Dear Robbie Mac Families,

As we approach the end of the school year, the PFA team would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who contributed to the success of our recent events and share some exciting news about upcoming events happening in Term 1 2024.

Thank you!

Foundation Transition Program Morning Tea

A special thank you to Carolyn Steart, Colleen Gamble and Tamarra Darby who volunteered their time and support at this event, with Carolyn leading the event. We were really pleased with the turnout and grateful for the number of families, new and existing, who joined in. The Foundation Transition Morning Tea proved to be a wonderful opportunity for new families to connect with each other, meet our dedicated teaching staff and existing families, as well as gain insights into the school’s supportive environment. We would also like to thank our current families who dropped by on the day to meet the new families to help ease their transition on embarking on this exciting journey at Robbie Mac next year. (Side note – There was a comment at the morning tea from a family making their final decision to go with RMPS based on their wonderful experience at this year’s School Fair and the sense of community they felt attending it. That’s fantastic!)

School Colour Fun Run Success: A Splash of Gratitude

A massive thank you to Emma Becker and all the enthusiastic parents and carers who dedicated their time and energy to make the School Colour Fun Run a vibrant and enjoyable event! We had 88 out of 96 volunteer helper roles filled on the day, which was an amazing effort by everyone. Thank you also to the Box Hill Fire Station crew who surprised the students with some splashing fun at the conclusion of the run. Check out a selection of photos at the end of the PFA News.

Together, we managed to raise $8,273 for the school, after covering event costs including prizes and donations, which will be instrumental in creating an inclusive sensory garden for our community. Your dedication to the School Colour Fun Run and the generosity of those who donated have brought us closer to having the garden built, which will benefit all students. And we smashed our target of $5,000!

During prize ordering, students had the option to donate some or all their prize money to select charities with the following support being received from Robbie Mac students:

Daniel Morcombe Foundation: 23 students donated some or all their prize money and the foundation will receive $356.10.

GreenFleet: 22 students donated some or all their prize money and the charity will receive $461.70.

That’s a total of $817.80 being passed on to charity from the money raised and allocated for prizes. And this also helps our environment by reducing the number of toys and gadgets being provided to the children – 26 children chose not to receive any prize from the money they raised, but only to donate to charity. We are truly moved by our community’s kindness.

2024 Class Reps

Would you like to become a Class Rep in 2024? We are getting organised for 2024 and looking for parents interested in being a Class Rep next year. Class Reps are an important part of Robbie Mac and help to create a welcoming and inclusive community. Ad hoc tasks do not take much time and many of our reps work part-time or full-time with busy family lives. Perhaps you have or have not been one before, that doesn’t matter as we welcome previous and new reps to fill the roles. Being a rep is a great way to be involved with the school and meet other parents.

As a Class Rep, your key responsibilities will be to:

Welcome new families to the school
Be a point of contact for families in your class. It’s up to you how you choose to communicate with families; i.e., email, Facebook and/or WhatsApp
Arrange a couple of social occasions for class families. These can be specifically your class, or you can organise an event with the other classes in your year group (e.g., Foundation, 1/2, etc). Popular choices include “a play at the park” or a “parent evening”.
Communicate information regarding school events as sent through from the PFA or other Class Reps

Being a Class Rep is a very rewarding role and a great way to get to know your class. Each class requires two Class Reps, and no prior experience is needed. If you are interested in becoming one in 2024, you will be able to indicate your interest via a SignUp sheet coming out soon. After the 2024 classes have been announced on Tuesday 12 December, the SignUp link will be distributed for people to register their interest in these roles – watch this space! Class Reps will be confirmed in early 2024. If you have any questions, please contact Kim Jones on rmps.classreps@gmail.com or reach out to the PFA via rmps.pfa@gmail.com.

2024 Term 1 PFA Events and Fundraisers

Believe it or not, we are already working on 2024. To spread events and fundraisers across the school year more evenly and give people an opportunity to meet and get together sooner, the following events are currently being planned for Term 1:

2024 School Welcome Morning Tea (Friday 9 February)
Parent/Carer Social Event (Date TBC)

Other events and fundraisers will also be run throughout the 2024 school year.

PFA

The PFA is a group of volunteer parents and carers who help organise events and fundraising activities for RMPS, welcome families and bring people together from within the community. This helps us all connect more closely with our school and to raise vital funds for school improvements. Without volunteers, there would be no PFA.

All RMPS parents and carers are welcome to register as PFA members, enabling them to receive copies of meeting minutes, vote on items/actions and the office bearer (executive) roles as applicable, and be elected to PFA office bearer roles. If you would like to register as a member, please contact us for a copy of the registration form. Note that you do not have to be a member to help on events or attend meetings.

Next meeting: Monday 19th February at 2:15pm – 3:15pm. This will be an onsite meeting at the school. We look forward to having parents and carers join us for this meeting.

Please get in touch if you'd like more information on the PFA, have any event queries or an idea you’d like to share with us, or would like to get involved in the committee and/or activities – rmps.pfa@gmail.com.

That’s it for now,

Wen Li (President), Elizabeth (Secretary) and Bård (Treasurer)

The PFA Committee

FREE Working with Children Check (WWCC)

Ever thought about volunteering at a school (e.g., excursion, swimming, classroom) or PFA (e.g., disco, colour run) activity or event, or even at your child’s sports or dance club, but haven’t been able to because you don’t have a Working with Children Check (WWCC)? Well, you can get a volunteer WWCC for FREE! Applying for one takes about 15-20 minutes and you can do it online via Working with Children Check (service.vic.gov.au). Once you have completed the online application you will receive an application receipt, followed by a card after the check is completed. (Note: We recommend you do this using your mobile phone because of the photo process etc.)

What you'll need to do

Prove your identity with documents using your phone. The online application shows you which ones.
Fill out the online application form
Consent to Service Victoria passing your info on to the Working with Children Check (WWCC) Unit Victoria (Department of Justice and Community Safety) to process your WWCC application. (Services Victoria does not keep your information, they just pass it on.)

Your Working with Children check

The Working with Children Check Victoria screening process looks at:
Your criminal record in all Australian states and territories, including any charges, regardless of the outcome
Your professional conduct as determined by these groups, and

Whether you're required to report under sex offender legislation

If you have applied for a WWCC but are unsure whether your card will arrive before you want to volunteer at an event, please speak to the school office about possible options. A check may take between 3-12 weeks to be processed.

Copies of WWCC cards are kept on file by the school for compliance and a Working with Children Check is required for doing child-related work which includes volunteering. Please provide the school office with a copy of your card.

If you would like to get a WWCC card but are not confident doing this yourself, please contact the school office for assistance by calling 9890 2372.

For RMPS related volunteering, please also read the school’s:

Visitors Policy
https://robmacps.vic.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Visitors-policy.docx
Volunteers Policy
https://robmacps.vic.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Volunteers-policy.docx

Lost property