In: Fundraising Commission of $38 paid to P&C from Term 1 Lucky Locals Card orders. Received by Tristen. To be receipted by Treasurer upon receipt of letter.
Out: Nil.
4. Business arising from previous meetings.
· Nominated Office Bearers from AGM who were not present, have formally accepted their roles. (Deanne Cosgrove – Canteen Treasurer, and Penny Whatman – Canteen Convenor) All agreed.
· It is moved that Vacant Positions (Grounds Convenor, and Vice President) be promoted in the Newsletter, and a Fundraising Committee be sought to assist and be involved for 2014 event planning. All agreed. Anna Webster & Trish Bray to action.
· Signatories changes to be attended to on the Canteen bank account – David Smail has advised by email that he will action this with Deanne & Tristen over the school holidays. David is also in the process of following up on OH&S insurance regarding grocery collection, and will provide an update when informed.
5. Reports/Updates
President’s Report
Thank you to all for a great Welcome BBQ 2014. I congratulate all volunteers on their efforts on the night.
Wishing you all a good holidays and a great Easter!
Moved: Tristen Cosgrove, Seconded: Anna Webster.
Principal’s Report
I’d firstly like to commend the P&C for your organisation of the 2014 Welcome BBQ held at the school in Week 8. It was a fun evening and a great opportunity for the wider community to come together in a social & relaxed manner.
March has been a remarkably busy month for our school and I thank all families for their active support. Events such as: Harmony Day, Clean Up Our School, Ride 2 School and assisting with transport to and from the numerous sporting opportunities, as always, is greatly appreciated. Your support enables so many of our students to participate and succeed with their opportunities.
Each year the school is required to write a document called the Annual School Report. I recently completed our 2013 ASR which has now been uploaded to the school’s website for the wider community to access. The report contains information such as: attendance, a financial summary, NAPLAN results, as well as reports on the arts, sport and the parent satisfaction survey. I encourage all parents to read the report when they have the opportunity.
Already this year staff members have undertaken many, varied professional learning activities. Time has been dedicated to stage teams to cooperatively plan and develop support strategies to meet the learning needs of students. These include workshops on:
• _teaching students in the autistic spectrum;
• _hearing loss & otitus media;
• _fundamental movement skills; and
• _an anaphylaxis update.
Teachers have also attended professional learning activities to support the implementation of the new English and science syllabus.
The end of Term 1 will see the retirement of one of our assistant principals, Mrs Wildman. Mrs Wildman took up her position as AP in 2004 and has contributed greatly to the inclusive, respectful culture which we cherish at SPPS. We will be celebrating her career of more than 40 years with a quiet dinner with fellow staff members later this week.
On behalf of the Soldiers Point community I extend my warm thanks to Mrs Wildman for all she has brought to the school and aim to ensure her values live on for years to come.
Mrs Wildman will be replaced in Term 2 by Mrs Rachel Wagland who is currently as assistant principal at Anna Bay PS. Mrs Wagland is very well-known locally for her contributions to the Tomaree Music Festival and we now look forward to working with her in Term 2 and beyond.
Still on staffing, Mrs Freeman will be taking some well-earned long service leave at the commencement of Term 2. She will be replaced by Miss Condon for the first five weeks of next term.
Soon, all families will receive their child’s work sample folder which contains an array of work samples completed by the student during Term 1. It is intended that the work sample folder provide parents with an overview of the tasks completed and how their child is fairing so far this year.
The school grounds continue to require a lot of attention with our long term focus being on the Creative Play Spaces project. A few short-term actions include:
• _Quotations received to construct an additional covered walkway from the COLA to Block H (Kindy rooms); and
• _Quotations to construct a barrier to restrict individuals climbing over the railing on level 1 of Block J.
The school recently had an arborist carry out an extensive audit on trees across our school grounds, particularly those which are in and around classrooms and / or close to where children play or assemble. The audit highlighted the need to remove or prune a number of trees which will be addressed in the short term.
As I mentioned earlier in this report, the students have had an array of sporting opportunities already this term and this is set to continue with school teams participating in numerous sports at school, zone, regional and state level.
Highlights include:
• _Port Stephens Zone runners-up in swimming;
• _Rugby 7’s team progresses to the Hunter 7’s Carnival in early Term 2;
• _5 of our cross country runners achieved a top-three finish in the recent zone carnival qualifying them for Regionals; and
• _5 students have already qualified for state in swimming, girls’ soccer and AFL.
Term 1 will conclude on Friday providing you all with a great opportunity to enjoy your children for a few weeks holiday. Term 2 will commence for teachers on Monday, April 28, with our SDD. Students will commence on Tuesday, April 29.
Soldiers Point will be hosting two programs from the beginning of Term 2, Life Education (Weeks 1 & 2) and gymnastics will be running throughout the term.
NAPLAN assessments will be held from May 13-15 (Week 3), too.
I thank the P&C and the parents of Soldiers Point Public School for their continued support and look forward to catching up with you on ANZAC Day, (Friday, April 25) when we have been invited to march with other community groups.
Moved: Simon Parson, Seconded: Kylie Screen.
Treasurer’s Report
No report provided.
