if reasonable attempts to contact the nominated 'emergency contacts' have failed):

obtaining medical advice and treatment; or obtaining medical advice and treatment except for the following treatments: (please insert excluded treatments: for example blood transfusions).

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

If the school considers that the excluded treatment is necessary, I request that the school take the following steps in its place: (please insert alternative treatment)

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Parent/Guardian: ……………………………………………. …………………………… (Signature) (Date)