Yarralumla Primary School - Parents and Citizens Association

General Meeting - Minutes Date: 18 May 2011 Location: Yarralumla Primary School Library Meeting open: 6.10 pm Meeting closed: 9.05 pm Attendees: Melissa Coggan (President) Dominique Lowe (Vice President) Sue Nott (Principal) Bernadette Mihaljevic (Secretary) Tom Hayes (Treasurer) Suzie Kendon Alex Fahey David Lowe Dominique Lowe Naomi Hehir Gudrun Northrup Samantha Birch

Alison Lockwood Collette Mann Libby Anderson Nathan James Betty Domazet Tarrin Barry Alix Snow Renee Shuttleworth Daniel Senti Rebecca Sostarko

RECORD OF MINUTES 1. APOLOGIES Lisa Ramshaw – family commitment. Susan Pratt 2. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING Motion: Minutes of the special meeting to accept audited accounts convened 30 March 2011 be accepted. Moved by: Alex Fahey Seconded by: Tarrin Barry Passed Motion: Minutes of the general meeting convened 30 March 2011 be accepted. Moved by: Samantha Birch Seconded by: Alex Fahey Passed

3. ACTIONS ARISING FROM PREVIOUS MINUTES ‐ 30 March 2011

Actions Outcome and Report

1 Sue Nott to follow up on having school magnets. Brand of ACT Government magnets can be purchased at a rate of $100 for 600, which includes the art work. Suggest we have a gold coin donation and then have flags for the school, which Sue will investigate .

2 Playground sub-committee to progress the purchase and installation of new playground equipment.

Completed.

3 Libby Anderson, Melissa Coggan and a member of the Italian teaching roster to meet with Italian Embassy staff to establish the goals, scope and partnership elements prior to drafting the grant application.

Completed. The meeting was productive and discussed a number of issues including bringing people to Australia to see the situation and then work out what should be purchased for the school’s bilingual program. It was noted that there was no time limit on when the grant had to be spent. It was suggested that it may be useful to start out by initiating pen friends etc. and then develop it further. It was important to the grant application that the partner get something from it too, and the Embassy noted that they considered the bilingual program to be successful and wished to be able identify Yarralumla as a pilot school in their discussions with other schools about introducing an Italian Bilingual program. It was also important that this be clearly understood to be a bilingual program, rather than a LOTE program, in terms of language acquisition. It was noted that the grant gets updated annually. Adriana (from the Embassy) will put together a paragraph for inclusion in our grant application.

4 Tom Hayes to arrange meeting at Commonwealth Bank to finalise bank mandate for 2011 committee.

Completed.

5 Nathan James to find out what arrangements had been made for accommodating the interns that are coming in April.

The Castle/Anderson family has agreed to accommodate one intern. The Senti family has also offered to accommodate an intern, as has another family. The Sentis will organize this. The first intern has been here for about 2 weeks.

6 A meeting will be convened between Betty, Melissa, the preschool teacher and Sue to work out what resources are available for the preschool from the school proper.

Completed.

7 Meeting between Betty Domazet and relevant members of the executive to determine the best method for administering the preschool, whether by sub-committee or other structure.

Completed.

8 Tarrin Barry to seek a list of needs from the LSU teachers for presentation at the next meeting.

Completed, with Sue. Will be discussed later.

9 Alex Fahey to establish a subscription list on the website.

Completed. Noted that a new domain name had been established at www.yppc.org.au.

10 Melissa Coggan to ask the school to urgently address the deficiency of Italian language readers in consultation with the Italian teachers.

Completed. Sue has arranged for the expenditure of $1,100 on books. Sue noted that it was hard to track down appropriate books, but that there are ways to get around that.

11 Nathan regarding school weapons policy Completed. Nathan had a discussion with the National Safe Schools person for ACT. There isn’t a formal weapons policy that the Department of Education and Training look after. However, they are aware of the issue and may develop something in the future. They noted that the ACT P&C Council should be aware of this because they have a representative on the safe schools committee. At the moment, the policy only covers lock down procedures

12 Libby and Melissa to purchase books from Italy. Contact has gone to bookshop in Rome suggested by Libby and purchased $2,500 worth of books. Alex’s relative able to transport back to Australia on the cheap. We have exhausted the age range of books in that shop. If anyone is going to Italy, then we may be able to get them to buy books and bring them back in their luggage. School purchase is readers, the problem is that they are approximately $20 per book, which is a big investment if they get lost. Difficult cataloguing issue for these books in library. Will be made available as soon as they can get them catalogued (50 hrs of

work). May need assistance from Italian parents to catalogue books.

