From School Council

School Council Meeting Report

The new School Council met for the first time on Wednesday, 16th March. 

We were joined by new parent members: Chloe Gestier and Craig Peebles for the first time, while Melanie McGrath made a triumphant return to the Council, which she served on for many years during the last decade. We were also joined by Jess for the first time, who comes to the Council as a new Leading Teacher and an important part of the school's leadership team.

Our first official action was to elect office bearers, and to that end I can announce that I am returning as President and Scott Glover will serve as Treasurer again this year. Sarah Small will be the Council representative on the Education and Policy subcommittee, Tim Smith will head up the Buildings and Grounds subcommittee, and Melanie McGrath will lead the OOSHC (aftercare) subcommittee. There will be more information regarding these subcommittees in coming newsletters. All parents are welcome to join the subcommittees and I encourage anyone that is interested to speak to the office and find out how to get involved.

There were two major topics of discussion at this meeting. First, we looked at the indicative school budget. The major talking point was voluntary parent contributions. About a third of the school's families have made this contribution and the School Council thanks them greatly. These contributions go a long way to making sure the teachers can make the learning programs as good as they can be. Without getting too political, there is a shortfall between the funding the school receives from the department and what it actually costs to run a first class education program with all the specialist bells and whistles. The parent contributions and the school's fundraising efforts go a long way to filling that gap, so the School Council strongly encourages anyone that is in a position to make this contribution to do so. These contributions cannot be paid directly through Sentral, but can be paid at the office or by online banking transfer.

Finally, we looked at some preliminary drawings of the new school plans, and I have to say it is all very exciting. We hope to meet with the Architects at our next meeting to see the final plans and look forward to sharing these with the school community very soon. 

Thanks,

Adam Palmer, School Council President