Principal's

Message

SMPPS FAMILIES & FRIENDS 

BACKGROUND

In 2019 when our amazing school opened a group of dedicated parents formed our school parent club “Families and Friends”.

Since that time Families and Friends has excelled in raising money, creating a community and supporting our school. Our school would simply not be what it is today without the hard work of Families and Friends.

However, as our school has grown so too has the pressure on Families and Friends, meaning that it was time for Families and Friends to adapt and evolve with our growth to ensure its ongoing success.

Moving forward, we need to ensure that as many members of our community have the chance to support our school in ways that align with each family’s passions, skills and resources.  

After consultation with Families and Friends members, our community and staff we have developed a new structure which we hope achieves our bold desire of continuing the legacy of Families and Friends’ success.

Commencing term 2, 2023 we are excited to launch this new structure, we know that this change won’t be without some challenges, and we want to assure our parents that feedback on the new structure will be critical so that we can continue to adapt to meet our school and community needs. 

SMPPS PARENT CLUB 2023

New parent club structure 

The new parent club will be formed under policies, as required by the Department of Education.  

Membership is open each calendar year to any person from our community and requires signing a Membership Registration, which is part of the F&F constitution. From its members there will be three office bearers, President, Vice President and Treasurer. As a starting point we are now calling for nominations for parents and carers that would like to join the Parent Club. No need to do this, if you’ve already signed up for the year. We are also seeking nominations for the three office bearer positions. 

Use this google form to express your interest.

Commitment required to be a member of the new parent club 

Membership requires members to commit to 12 months and attend 2 meetings each term (8 meetings in total over the year). 

Office bears will need to record minutes of these meeting and run the meetings.

Both the school principal and school council president will also be required to attend each meeting.

Officer bearers will also be required to attend some Events and Fundraising Sub Committee meetings (more about this sub committee below) this is likely to be about 2 to 3 meetings annually. 

New parent club name

The new club will be named by the new office holders and members. 

New club purpose and function

The purpose of the new club is to “connect our community and support our school”.

To achieve this purpose the club will undertake the following functions:

• Communicate to the school community how families can support the school.
• Be a contact point for all community members seeking to understand the ways the school needs support.
• Networking with our community and developing a record of our volunteer pool specifying the passions, skills and resources our community have to offer the school. All information will be collected, stored and accessed in line with DET policies. 
• Liaising with the Events and Fundraising Sub Committee and Wellbeing Sub Committee to appoint Project Managers (more about Project Managers below) from the volunteer pool for events, activities and wellbeing initiatives. 
• Linking Project Managers with volunteers for each event, activity or initiative.  

We expect that those seeking membership to the Parent Club will be people who love to chat and connect, they will enjoy sharing ways parents can support the school and finding ways that everyone can be part of our community. Networking will be a strength and members will get a buzz out of knowing that they are responsible for connecting our communities’ passions, skills and resources with our school.

How will fundraising and events be developed and managed under this new structure 

Previously Families and Friends carried the heavy load of developing ideas for fundraising and events, seeking approval from school council, sourcing volunteers, managing events, reporting to school council and managing the second hand uniform shop.  

Under the new structure the development of ideas, seeking approval from school council, overseeing events and reporting to school council will all occur within the Events and Fundraising Sub Committee. Management of the second hand uniform shop will fall under the Wellbeing Sub Committee. 

These sub committees are established by school council and membership is open to the school community, more information about joining these sub committees can be found in our school newsletter and you can also contact Nicole Arnold.

Essentially under the new structure each event or initiative (whether social, fundraising or wellbeing) will be managed by a project manager and delivered by volunteers who sign up for that specific event. This means families can commit to one event (or more if they choose) without being a member of the new parent club and making a 12 month commitment.

The parent club will be responsible for identifying project managers and volunteers from our community and linking them with each event. 

SUMMARY OF NEW STRUCTURE

Parent Club

• 12 month commitment with 8 meetings per year. 
• Collects information about our community to identify how families are available to support the school and maintains a volunteer pool. 
• Appoints project managers for each event and wellbeing initiative. 
• Links volunteers with the project managers.
• Informs the community about ways they can support the school. 

Events and Fundraising Sub Committee

• 12 month commitment with 7 meetings per year.
• Responsible for all social events and fundraising. 
• Collects information from the community about ideas for fundraising and events.
• Finalises the event and fundraising calendar each year for approval by School Council.
• Acts as Event Liaison for each event with the event Project Manager.
• Responsible for producing procedures and guidelines for each event ensuring compliance with DET and other polices. 

Wellbeing Sub Committee 

• 12 month commitment with 7 meetings per year.
• Responsible for Breakfast Club, Uniform Shop, Buddy Families, Different Not Less, Class Reps and other well being initiatives. 
• Collects information from the community about wellbeing initiatives. 
• Finalises wellbeing initiatives for approval by School Council.
• Acts as Wellbeing Initiative Liaison for each initiative with the Project Manager.
• Responsible for producing procedures and guidelines for each wellbeing initiative ensuring compliance with DET and other polices. 

