P&C

P&C President’s 2019 Annual Report
2019 has been a very busy year at Fort Street in terms of school improvements thanks to the determination of the new Principal, Juliette McMurray, the activities of the SRC who collected information about student priorities and the staff who also gave their input. The P&C was presented with the results of all this information so that we could choose which projects to fund or assist in funding.

We started this year with an abundance of funds that had been accruing for some time due to the fabulous fundraising conducted in previous years, including Fort Fest, the Uniform Shop and other events and parent contributions along the way. In addition to the new projects such as the Futsal Court, various school improvement projects such as the Library renovation had been earmarked for some time as possible projects where the P&C could assist the school in their funding. Juliette was determined that these projects would occur and that parents who were assisting in fundraising would see their children benefit from their hard work. In August we handed the school a cheque for $162000 which funded the new Futsal Court among other smaller projects. One of the important reasons to be a financial member of the P&C as well as attend the general meetings is so that important decisions such as where this money goes are made by a good representation of the parents of the school.

For me personally this has also been a very busy year with one child starting high school, one child starting at a new school and my Fort Street child completing her final year here.  I have really appreciated the support and efforts of the P&C Executive, Dime Spasovski, Michael Easton, Kadir Sidambaram and especially our Secretary Ethel Talty who has definitely been the hardest working member of the team this year! As we come to the point of establishing a new P&C Executive I would like to acknowledge the parents who are leaving this year but who have been stalwart meeting attenders, organisers of events and undertaken various roles in the P&C. They are Dime Spasovski, Kadir Sidambaram  and Jenny Curtis. They take with them a wealth of experience and will I’m sure be missed.

On a positive note, over my 6 years at Fort Street, I have noticed that there has been increasing participation of parents in the P&C and other school activities. When I became President 2 years ago, there was still a reluctance of parents to take on a role on the executive or a sub-committee. I think that new parents who have joined the school have been turning this around and the feeling now seems to be one where people are bringing a lot of ideas, talents and energy and so I am very confident that the P&C and the school will go from strength to strength. This P&C is excellent at raising funds, a large part due to the the Uniform Shop which continues to be an excellent source of funds that we can then provide to the school. Gladys Ko manages the shop and has a wealth of knowledge and experience that is essential to the smooth running of the uniform shop. This is open every Wednesday as well as Orientation Day and there are a number of parent volunteers who have assisted Gladys throughout the year. Thank you to all who have done so and especially to Gladys for her hard work during the year. Many thanks also to Tracy Chen for so ably supporting Gladys as the Uniform Shop Coordinator and to Sally McCausland for managing the Second hand uniform stall which also turns out a tidy profit which ultimately is provided to the school.

Thanks also to Robyn Elmslie for organising the Entertainment Book which has been another great fundraising source, to Ethel and Bhavani for reinvigorating the P&C dinner for Senior Drama Night and to all the other parents who have volunteered their time and expertise throughout the year.

This year we have continued to focus on increasing our reach to parents and  encouraging involvement of parents in a range of different ways as well as increasing links between the school and the parent community. The focus items which occur before the meeting have primarily been from staff to inform parents about the different faculties and their activities, the school welfare and counselling program, and understanding how to interact with the school according to the issues at hand.

Ethel and I have been administrators of a Facebook page for the P&C which I am sure can be used a lot more in coming years and Ethel has continued to write a monthly P&C newsletter which is distributed to all members and provides information about the activities of the P&C and links to documents, surveys and other information relevant to schools as they come to our attention.

Just finally, I will be forever envious of the amazing high school experience that my daughter Niamh has had at Fort Street, and especially how she has always been valued and appreciated for who and how she is and been given every opportunity to grow and develop into a fantastic young adult. I hope you all and your children have as positive and potentially transformative an experience here as did I and my child. Thank you to the staff, students and parents for building such a great school community.
Amanda Elliott, P&C President