School Council 

CONVENER, ENVIRONMENT AND FACILITIES SUB-COMMITTEE

Hello SMPPS Community

I trust you and your families are well as we progress through the latest round of restrictions and remote learning.

I’m Langford Sue and I would like to introduce myself as a member of School Council and Convener of the Environment and Facilities Sub-committee.  This is my second year in this role, and it has been an enlightening and rewarding experience for me.

My background is in engineering and I have two daughters – Ella 7 and Lilly 4.  Ella is in 1/2B and loves SMPPS, particularly the specialist classes, and time to engage with her friends.  Lilly can’t wait to join her big sister at SMPPS in a couple of years.

School Council

I decided to be involved in School Council when my eldest daughter started her prep school journey at SMPPS.  I wanted to be actively involved in her school experience and thought what better way than to leverage my time and skills to further enhance the school community and play a part in guiding the school through its formative years.  I am very excited to see her and the school develop into the future.

Being a part of School Council as given me an opportunity to glimpse ‘behind the scenes’ to see how the school system works, realize the huge effort that our school staff put in, to contribute back to the school, 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. 

Environment and Facilities Sub-committee Update

The Environment and Facilities Sub-committee is responsible for planning and coordinating the design, use, maintenance, and management of the school facilities and environment. This also includes appropriate health and safety functions and controls.

The major focus of the E&F sub-committee currently is planning for the installation of an additional play area on the school grounds.  With funding recently confirmed (big shout-out to those who made supporting voluntary contributions and to Family and Friends for their efforts through some very challenging times!), a working group from the school community has just been formed. It is about to launch into consultation with students and development of a project brief and specification.  Play equipment suppliers will then provide designs and the students, staff, and wider school community will be invited to comment and vote on their preferred design. With all things going to plan, we anticipate having a preferred design and contractor appointed by early in term 4. Construction of the playground is likely to occur at the end of the year and (fingers-crossed) ready for day 1 of the 2022 school year.

Two other key projects that the sub-committee are progressing are 1) a remedy for the excessive heat build-up in some of the learning spaces in the Discovery Building over summer, and 2) installation of a solar power system to offset current electricity consumption and future building cooling needs.  Please let the sub-committee know if these are initiatives that you would like to be involved in.

Please feel free to say hello if you see me at drop-off/pick-up or if you would like to enquire about getting involved in any of the school initiatives. 

Take care,

Langford