Storypark
To document learning and aid communication between families and teachers, Rangeview Pre-School uses Storypark which is a secure, private cloud-based software tool. We use Storypark in four main ways:
- For teachers to share with parents and carers learning stories about activities that have taken place in kinder sessions;
- For teachers to make records of children’s learning and development for the reflection, documenting and planning they do for each child and the group;
- For teachers and group representatives to keep parents updated about special events, incursions, excursions and group social activities;
- For the Pre-School committee to share information including about social events and fundraising activities for the whole kinder.
Rangeview parents have enjoyed receiving photos and updates through Storypark about what their children do at pre-school, especially whilst at work or when faced with the usual ‘I can’t remember what we did today.’ The app is also an important social tool, used for conversations amongst parents, social activities and arranging community events. Even more importantly, it enables our teachers to more efficiently and effectively document our children’s learning and development at pre-school.
How do I use it?
At the beginning of the pre-school year you will receive an invitation to install and use Storypark. You can use it on a computer, an iPhone, an Android device or a tablet. There is no charge or cost to you whatsoever. The app is secure and highly encrypted to ensure it is safe.
What about security and privacy? Who can see what?
Your child’s profile is entirely owned and controlled by you, forever, as the parent, even after you leave Rangeview Pre-School. You are the owners of all photos, video and content. This means parents can (and do) also use Storypark as a personal online private diary for their children, adding things like notes, stories, videos and drawings (you can even make a profile for other siblings that aren’t yet at pre-school).
- You can share posts about your child with family members by inviting them to join Storypark and authorising them to see your child’s profile.
- The teachers have access to your child’s profile so that they can add learning stories and photos about him/her.
Often the teachers will post a learning story about an activity that the entire group took part in, along with some photos of the event. These are shared with all the families in the group including any family members who might have been invited. For this reason children are never identified in group photos. Rangeview Pre-School checks and reviews who is attached to each child’s account to ensure only members of our extended Rangeview Pre-School community are part of our Storypark.
Stay Up-To-Date
We believe that parent involvement in pre-school is important to a child’s development and education and you can help us by:
Taking up the opportunities offered to discuss your child/ren’s progress or by organising a time with educators outside of the session to discuss your child/ren’s progress at pre-school or other questions you may have. This allows educators to focus on the program and the children in session and provides you with their full attention outside of session.
- Reading the pre-school notices. Please check your pigeon hole each session.
- Looking at the whiteboards in the foyer. They may contain last minute notices.
- Discussing any problems concerning your child. Provide information about his/her behaviour at home or a change in home circumstances. We need to work as a partnership for the benefit of the child.
- Assisting us to implement our policies, rules and routines by modelling appropriate behaviours and actions for example: wearing a hat during outside play, and using appropriate language.
- A Rangeview Pre-School Newsletter is published every month and is the major means of communication for our Pre-School community – staff, families and committee alike. Please ensure your email address is up-to-date to ensure you receive this correspondence.
- The Rangeview Pre-School website is a great source of information about the kinder, events and staff. Please check it regularly.
- In the foyer is a Parent Library that you are invited, and encouraged to, use. It contains books and leaflets on various aspects of child development, child illnesses and helpful information for common problems associated with child rearing. Easy instructions on how to go about borrowing books from our library are located in the parent library area of the foyer.
- Get the latest news by ‘liking’ us on Facebook. Due to changes to the way Facebook deals with organisation pages, to get our updates in your news feed you will need to make sure you tick any options to follow us, get notifications, include in news feed etc.
Parent Representatives
Each of the four groups – Willow, Jacaranda, Waratah and Banksia – has a parent volunteer as the group’s representative to organise parent catch-ups and act as the central point of contact for the group. They will distribute information from the pre-school and are a good point of contact for questions you may have about the pre-school; they can find out the answer or point you in the right direction of who is best to speak with. Please do not hesitate to approach your parent rep if you need assistance.