Please meet our community groups at CJC! / Veuillez rencontrer nos groupes communautaires extraordinaires à CJC !

Please meet the different groups in which you can get involved in our CJC community and what they do!

School Council
Parents’ Committee
HIP (Hebrew Immersion Program)
EFM (École Française de Melbourne)

If you are interested in getting involved or helping for an event, please contact the members of these groups directly!

School Council

Dear school community,

The School Council held its first meeting last March with its new members, where we had the opportunity to welcome Anne-Sophie Aguado, Asmine Hammadou, Maud Rocher-Vagedes and Craig Jacobs. I want to personally thank Karen Hill, Melinda Howard, Issy Arieli and Akshat Tanksale for their invaluable contributions to the school during their tenure.

The School Council plays a key role in establishing the school’s broad direction and vision. It also influences other matters such as strategic planning, policy development, finance and community engagement. It is however not involved in the daily operations of the school. We leave that up to the school staff, the Principal and the support team. For 2022, one of the School Council’s main priorities is to foster our school community engagement after a challenging two years working and studying from home. Last year’s Year End Event was our first event open to our school communities and it was a real success. It was so exciting to see everyone back to school and connecting. Our other foci will be school finances, school policies, French Binational Program and our school identity. As we are progressing on these initiatives, we are always welcoming parents or community members who wish to help. If you are interested, please reach out to Chris Chant.

I am very pleased to introduce you to the 2022 CJC School Council:

Joseph Chang (School Council President) – Joseph has three children, including two at the school, in Grade 4 and Grade 1. Joseph was previously engaged in the masterplan and in Finance as Treasurer, and has now been President of the School Council for a year. He is now engaged in the School Identity, School Engagement and Finance sub-committees. Joseph works in finance.
Adina Nijemcevic (School Council Vice President) – Adina has two children, including one at the school in Grade 2. Adina is probably the person who is the most familiar with CJC, as she is herself a CJC alumni and now a close neighbour of the school. Adina is engaged in the food provision and Team Kids sub-committees, but also in the Parents’ Committee. Adina works in adult education.
Tom Roth (Treasurer) – Tom has three children: one son is a CJC alumni, one son in Grade 6 and one daughter joining CJC in the next year. Tom was previously involved in the masterplan and now in Finance subcommittees as the Treasurer. Tom works in healthcare management
Anne-Sophie Aguado – Anne-Sophie has 2 daughters in grade 1 and 3. She has been involved with the school Parents’ Committee as the treasurer for the past year and is now also a new member of the School Council. She is involved in the Engagement and Identity subcommittee and is looking forward to recreate our CJC community after 2 long years of isolation. She works for 7 Eleven as a sourcing manager.
Benjamin Avanzi – Benjamin has two children (Grades 3 and 5). In Melbourne since 2020, he got involved in the School Council and the EFM subcommittee. He is the Convenor of the Policy Review and Development Sub-committee. Benjamin is a Professor at the University of Melbourne
Asmine Hammadou (EFM President) – Asmine has a child in Grade 1. In Melbourne since 2013, Asmine engaged with the EFM subcommittee two years ago as the secretary and helped the association transition to the online platform through Covid. She took over the role of president late last year. For the School Council, she convenes the French subcommittee and is involved in the School Identity and School Engagement subcommittees.
Craig Jacobs – Craig has two children in Grade 2 and in Prep. Craig has a vested interest in their education and the environment in which they learn. Joining the School Council is his way of helping the school thrive after a difficult couple of years. Craig is hoping to put his work and life experience to good use in whatever ways CJC requires.
Charlie Porter – Charlie has two children, one in Grade 2 and another starting at CJC next year. Charlie is leading the recent School identity sub-committee, which aims to consolidate the school positioning and its visibility to all of our community. Charlie works in corporate and commercial communications, owning a company that delivers video and animation content.
Maud Rocher Vagedes - Maud has a daughter in Grade 4 and a son in Prep. She is engaged in the School Engagement subcommittee, and is also involved in the Parents’ Committee. Maud works in Marketing and Product Development.
Chris Chant (School Principal) – Chris joined CJC as School Principal in 2017 for a short stay and returned in 2018 as the ongoing Executive Principal and has been instrumental to the recent developments of the school.
Caroline Pommier (French Director) – Caroline joined CJC in 2015. Caroline has a daughter at the school and works closely with our local communities to improve the school’s connection with families.
Broden Borg (Assistant Principal) – Broden joined CJC in 2021. He works closely with all teaching staff to improve the teaching and learning at CJC.
Anne Aubrée (Grade 5 teacher) – Anne joined CJC in 2007. Anne, her husband and their 2 boys arrived in Australia in 2004 initially for 4 years…but have decided to stay a little bit longer! Anne is engaged in the French binome subcommittee.
Cat Wilson (Grade 3 teacher) – Cat joined CJC in 2009. Cat is a classroom teacher and coordinates our working bees and environmental initiatives.