Canteen Committee Report
The Canteen is going well the new Committee is very enthusiastic and supportive and I am looking forward to the year ahead working with everyone. We made an approximate profit of around $300 at the sausage sizzle at school when the Athletics carnival was cancelled on Friday 28th March. I would like to say a very big thankyou to all those who helped on the day. We are having a meal deal on the last Wednesday of term, the 9th April. It consists of a Hot Dog, a poppa or a bottle of water and a small easter egg. Traditionally this has netted us quite a good profit, I will make those figures available at the next meeting. The new menu is ready to go out to the school community, we have included a few new items that will GREEN up our menu even more, unfortunately we have had to include a few small price increases as well due to the rise in costs from our suppliers. This will be distributed to everybody first week back next term.
Moved: Trish Bray for Paula Browne. Seconded: Anna Webster.
Uniform Committee Report
Current Balance: $3766.95
Deposit today: $ 420.00
Payments due: $ Nil
Total: $4186.95
The Uniform Shop is still well stocked with most items. We are trying to keep our ordering to a minimum to ensure that we don’t have too much excess stock especially those higher priced items such as Bomber Jackets. We currently have some Winter items ordered which will be invoiced at the end of next month to the value of around $1600.00.
In Ruth McLeod’s absence, Tristen Cosgrove briefly updated us on the following:
· $20,000-30,000 Community Building Partnership Grant that he is applying for on behalf of SPPS P&C.
· The follow up with Members of Parliament requesting funding for our proposed 6 classrooms & a Library as fixed buildings.
· The BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy which was tabled at the last SIFC meeting – More feedback on this to be given at next P&C meeting.
Moved: Tristen Cosgrove, Seconded: Trish Bray.
Fundraising Committee Report:
While the Welcome BBQ has traditionally been an Event rather than a Fundraiser, we were pleased to report a Fundraising revenue of $172. 29 from this year’s event, after covering all of our costs. This was achieved by good sales on the night of 242 sausage sandwiches, all of our Vegetarian dinners, and a lot of canteen items. It was helped considerably by the fact that the Vegetarian dinners were covered in cost by the donated Woolworths Gift Card, $30 worth of free product that generated nearly $100 in profit. This avenue of approaching the Supermarkets for funds assistance for events/fundraisers has proven valuable.
Thanks also to Anna for approaching Butchers and achieving a great rate of $6.50/kg on the sausages. Wherever we can reduce our expenses, it is helping to increase our profitability, which makes the volunteer work a little more satisfying. We have such a big goal with funding for the Creative Play Spaces project, so every opportunity to raise some additional funds is welcomed.
In completing the 2014 Welcome BBQ, we have documented all procedures and details. We hope this will make things easier in future for those planning the event, and enable simple delegation of jobs to both returning volunteers and new recruits. This will be placed in a hard copy & soft copy Procedures & Events folder, stored with the P&C Secretary, available to anyone on request.
Moved: Trish Bray, Seconded: Belinda Lavers.
Publicity Officer’s Report:
An Information Sheet has been prepared, to detail the achievements and progress made to date, as a follow up from the last Information Sheet distributed. Currently being refined and open for comment/additions, hoping to distribute early next term.
All Newsletter inclusions to be emailed to Anna by the Thursday before Newsletter day.
Moved: Anna Webster, Seconded: Trish Bray.
General Business
Athletics Carnival rescheduled to 6th May. Canteen Committee to discuss potential of canteen items/bbq being available on that day.
Effectiveness of Info Sheet & Creative PlaySpaces maps/plans on display at Welcome BBQ discussed. Reported that many people came to the board to view the maps/plans, along with the Fundraising Tea Towels on display. Moved to continue to display the Creative PlaySpaces maps/plans wherever possible & to remind the school community at each Fundraiser of the goal we are working towards. All agreed.
Next upcoming Fundraiser was discussed. School Disco – Traditionally held in June. Date has been set as Fri June 13, 2014 for this year’s event. The 2013 Disco was also held on a Fri night, and attracted a good turnout. Tristen Cosgrove will contact DJ Tim Halls, and will request Corrie Howes to advise P&C Federation for Insurance. Trish Bray will speak with Soldiers Point Bowling Club to secure venue & discuss potential raffle. Simon Parson to advise Teachers of the proposed date, and invite them to attend if they desire. General conscensus is to aim to keep all expenses to a minimum, in effort to raise a good amount of Fundraising dollars from this event, for Creative PlaySpaces. . Anna, Trish and Anna-Maria will convene a team of volunteers, to meet separately to finalise details. Reporting back at the May P&C Meeting.
Twilight Market, further planning to happen. Anna Webster & Trish Bray to arrange a date to meet to further brainstorm.
New Canteen Menu – will be distributed to all School Community early next term. Belinda Lavers to email a soft copy to Trish Bray for upload to P&C website this week.
Uniform discussed – some stock items, particularly the black clothing items, not moving very well. Discussion about potentially looking into other options. Uniform Committee to discuss, gather info on options available, and discuss any potential changes at next P&C meeting. Idea of school backpack being available was also discussed, not as a prescriptive, but as an option for those who find purchase of this item problematic elsewhere.
Meeting closed 8.46pm.
Next meeting – 13th May 2014 – School Administration Block