Back To School Letter

For most of us teachers in Australia it is a time to return to work after a well earned summer break. Although this is my second year of teaching this will be my first year of teaching the same class, from start to finish. And as daunting as it is, my excitement far outweighs my nerves!
With this in mind, I have a mental to do list thats longer than Santa's nice list. High up on my list is a letter of introduction to parents. Within this letter it is my aim to lay the ground work for a more collaborative relationship between myself and the parents and guardians of students. I did a little bit of research and spoke with some professional peers to come up with the following pointers:

• The most obvious one: introduce yourself! Give your name, a little bit of work history and maybe where you studied (if you're a newbie like me).  Include something about your excited for the year ahead. 
• Outline your basic classroom procedures. I used the following headings to guide my letter: homework, supplies, sport, fruit break, lunch and hats. 
• Include a list of any classroom materials that you may need students to bring in. I included a list of donations that would be appreciated (boxes of tissues, hand soap and paper towel). 
• At the end of my note I included a slip for parents to sign to confirm that the received the note. Each child who returned their slip received a Class Dojo point. I did this to ensure that every note made its way home! 

In the future I plan to use vista print to condense general classroom info into a pamphlet style with a magnet on the back (printed on the cheap via Vistprint). This means parents can pop the info straight onto their fridge. 

Beck