Canterbury Public School
P&C Meeting
Wednesday 19 August 2015
Venue: Staff room
Present: Berlinda Cook (Principal), Sascha Jenkins, Tom Gordon, James Iliffe, Callantha Bingham and
Hugo Ceran-Jerusalemy (left after walking bus item), Kaye Warren, Steven Tuften (left 8.40),
Suzanne Trimmer, Mischa Vallis, Genevieve Ginty, Cate Lyons-Crew (arrived 8.20), Melissa Simcoe
(arrived late), Amanda Barker (minutes)
Meeting opened: 7:35 pm
Agenda
If you could do one thing for your school this year what would it be?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Welcome to new parents and citizens and apologies
Approval of minutes from previous meeting
Action items from previous meeting
Principal’s report
Focus topic
Sub-committees; questions arising from reports
Finance report
General Business
Agenda Item
1. Welcome to new
parents and citizens
and apologies
2. Approval of minutes
from previous meeting
Minutes
Jacquie Cheetham, Chris Trimmer, Dawn Tuften, Phillippa Talbot.
3. Action items from
previous meeting
5. Principal’s report:
nil
Moved by Kaye Warren, seconded by Suzanne Trimmer.
Thanks
Thank you to all the staff and families who supported students with the
Festival of Choral Music and Expanding Horizons Concert. Thanks also to
Marc West, Tom Gordon, Stage 3, Lisa Wright and Alenka Madzar for the
exceptional science week activities at school today.
OOSH tender update
Asset Management in the Department of Education and Communities
has advised it’s not possible to extend the current lease for three years.
The documentation to start process has been sent and we already have
parent and staff representatives for the panel that will work on the
tender.
Staffing
Sonya Nassif was successful in gaining the School Learning Support
Officer (SLSO).
Three different selection panels have now been entered into the system.
One is for the Special Education position (which will teach students with a
moderate intellectual disability (IO) and needs knowledge of autism,
behaviour and sport). The panel will be Bill McKinnon, Sadie Davies and
Kristy Do Canto. The second panel is for the 10th classroom teacher
position (will teach K-6 and needs strengths in ICT, communication and
engaging the community) and the panel will be Lisa Haller, Sascha Jenkins
and Sean Kelleher.
The third panel is for the English as an additional language or dialect
(EALD) position (will teach K-6 and needs ICT skills). Panel – Lisa Wright,
David Lewis and Bryony Herborn.
Music committee
The drive for new members resulted in 11 people signing up to join the
band next term. The aim is to get 20.
NAPLAN
Parents should receive the results today or tomorrow. At first glance the
school’s results indicate some strengths and gains but also some areas
for improvement. The school will do some analysis and give a
presentation at the first P&C meeting in term 4.
Quality Teaching Successful Students
CPS has received .11 of a position funding, which equates to a position
for half a day per week to support mentoring, coaching and feedback to
staff. The funding is for exclusively face-to-face teaching. This funding will
increase next year, hopefully to another full position, and is based on the
number of Assistant Principals at the school.
Personal development plans for all staff
There is a new process, and all plans will follow the same format. It’s
acknowledged that feedback has the capacity to enhance the quality of
the work we do. There’s to be a minimum of 2 observations of practice
each year. Rod Leonarder will visit next week to observe Berlinda’s lesson
at the walkthroughs. Lisa Haller observed K-2 as part of the team’s
enquiry into how the micro reading skills of reading recovery are used in
classroom reading lessons.
Professional learning
Berlinda distributed a paper from the University of Newcastle’s Faculty of
Education and Arts titled Improving teaching quality through peer
observation and feedback: An investigation of the impact of Quality
Teaching Rounds. Mai, Alenka, Lisa H, Bryony, Nicole F, Berlinda and Lisa
W will be involved. The study will help identify where we need to develop
as a school. More staff may take part next year.
Preparation of marketing guidelines
We need to draft some agreed guidelines to support the school in making
decisions about marketing, (e.g. displaying the Woolworths Earn and
Learn banner), hiring of school facilities etc. A drama club has recently
approached CPS and wants to use the all and be promoted to students
for example.
ACTION: to be discussed at either September or October P&C meeting.
Walking bus
Hugo Ceran-Jerusalemy addressed the P&C and provided a PowerPoint
presentation. 54 of 200 surveys were returned which was a very good
result. Suggestions included that an induction session be conducted for
participants before commencing, a safety chart should be produced, and
that the adults should wear fluorescent-coloured vests and have
whistles. It was agreed that there should be a committee and that a
parent volunteer is needed for that. The request will be put out to the
Focus topic:
Indigenous education
Treasurer’s report
7. Sub-committees
- Garden
- Music committee
- Canteen
whole parent community and a summary included in Canterbury Tales.
Lisa Haller tabled survey results from NAIDOC night, which showed that
people do value the night, are happy with format and consider it a good
community event. While the performance is expensive, it’s also popular.
Raffle tickets help subsidise the cost. It’s previously been held in term 2
and this may be better in future (NAIDOC Week always falls in the school
holidays.) Celebrations may be held on a Friday night in future; it was
avoided as staff had commented that there were too many events held
on a Friday, but they’re willing to make an exception for NAIDOC.
The next project to focus on is restoring the square paved and planted
area, previously known as the rose garden, between the covered area
where morning lines are held and the administration block. It features so
prominently in the school yard it will be good to have it looking nice. It
will be a place where we can acknowledge the traditional owners of the
land and other cultures represented in our school. There were
discussions last year and an unsuccessful grant application. Two new
grant applications have been made this year. The plan is to turn it into a
learning opportunity for students, with their being involved in the
planning and measuring and costing. There was agreement within the
P&C for this project, and also for investigating offering families the
opportunity to pay for an engraved paver. Lisa sought a volunteer with
the necessary skills to help prepare a plan of action.
ACTION: Kaye Warren will put her contact who should be able to
provide advice and expertise, in touch with Lisa.
A summary was provided.
Chris Trimmer and Steven Tuften support the new canteen plan that has
been formulated.
CPS promoted the new Canterbury markets in our newsletter, and
received a free stall space in return. The date we’ll hold our stall is yet to
be determined. It will also provide a learning opportunity for the
students, with the plan that soap will be made at school and sold on the
stall.
There have been great results with the recent drive for new music
students. The last committee meeting was very productive and the
tentative date for the next meeting is Wednesday 9 September. There
are tentative plans for Canterbury Girls High School band to perform for
the school, providing further opportunity to inspire students to take on
an instrument.
Nicole’s hours unfortunately needed to be reduced to reduce costs.
Thanks to Kate Cooke’s analysis, it was determined that Monday recess
was the best time to close. It was acknowledged that the amount of
profit that can be generated is limited because of the size of the school.
The canteen is on track to break even this term, thanks to theme days,
gelato sales and Berlinda using the canteen for catering. It’s very clear
that parents, students and teachers don’t want the canteen to close. It’s
a great resource for the whole school, and is so much more than just
somewhere to buy lunch and recess. Having the uniform shop located
there works favourably for both canteen and uniform sales. It’s great that
there are 5 new parents interested in joining the canteen committee,
most with infants’ kids which should mean there are people to take over
8. General business
when long-standing members’ leave as their children progress to high
school.
Sascha detailed that the P&C promised $2500 for the canteen last year;
$1700 for the required long service leave accrual account, and the
remaining $800 to go to general funds. She asked whether we wanted to
add another $500. This was supported by Mischa and all present. It was
agreed that the P&C is keen to support the canteen even if it continues to
run at a small loss, due to its overall benefit to the school.
Nil
Meeting officially closed at 9.10pm.