Saints Peter and Paul’s School

Parents & Friends Association

Meeting Minutes - February 2019

Date & Time: 27th February 2019 - 7.30pm

Meeting called to order by Ana Croger

In Attendance

Ana Croger, President| Emily Shaw, Vice President | Dan Kadziela, Treasurer | Melanie Gordon,

Secretary| Damien Sullivan, Vice Principal | Petrina Jaeger (Health & Wellbeing) | Rose Boyd

(Sustainability) | Ana Croger (Social Committee) | Cressida Ward (Care & Concern) | | Suzy French

(Communications) | Tiah Miller Guppy (Grants) | Michael Johnson, Stephen Grigg, Sheree Shelton,

Sarah Krome, Jane Dermody, Seija Wellington, Becci Thorsen, Sarina Raidi, Rebecca Webber, Emma

Tsahtsarlis

Apologies

Sister Ann-Maree Nicholls (Principal), Kelly Morgan (Health & Wellbeing), Lisa Magee (Welcome

Wagon), Paula Dillon (Welcome Wagon), Aislinn Wood (Social Committee), Tania Nitschke.

Approval of Minutes

The minutes from the November AGM were read by Ana Croger, moved by Michael Johnson and

seconded by Dan Kadziela as a true and correct record of the meeting.

Business arising from previous meeting – Ana Croger

Action Assigned to Status

Check with Lyndall about selecting the

type of soccer goal posts that would be

most suitable for the oval.

Ana Croger Complete. Funds approved in

Treasurer report below.

Confirm leader for the Social Committee

for 2019. Ana Croger

Carry over. Have identified a person

- meeting tomorrow to confirm.

Contact school parent re completing the

toilet refurbishment project and ask them

to contact Damian.

Tania

Nitschke Complete.

At the February 2019 P&F meeting present

the details of the technology needs for the

Damien

Sullivan Complete.

school and the request for funding from

the P&F. Provide an order of priorities so

that spending can be staged.

86 iPads with cases have been

requested (includes 2 for library).

Principal’s Report – Damien Sullivan

Principal’s report is attached (Attachment 1).

P&F Presidents Report – Ana Croger

It has been a very busy start to the year! Two particular people who I would like to acknowledge and

say thank you:

Thanks to Suzy French, our Communications leader, for starting off the year with fantastic

comms to the school community. The P&F has received so much positive feedback on your

excellent work. Thank you!

Thanks to Lisa Magee for her work over the summer holidays and at the start of the term with

the welcome wagon. It is so important to welcome new families to our school. Lisa has set up

great processes for the welcome wagon. Last week Lisa hosted a catch-up for coffee with new

families grade 1 – 6 which was well received. Paula Dillon will be leading the welcome wagon

for an interim period until further notice. Thanks you!

Book club is being run by Jamie again this year. Our first order for the year was valued at $1600 with

$320 being donated back to our school library to purchase new books. Thanks Jamie!

The first Parish bake stall has occurred for the year. $262.50 profit was raised by the bake sale which

will be used by the Church for our nominated charities. Thank you to our bakers!

Thanks to Terry Shaw who is a past parent of the school and has been helping with our technology

setup for many years for all of our major school events. Terry has been very busy with helping us get

ready for the Day on the Green event to be held this weekend.

Feast Day is coming up for the school. Emily Shaw is coordinating the cakes to celebrate the day.

The P&F would like to do something to support Sister Ann Maree’s Father in Townsville who was

affected by the floods to let him know that the school community is thinking of him. The meeting

attendees agreed on sending a gift card to show our support.

Additional volunteers are needed for school banking, tuckshop, Children’s choir and children’s

liturgy. Suzy will create comms to send out to ask for help in these important areas.

P&F Treasurer’s Report – Dan Kadziela

Treasurer’s report is attached (Attachment 2).

Approved – $963.16 – $240.79 x 4 for portable soccer goals.

Approved – $60,000.00 – 86 iPads with cases which includes 2 for the library.

Approved – $500 for a voucher for Sister Ann Maree’s father to show our support while he is

recovering from the Townsville flood.

Approved – Funds transfer of $500 for the payment of the rides deposit for the fete.

Approved – $500 for the payment of the rides deposit for the fete.

Approved – $2900 increase in reimbursement for standup desks for grade 5 and 6

Approved – $4211.85 Annual Levy for Catholic School Parents Queensland

Approved – Day on the Green costs as requested by the Social Committee for the event.

Sub-Committee Reports

Health & Wellbeing Committee (Petrina Jaeger & Kelly Morgan)

The committee has started planning for the following events:

School officers day - June

Day for Daniel - October

World Teacher Day - October

The committee is investigating the idea of hosting guest speakers at the school for parent information.

