P & F Happenings
DATES FOR YOUR DIARIES
Wednesday 6th March – P&F Forum School Library and via Teams, time TBC
All parents are invited and encouraged to attend our general meetings & parent forums hosted in Week 5 of each term to hear about key activities and initiatives both in the school and our community. In 2024 we are excited to welcome our school leaders to join our P&F Forum to give us an update on student life in the term. From time to time we may have other guests join to discuss matters we feel are of interest to our parent community.
SAVE THE DATE Friday 6th/Saturday 7th/Sunday 8th SEPTEMBER The LINDFIELD ART SHOW AND FAIR! The 48th year of our biggest community event will be back in 2024 with more art, fun, music, games, food and laughter!! Mark your diaries early and keep an eye for more news to come before the end of term 1!
WELCOME TO OUR CLASS PARENTS FOR 2024
A huge thank you to all of the amazing parents who have put their hands up to help keep our families and school connected. Your time is very appreciated and valued, and we look forward to working with you and your classes this year to strengthen our community.
KINDY W – Susan Spurway (Isabella)
KINDY G – Carolyn Packwood (Austin), Amanda Hale (Elsey)
Y1 W – Maria Crino (Tori), Michelle Sabella (Serena)
Y1 G – Jessica Horan (Winnie)
Y2 W – Ella Hanato (Flint)
Y2 G – Wendy Hou (Bella), Rachel Naoum (Alexander)
Y3 – Em Manion (Iris), Pip Ling (Harriett)
Y4 – Loretta Barry (Josh) and Norah Chalfert (Isabella, Annabella, Mathius)
Y5 – Dee Antcliff (Josie), Mel D’Arcy (Scarlett)
Y6 – Mrythe Mohr (Liz), Ella Walter (Riley)
This week you may have been lucky enough to be greeted by our GREEN TEAM at drop off!! Our Green Team is an initiative at school that the P&F proudly support. The team are given the opportunity to be champions for our plant among their peers. They determine activities and events that they will host at school during the year and talk to all the classes about what they are doing and why it’s important for everyone to try to get involved.
Things they do include: maintaining the veggie garden pods at the bottom of the playground – including taste testing the produce when it’s ready; keeping our other garden areas clean and tidy; encouraging everyone to pick up litter and use the bins; encouraging WASTE FREE WEDNESDAYS when we try to send in lunches that don’t have too much plastic packaging!
One of the newer initiatives is to manage our RETURN & EARN bin which is part of the Lane Cove Return & Earn collection service – every time the bin is full it’s collected and replaced with an empty bin to be filled again. And the money from our 10c bottles and cartons is returned to the Green Team to spend on their plans for the year.
Keep an eye in the newsletter for upcoming GREEN TEAM initiatives.
If you are a parent who would like to get involved in helping the GREEN TEAM please reach out to Mrs Edwards for a chat!
TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK
This year we’d like to have lots of parents involved in making our community flourish!
One way we hope to achieve this is by allocating an event to each year group to coordinate and host on behalf of the school. Not only does this provide a great opportunity for each class to work together as a team but it ensures that more parents can participate in school community activities, and knowledge is handed down from year group to year group.
Your class parent has been advised what event your class has been asked to organise and host but all events are below. The P&F team are on hand to help with any questions.
The LINDFIELD ART SHOW & FAIR and the COLOUR RUN will be coordinated by a team of parents from across the school. More information on how to get involved in those events will be shared later in the year.
Uniform Swap & Shop
In 2024 we are looking to reinvigorate our second-hand uniform store located beside the playground and will be introducing our new Swap & Shop day to coincide with our quarterly family picnics. For Swap & Shop families will be encouraged to send old, wearable uniforms to school, in clean condition, for them to be sorted and prepared for our Swap & Shop event on Friday in week 7 of each term. This will be a great way to pick up that spare shirt or hat, get ready for the seasonal change, and clear out the uniforms they all grow out of too quickly.
For this initiative to run well we need a small team of parents who can receive the donations of uniforms in weeks 5 & 6, sort and prepare what’s available ahead of the Swap & Shop in week 7, and help coordinate a roster or parents to man the sales on the Friday. It’s also a great way to get to know other parents and get involved in something that helps create a more sustainable environment. If you are interested, please get in touch with Olwyn: olwynodowd@gmail.com
Traffic at Coles Development T
We have received some feedback from parents about increased traffic congestion at the entry to Balfour Lane, particularly on Tuesday and Thursday mornings when the site access restrictions have been modified through to end of April. The school are aware of the back log this is causing and the knock-on impact this has on reaching the gate in time to drop off your child.
Pauline and her team have raised concerns with the site manager about more effective traffic control in the mornings to ensure the flow into Balfour Lane continues where possible. She will continue to monitor things into next week and determine next steps if further action is required.
You can help by ensuring your child is ready to exit the car quickly and safely at the gate, or by using alternative routes to school – perhaps park on Highfield Rd or just north of the traffic lights on the corner of Pacific Highway and Highfield Road and walk your child to the gate.
The school has urged parents not to drop children at the end of Balfour Lane to walk up unaccompanied. If it’s felt that this is a necessary response to the issue the school will look to put appropriate arrangements in place to monitor children walking from Balfour Street through Balfour Lane to the back gate of the playground*.
Kur-ring-gai Council is the first point of contact to raise concerns/complaints about the traffic management at the Coles development site – you can either call council and ask for the ranger, or send an email. We would encourage you to take pictures where possible.
Our local Council Representatives are also very supportive of keeping the development site moving per the conditions and are open to receiving communications when the public are concerned:
Alex Taylor ataylor@krg.nsw.gov.au
Sam Ngai sngai@krg.nsw.gov.au
*This option is somewhat impacted by the overgrowth along the footpath currently, which may make children step out onto the road. Council have been contacted to arrange for this to be cut back to make the path fully accessible.
See you around the playground
Olwyn - P&F President, 2024, and mum to Eabha (Year 3)