A message from the Principal

Our major social and fundraising event of the year took place on Saturday night and it was a huge success.

The SKiPPS parent trivia night has been running for many years, from humble beginnings on a Thursday night at the Middle Park Bowls Club to the wonderful evening in the amazing surroundings of the St Kilda Town Hall that it has become.

The event serves two purposes. Firstly as a way for parents, carers and staff to connect, get to know each other, have fun and strengthen the community that is such a huge part of what makes SKiPPS so great.

Secondly, is to raise funds for our school to allow us to provide the resources and education that our students deserve. 

The broken Australian school funding model which sees government schools such as SKiPPS short-changed and underfunded by the standards of the School Resource Standard (https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jul/24/australian-public-school-funding-falls-behind-as-states-fail-to-meet-targets) makes fundraising activities such as our Trivia Night vital in providing our students with anything above the bare minimum when it comes to their education.

The Fundraising sub-committee of parent and staff volunteers did a great job organising the 'Who Am I?' themed night. The space was decorated beautifully and the food and drink was outstanding.

There were some great costume choices that ran the range from Daft Punk to Wham to Super Mario and a gaggle of Barbies.

We were entertained by rounds of trivia and performances by our hugely talented parent band 'Parental as Anything 2.0'. There was a silent auction and raffle with generous donations from local businesses and school families.

Whilst we are still finalising things, indications are that the night will have raised in excess of $13,000 - an incredible outcome that shows the huge support and commitment of our school community.

This money will be used to complete a much-needed rejuvenation and resurfacing of our school basketball court in 2024 - getting rid of the cracks and missing chunks that add a level of challenge to weekly basketball training sessions!

It is not too late to get involved and add to this success - there is still time to grab your raffle tickets with some really great prize packages to be won. Sales close at midnight this Thursday with the winners announced at Friday assembly (and informed by email). Tickets can be bought at  https://rafflelink.com.au/skipps_trivia 

As always with big school events, there is a large number of people that we need to thank.

• From our Fundraising subcommittee, Belinda Williams, Brook Saunders, Abby Cormack, Rowena Fitzgerald, Bec Walton, Camey O'Keefe, Elisa Webb, Kaisu Tonkyra, Chantel Jose and Tally Konstas for planning and coordinating every aspect of the night and the silent auction and raffle - from the initial idea to the 2:30am tidying up at the Town Hall.
• Parental as Anything 2.0 - Our wonderful parent band have been rehearsing hard for this and they were so good on the night. It is hard to believe that it has only been 6 months since they formed and stepped into the big shoes of our original parent band.
• Mat Gdantz for arranging the DJ's, set up, lights and videography on the night and Soren Fisher for his fabulous DJ skills.
• To all of the parents, carers and staff members who bought tickets, came along to support the school and spent so generously on the night.
• To everyone who has purchased raffle tickets.
• To all of the businesses and school families who donated so generously to the hampers, raffle prizes and silent auction items.

We look forward to doing it all again, bigger and better in 2024...

Neil Scott

Principal