P & C News

The P & C are a wonderful, approachable group of parents who work alongside the school. The P&C raise funds for facilities and equipment, are responsible for uniform choices and the meetings are a great place to hear about what's happening in the school. All our new families are warmly invited to join us.

PEAKHURST PUBLIC SCHOOL P & C COMMITTEE

MINUTES OF MEETING

DATE: Monday 24 February 2025

MEETING OPENED: 7:28pm.

ATTENDEES: Cecilia Mok, Jennifer Hearne, Sarah Marinovic, Nicole Lawdor-Annesley, Emma Zavan, Kylie Chow, Hayaat Choker, Moussa Choker, Elizabeth Saran, Sarosh Zaidi, Karen Gambian, Siobhan Beavis, Mohammad Nafeh, Ela Naruka, Eloise Georgaris, Tessa Bruin, Emma Vong, Yvonne Furfato, Kathryn Cairns, Sunita Sharma, Maryam Kammoun, Kristy Bentley, Allisse Schafer

APOLOGIES: Nil

PREVIOUS MINUTES: Accepted by the meeting.

CORRESPONDENCE: Nil.

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT:

P&C Principal Report – Term 1, Week 5

Monday 24th February 2025

Welcome to our first P&C Meeting for 2025. It is lovely to see regular and new faces in attendance.

Enrolments & Classes

Thank you for your patience with flexible classes at the start of the year. The school had received notifications during the January break of several families moving out of the area and requiring a school transfer, and families making alternative schooling choices. With this information there was the anticipation the school would lose a teacher in entitlement. To avoid a mid-year restructure, which occurred in 2024, the school decided to implement the flexible classes until enrolments were finalised. There was a restructure within the first four days of flexible classes as a result.

The school was required to submit the enrolment numbers into the DoE by Tuesday 18th February. In 2025, Peakhurst PS has a total of 413 students enrolled. This number is broken down into 384 students in our mainstream setting and 29 students in our Support Unit.

The number of students enrolled in mainstream entitles the school to 15 mainstream classes. Using this entitlement the school would be required to run a K/1, 2/3 and 4/5 composite. The executive made the decision to use school funds to employ a 16th teacher, eliminating the need for the 2/3 and 4/5 composite. Unfortunately, we are unable to avoid the K/1 composite class. The K/1 composite class will be highly supported by Mrs Krivacic and the schools Equity Team.

2025 commences our start of the year with our new classification for our 4 Support Unit classes. We have three classes classified for students with a dual disability diagnosis, and one class for students with an Autism diagnosis.

School Counsellor

Moving into 2025 our school counsellor allocation has been partially filled. The Senior Psychologist, Education who supervises the school counsellors in the Georges River Network is working to fill all school entitlements.

In 2025 we will have two school counsellors engaging with our students, staff and families.

Mrs Kristy Stack – Every Friday
Ms Erin Burgess – Alternate Thursday’s

Voluntary School Contributions

Voluntary school contributions will not be added to the Statement of Account for 2025. Voluntary school contributions are voluntary and are a matter for decision by parents and carers. No student at Peakhurst Public School will be denied the opportunity to meet syllabus requirements because of non-payment of voluntary school contributions. Parents and carers will receive a letter informing them of the change and opportunity to contribute if willing and able.

In addition, the school will be paying for students to access Reading Eggs and Mathletics. These applications will be monitored throughout the year and feedback sought from students, staff and community at the end of 2025 before renewing the subscription for 2026. These programs cost $16,000 to access and therefore positive impact on learning is expected to renew the subscription.

School Assets and Projects

COLA for C Block

During 2024 the P&C were working with the school to potentially build a COLA of the side of C Block near the Kindergarten classrooms. DoE Assets were consulted, and the school was informed the proposed structure would block natural light entering classrooms and the slope of the roof to support adequate drainage would pose a H&S height risk.

Moving into 2025, a meeting with Assets has supported a COLA half the size in this space. This would be a joint funded project with the P&C and school revenue from fundraising and hiring of facilities. Together the school executive will work with the P&C to apply for a grant to subsidise the cost. Unfortunately, we have missed the deadline for 2025 Community Building Partnership Grants, run by the NSW Government. The school will require two more quotes to move forward with DoE assets on this project as one quote was provided in 2024.