4. CORRESPONDENCE Melissa Coggan noted that a cheque for the garden grant in the amount of $25,000 + GST had been received. It was unclear how the GST would be managed. Action: Melissa to work with Tom to work out how to manage the GST component of the grant. 5. REPORTS 5.1 President Report The President tabled the report that has been available on the website (Annex 1). Melissa added to her report by giving special thanks to Collette Harkin, Beth Allen and the dads who helped on the Mother’s Day stall noting that the attention to detail was great. She also thanked the Garden Sub-committee for all the work that had been done in the garden since the last meeting, and Boz Sostarko for his help in the garden. Motion: That the President’s report be accepted. Moved by: Colette Harkin Seconded by: Samantha Birch Passed. 5.2 Treasurer Report Tom Hayes noted the following in presenting his report:

$5,000 is in the operating account, over $6,000 in raffle account, over $9,300 in Library Fund and $40,000 in a term deposit account, giving a total of approximately $71,000 in cash assets.

Creditors total around $2,300.

Deferred income on grant for garden $12,000.

Reimbursement for school outstanding of approximately $16,000 for purchases in 2010. (In responding to Tom’s comment about this Sue Nott mentioned that they had received the invoice from Intact. However, Intact will only support PCs they provided for three years, after three years the computers are supposed to be replaced. Under the whole of department contract, the school is not allowed to have computers on the network that are more than three years old, and the school are not allowed to keep old computers.)

Last year when funds were allocated it was decided to maintain a $20,000 cash float. He noted that this level of funds seemed appropriate to make sure that there was sufficient money to cover the regular expenses of the P&C eg. insurances etc.

Significant amount of assets in uniform shop, and have been trying to return some to reduce stock levels. When stock runs down, then we need to purchase but that probably won’t be until towards the end of the year.

Tom highlighted the issue of the library fund, in particular that the P&C had discussed at a number of previous meetings the insufficiency of resources within the school, in particular to support the Italian program. The meeting agreed that we should utilize the funds available in the Library fund for Library resources, whether it be for the purchase of books or other resources.

In summary, there is $71,000 at bank, creditors are $2,300 and $2,700 is committed for electrician who hooked up the electricity to the garden shed. Of the $12,000 garden grant $6,5000 now spent. The total amount uncommitted sits at approximately $62,000, but you needed to subtract $3,000 for books and $5,000 for playground equipment approved for purchase last year, $9,000 that is the Library Fund and $20,000 for the float. That left around $30,000 unallocated.

Motion: That the Treasurer’s report be accepted. Moved by: Rebecca Sostarko Seconded by: Libby Anderson Passed. 5.3 Principal Report The written report that was available on the website prior to the meeting (Annex 2) was tabled. In response to a question from the meeting, Sue also mentioned that staff have completed feedback on the draft bilingual plan, which will be sent to parents and students prior to presentation to the Board. A note will be in the newsletter about the plan this week, but she was happy to send it to anyone not a parent on the board. Motion: That the principal’s report be accepted. Moved by: Tarrin Barry Seconded by: Suzie Kendon Passed.

5.4 School Board Report Melissa Coggan congratulated David on being elected the Chairperson of the School Board, and Lisa Ramshaw as Deputy. David Lowe tabled the report that had been available on the website (Annex 3). He also mentioned:

The Board intends to meet a lot more often in 2011, with another 10 meetings (approx. monthly) scheduled before next handover. The schedule reflects that the Board has a lot of functions to fulfill under the Education Act and needs to meet regularly to satisfy those responsibilities eg. monitoring performance, developing curriculum, strategic direction etc (a full list of their tasks was in the school newsletter). A key priority is to get policies in place that will provide more guidance to the school.

The Board has established two sub-committees. The first, chaired by David Pembroke, is to look at the Montessori program, in particular how the program has been and can be better amalgamated with the primary school, noting that there are still some outstanding implementation issues including in relation to staffing. The second is for the Italian Bilingual program, which will be

chaired by Lisa Ramshaw. The process for progressing the work of the sub-committee will draw upon the work done by Sue Nott and others last year eg. meetings with parents. The Board considers this a starting point for further developing the Italian bilingual program rather than “reinventing the wheel”. Parents have already given input, and the Board wants to utilise that. The Board wants to set up a framework for the bilingual program including looking at policies in relation to the proportion of the curriculum that should be taught in Italian (eg. should it be 50%), staffing (eg. should teachers be native speakers) and looking at options if there are reduced staff numbers (eg. how should the school backfill our Italian teachers).

