School Council 

As I sat in our School Council meeting last week my admiration and respect for our school leaders intensified. As a businesswoman and mother, who like many of you both professionally and in personal life has had to manage budgets, allocation of resources and satisfy stakeholders of varying types I was reminded what a challenging task this team face.

Why it struck me there and then I do not know. I have been the School Council Treasurer now, for a number of years and have been involved with the great financial planning the leadership team undertake yearly. Maybe, it is due to the ever-increasing demands on a pool of funds that does not keep up with cost increases, the ongoing and accelerating needs of technology and digitalisation, community demands and fundamentally a desire to make sure our girls are given every opportunity to maximise their potential and find their way in the world.

We can only cut our cloth so many ways until we need to make serious compromises or add to it. The school avails itself of any additional but far and few funding opportunities the department provides, raises funds through making its facilities, like the gymnasium and running track, available outside of school hours to the community and of course through our voluntary contributions. These funds mean that we can provide more than just the most basic educational experiences for our girls. We can provide practical experiences versus virtual, equipment that is current rather than dated, a curriculum that is attractive, relevant and broad enough to meet the needs and wants of our girl. I stress that voluntary contributions are just that, but what they do enable us to do is provide more than the basic educational experiences.

When the time comes, please remember what these funds help us provide your daughters and support the leadership team in delivering the best possible outcome for everyone. 

Rosa Ferrari

School Council Treasurer