Parents & Friends

Thank you to all who have sent in donations for the Trivia Night – we are very grateful.  If you have anything else to donate we would love to receive it.  Please send any donations in to the school office.  

Ticket sales are open via Qkr!  Please book yourselves on a table with your Year cohort or book a table of 8 (& save some $'s) and come and have a fun night shared with our wonderful school community.

Minutes from the P&F Forum

Holy Family School P&F, Forum – Term 1, Week 5

25 February 2026

Attendees (in person): Pauline Dinale (Principal), Sam Edwards (Assistant Principal), Shahin Soroushian (President 2026), Maya Daniel (Vice President 2026), Bridgid Faure (Secretary), Shane Norton (CSP Representative) and 1 parent.

Attendees (remote via Microsoft Teams): Si Yuet Lo (Treasurer), Anna Roberts (Class Parent Coordinator), Carolyn Packwood (Class Parent Coordinator), Stephen Xu (Class Parent Coordinator) and 20 attendees.

Apologies: Qingyi (Nina) Hua (Treasurer)

Meeting opened at 7pm 

1. Welcome

• Acknowledgment of Country
• Prayer

1. Apologies and Correspondence

• Apologies from Nina Hua.
• No correspondence received from the school community.

1. Principal’s Report – (Pauline Dinale)

• It’s been a wonderful start to the new school year. 

  • We have 301 students and 20 new students throughout years 1-6.
  • We have received a lot of positive feedback from new students and we enjoyed morning tea together.
  • We have also welcomed 4 new staff members to the school.

   

• Term 1 has had a busy start, with lots of engagement and positivity across the school:
  • We have had two staff development days to prepare for the year ahead.
  • We have 44 Kindy students and we held a tea and tears for parents on their first day of school and the casual park meet up was also successful in building up community and relationships.
  • Our parent information evening was well attended.
  • We had our commissioning mass and celebrated St. Brigid’s Day.
  • Our stage 3 students have enjoyed a leadership week and a 3-day camp.
  • Coffee connect with Anne Gray has kicked off for the year.
  • The welcome BBQ for new families last Friday was a great success. A special thanks to Alicia and Lalani.
  • Meet the teacher meetings are under way.
  • Shrove Tuesday pancakes for students and on Ash Wednesday we gathered for prayer services.

  • Wellbeing week this week with Friendship Day and open classrooms tomorrow.

     

• Last year’s Colour Fun Run winning class 1G unfortunately missed out on their winning prize, because Miss Trigona was absent along with many students at the time. We acknowledge their huge efforts and we will be arranging a winning prize for them this term (potentially on 11 March). 

   

• The Holy Family Green team has been recognised and received a highly commended award under the 2025 CCSP Family Partnership Award and has received a $750 grant. The award will be presented at our next school assembly. The award recognises the partnership between the Green Team parish school and wider community through sustainability initiatives. The Judges particularly praised the citrus garden concept. 

• This year a new initiative is being introduced called ‘passion projects’ for high potential gifted students across all grades. Students with deep personal interests will be able to extend learning beyond the classroom, and develop their independent research skills.

   

• OOSH has officially been approved to increase the number of students it can provide care for to 120 places. This will ensure that we can support families, noting the growing demand for before and after school care. The holiday programs run by OOSH throughout January provided places for new Kindy students, before they started school and this was highly successful in transitioning them in having familiarity with the environment.

• The trial of student eating spaces is still in progress – with designated spaces to eat and play. As outlined already in the newsletter this is in an effort to reduce mess, rubbish, spillage and eating on the ground etc. Teachers have been supportive of this trial. And we have also received positive feedback from students and parents. We have received some emails from parents with some concerns raised, so we continue to trial and monitor its effectiveness. At this stage we plan to make a decision by the end of this term.

• In 2027, it is envisaged that there will have 13 classes, with 2 streams running across years K-5 and 1 class for year 6. We have 60 families registered already to attend our upcoming open days, and we have 21 siblings that will enrol into Kindy class next year. 

• This year we are using half of the OOSH room for STEAM lessons. And this shared space will be reviewed. With increasing student enrolments, learning space planning will be essential. 

• We are developing a Graduate Program to support student retention, with a focus on year 4, and more details on this will be provided in forthcoming newsletter. 

• The first five weeks of 2026, have been calm and productive and full of promise. Thank you to all parents for your support and partnership.

   

1. P&F President’s Report – (Shahin Soroushian)

• Term 1, 2026 - Calendar of Events:
• Parent information evening – 5 Feb
• Welcome BBQ – Fri 20 Feb
• Trivia night – Sat 21 March

• Future fundraising plans

• Lindfield Art Show and Fair – The 50th year celebration will be held on 18-20 September 2026.

