SKiPPS Newsletter

School Council Update

Last Wednesday our School Council met for our final formal meeting of 2024. Over the course of ten meetings this year, the group have worked together to ensure strong and effective governance of our school and it was wonderful to be able to share and celebrate some excellent data at the meeting.

 

Below is a summary of the key points and discussions from the meeting;

Parent Opinion Survey Data

The Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey (PCGOS) is a confidential survey made available to all Victorian government schools in Term 3 each year. Approximately 30% of parents and carers are randomly invited to take part in the survey each year. The objective of this survey is to collect parent/caregiver/guardian opinion data, and to use this information to assist with the future planning and improvement, both at an individual school and a system-wide level.

 

Each school in the state administers this survey and collects this information from their parents and carers.

 

We were thrilled to see that our 2023 data again shows an overwhelmingly positive opinion about SKiPPS from our parent community. The percentage of positive responses from the parents surveyed was consistently in the high 80% and 90% across a range of questions and areas. When compared to other schools, we are significantly above like school, network and state averages in almost all areas. 

Staff Opinion Survey Data

Alongside the Parent Opinion survey, our school staff are also surveyed each year and we also shared this data with School Council.

 

The staff data is also very strong and is also above 'similar school', network and state averages in a majority of areas. There are some very pleasing responses from this survey with very high percentage positive responses from the staff in the areas of;

  • Academic emphasis
  • Collective Focus on Student Learning
  • Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum
  • Parent and Community Involvement
  • Shielding and Buffering
  • Teacher Collaboration
  • Trust in students and parents
  • Instructional Leadership
  • Monitor Effectiveness using data
  • Professional learning to improve practice

Taken alongside the much improved 'Student Attitude to School' survey data from earlier in the year, we are able to celebrate three data sets taken from the key stakeholders in our school which show a high level of satisfaction and trust in SKiPPS.

2024 School Budget and Parent Payments

The November meeting is also the point of the year where School Council are asked to examine and approve our proposed school budget for the following year.

 

This draft budget outlines in detail the anticipated revenue that the school will receive in 2024 and how we intend to expend this to best support our major priorities.

 

A huge amount of work is put into this process during terms 3 and 4 each year by our staff, in particular our amazing Business Manager Nova Whitehead to reflect on the current year and prepare a budget that meets the needs of our school.

 

The Finance sub-committee of School Council, led by our Treasurer Mathew Saliba then do a huge amount of diligence to examine the numbers, ask relevant questions and perform the detailed oversight to ensure Council can be confident in the budget.

 

We are happy to announce that Council passed the budget unanimously and we are now able to put our financial plans in place for next year.

 

Linked to the budget, Council also approved the proposed 2024 Parent Payments. As explained earlier in the newsletter, these requested payments from our families are a large contributor to our overall school budget and allow us to provide a highly engaging program at SKiPPS for our students, providing great resources and experiences for our learners. 

 

Council needs to be satisfied that our requested payments are set at an appropriate level that provide value for families whilst also being sufficient to enable the school to add so much to your child's education. In doing this Council studied the equivalent payments requested by our neighbouring government schools and, in approving the SKiPPS parent payments for next year, felt that the payments that we will be seeking in 2024 are set at an appropriate level.

2024 Curriculum days and End of Term Arrangements

Council also approved the proposed Curriculum/student-free days for 2024 and the slight adjustments to our end of year arrangements as described in the 'Important Notices' section of the newsletter.