2022 P&C Presidents Annual Report

2022 is my seventh year as a parent with a child at Fort St – and for me the highlight of 2022 has been the gradual return of normality to our school community. I am sure I am not the only person who has a new-found appreciation for all the everyday happenings and aspects of pre-covid life.  I found deserted schoolyards one of the most upsetting sights of the lockdowns, and had tears in my eyes when I could at last stand in the back lane and watch my son head off to school, on his bike, in uniform.

The collective feeling of relief and appreciation was expressed recently by the huge and enthusiastic turnout for our Fort Fair in September. For many parents, siblings and relatives it was their first major school event and even, their first chance to explore the school.  The vibe that afternoon and evening was matched only by the beautiful weather.

Fort Fair was also a chance for our community to build networks and flex its volunteer muscle. Not to mention raising over $14,000 for the school. Elizabeth Kenyon and Helen de Wolfe pulled together a fantastic team to put on the event, and my hope is that everyone who enjoyed the experience of contributing to the success of Fort Fair will be looking forward to the next opportunity to get involved.

I am also aware that there are very strong networks being cultivated in the earlier years – Yrs 7 & 8 in particular, with social events being so popular they have outgrown the traditional venues such as the Petersham Bowlo and have been drawn back to the space offered by the School Hall etc.

This augurs very well for the development of the P&C into the future, and I urge parents who have enjoyed this part of school life to consider further engagement with the P&C as a way to enhance their experience at the school. Ms McMurray and her team are a real pleasure to work with, and it is really fascinating and rewarding to see how the school works and to do your bit to assist – before your children fly off to university or whatever they will be doing for the rest of their lives!

I will be stepping down at the end of next year, so if someone is considering taking this role on it would be good to start discussing it now. My focus this year has been on trying to consolidate operations and improve our processes. Hopefully my successor will be placed to look forward to new ideas and projects.

At this point, I acknowledge our incredible P&C Secretary Peter Bestel who works so hard to make sure that notices go out, everything is done when it should be, and generally maintains order. Peter is due to step down at this meeting and we urgently need someone to step up and fill this position.

Our finances remain strong, and over this period we donated $61,086 to the school including:

$2370 – speech day prizes

$3,459 xylophone for IMP

$3000 for team sports shirts

$13,290 Airpurifiers and filters

$36,652 allocated for outdoor gym

Further donations have been made to support SRC events and school events such as the Yr 12 farewell.

I’d like thank our Treasurer Hung Ngo, as well as our bookkeeper Donna Cormford, and auditor Sara Wickert.

Particular thanks is owed to Elizabeth Kenyon for her enormous contributions over this year, not only as the fundraising co-ordinator, but across all P&C activities.

The School has been busy with a number of major construction projects which have been funded by other sources, and of course there have been the interruptions arising from Covid. Many Fort Fair attendees were able to take a school tour are see for themselves the many improvements that Ms McMurray has been overseeing.

It is a repeating theme of my discussions with Ms McMurray and other school staff that we actively solicit requests for funding. We collect money for the purpose of spending it, and it is my belief that the parents who are donating and helping to raise funds should see the benefit of their work.

We have been pleased to see Ms McMurray take advantage of the lockdowns to push forward a number of major projects such the new lecture space, sandstone terracing and covered outdoor learning area. The P&C has contributed to these improvements through:

·         Purchasing materials for the new school kitchen garden, again funded by a $6000 grant from the Inner West Council secured for the P&C by Elizabeth Kenyon

·         Providing funding for the installation of an outdoor gym, supported by funding from a raffle organised by the P&C

·         Securing a grant, again thanks to Elizabeth, of $23,500 for the renovation of the Library Foyer.

Special thanks to Tracey Chen for running the WeChat channel for Mandarin-speakers, and to Kirrily Druery for her work on the P&C Facebook pages and facilitating WhatsApp chat groups. For the last few years, Kirrily and Tracey have been working hard to facilitate and improve communications between the School, parents and the P&C.

Kalanie Prabhakar from the Student Representative Council attended every P&C meeting this year and did a fantastic job connecting the P&C and the SRC, keeping us updated about their activities and helping us to provide support. Kalanie having been elected President of the SRC, we now welcome the new representatives Claire Bentley & Dante Diaz. The P&C worked closely with the SRC to present Fort Fair, and we look forward to developing that constructive relationship in 2023.

This year we have successfully implemented a program of presentations from Fort St staff, each of 45 minutes or so, preceding our regular general meetings. Each presentation explains a subject area or other area of school activity, and these have proved very popular with P&C members. We will be looking at including slides and recordings of all presentations on the P&C page on the school website  I would like to thank the following staff members for participating:

·         Ali Razzaghi – Head of Maths

·         Ed McMahon – Head of English

·         Brian Webb – Head of Science

·         Tali Ezekiel – Sport at the Fort

·         Katie Mann – Student, Student Support Office, Managing Stress and Anxiety

·         Paul Pagani – Teaching and Learning Program – Memory and Recall

I would like to thank our Uniform Shop manager Gladys Ko for yet another year of exemplary service. I’d also like to thank the outgoing co-ordinator Suzanne Trimmer, and the new co-ordinator Caroline Aow. The current campaign of the school in enforcing the uniform policy means that the operation of the uniform shop is likely to be a focus for us in the coming months – in particular developing a pricing policy, and reviewing our stock.

The Second Hand Uniform Shop goes from strength to strength, and raised $3280 over the last year. – I have witnessed the frenzy of the $5 sales personally. I’d like to acknowledge the work Sally McCausland has done over the last few years in establishing this as a feature of the Fort St and P&C communities. Sally started this as boxes of clothes she collected and stored personally, and sold on a ramshackle collection of racks, milk crates and ironing boards. Now it is well established in the new Uniform store, and run by the SRC, who have been using the proceeds to assist with events such as formals. It also helps to ensure that good quality clothing does not end up as waste, and is much valued by parents as a way to purchase school uniform items at a low cost. Sally has stepped down this year, and I welcome Emma Pearce, who is doing a great job as the new co-ordinator.

The P&C’s IMP subcommittee, who held their AGM last night, has completed another year of supporting Matt Manchester and his team . The Fort St IMP or instrumental music program, is the largest co-curricular program in the school,  with over 300  students. It is essential to what makes Fort Street a special place, and its camps and concerts are much enjoyed by students and parents. I would like to offer a special thank you to Tania Koit, Adam Murphy and the rest of the team.

At this point I would like to take a moment to note the tragic passing of stonemason Alastair Bidmead in a workplace accident at the school in August. School staff handled this horrific incident magnificently, and we have been advised that a tree will be planted at the school in Alastair’s memory.

I would like to highlight some goals and areas I believe could be the focus of P&C funds, energy and resources in 2022:

·         Enhancing and developing all aspects of sport, including equipment, communication, coaching and other services, with a focus in increasing participation in both formal sport and carnivals, as well as lunch and recess, especially in younger years,

·         Developing a Uniform Pricing policy, and other process around the provision of uniforms to Fort St students

·         Working on our administrative processes, in particular finances, to ensure that we set up systems for the P&C that will work smoothly into the future. This includes the setting up of payment systems for school events, and reporting processes utilising our Xero subscription.

Finally, as we do every year, I would like to thank Principal Juliette McMurray, Deputy Principals Rebecca Cameron, Joel Morrison and Carolyn Mattock, Fort St Office staff, and the rest of the team for their fabulous work. I suppose in some ways we have become used to it over the last few years – but we never take it for granted!

Michael Easton

P&C President