FORPS, Parents & Community
Presidents Report 2024
Wow! What an amazing year 2023 was for the FORPS team. We raised over $40,000 for the year, which will go towards putting seating outside the Prep area.
Although the school fair was our major fundraising event for the year, the FORPS team also coordinated several other events throughout the year such as the school picnics, Easter Raffle, Mother’s/Father’s Day stalls, School Disco and the referendum BBQ and cake stall.
I want to start by saying a huge thankyou to all the volunteers who contributed to our FORPS events during the year. Whether it was turning a sausage at one of the BBQs, donating an item towards the Easter Raffle, or baking a cake for the cake stall, we appreciate each one of you.
Although our FORPS committee is only relatively small, it consists of some amazing and hardworking people. I want to say a huge thankyou to our executive committee members:
Liz Patena - This year Liz not only took on the role of Vice President for the first time, but also put her hand up to coordinate the BBQ for our welcome family picnic and did a fabulous job coordinating and running the Face Painting stall at the school fair.
Maegan Devine – Maegan again took on the role of secretary. She does an amazing job making sure the school community is kept up to date with details of all our FORPS events, either via Compass, newsletter or via our Facebook page. She does the callout and coordination of volunteers for all our events and oversaw the Lucky Envelope stall for the school fair.
Emma McLellan – Emma was nominated as Treasurer this year, but she also helped to organise the mothers and Father’s Day stalls and making sure that there was a great selection of items for the students to purchase. She also did a fantastic job helping to organise the catering for the Tea and Tissues morning and school leader morning teas.
Bronwyn Stefani did a great job of lost property coordinator and making sure lost items were returned to their owners (make sure you label your things) and took on one of the most popular and yummiest stalls at the fair – Devonshire tea.
Jackie Arbuckle, our FORPS school council liaison, not only made sure our Sick Bay was kept clean and in order, but also coordinated the Easter Raffle, helped to run the Father’s Day stall (in my absence), organised the Cake Stall for the Referendum BBQ and of course, was one of our amazing Fair Coordinators.
Our first event for the year, was our annual welcome Family picnic, which is always a great way to get together as a community and celebrate the start of the school year. This year Liz took on the role as the BBQ champion and did a fantastic job of organising an assortment of food options including meat and vegetarian sausages, and hamburgers and veggie burgers. TheirCare sponsored the evening, and generously contributed $380 towards the cost of running the BBQ.
The annual Easter Raffle, held at the end of Term 1, was again raging success. Thanks to Jackie for coordinating this event, including distributing raffle tickets, and sorting and wrapping of the prizes. We had a record-breaking number of prizes and raised over $3,500.
Once again, the students had a great time going shopping at the RPS Mother’s Day stall. We had a variety of items to be purchased including jewellery, frames, mugs, bath salts, candles, bath bombs and seed packs. For those students without money, we also provided some colouring sheets and DIY flowers so that no one missed out.
The team from Bop Till You Drops, came out and ran our school disco night once again. They had Chandler Hall pumping, with all the kids singing and dancing and having so much fun with their friends. It was great to have several Prep parents volunteer to help on the night.
A big thankyou to Jackie for stepping in assist Emma with running the Father’s Day stall when I was away. It was a great success, and the kids again enjoyed going shopping and choosing gifts for their special someone.
October saw ‘The Voice’ Referendum being held, with RPS being a polling station. We held a Sausage Sizzle and cake stall on the day, and we were able to raise over $2,000 for the day.
The RPS fair was finally back on the calendar this year.
I want to say a huge thankyou firstly to all the volunteers who contributed to our school fair. At the end of 2022 a main fair committee led by Ag and Vanessa and several sub committees were formed to plan each aspect of the fair. Whether it was for marketing and advertising, volunteer and stall coordination, entertainment, food and drinks, or rides, we had all areas well covered. Many hours of planning were put into organising the fair and even a couple of last minute curveballs didn’t prevent the day being a fantastic success. We raised the highest profit result ever for a RPS school fair – an astonishing $33,000!
Our final event for the year was to be the end of year picnic. Our plan was to celebrate the end of year and thank everyone for all their effort towards the fair, by providing a paella van as a meal option, rather than a BBQ. However, the weather gods were not on our side that afternoon. The weather bureau had predicted end of the world weather for that afternoon, so we made the difficult decision to not go ahead with the picnic on the oval. Instead, we set up some tables and chairs in Chandler Hall for those who were still wanting to catch up with others, but also provided people with the opportunity to take away their paella to eat in the comfort of their home.
Finally, I want to say a huge thankyou Jeff, Lynda, Kim, and Ally, plus all the amazing RPS staff, for all the assistance you give FORPS throughout the year.
Kym Sinclair
FORPS President