Previous Minutes10th November 2015 Moved by: Tristen Cosgrove, Seconded by: Ruth McLeod
Business arising from previous meeting/s:
As per the fundraising report listed below: School Staff have advised how they would wish the fundraising efforts of the School Banking profits to be spent. It will be spent on a mature reader section for the library aimed at early teen reading which will require a permission note from the parents to borrow from this section. School Banking team, Mrs Merriman and P&C Executive will be finalising details and payment. Simon presented the P&C a thank you letter on behalf of Mrs Merriman for their fundraising efforts in assisting the school’s eager teen readers – the book collections that will be purchased for the library has been chosen by the students based on their feedback.
Correspondence – In/Out
In:
Invoice for National Pens was received to be paid.
Kate Washington emailed a survey re: Items of importance to the school /P&C and an invitation for a delegate from our P&C to be part of a regional discussion group.
Out:
All necessary correspondence and thank you letters including a copy or the school’s newsletter have been sent to all the local businesses that donated prizes for our raffles- those being Muso’s Corner, Jack’s Music and Lizotte’s.
REPORTS
President’s Report
Welcome to the last P&C meeting of the year but there is still the February meeting next year before we look to re-elect positions. I encourage anyone who has thought of taking a role with the P&C to do so as we have some very key people leaving this year and we would love to invite many more to come along. A special thank you goes to Ruth McLeod and Belinda (and Grant) Lavers as well as all of Ruth’s and Belinda’s families, for their service to the P&C and the School over many years. Thank you very much and you will be missed. Regarding Grants, I have heard back regarding the 2015 Community Building Partnership Grants and will make an announcement at the Celebration Day Assembly this Friday. I have also just last night applied for another grant for the P&C and the School which is designed for Volunteers and, if successful, I am hoping can fund $5,000 for an air conditioner in the canteen. Thank you to you all for this year and may we continue to achieve great outcomes for the School community.
Moved by: Tristen Cosgrove
Seconded by: Trish Bray
Principal’s Report
I would like to start by thanking the P&C for your on-going assistance with the 2015-2016 P-K transition. This transition is a vital introduction to our school community and we greatly value your input, support and guidance with the new families, which will of course extend into 2016 with events such as Tea & Tissues and the Welcome BBQ. I would like to thank the P&C for its on-going support with the Year 6 Graduation, too. This year’s Graduation is being held next Monday evening and is a very positive event for our school community and a significant milestone for our seniors, as well as a lot of fun. I also thank the P&C for the generous donation of a pen to each Year 6 student leaving Soldiers Point at the end of the year. This year’s Year 6 Fund-raising Committee has done a tremendous job throughout the year of, not only raising funds, but also preparing for the students’ graduation. I congratulate the committee and thank them for their efforts, which are greatly appreciated by the students. We recently heard from 17 potential candidates vying for a position on the 2016 Student Representative Council. To have so many students nominating for a leadership position is a wonderful reflection on the confidence of our students. I was very impressed with the quality of our students’ addresses and look forward to working with the SRC in 2016. We now look forward to our Celebration Day which will be held on Friday, December 11, when we find out who our SRC members will be. Celebration Day will also involve numerous student performances, which I trust you’ll find entertaining. Behind these performances are many, many hours of preparation by the students and our teachers and I would like to thank all of my staff for their selfless commitment to our students and guiding them to success in so many ways. Similarly, I thank our school support staff who manage the myriad of requests from the wider community, assist individual students in the classrooms and keep our rooms and grounds maintained. They do an amazing job of managing enquiries, treating student illness & grazes, receipting money, as well as communicating with our community. I really am fortunate to have such a wonderfully caring and capable team around me.