Possible topics include managing stress and anxiety in children (timing before Naplan), how to keep

children healthy and active, managing cyber safety and social media. The committee is considering

working with Di Farmer to share costs or source speaker recommendations.

New initiative idea: Walking school bus. Planned and organised school walking routes and timetable

with a parent volunteer at the front of the group and a parent volunteer at the back of the group.

Parents wait at the designated pick-up point (“bus stop”) and add their child in to the group. Looking

at starting in term 2. Encourages kids getting active and helps parents with school drop off.

New initiative idea: Walk and talk on the oval before school instead of sitting in the undercroft.

Social Committee (Ana Croger)

Complete - Welcome Drinks Parent Info (Y3) Mon 18 February

Day On The Green (Y2) Sun 3 March

Gala Event (Prep & Y4) 14 June

Trivia Night (Y6) Sat 10 August

School Disco (Y1) Fri 8 November

Graduation (Y5) Wed 4 December

Our social event planning is underway and the process of sharing events by year level is working well.

The welcome drinks for parents was a huge success thanks to our Year 3 parent volunteers. The Gala

committee has had lots of interest from parents in Prep and Year 4. The Gala event will be on the 14th

June and we have a few venues to consider. The disco committee is underway by the Year 1 parents.

We unfortunately did not secure a Bunnings BBQ for Year 5 fundraising this year so they will need to

decide on how they would like to fundraise for their trip.

23 May 2020 is the confirmed date for our fete. We have a fete committee and have started work on

planning this event. Rides have been booked and we are starting on development of the prospectus

for sponsors.

Care & Concern Committee (Cressida Ward)

Care and Concern report is attached (Attachment 3). Details the following:

o Casserole Roster.

o RU OK Day.

o Proposed initiative – “Pick Up and Drop Off” Roster for families in need.

Welcome Wagon Committee (Lisa Magee)

Welcome Wagon report is attached (Attachment 4).

Was advised of 18 new families in Y1-6 commencing at the start of Term 1.

9 families responded to invitation from WW. 6 families requested a match. All were matched

efficiently.

Huge thanks to the 2018 class coordinators who despite being ‘retired’ rallied to find

matches for all requests, during their break! Many thanks, it was above and beyond,

especially over summer.

Sustainability (Rose Boyd)

Sustainability report is attached (Attachment 5).

Rose has sent the proposed plan for the 2019 sustainability committee to Jake Knowles for

his review and have received feedback. Next step is to check with Sister Ann Maree to

confirm that the proposed initiatives are suitable.

Sustainability initiatives will overlap with other committees, e.g. walking school bus would

also reduce emissions and zero waste events on our social calendar.

Communications (Suzy French)

Communications report is attached (Attachment 6).

Grants (Tiah Miller Guppy)

Developed a spreadsheet to log the grants available for us to consider. Working on creating a

list/ history/ plan of what grants we have applied for and the outcome.

Some of the grants that the committee is considering applying for involve sustainability

initiatives, shade sail structures and road safety initiatives.

Correspondence – Melanie Gordon

Inwards correspondence:

Invitation from the Brisbane Archdiocesan P&F Council for all parents to attend a Parent

Evening and AGM – this was forwarded to the school office for inclusion in the newsletter.

Mother’s Day fundraising catalogues via email and mail.

Email from Di Farmer MP to obtain the P&F committee contact details for 2019.

Letter from Catholic School Parents Queensland to update details for the P&F and the

invoice for our annual levy.

Outwards correspondence:

None

General Business

1. Grade 2 desks are in need of replacement. Raised by Michael Johnson. Cost is approximately

$10,000 per classroom. These upgrades are funded by the school on a rotation between the

different grades. There is a plan to address this year.

Actions – to be updated at the next meeting

Action Assigned to

Provide to Dan Kadziela (Treasurer) the details re

what the technology levy will cover for the school

technology needs vs what the P&F will fund with

fundraising.

Damien Sullivan

At the next Board meeting, raise the issue with the

Board regarding the need to increase the technology

levy to meet the increasing technology needs and

costs of our students.

Melanie Gordon & Sister Ann Maree

Please bring to the next meeting - Adventure

playground improvement quote Damien Sullivan

Please bring to the next meeting - Toilet

refurbishment updated quote Damien Sullivan

Present updated 2019 budget at the next meeting Dan Kadziela

Investigate the legal requirements for a “Pick up and

Drop off” roster to help families in need. Report back

if this is something we can implement at the school

for the Care and Concern committee.

Cressida Ward

Email Suzy’s email address to committee leads so

they can request comms from her. Melanie Gordon

Send Tiah grant applications from 2018 Ana Croger

Engage with Year 5 class coordinators to discuss what

fundraising they would like to do for their trip since

we did not secure a Bunnings BBQ this year.

