School Council Welcome
From Tanya Pittard, our School Council President
Prior to the pandemic we would have a school welcome breakfast catered for and run by the school council. An opportunity for parents and carers to touch base, put faces to names and start the year off with a smile. The Friday afternoon assemblies were another opportunity for face-to-face introductions. School Council and its sub-committees would dearly love to ramp up the face-to-face engagement with parents and carers, but unfortunately all term one plans have had to be postponed. Running onsite events will not be possible until the Dept allows it.
So the challenge becomes how to engage with parents and get them involved in School Council and the sub-committees. School Council, Communities Events Team, OHSC committee, Education Committee, Buildings and Grounds, Communications Committee are all stronger and more effective with a broad range of parents involved and contributing. The pandemic has had the upside of making it possible to run those meetings online and even partially online, so that people who cannot attend when we meet in person can still attend via phone or video link. The sub-committee meetings run for 1.5 hours at most twice per term and school council runs from 7 - 9.30pm two Thursdays per term.
This is my final year of having a child at Primary School and I can say with all sincerity that engaging with the school, through my involvement over the years on subcommittees and school council, has been so very rewarding. It has also broadened my understanding of the challenges faced by public primary schools and the need to continually try to bridge the gap between what parents and carers think or feel should happen and how to help them understand what DET will actually allow.
This year I am really looking forward to continuing the work of the School Council. Parent members provide invaluable perspectives which support the Hannah, Keir and the School leadership team do within their focus on the education and wellbeing of the students, our beloved kids.
The primary school years really do pass amazingly quickly, make the most of this beautiful time in your kids lives by getting involved. There is so much research to support that children do better at school when their parents are actively engaged in their school community. Volunteering also provides an opportunity to meet people, gain perspective and even seek advice from people who already gone through some of the milestones. During my kids early years at school I was in intense high level professional roles, but I found that putting aside time to participate in committees and volunteering at school provided a much needed break in the week. The connection kept me grounded and brought joy.
I grew up in rural Australia where the motto is community is as community does and often rural communities make do or do without. So I've always taken the view it's up to all of us to ask "how can I help?". I hope you'll consider becoming involved where you can, everybody has a worthwhile contribution to make.