And finally, last but not least, Megan Barclay, our CJC Business manager, who while not being on the School Council, is kindly acting as Secretary for the School Council.

Joseph Chang

From left to right: Joseph Chang, Craig Jacobs, Tom Roth, Anne-Sophie Aguado, Benjamin Avanzi, Asmine Hammadou, Charlie Porter, Anne Aubrée, Adina Nijemcevic, Cath Wilson and Broden Borg

Missing from picture above:

Chris Chant, Caroline Pommier and Maud Rocher-Vagedes

Parents’ Committee

I am delighted to be elected as the PC President and I look forward to seeing the Parents Committee (PC) along with the school community continue to work as a team, to create a lovely environment for our children. I have two children in the French Binational Program (Grade 4 and Prep). Thank you and welcome to all of the new andreturning PC members and volunteers who help make our events happen, to build our school community. I would especially like to thank the outgoing PC President Lori Silver for her hard work over the last 2 difficult years. This year, we warmly welcome Rachael Hart as Secretary to the PC executive. If you would like to join the PC, participate in any way or make an event happen – please get in touch via your Class Convenor – or just come and say “Bonjour” if you see me at school or in the streets of North Caulfield.

Amy Pate

What is the Parents’ Committee? The Parents’ Committee gives parents an opportunity to work with the school and its community to support the school and our children’s learning, we build community connections and enjoy the process along the way.

What do we do? We run regular and special events at school including Mother’s and Father’s Day stalls, second hand uniform shop and Friday treats. This year we hope to bring back some popular events. We also raise funds to support additional school resources such as a kiln, water tanks and the works to the front of the school.

Who are we?

President: Amy Pate (4E, Prep C)
Secretary: Rachel Hart (2G)
Treasurer: Anne-Sophie Aguado (3D, 1D)
Head Convenor: Martine Inge (4E, 1D)
And active members / coordinators: Valeria Green & Rachel Halliwell (Mother’s Day stall & second-hand uniforms), Marc Marshall (Friday Treats), Clarel Philibert (BBQ), Mat Thompson and more…

Join us! New members, volunteers and feedback are always welcome, please reach out to us via your Class convenor. If you have a great idea, a talent, or some time to invest in improving your child(ren) school experience, let us know! Please don’t be afraid, it doesn’t have to be a lot of time, even 30 minutes from home from time to time could be a huge help, most members of the Parents’ Committee also have full-time jobs (and kids!) so we fully understand that time is precious!

Parents’ Committee members and parent helpers at the Mother’s Day stall

Next meeting: Friday, 17 June at 9am (TBC)

Hebrew Immersion Program

HIP provides a dynamic and rigorous Hebrew language education which aims to develop strong speaking, listening, reading and writing skills. Students also learn about Israeli culture. HIP graduates are equipped to continue studying Hebrew at secondary school level.

HIP has been running for over 20 years at Caulfield Junior College. The program is open to all students in the school and runs Monday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings before school.