Currently we are operating events broadly under this structure with amazing Project Managers and Volunteers for our Mother’s Day Breakfast, Lunch, Walkathon and Disco Bingo already working on our 2023 calendar. Formalising this structure will hopefully lead to more families getting the chance to be involved with our school in ways that builds our community and supports our school. 

For those keen to understand other ways to support the school please see the following. Our new Parent Club will be where you can register your interest to offer support. 

Our Parent Club will be in contact with our community soon to ask how you want to be involved in the above activities and based on that feedback we can create events and initiatives that connect our community and support our school. 

I’d like to introduce our sub-committee convenors, to tell you a little about themselves and the committee that they lead. If you’d like to join a sub-committee of School Council, please send me an email at south.melbourne.park.ps@education.vic.gov.au.

ENVIRONMENT AND FACILITIES – First Meeting 08.05.23 at 5.30pm (THIS MONDAY!)

Hello SMPPS Community

I trust you and your families are well and settling back into the rhythm of term 2.

I’m Langford Sue and I would like to introduce myself as a member of School Council and convener of the Environments and Facilities Sub-committee.  I have 2 girls at SMPPS - Ella in Grade 3 and Lilly in Prep.  They love SMPPS, particularly the teachers and specialist classes, and have been eager to return to the classroom and playground after the school holidays to re-engage with friends.

My involvement in School Council and the sub-committees has been driven by a desire to be actively involved in both of my daughters’ journeys at SMPPS.  These roles have given me an opportunity to glimpse ‘behind the scenes’ to see how the school system works and recognise the huge effort that our school staff put in.  I have enjoyed leveraging by time and skills to further enhance the school experience and to work with the wonderful and committed staff and parent/guardian volunteers that help make SMPPS the best that it can be for the students. I am very excited to see the continued development of the students and the school.

The highlights of my involvement in roles at SMPPS over the past few years have been the completion of the school playground, the roll out of air conditioners in the learning spaces, and further development of sustainability initiatives.  It has been fulfilling to see the difference these projects have made to the school environment for our students and the staff. 

I have found involvement in these roles to be incredibly enlightening and rewarding experiences. I highly encourage you to consider your involvement in the school community, whether it is through School Council, joining one of the sub-committees, or volunteering some of your skills and time in the classroom or events. Please feel free to say hello if you see me at drop-off/pick-up. 

Langford

EVENTS & FUNDRAISING SUB-COMMITTEE - First Meeting 11.05.23 at 6.15pm

My name is Lou Pedersen and I recently joined the School Council and am the Convenor of Events and Fundraising. I joined the School Council to further understand the school operations, policies and guidelines. Over time I had heard an array of frustrations amongst parents and I thought to myself, Nothing ever changes if we don't do anything. 

I want to be a part of the development and implementation of improvements for current & future students and to also have a better understanding of policies to ensure Events and Fundraising activities are maximised to their full potential. I have three children at SMPPS: Will (Grade 2), Margot & Frankie (Grade 1) and in-between all their sports and social activities, I enjoy baking, trying to keep my indoor plants alive and dining out.

WELLBEING & ENGAGEMENT SUB-COMMITTEE - First Meeting 11.05.23 at 5.30pm

Hello SMPPS families!

It is a wonderful honour to be officially a member of School Council this year and to be facilitating the Wellbeing sub-committee. I have spent over 20 years in the education sector in vastly diverse settings across primary and secondary schools in Asia, the UK and Victoria. I’ve led literacy, numeracy and wellbeing and inclusion in schools from 300 – 1200 students and across the Bayside Peninsula Area. Without a doubt, the importance of connected, engaged families to the wellbeing and success of our young people, stands out as a unifying factor regardless of where and who the learners are. The revised improvement

 framework for all Victorian government schools, FISO 2.0, echoes this with the simple image at the core of the model: when children are able to learn, their wellbeing outcomes improve, when their wellbeing needs are met, their learning outcomes improve.

I am excited to harness the power of SMPPS families through the School Council and take us beyond ‘involvement’ and into ‘engagement’ to truly embed our wellbeing approach into the community. I strongly encourage all families to be engaged and connected and share your voices through all the forums that will be open to you this year. Please do not hesitate to come and share your ideas and aspirations with me.

To finish, I share with you a recent family photo during a new cultural experience (Thai Songkran ritual), as symbolic of how the deepening of connections is formed through shared experiences. Our goal at SMPPS is for our young people and not-so-young folks to find that their shared experiences at South Melbourne Park lead to a sense of being part of a deeply connected community. 

Trish Wan, Assistant Principal

Our sub-committees are all having our first meeting next week! If you’d like to join a sub-committee, please send me an email at south.melbourne.park.ps@education.vic.gov.au.

Nicole Arnold

Principal