At next Board meeting they hope to have more fulsome discussion around the bilingual program, work out some Terms of Reference for the sub-committee for the year, and devise ways to ensure that more parents and staff are involved in this work.

Draft plan for the school comes out of work from last year, but also the generic 3 year plans. Staff and board will look at priorities.

Motion: That the School Board Chairman’s report be accepted. Moved by: Alex Fahey Seconded by: Suzie Kendon Passed. 6 SUB‐COMMITTE REPORTS 6.1 Canteen update Melissa Coggan tabled the report that had been available on the website (Annex 4). She also mentioned:

The financial summary is on website. One of the objectives was to get the canteen to break even. Last term, the canteen made a profit of $400. There had been more support for the canteen than last year, which is great.

Other than special orders (for the end of term lunches etc) the canteen only provides snacks, not lunch. It was important for parents to understand that the canteen cannot guarantee the more substantial menu item for all children and parents should ensure that an appropriate lunch was packed for their child every day. The essential message was that the canteen only supplements the lunch brought from home.

The canteen is running a special lunch day on Festa Della Republica – 2 June. Francesca is sending a note home this week. There will be a few different options (pasta and pizza), for $5, with gelato as dessert. There will also be a special lunch day on last day of Term 2.

6.2 Kitchen Garden update Sam Birch tabled the written report that was available prior to the meeting on the website (Annex 5). She also mentioned:

Achieved loads since the last meeting. Thanks to Melissa Coggan, Beth Allen and Alison Lockwood for all their hard work.

Didn’t get the shade structure for the LSU constructed. However, it was felt that this probably was not a garden committee responsibility in any case. Given that the school is required to satisfy the sun smart provisions, it is probably a school or capital works project. It was stressed that although trees that were planted are mature, there is a need to put some kind of shade structure in place for the LSU.

There was no stall last Friday as there were only eggs for sale. Sam asked for advice about what to do with the eggs and it was agreed that they should be put into the canteen.

6.3 Playground equipment update Bernadette Mihaljevic advised the following:

We sought quotes from all the companies that had initially submitted plans. Our request was couched in terms of the type of equipment we were after as well as the space constraints that we were facing.

Quotes were received from five companies, with varying designs.

We undertook an assessment of the submissions, looking at both cost and design (the cost comparison was provided to the meeting). We decided that Imagination Play was the best quote, primarily because of the significant cost advantage (even though the quote did not include topping up the soft fall), but also because their design did not require an extension to the existing play area and this would prevent any issues about encroaching the boundary and also minimise any costs associated with constructing a shade structure over the play area in the future.

Imagination Play, the company selected to provide the equipment require a 50% deposit to progress the order, otherwise a 6% surcharge applies.

We were given $10,000 under the Health Promotions Grants Program. However, having looked more closely at the grant deed, it was discovered that we also get an additional $1,000 for GST, so actually we have $11,000. The Imagination Play quote is for just under $8,000 (inclusive of GST). A number of local companies were phoned to get prices for topping up the soft fall and it ranged from $1,600 to $2500 (GST included), depending on the quality of the soft fall purchased. At this stage it looks like the total cost of the project will not exceed $10,500. This means that we may be returning a small amount of the grant money and probably will also not require the $5,000 committed for this project.

There was a lot of discussion around the decision of the sub-committee in particular about whether there would be sufficient fall zones for the equipment being supplied, and also around the issue of the ACT minimum standards versus the Australian standards for the installation of playground equipment. Motion: That the Playground Equipment Sub-committee proceed with the purchase of the equipment. Moved by: Libby Anderson Seconded by: Alex Fahey Passed.

Action: Bernadette Mihaljevic to follow up with Imagination Play to ensure that their design satisfies Australian standards and also with the ACT Government about the ACT minimum standards. 6.4 Fundraising update Suzie Kendon presented a report covering:

Proposed fundraisers for the year include: (1) a Fathers Day breakfast in September – children pay $2 and dads free; (2) the fete to be held in early September; (3) a children’s disco in October with a Halloween theme; (4) the big raffle to be drawn in November (noting that there should be some kind of function for the draw); and (5) an end of year sausage sizzle in December.