DoE Assets Maintenance Projects

DoE is seeking feedback from principals to identify potential DoE Maintenance Projects for 2025. These projects are not guaranteed; however, it is worthwhile submitting requests to the Assets Officer. In 2024 the DoE assets team managed the student toilet upgrade and upgrading the lights across the school to LED.

I have provided my suggestions to the team and would like to open the opportunity for community voice. Suggestions from the community are welcome over the next two weeks to identify potential maintenance proposals for upgrade.

2025 School Excellence Planning

External Validation

The school will be engaging in External Validation during 2025. The written submission is due at the end of Term 2 with the face-to-face panel held at our school early Term 3. The School Excellence cycle is underpinned by the School Excellence Framework (SEF) and supports all NSW public schools in the pursuit of excellence. Schools regularly self-assess against the SEF and once during the four-year School Excellence cycle, schools participate in an external validation (EV) of their self-assessment determination against each element.

School Excellence Plan (SEP)

A School Excellence Plan (SEP) is a working document that details the steps our school will take to improve learning outcomes, and the achievement and growth of all students. To ensure continuous improvement, the SEP reflects where our school is at and how it will further improve learning, teaching and leading. It is a requirement that all NSW government schools develop and publish a School Excellence Plan (SEP).

2025 Directions

Strategic Direction 1 – Student growth & attainment
Strategic Direction 2 – Improved teacher practice and effectiveness
Strategic Direction 3 – Caring for students and whole school sense of belonging

The school is strengthening its data driven practices, assessment and expectations aligned to writing (English) and Measurement and Geometric Reasoning (Mathematics). It is working with community and DoE specialised staff to improve student attendance.

Teachers are engaging in professional learning aligned with current research to build their capacity in delivering explicit teaching and learning, ensuring there are multiple entry points and clear direction for improvement. They are collaboratively developing assessment rubrics that align directly to new syllabus outcomes in preparation to report back to parents about student growth and achievement.

2025 will focus on building student, staff and community understanding of the DoE policy for Student Behaviour and implementation of the Peakhurst PS School Behaviour Management and Support Plan.

This plan can be located on the Peakhurst Public School website.

School Behaviour Management and Support Plan (SBMSP)

After consultation with students, community and staff in 2024 our published School Behaviour Management and Support Plan has been uploaded to our school website (hard copy provided to attendees). Feedback from the community was heavily focused on reviewing the school's reflection process and incorporating restorative practices. We have taken this onboard and have included this in our plan.

The school acknowledges student behaviour has become more challenging and strategies that have been introduced to support positive behaviour in 2025 include:

Mindfulness – 10 minutes at the end of lunch to provide time for students regulate after play and be prepared for learning.
Zen Den – consistent approach to providing a space for students to access an area where they can regulate their emotions while allowing the class to continue with their learning. This is a strategy to support students as opposed to a tool used consequently for negative behaviours.
PBL - Review of the PBL Flowchart to align with the DoE Student Behaviour Policy and Behaviour Code for students.
Funding Support - Apply for Integration Funding Support for individual students to assist them in engaging in learning or providing co-regulation opportunities.
Staff – Employing additional staff with skills sets that can be an asset to support positive behaviour choices, including play break periods.
External Services – Engage with external services to provide professional learning or direct student support to encourage positive behaviour.
Build Staff Capacity - Access the DoE Team Around the School for advice and professional learning to build the capacity of staff knowledge and understanding on supporting positive behaviour.

Kristy Bentley

Principal

PRESIDENT’S REPORT:

NIL

GENERAL BUSINESS:

Easter Hat Parade – It was raised whether we can have an Easter Hat Parade. It was generally agreed by the junior school parents in attendance that it would be a good event and welcome families into the school. Mrs Bentley explained that historically the school has not participated in this event due to the diversity of the community, and easter is not celebrated by all religions and cultures. It hasn’t been an event at the school for several years. Suggested to promote as a Fancy Hat Parade, allowing the parade to be inclusive of all cultures and beliefs. Students and their families can choose the theme of their hat. The principal will raise this with the executive team on Wednesday.

Stage 3 Camp – question asked why it is running later this year so late in the year? Mrs Bentley explained feedback from 2024 included the impact on students and staff spending three days at camp and required to attend school for the following two can take its toll, therefore the school wanted camp dates that were Wednesday – Friday, allowing to rest over the weekend. In addition, the school was avoiding the PSSA season and finals dates. When investigating available dates, these are the best we could lock in to meet our requirements.

