WPS School Council

School council met by video and in-person on Wednesday, 27 July.  

Council heard the school’s population continues to change as students move in and out of the area. It has a total of 124 students currently enrolled, the lowest it has been in four years. Some new students arrived recently while several students left at the end of Term 2 because their families returned overseas. However, the school has started receiving new international students as borders re-open. 

Student attendance has been dramatically affected by illness, with 50% of students on track to miss more than 20 days of school this year. There is also a very large number of ‘unexplained’ absences which affects the school’s record keeping and makes it harder to look after students.

Council was told parents and carers must call the front office on 9521 3711 if their child has an illness so the school can take the appropriate action. A phone call is necessary because the school does not receive notification of messages sent through absence notes recorded on Compass. 

Council heard a new agreement between the Department of Education and the teacher’s union has increased teacher training days, which will lead to more pupil-free days. The agreement will also see teachers receiving time in lieu if they attend school camps and other outside of hours events. This will significantly increase the cost of camp because the school has to pay for more casual teachers, although it is unclear how this new policy will work in practice when it starts in 2023. Council discussed the importance of camp for all students and will try to find a solution to ensure Windsor continues to hold camps without a substantial increase in costs.

The finance sub-committee reported the school continues to manage a funding deficit caused by having only 12 Prep students enrolled this year when the school had been expecting 20 Preps.  The sudden decline was caused by people moving out of inner-city areas during COVID lockdowns and a lack of inter-state and international migration (a challenge all schools in the area are facing). This meant about $50,000 less government funding than expected for teaching staff costs. Council is managing this deficit by supplying some money from its Government cash grant that supplies our cash budget (along with community funding and external grants) and spreading the deficit over two school years. So far 9 Preps have enrolled for 2023. Please confirm as soon as possible if you know you will be enrolling a Prep student next year. 

Principal Peter Seddon delivered a presentation on the plan to re-landscape The Avenue end of the school property. This area is currently used for a sandpit and flower/vegetable beds but will be turned into a large entrance and nature-play area. It is proposed that the bins would be moved to Bendigo Terrace and accessed from the street. Please see the front office if you would like to see the designs. 

The community engagement sub-committee is working on strategies to make the newsletter more accessible so that more people read it. This includes printing it out and leaving copies for parents and carers to collect and potentially translating it into other languages or making it available online in a format that can be translated easily. Or recording it into an audio file. All these tasks would have to be done by parents to avoid overloading administration staff. 

The sub-committee will also create a system for a single-source of school dates and events.

There was also a discussion about in the future changing the class names from ‘learning space’ (LS) followed by a number to something less formal (such as animals or teacher initials or colours). 

Simone Radolnik reported teachers were very grateful for the food and treats donated by families in the last week of term. It made them feel appreciated and was extremely well received. 

Lucy Battersby

(WSP school council vice-president)