School Advisory Council
The School Advisory Committee (SAC) continues to meet regularly with the most recent meeting held last week on 13 June.
Key roles, movements and opportunities within the SAC
This year the SAC have been trialling the rotation of key dual roles being the Chairperson and the Secretary which has been working well. It has enabled each of the members an opportunity to learn, understand and get across the duties associated with each role.
We’ve had two key members announce their intention to resign from the SAC at the end of 2023:
- Yvie Williams - who has taken on the role of Chairperson for 2022 and the start of 2023, has expressed her wish to transition out of the role and has generously offered to mentor and guide members who are taking on the role of rotating Chairperson. We thank Yvie for her contributions, efforts and leadership during her time in the SAC.
- Amy Prenc who has held multiple roles of both Chairperson and Secretary over the years will be migrating to the United States with her family. We are immensely grateful to Amy who has also held the role of President of the Community Association which runs numerous social and community building events for St John’s throughout the year. We thank Amy for her generosity in giving her time, talents and leadership to both of these key committees of the school and her critical role in contributing to the life of the school.
The impending departure of our two key members in SAC create vacancies for new members who wish to take up this opportunity, so we would encourage you to please have a chat to Verona or any of the current members, if this is something that interests you and if you wish to explore the opportunity further.
Key messages from meeting four, 2023
- Open actions from the previous meeting included considering resources for furthering our media education offering and building capability in the digital technology space.
- Principals Report: the following was noted
- Leadership & Management - the annual report has been validated and added to the website; EBA will be voted on this week, further details are includedin the principals page; Prep enrolments for 2024 are tracking well.
- Learning and Teaching - Bike It was great and the Book Fair was successful
- Student Wellbeing - Skipping club has replaced Games club for the term
- The keynote presentation at SAC was delivered by Tracey Farrar who is our Wellbeing Leader. Tracey provided an excellent outline of all the Wellbeing initiatives that are taking place each term (e.g. Reslilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships; Positive Behaviour for Learning; Be You; Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness (GEM) and the focus on strengthening the student voice and developing students’ emotional intelligence and resilience. It was both impressive and pleasing to see that the initiatives are based on best practice research being the Australian Student Wellbeing Framework, applied in all schools in Australia and to see that each of the initiatives are pro-active in nature, equipping our students with the skills and tools to effectively navigate challenging social situations they come across both inside and outside the classroom.
- Community Engagement - upcoming initiatives will include a ‘Wellbeing Night’ and ‘Engaging Prep and Junior Families for Literacy and Numeracy.'
Gratitude/Kudos Column
Aligned with our school theme of “Gratitude” for the year, the SAC launched a Gratitude Column in the newsletter, to express gratitude for things felt or observed in our community and invite your submissions to principal@sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au
We would like to acknowledge and thank everyone involved in delivering a fantastic School Disco event in late May. A huge thanks to Amy Prenc for planning and coordinating the event, our parent helpers running the event and to the tireless efforts of our CA members for putting on a fun and fabulous evening for all the students.
Sam Solomons - Chairperson - June, Parent Representative (Parishioner)