Aislinn Wood

Adjournment, date of next meeting Ana Croger

Meeting adjourned at 9.21pm

Next meeting – 3rd Wednesday of March 2019 (20th Mar)

Attachment 1 – Principal’s Report

Apologies from Sister Ann-Maree who is away for the week supporting family in Townsville

It has been a very exciting and busy start to the year!

We currently have 651 students for 2019. 24 classes – 4 streams in grades Prep to Year 4, 2

streams in Year 5 and 3 streams in Year 6.

We welcome some new staff members to the team – Krystal McKinlay in Yr 6, Christina Barron

in Yr 4, Lizzy Potter in Yr 2 and Simon Green in Yr 1.

Sincere thanks already to the parent body and P & F for their involvement in school events

already held which include the Opening School Mass, Parent Information Night and plans for

Day on the Green this weekend. Parents and staff have very much appreciated the effort and

wonderful contributions

Thanks to our teachers for a very informative evening at the Parent information evening.

Tomorrow our 2019 Class Coordinators will meet to discuss the role expectations and share

ideas. The Class Contact lists will also be discussed.

Our Annual Plan for Sts Peter & Paul’s is informed by BCE’s Strategic Plan. Our goals for 2019

centre on Catholic Identity, Excellent Learning and Teaching with a focus on literacy, and

Building a Sustainable Future. Within learning and teaching, our teachers have identified

spelling and vocabulary as an area to put in new energy. Our teachers have begun Professional

learning in this area in order to determine the best ways to help students achieve the best

possible outcomes.

Attachment 2 – Treasurer’s Report

Attachment 3 – Care and Concern Report

Cressida Ward Thiess

Activity:

Care and Concern Casserole Freezer Register Updated. Roster Distributed. Increasing

numbers

RUOK? Day

Pick up & Drop Off Register.

At the commencement of 2019 I reached out to current C&C contributors for the Freezer roster.

Currently we have 13 families who are on the C&C register. A roster was distributed to these families

for Term 1 on 29 January 2019. We currently have approximately 650 children within the school

(comprising of 470 or so families). As we only have about 13 families who contribute to the C&C

Freezer, I would be interested to reach out and hear from other families who would be keen to connect

with me so I can add them to my register. I have spoken to Suzy (Communications) and we are going

to see if we can increase our reach via the newsletter. Possibly targeting the Prep families, as a new

family to the school last year, a lot of us didn’t know about this initiative until the final weeks of school

last year.

I had a meeting with Jake Knowles on 11 February. I suggested I would be keen to promote the RU

OK? Day initiative as I’m a Community Ambassador for them. It’s the second Thursday in September,

this year is Thursday 12 September, with promoting the simple question of asking RUOK? I may be

able to secure free merchandise (bandanna’s, stickers, balls, pencils etc). Possibly the children could

wear yellow that day.

Jake and I also discussed the possibility of organising a ‘Drop off and Pick Up’ register for families

when they are in unfortunate situations. For example, I only have one child, if a parent is ill or in

great need, I could pick up their kids and drop them home. I have spare booster seats. I would be

happy to start an initiative like this and am sure we could get a few families on board. I am however

very aware that in this age of risk/legalities if there was an accident. Proof would be needed to show

their car is registered, insured, roadworthy, is the car seat installed properly etc, so I’m unsure if this

initiative could get off the ground. For discussion at meeting.

Attachment 4 – Welcome Wagon Report

Lisa Magee

Activity:

Was advised of 18 new families in Yr 1-6 commencing at the start of Term 1.

9 families responded to invitation

6 families requested a match

All were matched efficiently

Huge thanks to the 2018 class coordinators who despite being ‘retired’ rallied to find

matches for all requests, during their break! Many thanks, it was above and beyond,

especially over summer.

Very positive feedback from all respondents about the programme, even if they didn’t accept

buddy. Many contacted me to recognise the communication and thought the programme

was a fabulous initiative. Reason for not taking up offer was – not in Brisbane yet or locals

with existing contacts.

Hosted meet and greet coffee morning 12/2/19 – attended by five parents. A successful

morning. Valued by those that attended.

Actions:

Delays in information: being informed of the names of new families is still and issue. I fail to see

why. I requested the ‘acceptance’ names to date, prior to the end of the 2018 year so families could

be offered the buddy over the holidays and matched prior to school break up. This is when they

need it most. It also makes matching much quicker. I had to follow up the initial request twice and

didn’t received it until 11/12/18. As a result, we missed an opportunity to offer the service prior to

school breaking up. As many veteran families were already on holiday, I waited until early in the

new year to contact these families. Interestingly 5 of the 6 families that requested buddies were from

this ‘early’ contact group. The evidence is there; we need the names prior to school breaking up. This

is when the new families need support; I speak from experience too.