Toward 2016 - at this stage our anticipated student population will be in the vicinity of 360, which is slightly down on this year. The staff and I have drafted a class structure based on a 14 class model. This may alter but we won’t know for certain until the end of Week 1, 2016, when our population should be stable. We will have a number of changes in staffing in 2016. Two teachers have been appointed to the school, they are: Ms Louisa De Souza, who is our new assistant principal & will supervise Stage 1, and Mr Nathan McGregor, who will replace Mr Silva. As has been the case in previous years, when students return next year they will go into their current 2015 class for the first week or so before we can finalise the make-up of each class. I expect and hope we will be able to move into our new classes by the end of Week 1. I recently published the prices of the 2016 Book Packs. The costs are similar to previous years. It is intended that the Book Packs will provide all necessary stationery for every child. As always, financial assistance will be available for families through application. Term 4 will conclude for students on Wednesday, December 16, while the staff will be finishing on Friday, December 18, as we have SDDs on the last two days of the year. Term 1, 2016 will commence on Thursday, January 28, for all students in Years 1-6. Kindergarten students will undertake their Best Start assessment from Thursday, January 28, through to Tuesday, February 2. They will commence as a class on Wednesday, February 3. Once again, I thank the P&C and the parents of Soldiers Point Public School for their continued support throughout 2015. It has been an amazing year for our community, particularly gaining the grants for the final stages of the Creative Play Spaces project. When completed in early 2016, this facility will be of great benefit for the students of Soldiers Point Public School for many years to come. On behalf of the staff & students I thank you for your time, effort and contributions which have added to the success of 2015. I look forward to working closely with you again next year as we continue to build on the foundations laid over the past few years. I wish you all a very merry Christmas and happy holiday with your families.
Moved by: Simon Parson
Seconded by: Ruth McLeod
Treasurer’s Report
No report has been submitted for this meeting.
Canteen Report
It has been another busy year in the Canteen. The double door fridge is giving us trouble again. We have called the repairman in and he re-gassed the fridge hoping that would do the trick. However, it reached 30 degrees a few days later, so I have turned it off and we are waiting for him to come back and have another look at it. We have already spent a substantial amount on this fridge, I believe over $1000.00. The fridge is valued at around $10,000.00 but is unfortunately around 10 years old. A decision needs to be made as to where to go from here as it is certainly a much needed piece of equipment.
We have lost a few volunteers with children moving up to high school, we hope to pick up some new mums next year to lighten the load on our regular volunteers. Penny Whatman is a signatory on the Canteen Account and as she is moving on to high school a new signatory is required. Personally, I would like to say a very big thank you to those who have helped throughout the year. An especially big thank you to the Canteen Committee, particularly Deanne Cosgrove and Karen Jones, I can't tell you how much you are appreciated. I hope everyone has a fabulous Christmas and I look forward to seeing you next year.
Moved By: Karen Jones
Seconded by: Trish Bray
Uniform Shop Report
Current Balance: $ 5293.16 Deposit today: $ 486.00 Total: $ 5779.16 Payments due this month: $ Nil Total: $5779.16 Extended Credit (Feb 2016) $ 6179.19 We have just received the last extended credit order from LWReid, this consisted mainly of short sleeve shirts. We anticipate having sufficient stock for the very busy period we have at the beginning of the year. There has been around 20 sales for Kindy 2016 students. We will be completing a Stocktake on Tuesday 15 December 2015. All records for this calendar year will be compiled ready for next year’s annual audit. All relevant Uniform Shop records and information currently held by me will be handed over to Karen Jones and Brooke Hill at the conclusion of my role as the Uniform Shop Co-Ordinator/Convenor. A very special thank you to Karen Jones and Brooke Hill who have again this year continued to volunteer their time to help to keep the Uniform Shop running efficiently. I would like to thank both the school staff and the P&C for supporting me with my volunteer role as Uniform Shop Co-Ordinator/Convenor. It has been a very enjoyable experience, one which I know I am going to miss. I have met many lovely families and have formed many friendships along the way.
