Parents and Friends Association 2024

It has been another huge year for the PFA, it was my second year as PFA President and it certainly kept me very busy.

We started before the school year had even begun with a BBQ at book pack day which was a great way to get the kids excited about coming to school, especially for those getting to go into the new buildings. And showed us you can get away with just 4 people to run a BBQ, although the more the very much merrier.

We followed that up a month into term 1 with the Welcome BBQ after school which was another great afternoon to relax and get to know some new and old friends.

Term 1 flew by and finished with the beloved Fiesta. The Fiesta is a School run event but the PFA is always there with a BBQ and a cake stall

Our 4th Outdoor Movie Night had us all watching Coco, well the people who weren’t running around the playground in the dark anyway. Empanadas were a crowd favorite and sold out in record time and yes we will upgrade the popcorn machine for next year.

We held our first Colour run at the end of May, I wasn’t really sure what I was doing but I can tell you it was possibly the biggest day of smiles and laughter I have seen. Students, Teachers and Parents were all having a lot of fun and it was a great celebration of the massive fundraising effort for the school. Jose, Simon and Luke were all willing participants for the sliming at the end of the event but Luke thought it would be nice to surprise me with a sliming of my own! I give the sliming experience 0 stars – do not recommend. Looking back though it was pretty funny and something that doesn’t come up too often in life.

In June we had a great dinner at Brew Dog Pentridge with some fluent Spanish speakers and some amateurs trying to string together a sentence. We then enjoyed a movie at Palace Cinemas in the Spanish Movie festival. Next year we will make sure someone who knows what they are doing chooses the movie.

Term 3 saw the introduction of parent morning teas which we have held once a month for the past six months. I have really enjoyed these occasions and have met some wonderful people and had some fantastic conversations about parenting, school, life and everything! Hope to meet more new people next year.

The Newlands Comedy Gala was back for our parent social night at the Thornbury Theatre. Declan and Josh again put together a line up of hilarious comedians who were just brilliant. I was surprised there were no Raygun jokes though.

Hats off again to Olivia Stewart for being in charge of the Fete de la Primavera. The PFA jumps on board with the fete committee and we had such a great team this year and the fete was just so wonderful and so – Newlands. 

We considered not running the mango fundraiser this year but the people spoke and we kept it. I enjoyed an entire tray of Kensington pride all to myself.

Thank you to the wonderful PFA, to Adam P for being Secretary again this year and Andrea A for her brilliant Communications again. And to all our regular attendees at meetings. Please think about joining us if you can, we meet about once a month but if you can’t make it that’s ok too. Thank you to everyone who does a shift at our events too and even if you haven’t signed up and can see a long queue you are always welcome to jump in and give us a hand for 20 minutes if you can.

The PFA’s job is to raise funds and to build community, I think we have been very successful in this mission in 2024. We have raised over $60,000 this year and that is with keeping our prices lower or similar to other schools events. With funds raised this year and last year the PFA was able to contribute $50,000 to the new playground, the school had to pay the rest but we were pleased to make such a significant contribution.

See you all in 2025

Claire Moore

PFA President