P-12 News

theresedavis
Oct 14, 2022
4 min read

CEM Schools Annual Survey

Each year CEM Head Office surveys Parents, Students and Staff as a meaningful way to engage with our school community and seek to address improvements across all our schools, as well as each individual school. The survey will be released on Friday 28th October and closes on Wednesday 9th November.

We do appreciate your time and effort in ensuring that your voice is heard not only in areas of improvement, but also areas MCS is doing well and should stay on course.

Parent Portal

During the holidays we rolled out our Sentral Parent Portal. This exciting new communication platform will keep you fully informed about everything happening at our school and make it easier than ever for you to manage your child's education - any where, any time. It will help you to always know in advance what is going on - without having to rely on your child to bring news home from the school.

We ask every family to please download the App using the link sent to you via email on Friday 7th October. If you didn’t receive the email, please check your spam folder and then contact us on 4052 3300 if you didn't receive it.

You can use the Parent Portal to:

notify the school of absences,
approve permission slips for excursions
stay up to date on the latest news and events
update your contact details if anything changes
update your child’s medical information

Key Features of the Parent Portal App:

Newsfeed will contain whole school news items. Some of these may require action, others will just be for information. Primary families will still receive a weekly email from your child’s teacher regarding the upcoming week.

By selecting absences you can provide information relating to a past absence. You can also create a future absence by selecting ‘Absences’ and then clicking on the ‘+’ on the top right hand side of the screen and adding the relevant details.

Stay up to date on all our school events and activities through the Calendar. Key dates for the upcoming two weeks can also be found towards the end of this newsletter.

To update your details please click on the ‘Settings cog’ on the bottom right hand side of the App home screen. Then select 'Account details' then ‘Edit’ to update your details.

If you have any questions about the Parent Portal App, please contact our Administration team on 4052 3300.

2023 Buses

MCS Buses

Students who live in Fern Bay/Stockton or Raymond Terrace are welcome to apply to catch one of our buses. For a modest fee, you can feel confident that your child is travelling safely with one of our drivers.

At MCS we use the RollCall bus management system. This free App allows you and your family to manage transport arrangements each day, while knowing your child is travelling safely to and from school. Each child catching our bus is issued with a tag individually linked to their travel, giving you peace of mind as they travel each day.

If you are interested in applying for your child to travel on one of our MCS buses, please contact the Office on 4052 3300.

Public Transport school travel applications are now open for 2023

Applications for student travel in 2023 opened on Monday 10 October 2022.

Students who need a School Opal card or travel pass for 2023 can apply now. A new application will need to be submitted if applying for the first time, or if requesting an additional travel entitlement as a result of a new shared parental responsibility situation (e.g. joint custody).

Students who change address, school, campus location, have repeated a year or received an expiry notification from Transport for NSW for their school travel entitlement should renew or update their details before the end of term 4.

Term Bus Pass holders will receive a notification to re-apply.

Students in the Opal network applying for an Opal card (including a Term Bus Pass) for the first time will receive their Student Opal card at their nominated postal address. Cards will be mailed out from January 2023.

Students living in rural and regional (R&R) areas should receive their travel pass at the start of the new school year from their nominated transport operator. It may come via the school or be sent directly to them at home. Note: some R&R operators do not issue travel passes. Students/parents should confirm with their nominated operator if they do not receive a pass.

For more information contact Transport NSW.

Uniform Fittings for New Students

All new students commencing in 2023 are required to attend a fitting appointment at the Uniform Shop, run by Alinta. Families can:

Book your fitting online. Register on Alinta’s website and book your fitting appointment by visiting Alinta Apparel and then selecting ‘Register’ on the top menu on the right hand side
Visit the Uniform Shop during Term 4 opening hours:
1. Monday 8am to 10am
2. Wednesday 2:30pm to 4:30pm
3. Friday 8am to 10am