Staff Essential Information

Communication & Meetings (cont.)

Communication between staff

Verbal:

• Staff are to use first names when communicating with each other and full names (Fr/Mr/Dr/Ms/Mrs Surname) in front of students.

Email:

• Consider whether an email is appropriate when face-to-face communication may be more conducive;

• Avoid exclusive email correspondence without requesting or organising a face-to-face meeting;

• Avoid send to all staff or reply all unless necessary;

• Copy in line managers;

• Keep emails concise, use Standard English and bullet points if necessary.

• Check emails daily.

• Use group emails as appropriate.

• Use Microsoft Teams to collaborate with team members. Staff should not send emails before 7am or after 7pm (Monday-Friday). Emails should instead be saved as drafts and sent during work hours.

Parent Communication

Emails & Telephones

Emails to parents of individual students or classes should be sent via your staff email. Similarly, phone calls to parents should be conducted during College business hours using your assigned office telephone. Staff are highly encouraged to call privately (hide their caller ID) if using their personal mobile phone to contact parents. All contact information of parents of students can be found on MazCom, Synergetic, or SynWeb. If staff notice any incorrect or outdated information they should advise the administration team.

MazCom

Parents have access to MazCom through their own unique login username and password. Parents can access their student’s class pages, view reports and see assessment results. Staff can communicate to parents via the News Headlines or by the message facility.

Student Diary

Students are expected to utilise their student diary. Staff can write notes to home in student diaries and expect parents to acknowledge the note with a signature.

Letters

Written letters (via post) or electronic attachments (via email) can also be sent to parents for class activities, excursions, invitations to functions, year-level or school-wide communications and other College related initatives. Approval must be sought from Administration (and/or the Principal), who will also handle the distribution of your letters. As a minimum requirement, all communication must be sent on the College letterhead (templates can be found on the branding site) and adhere to the College branding rules.

College Newsletter

The newsletter acts as a unifying force in the College Community and is emailed fortnightly to parents and staff in order to keep them informed of College activities and news. Students are also keen to see if the school community has acknowledged their particular activity. It is important to submit articles to newsletter@mazenod.vic.edu.au prior to 4pm on Wednesday. Faculty Heads and members of the Executive Leadership team also write an article each term for the newsletter.