School Council Update

Hello, how are things for you SKIPPS families?

My name is Claire O’Boyle, a parent member of our SKIPPS Council since February this year. Our daughter Sorcha started in Foundation 2019 along with her cohort and so will join Grade 6 next year.

Proud to be one of Sorcha’s Mums, I’m here as an ‘adapting love migrant’. I came here from London in my early thirties with my partner who grew up in the Dandenongs and we have been winging it ever since! The considerable life mile-stone of parenthood for us is thanks to a tall, kind, part Scottish donor. We are indebted to him for the fifth province of his generosity.

Since adapting to a home here I love learning stories about the land and histories of the Kulin Nation and too recent arrivals of people like myself from other places. The gifts that never stops giving, the flora and fauna from here! Am a proud P(for parent)-plate native gardener. As a child, my family escaped The Troubles in Belfast, Northern Ireland by moving to Scotland. I’ve witnessed change in various settings and countries and I have learned to draw on these experiences to brace for resilience. Thinking about plants helps! Am a big music collector too.

Please have a look at this quote proudly displayed 300 metres from SKIPPS. It comes from an inaugural speech given on the 3rd December, 34 years ago by the then newly elected President of Ireland, Mary Robinson. Not a local! But like so many of us, locally embedded.

‘The Fifth Province is not anywhere here or there, north or south, east or west. It is a place within each one of us — that place that is open to the other, that swinging door which allows us to venture out and others to venture in.’

She was invoking a non geographically determined ‘middle’ to sit amongst the four ancient and traditional provinces of Ireland. The political centre Tara was the legendary home of the Kings. But she was inviting everyone to consider a second centre as a ‘necessary balance’. To me this idea is timeless and applicable everywhere at all scales of life business.

It is a privilege to engage and robustly debate with other Council members the plans and ideas that support core governance for SKIPPS. It is a place where each of us can speak out on equal terms. For me the commitment to finding a common discourse is welcome territory as my main profession is teaching.

I consider that our Council helps create a ‘second balance’ to the running of the school and am hoping Neil and Michelle agree! In the spirit of the swinging door anyone who would like to join in these meetings is very welcome to.

Onto the range of topics we discussed at this year’s final SKIPPS Council meeting on 20th November. We opened with a financial set of Approvals for statements and payments related to October/November 2024 spending, as well as for the proposed 2025 curriculum contributions for each year level.

We heard updates from representatives of our subcommittees from education & policy, building and grounds. It has been a year of structural changes, lots of work required to the building’s integrity and lots of gracious adapting. Some working bees have been more successful than others. But that projects can and do really get established after a working bee.

We debated a number of questions that arise from the culture of volunteering at SKIPPS; particularly the work organised by the SKIPPA, the school’s Parents Association. A core group of dedicated parents collaborated effectively across a lot of carefully managed detail and achieved a rich and varied program this year- that was really well received. But this work-load was ongoing and often not supported by enough people.

We threw around ideas;

might volunteering for specific events be advertised at the start of the year, at the 2025 Foundation information evening?
Also an explicitly volunteering focused information night, organised to recruit support?
Could skill sets required for each event be clearly communicated, even be ‘graded’ according to general skill level at an information evening?
Then people could sign up for a specific event that they can plan ahead for?
For some events, for example, the great weekly soup at Pranzo in Term3, could Grade 6’s help?
Might SKIPPA be able to subsidise student lunches?

How can visibility across all of the schools’ family ethnicities and common diaspora be better achieved by sharing volunteering? Many of us agreed that inviting people to be involved is a powerful bridge building ‘swinging door’. And how can SKIPPA members be celebrated for the work they offer? We agreed bio’s in the newsletter going forwards would be great.

Council also addressed a raft of general business, including the Team Kids contract for 2025. We agreed to keep the contract as it is and leave parent fees unchanged from 2024. Curriculum days have been approved for 2025!

A further debated item was about the dangers to children that the present car-park arrangement poses at drop off and pick up. Everyone agreed there is too much activity in one critical transition place, what actions might mitigate the potential for accidents?

Should we have senior staff do traffic duty at the top of the car park - at the Fitzroy end? It was felt that we should collaborate with Port Philip Council and Vic Roads to create altogether safer egress.

As Hannah Liddeaux also said, please come over and say hi in the school yard, let’s keep ideas flowing ! Wishing everyone some important time off from routines soon, a chance to slow down and renew necessary balance.

Claire O’Boyle