School Council Report

SCHOOL COUNCIL REPORT - INSIDE IVANHOE

September 2, 2020

Last night’s meeting was short but sweet with School Council unable to receive a number of reports from several of our Sub-committees.  Some of our committees and working groups have been unable to meet (or haven’t seen the need to) given that they are unable to undertake and deliver their prescribed purpose due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Three new school policies were tabled and noted during the meeting by the members present.  These included a Health Care Needs, Medication and Wellbeing and Learning policies. We received an update on our current financial position (which is in surplus) and noted that our projections and forecasting for 2021 will allow additional scope to undertake more capital works projects on the Waterdale Road building.

We discussed the progress on the Senior School build and acknowledged that because of Stage 4 restrictions, the build is currently four weeks behind schedule. This is largely to do with our contractor only being permitted to have five trades on-site at a time, which has caused considerable delay.  We are hopeful that as restrictions are eased, we may be able to make some of this time up, however handover is now scheduled for January 20, 2021.

A new landscaping plan as part of the build was tabled, which includes brand new play equipment for the grades 3-6’s, 20 new bike racks (to be placed near the new building), a sensory garden, re-installation of one of the cricket nets (the second could be installed after some of the relocatables are gone) and a new pedestrian spine, connecting the new build to existing pathways.

I’d like to thank and acknowledge the work of Pam Wright in the work she is doing as Acting Principal while Mark is on leave. Our thanks and recognition also to Lucy Garzarella and Steven O’Callaghan for the support they are providing to Pam and the entire IPS team during this time.  We are hopeful Mark will be back on deck in the coming weeks and wish him well for a full recovery.

Stay safe and with any luck, we hope to be able to return to onsite learning soon and reconnect with our school community next term.

Kelly Toghill

School Council President