School Council
School Council News
from the meeting held on 21st March 2017
Our SCHOOL COUNCIL for 2017/18
School Council meetings will be held on Tuesday in Week 3 of each month.
School Council President Todd Sprague
School Council Vice President: Julie Buick
School Council Treasurer Anna-Lisa Tewma
School Council Executive Officer Kerrie Heenan
SUB COMMITTEES FOR 2017/18
Sub Committee meetings will be held in Week 1 of each month.
Education
Convenor: Chris Beare
Members: Fiona Adrichem, Harry Agrios, Michael Benfari, Julie Buick, Maria Parks, Fenella Russell, Todd Sprague, Warren Tofts
Finance
Convenor: Anna-Lisa Tewma
Members: Chris Beare, Kerrie Heenan, Amanda Kent, Theodore Kiosses, Marion Small, Warren Tofts
Buildings & Grounds and OHS
Convenor: Bill Panas – B&G, Fiona Walker - OHS
Members: Theodore Kiosses, David Tewma, Derek Whiteside - together with the members of the OHS subcommittee
Fundraising
Convenor: to be decided
Members: Fiona Adrichem, Harry Agrios, Julie Buick (helper), Theodore Kiosses (if available), Annette Spence
REPORTS TO SCHOOL COUNCIL
Principal’s Report – Kerrie Heenan
Enrolment
Final numbers for 828 at the 2017 census.
Staffing
Mat Borg & his wife have had a new baby girl. Nicole Watt will be going on maternity at the end of term and Meagan Heeremans will be doing the same in week 3 of next term. Adam Jensen was recently married. Our new speech pathologist, Samantha Paras is doing speech screening on the Preps. Jade Atkins will be starting in the Year 6 team next term, and Shahrzad Mobasser has started as a lab assistant in the Science area. We have made an offer today for a new ICT technician position, and will be interviewing on Thursday for a new English teacher to start next term.
Programs
The programs at the Early Years campus have already been covered by the Early Years captains. Students on Middle Years have been going out to sport, the Year 9 students went to a Careers Expo last week, guest speakers coming in, Melbourne United basketball people have visited, together with soccer people and hockey people. Recycling and community people have also visited the school. Somers camp is happening this week.
Another parent has passed away this week. This is very hard for adults to manage, and extraordinary hard for adolescents and children to manage. Our students and staff are incredible in the way they support each other and the students involved, even more so for students to deal with.
Recently I attended the White Ribbon dinner at the Infinity church. City of Whittlesea has the highest domestic violence rate in Australia. There are significant numbers of children that are living quite
difficult lives every day and trying to resolve how they manage those situations and get here each day. Our data shows that at school, they feel safe and are connected. We are in an incredible position as a school to maybe start changing some of the cycles.
We are working hard across all curriculum levels with the cyber bullying programs. An expert on cyber safety, Sue Maclean, came and spoke to the Year 8s & 9s this week. We have had a number of visits from the SOCA squad, NACASA and DHS to the support the students, so that they, as a person, have rights and scaffolding to support them.
Network
Whittlesea Tech school – staff will be attending a forum at Melbourne Polytechnic about innovative programs that will be extending new programs in schools.
Excited about work Marcus & Bill have been doing, looking for post The Lakes options – direct pathway into specialist schools, with credit for work already done at this school.
Facilities
The new soccer pitch is taking shape.
Uniform
Most students are in uniform. Some families are waiting for State School Relief. Congratulations to parents for the enormous effort that they have done to get their students in uniform. The uniform shop under estimated the number of shorts that each family would need to purchase, and have been encouraged to have enough stock of track suit pants in stock for the school holidays, and in time for winter.
Question: Can online ordering for the uniform shop happen?
Response: We can ask the Uniform shop if this is possible.
Education Sub-Committee Report – Chris Beare (convenor)
The Anaphylaxis Policy & Annual Implementation Plan were approved.
Question: Not excluding any student, is there anything as School Council we can provide resources to support the staff to deal with disruptive student situations that are happening at Early Years?
Response: This needs to be referred to student wellbeing executive. Inclusiveness works both ways. This community needs to use the local politicians, so schools can influence the NDIS to be the advantage with people in schools, not running parallel. We need to influence and systems available to us, putting some pressure externally to provide support internally. The reality is that the funding model has changed from 10 years ago, so that there is now less per head across the school.
Finance Sub-Committee Report – Anna-Lisa Tewma (convenor)
The financial reports, term deposit, fundraising activity of the Easter Raffle were approved. Given the cost to parents, the curriculum charges discount of $50 be extended from end of February to end of March, as an expression of good will for the support for the changes to the uniform policy was approved.
Building & Grounds and OHS Sub-Committee Report – Bill Panas (convenor)
Soccer pitch – students are looking forward to using it, with the base nearly completed. It will be operational next term.
Marcus has acquired a W class tram. The student leaders will have role in deciding its use and decorating the tram. It will be located between the Year 9 centre and The Arts building. The tram is free, but the transport and installation cost will be about $7000 which will be funded from fundraising in 2016.
The Year 1 toilet refurbishment has been finished. A new sand pit has been built and will have a shade sail funded from the local council from the playgroup grant. We are looking at quotes for a new commander telephone system and possible irrigation of the oval. New air conditioners in the Prep portables have been placed on hold, given dwindling enrolment the Prep portables will probably be removed. Numbers in Prep need to be about 100 in 2018, for us to keep the portables.
Early Years School Captains’ Report – Sandra A., Jorja P., Imad W., Massino Z.
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for having us at your School Council Meeting. We are really excited to be the new School Captains and are looking forward a fabulous and productive year. We thought you might like to know a little bit about us and how we feel about being Early Years School Captains.
My name is Sandra and I am 9 years old. I wanted to be a School Captain because I like presenting speeches. My favourite thing about our school is the leadership opportunities. Some things that I enjoy are drawing and helping others. I show the School Values by listening to others and their ideas.
My name is Massimo and I am 9 years old. I wanted to be a School Captain because I like to be role model to others. My favourite thing about our school is our playgrounds and outdoor areas. Some things that I enjoy are: my play station and being a Year 4 b