The major fundraiser is the fete. Initially looked to conduct it in conjunction with the Montessori Pre-school Spring Fair which is to be held on 15th October. However, the Montessori parents felt that their fair is low-key, more like a fun afternoon for the kids with their families than a fete, and didn’t feel it appropriate to tie it into the school fete.

In order to get the fete organization geared up, they are going to ask people to nominate for people to fill support positions. A note will be placed in the newsletter seeking volunteers.

It was suggested that perhaps each class could run a stall. However, the meeting noted that while the Year 6 kids could run a stall with parent supervision, the others were probably to young to be able to do that. As an alternative it was suggested that the teachers could assist each class to come up with an idea for a stall and then send a note home asking for parents to volunteer for that class’s stall.

They are planning to set up regular fete meetings so that the organization would build momentum.

There was some discussion around the date of the fete, in particular that 3 September may be too early as it was still often cold at that time. There was also a suggestion that the fete be held on a Sunday so that there was less of a problem with sports for kids. Action : Suzie Kendon to set up formal fete committee, ask teachers to assist classes to develop ideas for stalls, reconsider the date for the fete and advertise fete meetings more broadly. 6.5 Preschool Sub-committee update Betty Domazet tabled the report that was available on the website (Annex 6). She also mentioned:

2 weeks ago a meeting between the pre-school teacher, Sue Nott, Melissa Coggan and herself. At that meeting it was resolved that:

o voluntary contributions from preschool parents would be earmarked for the preschool. So far there has been a low response to the request for voluntary contributions, but another letter will go out this week.

o There was Government funding for cleaning, maintenance and stationary common with primary school.

o Donations by parents can specify what money will be given for, so long as reasonable.

The preschool sub-committee sought confirmation from the meeting that funds raised by the preschool parents could be earmarked for the preschool, and this was agreed to.

There was a need to ensure the preschool would be covered by the P&C insurance, in particular for their intended fundraiser of a Bunning sausage sizzle (for which they had to provide their own public liability insurance). Tom advised that the insurances expire on 3 July and they were due to be renewed in the next couple of weeks. He should be able to provide a copy of the insurance policy in early June.

The preschool was going to institute a newsletter specifically for the preschool parents. Betty noted that there were a few loose ends to tie up prior to the Preschool Association being finally closed down including vesting the property of the Association to the Primary School P&C, obtaining approval for the teachers to have access to a petty cash float for minor expenses, establishing a signing authority for her to initiate cheques for the preschool. After some discussion around this the following motions were forwarded for the meetings consideration: Motion: That the Yarralumla Primary School P&C (P&C) acknowledges that the Yarralumla Preschool Parents Association (PPA), upon winding up, shall vest its residual assets in the P&C. In that respect, the P&C certifies its acceptance of those assets, including all the items in the inventory of physical assets provided by the PPA, which shall become the property of the P&C on 15 June (when the minutes of this meeting shall be passed by a general meeting of the P&C). We further acknowledge that an amount of $330 in the bank account and $583 in cash will be accepted by the P&C. Moved by: Betty Domazet Seconded by: David Lowe Passed. Motion: That a petty cash amount of $200 be maintained by the preschool teachers for minor expenses and that the preschool sub-committee be authorized to commit up to $500 for purchases for the preschool from the preschool bank account. Moved by: Betty Domazet Seconded by: Collette Harkin Passed. Betty self-nominated to a position on the Executive Committee so that she could be authorized to sign cheques for the preschool. Collette Harkin seconded Betty’s nomination and she was elected unopposed. Actions: Tom Hayes and Betty Domazet to establish signing authority for the P&C bank account. Sue Nott to clarify the procedure for spending the voluntary contributions earmarked for the preschool with the preschool teachers. 7 GENERAL BUSINESS 7.1 School Priority Areas for Assistance

LSU The Junior LSU had prepared a list of priorities totaling $950, which is shown at Annex 7. The Senior LSU was seeking support for 2 x Neo 2 computers with Cowriter Software, totaling $874. It was noted that the P&C had provided funding for 2 of these computers last year and the extra two now being sought would enable the computers to be used as a mobile lab between both the SLSU and JLSU. School Computers Sue Nott provided a written report and “wish list” from the school totaling approximately $16,000 (Annex 8). She stated that the first priority was to replace the data projectors, noting that the school would pay for 5 and they hoped the P&C could pay for 4. The second priority was for 10 netbooks (in addition to the two the P&C had already committed to provide for the library) which would enable to be used in the classroom. The third priority was for 110 readers for K-4 English classes. In discussing the list put forward by the school the following was noted:

While recognizing the importance of increasing the numbers and replacing English readers, it was important to ensure that there were a sufficient number of Italian readers too.