The success of the program is largely due to the commitment of the parent led committee, which is supported by the United Jewish Education Board (UJEB).

The committee meets once a term and supports the HIP coordinator Rinat Shenfeld in assisting with the Jewish Festivals that are celebrated within the program, as well as working with CJC to celebrate one Jewish festival per term with the whole school community.

Our committee includes:

Keren Loyer (HIP President), Ilana Faivel, Lara Lubitz, Michelle Freund, Hannah Benton, Rinat Shenfeld (HIP Coordinator), Itzik Sztokman (Executive Principal United Jewish Education Board).

HIP is always ready to welcome new committee members who have a desire to ensure that the program continues to be successful.

Please contact us if you have any questions:

HIP Coordinator – Rinat Shenfeld - hipmanager@ujeb.org.au

HIP President – Keren Loyer keren@melbournecelebrantkeren.com

École Française de Melbourne (EFM)

L’École Française de Melbourne / The French School of Melbourne was born in 1998 from the desire of a bilingual and bicultural community who wished to offer their children an education that is both Australian and French. EFM programs are integrated into Australian schools and are endorsed by the Department of Education and Training in Victoria (DET), the French Ministry of Education (Enseignement du Français à l’Etranger AEFE), from kindergarten to Grade 6. The EFM’s charter is to support the teaching of the French curriculum in Melbourne: create, make accessible, develop and promote French education. The EFM includes the Brookville and Renown Kindergarten, the French Primary section of CJC and the extracurricular activities at CJC.

The main project for the EFM this year is to organise an information day about French education in Melbourne. We will also continue to support our school partners and to manage and administer the after school care activities at CJC.

The EFM team includes Asmine Hammadou (president - CJC parent, on the photo with her daughter), Karen Hill (CJC parent), Sandrine Roy (treasurer - CJC parent), Benjamin Avanzi (vice-president - CJC parent and member of CJC school council) and Genevieve Gilbert (CJC parent).

The EFM is looking for volunteers willing to join the association! We are looking for someone to manage the events organised by the EFM as well as someone to take care of the alumni management. If you are interested in joining us, please contact president@efm.org.au.

The EFM AGM will be held in June, the exact date will be communicated soon.

Come and join us!

L’École Française de Melbourne est née en 1998 du désir qu’une communauté bilingue et biculturelle avait d’offrir à ses enfants un enseignement à la fois Australien et Français. Les programmes EFM, intégrés dans les écoles australiennes, sont approuvés par le ministère de l’Éducation et de la Formation du Victoria (DET) et du Ministère Français de l’Éducation (Enseignement du Français à l’Etranger AEFE) de la maternelle à la 6ème. La charte de l’EFM est de soutenir l’enseignement du cursus français à Melbourne: créer, rendre accessible, développer et promouvoir l’éducation française. L’EFM regroupe les écoles maternelles de Brookville et Renown, le Programme français binational de CJC et les activités périscolaires à CJC.

Le projet principal de l'EFM pour cette année est de créer et d'organiser une journée d'information pour l'éducation française à Melbourne.

Nous continuerons également de soutenir les écoles partenaires et gérer l’organisation des activités extrascolaires a CJC.

L’équipe de l’EFM se compose de Asmine Hammadou (Présidente – parent CJC), Karen Hill (parent CJC), Sandrine Roy (trésorière - parent CJC), Benjamin Avanzi (vice-président - parent CJC et sur le School Council de CJC) et Geneviève Gilbert (parent CJC).

L'EFM recherche des volontaires voulant se joindre à l'association. Nous cherchons notamment quelqu’un pour gérer les événements organisés par l’EFM ainsi que quelqu’un pour prendre en charge la gestion des anciens élèves. Si vous souhaitez nous rejoindre, contactez president@efm.org.au.

L’AGM de l’EFM se déroulera en juin, la date précise sera communiquée ultérieurement.

Venez nous rencontrer !

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Thank you to our generous sponsors Gamekeeper Meats and TuckShop Takeaway Sauce Co.