Term 2, 2019

Hello and welcome to the first board report to be included into our school’s newsletter. Moving forward a report from the school board will be included into the St Catherine’s school newsletter following each board meeting. Board meetings occur once per term with two additional board meetings held across the Holy Trinity involving all three schools in the first and fourth terms.

The School Board is an advisory board to the Parish Priest and Principal.

The broad aims of the School Board are to:
• act as an advisory body to the parish priest and principal, on matters concerning education in the school and parish
• act as a forum for discussion on matters concerning education in the parish and parish school
• provide a link between the parish priest, principals, parents, teachers and parishioners in relation to the provision of Catholic education in the parish community
• promote community development by fostering strong relationships between parish and school.

The School Board is made up of the Parish Priest, Co-Ordinating Principal, School Principal, a staff representative and elected parents and parishioners. 

Hopefully many of you will have seen the School Board noticeboard that has been created in the school foyer in the office. This noticeboard provides details of which parents are currently serving on the school board, their children involved in the school and an email address for the school board. If there is anything you would like the school board to know, review or discuss please feel free to approach any member of the board at any time however if you prefer you can also email the board on schoolboard@scmoorabbin.catholic.edu.au. The email address for the school board is also provided on the noticeboard.

On Monday, 27 May we held our term 2 board meeting. The key agenda items discussed were:

1. An update on specific policies, namely our privacy policy and our conflict of interest policy. Our school works tirelessly to ensure that we have the appropriate policies in place to maximise our children’s education and all elements that go towards ensuring this happens as effectively as possible. Copies of our policies can be found on the school website and I would encourage all families to become familiar with these.
2. Child Safety Survey – Currently a survey is being undertaken by year 5 / 6 students to seek their feedback on what safety means to them and how they believe our school is managing safety for our students. The findings of this will be released in due course once completed.
3. Parent Engagement Platform – A lot of work has been done in recent months to ensure communication and information is seamless throughout the school, in particular to the parent body. I would encourage all parents / carers to read the previous newsletter which details the new school app platform as well as updates on what is now being used and what is no longer being used i.e. flexibuzz. I believe we have come along way in this area in recent times and am confident that the systems and processes we have in place now serve both the school and parent body in our communication and information needs.
4. School Masterplan – St Catherine’s is currently undertaking a review of upgrades to certain facilities to enhance student learning. Predominately this is in the area of creating indoor / outdoor flow and outdoor learning areas enhancing classroom environments. This masterplan is also designed to ensure maximisation of school grounds to incorporate current ‘dead areas’ not being utilised. We are currently in the design phase of this project and the school will work on applying for a government grant to fund the plans. This is a medium-term project and once at a stage of progression will be made available.
5. Parent Code of Conduct – A policy was released recently in the areas of codes of conduct and given recent media attention in this area pertaining to parent conduct within the school environment it appears this was ironically quite timely. This topic was discussed at the board level and Lynda made particular note to highlight the fact, from a Principal and faculty perspective, how fortunate we are at St Catherine’s to have such an engaged, professional and polite parent body. It would appear given recent media releases that this is not always the case within the education system and it is great to see such a warm and friendly environment occurring with our school. For the wellbeing and future of our children it is imperative that faculty and parents work together to enhance our overall community environment and I believe we are definitely succeeding in this area.
6. P & F – I would like to take this opportunity to thank, on behalf of the school board, the tremendous work that Julie Griffin has done so far this year and is continuing to do. Without her tireless coordination in this area we would not have experienced some of the wonderful events already held this year. Although the structure of the P&F may have changed in recent years the need for parent body engagement remains as imperative as ever. I would encourage all parents, where possible, to get involved in activities, social events and functions from time to time to assist Julie and the other parents that I know provide much needed support in these areas. As they say “it takes a village to raise a child” and I personally feel blessed that we all operate and live within a truly wonderful village in the St Catherine’s primary school community.

Lastly, and again, please do not hesitate to touch base with one of our school board members if you would like to discuss anything or make anything known. It is our responsibility to represent the parent body within the St Catherine’s school and we are only too happy to do so.

Many thanks for taking the time to read this board report and I look forward to speaking with you around the school grounds.

Darren Forner

Chair – St Catherine’s School Board