The general opinion was that the display cabinet for Italian items was of a low priority for P&C expenditure. Given that the display cabinet with the sporting trophies was significantly out of date, it was suggested that perhaps it could be used for the Italian items.

In answering questions about the data projectors, Sue noted that the newest ones were around 3-4 years old and then others were up to 7 years old.

It was questioned whether the netbooks be purchased out of the Library Fund, given that readers can be used this way. Prior to making a decision about this, it was necessary to check the tax guidelines about the use of Library Funds.

It was also questioned whether there was a need to replace the data projector in the hall. In answering this question, Sue noted that she had received advice that the issue was not about the projector, rather it was the blinds in the hall. It had been recommended that the windows (in particular those closest to the stage) should be covered by some kind of block out blind/curtain.

PA system in hall is being replaced. 7.2 Voluntary Contributions Sue Nott noted that the record for voluntary contributions to the school was poor. She was seeking the advice of the meeting, as the parent representative body, about whether she should target the contributions to a particular area or resource with a view to encouraging higher levels of voluntary contributions. What she had in mind was to use the funds raised via the voluntary contributions towards the cost of employing an Italian language support person (like Anna Maria). The meeting agreed that this was appropriate.

Action: Sue to let parents know what the voluntary contributions will be used for when the notices about them go out to parents this term. 7.3 2011 Plans and budget Priorities for 2011 Following on from the meeting in March, the following priorities for P&C expenditure were discussed: Curtains for the school hall. Daniel Senti had sought quotes for replacing the curtains in the school hall. The quote for curtains, including for the stage, was $8,800. The quote for blinds was $7,850. During the discussion about this item the consensus was that blinds should be ok for the hall and that to save costs it might be best to have a single black out blind for the windows closest to the stage.. It was questioned whether the school could meet half the cost, but Sue stated that she had already allocated a lot of her budget towards staffing and that her priority is IT (ie. the data projectors). LSU Air Conditioning Tarrin Barry had got quotes for louvre windows for the LSU classrooms. The cost is $1,095 per window plus GST. The total cost would be about $12,000 for all the windows. There was some discussion about the effectiveness of louvres in cooling the LSU classrooms given their expense. Tarrin noted that she had received advice that the cheaper tilting windows would not work as well at that height. Given that we could not know how effective the louvre windows would be, it was suggested that it would probably be better to install an air conditioning unit in each classroom because we could be sure they would cool the rooms and would probably be cheaper than the louvres. Preschool Preschool have a request for assistance with purchasing and installing an outdoor storage shed. There was no cost estimate available for this item. Budget Library Trust Fund

There is currently $9,375 in the Library Trust Fund, which is quarantined for library resources. Tom Hayes questioned the appropriateness of seeking donations for the Library Fund and then not spending the money, and asked what the resistance to spending this money was. It was agreed that this was not appropriate, but that it had taken time to set up the new library and Jane (the librarian) has only now had the time to start investigating the appropriate resources

for the library. It was also noted that the school’s library budget had now been used and the school would be seeking assistance from the Library Fund .

Jane had indicated that there were three groups of priorities, resources for the LSU, English resources and Italian resources. Someone suggested that a globe be purchased as there wasn’t one in the Library.

Again the question of whether netbooks could be purchased as a library resource was raised. Until information about the taxation requirements was obtained it was impossible to consider this as an option and was held over until the next meeting.

Motion: That the money in the Library Trust Fund be spent on resources for the library. Moved by: Tom Hayes Seconded by: Libby Anderson Passed. Motion: That a letter should be sent to parents asking them to make a donation to the library fund, and that this be encouraged by having an event of some kind at the school (eg. make a library donation day). Moved by: Libby Anderson Seconded by: Alex Fahey. Passed. After a discussion about the budget priorities for 2011 it was agreed that money would be allocated as follows:

