We have a busy couple of weeks ahead of us in Years 3 and 4 with our Year 3 Street Science incursion on Thursday 6 of March, swimming for Year 4 in Weeks 7, 8 and 9 and NAPLAN for Year 3 in Weeks 7 and 8. This has prompted me to discuss with you the importance of the permission and payment process for your child to attend school excursion activities as we often have parents misunderstanding their part in the process.

As you can appreciate, organising a large group of students to attend an incursion onsite or an excursion offsite is a logistical nightmare with many steps involved in the process at a school level from booking confirmations to completing the activity on the day. As a parent, your involvement in the process is twofold. Firstly, there is the physical permission required for your child to attend the activity with your blessing in full knowledge of what they are doing and why. The second step is the actual payment for the activity. Both of these go hand in hand and cannot exist without the other. For example, even though you might have physically paid for an activity, which implies that you are giving permission for your child to attend, it is not legal permission. That must be done in addition to the payment through either the signing of a physical permission slip or through the QParents online platform. Likewise, it is not possible for your child to attend an activity if you have given permission but not paid for their participation. Both have to be completed before the payment closing date for your child to attend the incursion or excursion.

It is imperative that once you are advised of a school activity requiring payment and permission, that you attend to it prior to the closing date as any payment received after that time cannot be accepted and is the difference between your child attending and not attending the activity. This goes for permission too. You would be surprised to know of how many parents fail to complete both processes prior to the closing date. Not only does this cause you and child distress but it also creates a stressful situation for the school as we have to often meet a payment deadline with the organisation and transport companies involved which is set by them for us to adhere to.

I strongly encourage you to always complete both the payment and permission steps at the same time prior to the closing date to avoid any unnecessary embarrassment when faced with a rejection of attendance to that activity. If you ever need help in finalising this process, please don’t hesitate to contact the office staff for assistance.

See you around the school.

Shane Hancock

Deputy Principal – Years 3 and 4