   

• The core team for the LASF has been established – we have the following people leading each stream:

• Fair - Stephen Xu

  • Art Show - Kate Wheeler
  • Art Show opening night – Angela Buchanan, Drew Buchanan & Esther Touma

   

  • The LASF team will be meeting again on 5 March to progress these events. 

     

  • There is a lot to do to ensure these events will be a success and generate funds for the school. We need the school community to get behind these events both in volunteering time and in attending.

1. Trivia Night – (Esther Touma)

• Our upcoming Trivia night will be held in the school hall on Sat 21 March. It is a really fun night and a great opportunity for parents to come together and for new families to meet other families.

   

• Hopefully class parents are organising class tables for their year. But feel free to contact Esther and you can join her table or she will arrange another table that you can join.

• You can buy a whole table for $200 or a single ticket for $30. The event is BYO and bring along a plate of food to share with your table. 

• It was a fantastic event last year and it is a really great way to connect. So please come along.

1. Social Justice – (Anne Gray)

• Sandwich making for St Vincent De Paul outreach initiative – Anne arranges sandwich making at the school once and sometimes twice a term at 8am. The Wednesday dates are advertised in the glass display board opposite the entrance doors to the school and in the newsletter. 

   

• Parents are welcome to come with their child/ren and please bring a loaf of bread (preferably wholemeal). 

   

• The P&F has generously provided funding for the sandwich fillings for this year. Anne will buy the fillings with the Coles gift card provided and bring them to the sandwich making morning.

   

• Additionally, on Sunday morning in the City St Vincent De Paul provides breakfast to the homeless. Families are invited to attend and join the team to help cook brekkie on a BBQ and connect with the people who are often lonely. The commitment can be what works for you whether its once a month, once a term etc. You can contact Anne to discuss and arrange this. Children who see their parents’ role modelling care for others in need, is a special way of living our Catholic teaching.

1. Finance Report - (Si Yuet Lo)

• The P&F Account balance and the expenditures and revenue for 2025 and committed expenditure for 2026 are listed in the Treasurer’s Report (see Attachment A).

   

• The Return and Earn initiative generated $730.90 in income in 2025 through bottle recycling. Noted that the Green Team is seeking P&F approval for an annual lump sum of $700 to support tools, and seeds, enhancing hands-on environmental and practical learning opportunities for students. 

   

• Motion raised: For Payment of P&F Funding made in advance to the school to be on a half yearly basis rather than quarterly. The P&F committee agrees to provide lump sum funding into the school’s CDF account for the approved 2026 budgeting items. To maintain healthy cash flow within the P&F Main Account and ensure sufficient funds are available throughout the year, approval is sought to amend the previously approved term-based funding arrangement to a half-yearly lump sum payment schedule.

  The incomplete proposed 2026 budget is $26,950, which equates to $13,475 per semester. The school will provide half-yearly reports outlining the use of P&F funds. These reports will be reconciled against MYOB records to ensure full documentation. Any surplus funds remaining at the end of 2026 will be returned to the P&F CDF Main Account. 

  Motion – seconded by Bridgid, Shahin and Pauline.

1. Other Reports

1. CCSB update – (Shane Norton)

    

   • There is no significant update at this time.
   • A meeting for Term 1 has been arranged for 5 March, but the agenda has not yet been issued.

    

2. Class Parent Co-ordinator update – (Anna Roberts)

• Planning has commenced for Mother’s Day and crazy camel information will come out in the next week or so. 
  • We have a great group of class parents with a mix of new parents and wish to thank them for their time and effort. Special thanks to Carolyn for helping find class parent volunteers.
  • The WhatsApp school community is working well. Monny can also use it now to send out updates ie urgent tuck shop notices and calls for volunteers.
  • Fairy funds are being set up within the class groups.
  • Friendship lists have been issued for each year group.
  • Causal weekend catchups are being organised across the year groups over the next few months.

1. Open Forum

• Shahin raised that the P&F welcomes feedback from the school community and we’d really like to see more parents join and get involved. So please let us know if there’s a better way to do things, or topics you’d like to see discussed. Having your feedback and input will ensure that we have even greater success at our school events.

Meeting closed at 7.32pm

Next Forum: Term 2 - Wednesday 20 May 2026 at 7pm

Attachment A

P&F Treasurer’s Report (as at 25 February 2026)

1) Current Active Account Balance

P&F Financial Summary - 2025

2025 Financial Overview

Total Income: $16,432.17Total Expenses: $25,529.93

The higher expenditure in 2025 reflects the P&F’s continued commitment to supporting student learning, well-being programs, creative and practical arts, curriculum resources, and important school community events.

2) P&F Funding Contributions for 2026 (Budgeting to HF)