LSU Air conditioning – up to $10,000

Junior and Senior LSU priorities – up to $1,500

Up to $500 for the repair of the curtains on the hall stage It was also agreed that money generated from our fundraising efforts this year would be directed to the purchase of English and Italian readers and data projectors for the classrooms (approximate cost $4,800), given that these have been identified by teachers as important resources required across all classes. Authorisation for incidental expenditure This item was held over to the next meeting. 8. OTHER BUSINESS Italian Readers Libby Anderson advised that she had arranged for the purchase of 330 Italian books, as per the allocation of funds in 2010. She had investigated the best way to get the delivered to the school. Her sources have identified a system whereby 15kgs of books can be delivered for 30 Euros, but the company wants to be paid bank to bank. However, Tom advised that the P&C did not have a facility

like that with the bank. Libby offered to pay for this herself and then get reimbursed afterward, which was agreed to by the meeting. Libby noted that while there was some money left over after this purchase, she had “cleaned out” the market for appropriate books. She suggested that we wait for more product to become available before making any further purchases, but sought agreement that the money be held aside for this purpose. Sue Nott suggested that it would be useful to have multiple copies of some titles. It was agreed that once the books arrived they would be reviewed to determine which books are appropriate for multiple copies. Motion: That the $3,000 allocated in 2010 for the purchase of Italian readers be quarantined for future use once more books became available. Moved by: Alex Fahey Seconded by: Tarrin Barry Netball Registration Bernadette Mihaljevic raised the question of paying for Jill’s registration as the manager for the Yarralumla PS netball teams, noting that Jill does this for our children on a volunteer basis and that the P&C had paid for her registration in the past. Motion: That the P&C pay for Jill’s registration. Moved by: Bernadette Mihaljevic Seconded by: David Lowe. 9. DATE OF NEXT MEETING 15th June at 6pm in the School Library. MEETING CLOSED - 8.55

Annex 1 President’s Report

President’s report Applied for a $5,000 MOOV grant – thanks to Dominique Lowe for her application

Signed Garden and Playground equipment grants from ACT Health

Met with Pre-school to discuss P&C amalgamation

Met with Garden team to discuss roles & responsibilities & budget for the garden

pecial lunch on Friday 15 April (term 1)

Mothers Day stall on 6 May

Annex 2 Principal’s Report

Yarralumla Primary P&C Report Term 1 2011

Learning and Teaching

An order for $1100 for Italian readers has just been placed. Thank you to Francesca Szeremet for finalising this order.

Term overviews were sent home in week 2 by email from class teachers. The whole school focus for our integrated unit

is Australian history using the new Australian Curriculum.

Teachers are planning the health curriculum units for the rest of the year based on using the kitchen garden as a resource.

New sports equipment has been purchased for student use during class and play time.

Student Environment

Implementing the Bullybuster program this term across the school K-6. In week 1 there was an outline of the program in

the newsletter. Each week as each topic is discussed in class an accompanying parent information article will be

published in the newsletter. A whole school audit of bullying will be conducted in classes and a process to report

bullying will be established.

The swimming, cross country and athletics carnivals have been completed with strong student, parent and staff

participation. The zone carnivals will soon be completed. Normally these are spread out over 3 terms but this year the

PSSA had a requirement that they be completed early in the year.

Week 1 Learning Journey was very successful with many parents and friends attending in classrooms from 2-3pm. Many

parents also took the opportunity to join us for our performing arts rotations.

Term 1 activities - The students participated in hockey clinics and also attended the ‘World of Maths’ workshop. Earlier

in the term our senior students attended the ‘Aussie Sports Leader’ day where they learned about leading games and

sports activities for younger children. Our junior students went to the recycling depot whilst our year 3/4 students

visited the ANU to learn more about renewable energy and the research that is being done in that area. Our 5/6 students

also coordinated the ‘Clean Up the School Day’ as our contribution to the Clean Up Australia Campaign. Lastly, the

Years 4/5/6 students attended the ANZAC Peace ceremony at Eddison Park where Sascha Skryabin did an outstanding

job of reading The Ode.

The SRC held a casual clothes day at the end of term that raised just under $200 for Make a wish Australia.

Leadership and Management

A meeting between the Pre-school teacher, assistant, parents, Pre-school Association, Office Manager and myself was

held in week 1 this term to finalise amalgamation issues and financial arrangements. The pre-school parents and school

P&C will meet to finalise arrangements.

Staff have completed feedback on the draft on the Italian Bilingual program plan. It will be sent to parents and student

and then be presented to the Board.

A meeting with Debbie Hicks (Montessori P&C President) was held in week 2 to discuss amalgamation issues.

Our morning announcements under the shade structure are given in Italian and reinforced in English. All teachers take

turns running the announcements.

Each fortnight during assembly an Italian teacher visits the pre-school to conduct Italian lessons.

Community Involvement

Our first Italian intern Guilia has arrived and is being hosted by Libby Anderson. We expect our next intern in late May.

