From the School Board

You may occasionally hear about the School Board, but not really know much about what it is or what it does. I’m hoping we can change that over the coming months with a few more news items letting you know what we have been up to, and what we are thinking about for the future. Also we are hoping for more interaction and involvement with the school community.

The Board currently consists of 8 parent representatives, 4 teacher representatives, the Principal, and members of the SRC. We also have some vacancies for invited members or extra parent representatives. The Board meets twice in each term and in between Board meetings six different Committees meet to discuss and oversee different aspects of the School and raise initiatives for the Board to consider.

At our last meeting in May we approved the Annual School Improvement Plan and had a close look at the final version of the Strategic Plan for the next 4 years. Following discussion at the Policy, Performance, and Governance Committee we reviewed the measures that will track teaching and learning, attendance, engagement, and wellbeing against the objectives of the Strategic Plan. Approaches for better Board communication and engagement with our school community were discussed and will be taken up by the Wellbeing and Engagement Committee.

Mr Perera, the Treasurer, and Chair of the Finance committee presented the Budget for this year, and whilst it’s always tight, we are in reasonable shape and are holding aside money in the hope of progressing some significant renovations to the canteen.

In the last newsletter Ms Hazeldine wrote about Reconciliation week. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Committee has been working on a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) for the School and with COVID restrictions continuing to ease look out for a workshop soon to help generate ideas and get that rolling. And a special welcome to Emily who has joined this committee to help present a student perspective.

It was great to have Joshielle and Liam from the SRC attend our last board meeting and last week I had the pleasure of coming along to an SRC meeting. The board is very keen to directly hear student voice and see student initiatives move from ideas to implementation with our support. We would like to encourage members of the SRC or any student who has an interest to come along to a Committee meeting and learn, participate, and report back. Apart from the committees mentioned above there is also an International Education committee and a Building and Master Plan committee. Of course parents are also most welcome to come along to committees, without any obligation to become a regular member of the committee or the Board. Meeting dates are available on the School website.

All the best for the last couple of weeks of term, stay safe and healthy and have a great mid-year break.

Peter Anderson, School Board Chair