Easter Raffle
To be held on 10 April 2025
- Booklets to be sold for $10 for 10 tickets
- Budget set at $600
- Moussa and Hayaat to see whether they can source donated eggs again this year
- Emma Z volunteered to help staple raffle tickets
School Disco – Sarah explained that we had tried to move the Disco to September after feedback from families that November is a busy time of year. However, September will clash with the School Show. Meeting discussed different times of year that we could hold the Disco. It was agreed to put the disco back in November as a good end of year celebration.

Mothers Day Stall
To be held on 9 May 2025
- Sarah has purchased a some gifts in the Christmas sales – body wash, lotion etc.
- Budget of $4,000 agreed
- Sarah asked the meeting for feedback on the gift selections. We’ve been doing 2 gifts for $10 in recent years. One issue though is with cost of gifts increasing it can be difficult to find gifts to purchase in the budget. Should we do one larger gift? General agreement at meeting was the children like choosing two gifts, plus the second gift often doesn’t cost any extra as we have stock from previous years. Nicole raised the option of having different gifts at different price points so the children can choose and offer a wider budget range. General agreed that it’s best to have a single price otherwise the logistics of helping the children choose and budget becomes too difficult to manage.
- Agreed to stay with the Gift A and Gift B for $10 format.
- Raised that we could consider holding a second smaller stall in the next days for left over stock.
Mothers Day Morning Tea – Emma Z asked whether we could have a mothers day morning tea. General agreement that would be good. To be discussed further at the next meeting.

Welcome Morning Teas – in 2022 morning teas were held to welcome parents back onto the grounds following covid. It was raised whether we could begin doing these morning teas again. Flagged that for a start of year morning tea we’d need to approve budget etc in the last meeting of the year. For this year we can organise. To be discussed further at next meeting.

Student Behaviour – raised that there is concern about behaviour issues, particularly in some of the senior grades. P&C has been informed of some families changing schools due to these concerns. These issues had been addressed in the Principals Report.

Delay in classes being set – raised that the time taken to set the classes was unsettling and caused communication issues.

Communication – it was raised that parents felt they haven’t received communication from the school around arrangements for classes and the start of the year. Kindergarten parents in particular felt they did not receive clear information. Examples of the issues include:

Flexible classes – the reason for these weren’t communicated clearly, reasons for changes weren’t communicated well, there wasn’t a point of contact for parents if they needed to speak to a teacher about their child, couldn’t identify what class their child was in and some children were upset when classes changed.
- Meet the Teacher meetings came up with very short notice. Earlier notice would hep with scheduling.
- New parents not clear on Dojo and how they’re meant to use it. Are they meant to be giving Dojo points at home. Clearer information about this would assist.
- Sentral Parent Portal was not accessible by kindergarten parents at the beginning of the year. They missed enrolment int dance and art club as a result. It was difficult to know what was happening at school.
- Schoolbytes payments – in the past an email was sent with a link requiring payment. This year we’ve received emails for some things e.g. Jellybeans, but no emails for others, e.g. text books. People are confused how to pay the invoices without the emails.

Mrs Bentley’s response – Parents were informed the school has spent the last 12 months moving from a paper format to an electronic format in communication to become more environmentally friendly and sustainable. While we are experiencing difficulties, the feedback is important.

Flexible classes were a strategy to avoid a restructure of classes mid-year, as was experienced in 2024. Information regarding flexible classes was sent out as a Push Notification on the Sentral Parent Portal, and again in Issue 1 of the school newsletter. The school will need to investigate why families were unable to access this information [suggested it may be ‘allow notifications’ has not been set on the app by the parent]. The school is hoping not to have to engage in this strategy moving forward, however if it is required, it will ensure students have a Home Class that is communicated to families to allow for that teacher contact/pick up information exchange.
This information has been on the Sentral Parent Portal Calendar since the commencement of the year. Formal notification was sent out last week, and the school will take on board the feedback. Each session will be accompanied by a PowerPoint which will be shared with families after the event. It will include information about the P&C – taken from the Kindergarten Transition information sessions.
Information about ClassDojo is provided at Kindergarten Transition. The school will review how we inform parents about this app.
Sentral Parent Portal has restrictions with new families gaining early access. There was a lapse in providing our Kindergarten parents with access to this platform which will need to be improved next year. Unfortunately, the school is unable to ‘see’ what the community can see on the platform, we have access to behind the scenes. This does make it difficult to identify issues. The school has moved to paperless, including sending reports home electronically and requires feedback if there is an issue with the platform. This is the main line of communication between school and community. The school will strongly suggest to families to turn on notifications.
Schoolbytes is a financial platform where payments and permissions are made. This is managed by administration and the principal will need to investigate why some payments are coming through as email links and others are not. The aim will be to ensure there is always an email with a link for families to access payments and permissions. In addition, there was complications between the distributor, school order and publisher which delayed the school receiving the invoice from the distributor to then send the information out to families, as teachers wanted to start using the textbooks.