Any parents interested in hosting either intern for a period of time should contact the school.

All teachers now send term overviews, class happenings and any other useful information directly to parents by email.

We also have a whole school parent email list we use to distribute the newsletter and any other whole school

information.

The P&C Mother’s Day stall was very popular with dad’s selling beautiful pansies.

Garden composting and chooks –children are encouraged to put any food scraps into a pink chook bin in their classroom

which is emptied each day. Daniel attended a staff meeting early this term to chat about creating Italian/ English labels

for plants in the garden.

Sue Nott (Principal)

Annex 3 School Board Report School Board Report

The School Board had its first meeting for 2011 on Tuesday 3 May including new members, Nick Kuhn, David Pembroke and Lisa Ramshaw, who join Sue Nott, Trish Foster, Matthew Smith (an independent appointee) and

myself. I was appointed as chair, with Lisa Ramshaw as Deputy Chair.

This year is sure to be a very active year for the Board. Reflecting all we need to do, we have agreed to meet a

further 10 times between now and the next handover in March next year.

The functions of school boards include to:

establish strategic direction and priorities

monitor and review school performance

develop and review curriculum

develop and review education, budget, asset management and risk management policies

develop relationships with the community

make recommendations to the Department, and

encourage parent participation.

It’s a big list of functions, which the Board will need to work hard to execute this year.

To assist its work, this week the Board established two sub-committees – for the bilingual and Montessori

programs – recognising the particular challenges and need for stakeholder involvement.

Lisa Ramshaw will chair the Italian bilingual program sub-committee. If you would like to be involved in developing policy around the bilingual program please contact her at lisaramshaw@yahoo.com.

David Pembroke will chair the Montessori program sub-committee, whose key role will be to give effect to the Department’s 2008 decision to bring the program under the auspices of the Primary School, and in particular to

clarify the staffing situation. David is part of a group of Montessori stakeholders who are already working towards

this goal.

David Lowe

Annex 4 Canteen Report Summary of Canteen financials for Term 1, 2011

Takings $2,280.70

Expenses $2,093.23

Salary $754.70

Net Profit $432.77

Annex 5 P&C Garden Sub-Committee Report The Garden Ctee has achieved the following since the last meeting;

Paving and clover seeded in LSU

Two advanced trees planted in LSU

One fence erected in LSU

Garden bed relocated from LSU

Bench removed from LSU

New beds made around fence line of LSU

Hedges planted in LSU

Small garden fixed up in LSU

Swale made and seeded with green manure crop on western fence.

Electricity connected to the shed and external power outlet installed

Path of destruction from the trench dug to the shed covered over with mulch. A great deal of thanks goes to the following people who took time out during the school holidays to WORK HARD at achieving the above they are; Boz Sostarko Beth Allan Alison Lockwood Andy Strohmeyer Melissa Coggan and family Yet again an enormous amount of money and time were saved by the lovely Boz Sostarko who kindly donated his bobcat services and time. He dug the holes for the trees, shifted clay and dug up the area for the paving. Boz’s services have saved us a lot of money and I feel the P&C (at a future date) should investigate a way of thanking Boz, Rebecca and family for their time, effort and money spent on fuel. A big thank you to the family’s who looked after the chooks over the school holidays; Alison Lockwood Madeline Denham Jo Wallace In the garden at present, Dan has reduced his hours to 6 a week, covering the garden club times and finishing projects. The Ctee are investigating a forward plan for the garden that will see us through the next grant. Teff is starting the signs, which will consist of a welcome arch over the gate and signage throughout the garden. The shed now has a fridge for the eggs and fresh produce, so the garden community no longer needs access to canteen. Shade cloth has not been constructed over the LSU, as there is some contention over whether this is a capital works project, P&C or Garden Ctee. This matter needs to be discussed at P&C/Board level, not at garden sub Ctee. See you in the garden Sam Birch

Annex 6 Preschool Sub-Committee Report Meeting held with Sue Nott, preschool teachers, Melissa Coggan, Naomi Hehir, John Darcy (representative from Preschool Society) – decided that preschool committee should have its own account for managing fundraising and resource spending within the preschool. As a requirement of P and C constitution , Betty Domazet will need to become a member of the Exec so that she can cosign cheques along with either Melissa or Tom Hayes. Preschool Parent Assocation will now have to be closed as an entity. Discussion regarding available resources for preschool :

a) Voluntary parental contributions go to the general school. They should be entered in a

separate ledger and “earmarked” for preschool use

b) Government funding for preschool

c) Fundraising by preschool parents which will now go into the new subcommittee account

d) P and C

Annex 7 Wishlist for the JLSU Resources, 2011

Kesco Educational 2009/10: Four Sided Multi Easel, page 25, $479.90

Kesco Educational 2009/10: Quad Sand & Water Table, page 135, $163.90

Kesco Educational 2009/10: Creative Play, Push Button Phone, Page 152, $29.30

Kesco Educational 2009/10: Creative Play, Cash Register and Accessories, Page 152, $34.90