Moved By: Belinda Lavers Seconded by: Karen Jones
Karen took this opportunity to say a few kind words to Belinda thanking her for all her hard work over the years. The P&C also thanked Belinda for her dedication, enthusiasm and hard work she has provided over the years and wished her well.
School Improvement and Finance Committee Report
The sub-committee held their meeting on the 2nd December 2015. The minutes from this meeting can be read by clicking on the following link.
The P&C members took this opportunity to thank Ruth for all her dedication, enthusiasm and hard work she has provided Soldiers Point Public School over the years and wished her well next year. In January the creative play spaces project will be commencing which will see the ground work for the new play equipment in order for the equipment to be installed.
Fundraising Committee Report
The Events & Fundraising Team held a P&C raffle at the recent Evening of Music and the Twilight Bandstand event, with prizes donated from Jack’s Music, Muso’s Corner & Lizottes.The raffle was successful in raising $443 profit in total over the two nights. These funds were raised by the P&C to assist the School Music Department & School Band in the purchase of additional instruments and resources. Therefore tonight we would like to present the school with a cheque for $450 from the P&C for that purpose. We are also pleased to report that the School Banking ladies, Julie & Nerelle, have recorded over $1500 in commissions raised this year. Julie & Nerelle have been in discussion with Mrs Merriman, and have discovered some ‘wish list’ items for the school library which they would like to donate the School Banking commissions towards. This would ensure that all students would be able to enjoy the benefits. I’m sure Julie & Nerelle will arrange this with Mrs Merriman & the P&C executive in the new year. Thank you to Nerelle & Julie for all your work in facilitating School Banking as a fundraiser throughout 2015.
In preparation for the year ahead, one early 2016 event to mention, which Anna & I will be involved in coordinating, is the 2016 Tea & Tissues morning tea, to be held on Wednesday 3rd February from 8.30am to 10.30am outside the school canteen. New Kindy Parents have been invited, and our 2015 current Infants School Parents have received a note inviting them to bake goods &/or come along and be part of the morning tea, in greeting our new Kindy families. Reply slips for these notes are due to the school office by end of Term. We will collect these notes, and coordinate the morning tea from there. All staff who are available to attend are welcome to join in as well. Any remaining goodies may make their way to the staff room, for teachers to also enjoy later in the day.
Early 2016 we will also likely hold an Events & Fundraising Team meeting, to discuss other events and fundraising ideas, and appoint some new captains of the team before the P&C’s March AGM. We invite all parents interested in the P&C events & fundraisers to make contact to express your interest.
On a final note, the Events & Fundraising Team would like to acknowledge & thank Belinda Lavers and Ruth McLeod here on their final P&C meeting, for all their commitment and efforts in so many areas of the P&C at the school. We truly appreciate all you have done for the children, students and staff of the school, in all that you have contributed to, and we say a very big thank you.
Moved by: Trish Bray
Seconded by: Ruth McLeod
On behalf of the P&C Trish presented a cheque for $450 to Simon Parson from the fundraising efforts of the Evening of music and Twilight Band stand to go towards purchasing equipment and resources for the music department. Simon thanked the P&C for their fundraising efforts. The P&C would also like to mention a special thank you to Rachel Waglan, the entire Music Department, and Emma Bowen a parent who dedicates her time to play in the band for the wonderful display of music and entertainment for those nights. Also to mention a special thank you to Simone and Bronwyn for all their assistance and co-ordinating and to the catering staff for an amazing night. Trish and Anna have already organised tea and tissues for kindy and new parents to the school in 2016 and will be co-ordinating this event.
General Business
Tristen has just completed applications and has applied for two more grants to assist our school. It was also mentioned that we have been successful in receiving the grant of $9630 to assist with cabling for our school’s technology.
Tristen mentioned to Kate Washington about the school’s toilet block and the school requirements for more fixed buildings – she advised she has made a note and will address these issues at parliament.
Meeting Closed at 8.20pm. Next Meeting: Tuesday 8 February 2016.