Open Day

F&F organised a drop in afternoon tea in the Discovery Centre towards the end of last month’s Open Day. We were happy to receive so many donations of crockery (as part of our “wash not waste” program), delicious baking, snacks and fruit as well as a very generous loan of a Nespresso Machine so that we could serve cafe-style coffee with frothed milk! Thank you to all those who helped out with time and/or donations.

Everything was provided to both current and prospective families for free; with a gold coin donation suggested for Nespresso coffees to cover the cost of capsules and recycling and for Lindt (dark) chocolate bars.

Quite by chance as soon as the end of school bell went, all the remaining delicious food seemed to just walk off the plates, which was great as there was no waste!

We have received some lovely comments and hope to have more similar events in the future. Please do get in touch if you would like to be involved; we’d love to hear from you!

Environment & Sustainability

We are striving to start our events with sustainability in mind.

The Eco Centre in St Kilda has mapped out how to run sustainable Penguin Friendly Events and we are following these ideas and the City of Port Phillip guidelines for environmentally friendly events.

Most established schools are trying to change habits over time so we are fortunate we can establish these practices from the first year. These guidelines include limiting single use plastic, including straws and bags, blowing bubbles not balloons, encouraging BYO cup for coffee and always bring your own water bottle. The Open Day afternoon tea started a drive for crockery donations to ensure we washed our dishes rather than throwing over 50 plastic/styrofoam cups in the rubbish.

St Kilda Primary School kindly loaned us teaspoons and reusable cups for water for the event as we build up our own event kit to host more catch ups going forward. Please continue to donate kitchen supplies and crockery to help within the class kitchen and for events into the future.

If sustainability is your passion please get in touch to take on this role.

Class Reps

With Term 2 holidays approaching, your Class Reps are focused on providing more opportunities for families to get to know each other. We will be organising various social events throughout the year, such as the recent and very successful Mums' Night Out and Dads' Night Out. Feedback from these events was very positive! Currently we are working on providing a coffee morning to be held at the school on a monthly basis. This will be open to all families and will occur after school drop off, small children will be welcomed and catered for – date to be confirmed shortly!

Together with help from Christine, we have also been collating Class Contact Lists which makes it easier for us to contact families for impromptu catch ups such as coffee/park playdates and school holiday activities. A WhatsApp group will be created using these Class Contact Lists which will make it quick and easy for families to contact each other. Participation is completely voluntary. If you would like to be added, please see your Class Rep.

Your Class Reps are:

Prep A Steph Lemoigne

Prep B Leanne Gratton

Prep C Lakshmi Nair

Prep D Zarina Kalapesi

Multi-age Ella Hamilton & Rosemary Fuller

Now we have named and shamed them, feel free to approach them with any questions or ideas you may have about upcoming events, current programs or volunteering! With your active involvement, we can continue to build relationships with one another and create a friendly and supportive school community.

* Please note that you will need a Working With Children Check card to volunteer at the school. It can be done online and is quick and free! Visit workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au and be sure to select the ‘volunteer’ option.

Grants

We've been busy behind the scenes applying for and working on the following grant applications:

City of Port Phillip Toyota Community Equipment fund – Gardening Tools & Compost Tumbler – submitted, currently being assessed.

Leader Local Grants – Kitchen Basics – submitted, stay tuned as we will need you to vote for us if we are shortlisted

Yates Life Education Growing Good Gardens – Gardening Tools/Supplies – currently being written.

If you know of any grant opportunities, can spare a few minutes to review grant applications and/or can help with putting together applications, please get in contact with Yen Vuong (mum of Ethan in Mulit-Age) yenandrob@gmail.com.

Survey

Huge thanks to all who took part in the Family and Friends survey, and especially those who offered their time and assistance to help us make our school the best it can be! It was fabulous to see your ideas and thoughts and feel your enthusiasm.

Upcoming Events

Saturday 22 June: Lantern Walk for Winter Solstice

Tuesday 25 June, 6pm: Families & Friends Meeting

Saturday 24 August: Disco Bingo (Adults Event)

Lantern Walk

Join SMPPS students, families and friends for the Winter Solstice Lantern Walk and Picnic with a fun twilight event on the SMPPS grounds. Enjoy fairy lit trees, toast marshmallows over open supervised fires, make crafts, get your face painted, sip on hot chocolate, munch on popcorn and gingerbread cookies as music and dancing celebrate the night.

Check Compass for updates and links to volunteer on the night, donate lights and decorations and pre order picnic snacks.

Disco Bingo - 24 August - Save the date!

Disco Bingo comes to South Melbourne Park Primary School as our main event for the grown-ups of the school community in late August. Planning has just begun so if you are wanting to be part of the sub-committee, send us your contact details on contact.smppsff@gmail.com

We Want Your Ideas!

Just a reminder that we have members of the school community who have nominated to be the F&F 'go-to' person for various topics. This is to ensure that we retain and document the knowledge that we gain this year as we pursue our initiatives, as well as create a central point of reference for the rest of the school community to avoid duplication of effort and communications.

Have you got a great idea around fundraising for the school? Get in touch with us and our Fundraising Liaison will be happy to work with you and let you know what else we have been working on in this area! We also have a Grants Liaison, Inclusion Liaison and School Council Liaison. If you have any ideas or questions, just contact us and we will link you with the right Liaison to work with you.

Want to help? The positions of the Compliance Liaison and Environment & Sustainability Liaison are still OPEN. These are both important areas and we would love someone to put their hand up for each of these roles. No experience necessary, just an eagerness to help with the F&F in our endeavours. Many hands make light work, so please, lend us your hands!

There are many opportunities to volunteer your time and knowledge, no matter your background or schedule. Getting in touch will start the conversation to discover how you can help.

Contact us any time: contact.smppsff@gmail.com

Next newsletter Thursday 18 July