Kesco Educational 2009/10: Clay Impression Rollers, set of 6, Page 75, $17.30

Kesco Educational 2009/10: Juggling Scarves, set of 12, page 119, $21.70

Kesco Educational 2009/10: Rhythm Ribbons, set of 12, page 119, $18.40

Kesco Educational 2009/10: page 37, Slick Stix, no pressure required, instant colour, $19.40

Funtastic Education Catalogue 2010: Bean Bags Ladybugs (6), page 473, $12.90 each (if not available, find something similar)

Funtastic Education Catalogue 2010: Musical Scarves and Activities CD, $24.90, page 134

Funtastic Education Catalogue 2010: Circle Time Activities CD, $24.90, page 137

Funtastic Education Catalogue 2010: Parachute Fun for Early Childhood CD, $24.90, page 137

Funtastic Education Catalogue 2010: Catch a Brain Wave Fitness Fun CD, $24.90, page 137

Funtastic Education Catalogue 2010: Belly Bells, $17.50 each, page 143

Funtastic Education Catalogue 2010: Triangle, $4.50, page 145

Funtastic Education Catalogue 2010: Vehicles Sound Puzzle (8 piece), page 459, $12.90

Funtastic Education Catalogue 2010: Glitter Bulk (I kg), page 56, $14.90. TOTAL: $950

Annex 8 2011 Staff spending wish list for the P&C A survey of staff was conducted last week of how teachers use ICT resources in the school.

Most staff use their interactive whiteboards with their class every day.

Apart from the 2 new whiteboard systems in Gambarri the data projectors in the remaining classrooms need replacing as the picture has faded a great deal.

The classroom student computers were used once or twice a week by some classes for research, literacy, maths etc. Teachers cited time with their class as a factor in using/ not using the computers. The number of working computers in the classroom (between 2 and 4) limited how they could be used with students.

The exception was the 2 LSU's and the year I/2 classes that use them more often.

The lab and library computers were booked and used regularly by classes when completing whole class activities such as creating presentations.

All staff were keen to use a class set of netbooks that could be borrowed from the library when needed. (comes with 3 yr warranty) - needs to be purchased from ACT Department of Education as it needs to be setup to work on the school wireless network.

Replace/ increase the English take home readers -Take home readers range in price from $4 (early

readers) to $10 (higher levels) each. $1,000 would enable us to buy approximately 110 additional readers at the higher levels. An additional $1,200 would enable us to buy approximately 250 readers in the range 1-20.

Additional take-home Italian readers for the whole school (currently there is a significant shortage of readers, particularly at the early stages, and they are sent home for a week whilst English readers can be changed daily)

A display case at the entrance of the school to contain items and memorabilia with an Italian flavour. Glass Display Cabinet MSC-242 3 glass shelves and 4 display levels. Al1 glass shelves are height adjustable and removable. Each shelf comes with 2 halogen lights, total 8 lights. Aluminium frame structure. Lockable glass swing doors. See through glass background: Outer Dimensions: 1000mm(L) X 500mm(D) X 2000mm(H) available in black or silver. Price: $720.00 + GST

Priorities for spending in no set order:

item amount Cost

Replace 9 data projectors – school will pay for 5

average cost $1,000- $1,500 $4,000-6,000 (for 4)

10 netbooks (P&C has committed to buying 2 for the library in 2010

average cost $800 $8,000

110 readers for K-4 English classes

$2,200

An allocation of funding for additional Italian readers'- the school has spent $1,000 on the first order of Italian readers which have arrived, but some of the titles are on back order. We hope to discover some suitable titles from these books and the books that Libby purchased that we can order more copies of. On average the books cost around $20 each and are very difficult to locate in Australia. The teachers are concerned about sending these books home as readers due to the cost and availability. We will discuss how we might manage this issue.

Display cabinet for Italian items $720

JLSU wishlist $950

SLSU $874

TOTAL Approx $16,000