Connecting Parents – raised whether we can have a parent chat or class representative to help parents within the school connect with each other. Mrs Bentley explained that due to privacy, the school is not able to provide parents with each others personal information as that is a data breach, and if the school creates the group the school will be responsible for all content published. It is not practical for the school to monitor this.

Mindfulness – it was raised that students are not happy losing the 10 minutes of their lunchtime for mindfulness. Some students are also choosing not to eat in order to play more in the shortened lunch break. It was discussed whether it would be better to have the mindfulness at a different time of day. Mrs Bentley explained:
- There is still 10 minutes eating time at the beginning of lunch, this has not changed from last year.
- School data identified that the last 10 minutes of play was when most challenging behaviours were happening. This was also impacting learning time after lunch. The shortened lunch break is to assist with this.
- The 10 minutes of mindfulness gives students a chance to calm their bodies and minds before resuming learning. Teachers have found it a useful time to help students move past conflicts in the playground. They report more focus by the children. Identified classes have two staff supporting mindfulness to allow additional support. From the teacher’s perspective, we have already experienced success. This is a new strategy we are trialling in response to supporting positive behaviour.

UPCOMING MEETINGS:

The next P&C meeting will take place on 24 March 2025 by Zoom and in person from 7pm. A notice will be placed in Sentral.

MEETING CLOSED: 9:03 pm

PEAKHURST PUBLIC SCHOOL P & C COMMITTEE

MINUTES OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

DATE: Monday 24 February 2025

MEETING OPENED: 7:03 pm.

ATTENDEES: Cecilia Mok, Jennifer Hearne, Sarah Marinovic, Nicole Lawdor-Annesley, Emma Zavan, Kylie Chow, Hayaat Choker, Moussa Choker, Elizabeth Saran, Sarosh Zaidi, Karen Gambian, Siobhan Beavis, Mohammad Nafeh, Ela Naruka, Eloise Georgaris, Tessa Bruin, Emma Vong, Yvonne Furfato, Kathryn Cairns, Sunita Sharma, Maryam Kammoun, Kristy Bentley, Allisse Schafer

APOLOGIES: Nil.

AGM: The Principal, Mr Bentley declared all executive positions of the P&C Committee vacant.

Nominations opened for new Office Bearers for the forthcoming year

PRESIDENT: VACANT

Nil nominations – position left vacant

VICE PRESIDENT: Nomination: Karen Gambian.

(Nominated by Sarah M and seconded by Jennifer H).

Nomination: Ela Narouka

(Nominated by Sarah M and seconded by Jennifer H)

It was agreed to have two Vice Presidents

Karen Gambian and Ela Narouka accepted the nomination and were elected Vice President.

SECRETARY: Nomination: Sarah Marinovic

(self nominated and seconded by Siobhan B)

TREASURER: Nomination: Sarosh Zaidi

(Self nominated and seconded by Sarah S).

Sarosh Zaidi accepted the nomination and was elected Treasurer.

UNIFORM SHOP LEAD: Nomination: Siobhan Beavis

(self nominated and seconded by Sarah M)

Siobhan Beavis accepted the nomination and was elected Uniform Shop Lead)

UNIFORM SHOP ASSISTANT: Nomination Emma Travis

(self nominated and seconded by Siobhan B)

Emma Travis accepted the nomination and was elected Uniform Shop Assistant)

FUNDRAISING: VACANT

AUDITOR: Siganos and Co. Accountants

CLOSE OF AGM: The AGM was concluded, and the regular monthly meeting commenced immediately.

AGM CLOSED: 7:28pm.