School Council News

School Council Update

Hello NPS families,

Ramadan Mubarak and happy Easter (nearly)!

For those who don’t know me, my name is Kate Judd and I am your School Council President (again!) for 2023. 

This year I want to get into the habit of providing you with more regular updates on School Council discussions and decisions, so you can expect to hear a bit more from me in the School Newsletter from now on.

Before I get into the nitty gritty, I want to specifically invite you to reach out to me anytime with your ideas and feedback on how we can make our wonderful school even better! You can usually find me loitering between Prep and Junior areas in the mornings before school, and are welcome to email me at kate.judd@education.vic.gov.au. 

You can also provide feedback to me and/or Corrie via our always-on feedback form 

Anything we discuss can be private and confidential, unless you are happy for me to discuss your thoughts and feedback with other NPS parents and/or staff. 

A bit about me

My husband Andrew and I have two kids attending NPS this year – Ada is in Junior Palmer and Frankie is in Prep P. We also have a 2 year old (Tom) and two dogs, Mo and Gus. Yes, it’s very busy! 

I work in communications and engagement at the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) and am looking forward to contributing my knowledge and skills to improving parent communications and engagement and promoting diversity, inclusion and wellbeing initiatives at NPS.

Outside of school and work, I enjoy:

• getting the kids and dogs out to playgrounds, beach etc.
• reading dystopian/post-apocalyptic fiction 
• catching up with friends and family 
• collapsing onto the couch at the end of a busy day/week/month/year! 

I am also a bit of a news/politics junkie (occupational hazard, I guess!) and I really want to get back into powerlifting this year! 

Update from latest School Council meeting 

Last week, we had our first School Council meeting with our new 2023 parent and staff reps and I’m delighted to confirm that Nicola Shawyer, Jarrod McKinnis and I were all re-nominated for the Vice President, Secretary and President roles again this year. As School Principal, Corrie will of course continue as Executive Officer.

At this meeting, we spent some time talking about the reasons why we have all joined School Council and what we would like to focus on this year. Broadly, parent representatives want to focus on:

• promoting a positive school culture 
• student welfare and wellbeing 
• engaging parents and families in student learning 
• events and fundraising to support improvements to the school
• improving enrolment and retention strategies
• continuing to improve communications within the school community.

NPS staff are already taking action in some of these areas, for example:

• Prep and Junior parents and families recently attended a classroom helper information session and will start supporting reading activities in Prep and Junior classrooms in Term 2,
• NPS will be participating in The Resilience Project in 2023,
• NPS staff School Improvement Teams have re-established the Parent Ambassador program and,
• NPS has been included in this month’s Local Matters jar program at Geelong West Grill’d store.

But as with anything, there is always an opportunity to do more! 

A number of decisions were made at our first meeting:

1. We will be holding an Extraordinary General Meeting on 4 April 2023 to:
   1. review School Council Standing Orders and Sub-Committee Structures and Terms of Reference 
   2. discuss the possibility of undertaking a school-wide review of NPS visions, values and mission statement.
2. Funds raised through this year’s Easter Raffle will go towards decodable books for Prep and Junior classes. Decodable books encourage students to sound out words using decoding strategies, rather than guessing from pictures or predicting from other cues. 
3. A discussion around NAPLAN results and trends will be on the agenda at our May meeting.
4. From April, we will be starting monthly fundraising BBQs at our local Woolies – this is an excellent opportunity to promote our wonderful school to the broader community and I encourage you all to put your hand up to volunteer via our online registration form. 

NPS is also hosting School Council training for parent representatives in the Barwon region on 8th May, and I’m very much looking forward to the opportunity to meet and chat with School Council parents from other schools in the region.

Your School Council needs you

As a small public school, budgets and resources can often be tight. To help make our school the best it can be, we are encouraging all members of our school community to roll up their sleeves and volunteer their time, skills and/or expertise.

There are many ways you can get involved. All contributions – big or small, financial or otherwise – make a big difference to our students’ school experience.

In particular, we want to encourage parents and family members in our community to consider joining one of our sub-committees. Anyone can join, and this is one of the best ways to get your hands dirty and contribute to positive change at NPS. 

To find out more about how you can help, check out our flyer and register your interest by clicking here <link>. 

That’s it from me today. School holidays are coming up – please keep safe and I’ll see you on the other side. 

Kate 

Now that the School Council nomination process has come to a close, we are pleased to announce our newest members of School Council:

• Kate Judd (current SC President)
• Nicola Shawyer (current SC Vice President) 
• Nat Bugler 
• Max Tilley
• Gavin Coles
• Emily Schofield
• Pete Varszeghy
• Lucy Bowles
• Jenni Bauquier
• Shannon Rees
• Corrie Barclay (executive officer) 
• Mia Moran (staff representative)
• Jarrod McKinnis (staff representative)
• Patrick O'Meara (staff representative)