Likewise, I had to request the remaining newly confirmed names twice and only got them after

emailing Damien to follow up. I didn’t receive these until the first day of school; too late. This is an

extreme waste of an Assistant Principal’s time and I was embarrassed to even request his help but

believe passionately that this is a valuable service and was also concerned about the bad PR this

would result in, should half the group be invited and half not. Thanks Damien for actioning this so

promptly.

Also parent details were not updated on the system when enrolment forms were submitted

resulting in one family being left off and only hearing about WW through another family.

I request again, that as families are confirmed on the system I am emailed their contact details, there

is no need to wait until all have accepted. I will then collate a list and make a call as to when to invite

new families to the programme. This is the most efficient way to do this, prevents families being

missed, avoids bad PR and does not waste an AP’s or my time.

Attachment 5 – Sustainability Report

Rose Boyd

1. Meeting was held on 6 February with Teresa Brennan (outgoing Sustainability Rep) and

Rose Boyd to discuss sustainability progress in 2018, and to review plans for 2019.

Appreciation is extended to Teresa for providing initial guidance.

2. Meeting to be held in the next week with Jake Knowles to review initiatives and align to

school objectives.

Draft plan to be discussed and further developed is outlined below:

Initiative

Note: Initiatives draft and for discussion; approval required

Link to other SPP

roles – potential

collaborators 😊

February Year Planning

Review 2018 initiatives.

Audit what to start, stop and continue for 2019.

Sister Ann-Maree

Teresa Brennan

Jake Knowles

Second Hand Uniforms

Build awareness of second hand uniforms & link to reducing

waste.

Communications

Office staff

March Building a team

Host sustainability meeting for parents or friends interested in

participating in running initiatives.

General P&F

Profile raising of sustainability

Introduce sustainability on social media.

Solicit feedback/ideas on social media.

Communications

Initiative

Note: Initiatives draft and for discussion; approval required

Link to other SPP

roles – potential

collaborators 😊

Waste reduction

Audit status of current recycling collection.

Audit ways to reduce waste; communicate to teachers.

Procurement – provide sustainable procurement information to

staff leadership team (e.g. waste hierarchy – avoid, reduce, reuse,

recycle; circular economy; local & community procurement etc).

Jake Knowles

Senior leadership

team

Teachers

Active Transport

Embed option for active transport (walking/cycling) into

messaging around travel to/from school.

Communications

Health & wellbeing

April Waste Free lunch – refresh initiative

Refresh & reinforce messaging on how to avoid waste packaging

in lunches.

Communications

Health & wellbeing

May United Nations – Sustainable Development Goals

Teacher Information Session

Explore how the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals align with

SPP values and Catholic Education.

Rose to offer pro-bono training to teachers who are interested in

this topic.

Jake Knowles

Teachers

June Walk to school

Reward and celebrate active travel participants.

Communications

Health & wellbeing

July Rose on holidays.

August BCC information sessions

Organise information sessions run by Brisbane City Council for

interested classes; align to curriculum:

E.g.

- Reducing food waste – purchasing, packaging, composting

Jake Knowles

Brisbane City

Council

September Revisit waste free lunches.

Update on active transport.

Communications

October Procurement 2020

Meet with Office staff

Office staff

Initiative

Note: Initiatives draft and for discussion; approval required

Link to other SPP

roles – potential

collaborators 😊

Consider purchasing for next year and consider the waste

hierarchy (reduce, reuse, recycle)

November Dreaming of a sustainable Christmas

Campaign – top 10 tips for a sustainable Christmas season.

Communications

December Celebrate 😊

January

2020

Uniform Sales

Remind parents that they can buy used uniforms. Set up before

school starts.

Office staff

Communications

Health & Wellbeing

Plastic free

Suggest reusable plastic coverings.

Teachers

Attachment 6 – Communications Report

Suzy French

The commencement of the 2019 school year has mainly involved the P&F Facebook page.

P&F Facebook page:

From commencement of school – 13 Feb, we received 408 page views which is an increase of

268% from the previous month. Due to holidays and the ‘Show the love for Townsville day’

this is not surprising.

Page likes have increased with 29 more people liking the page and 32 more people following

us (which is more preferable over likes). Due to school commencement and potentially new

families coming to the school, this is not surprising.

Post reach has been extraordinary with an increase of 916%, and a reach of 5,681 followers.

Again, due to the ‘Show the love for Townsville Day’.

The ‘Show the Love for Townsville Day’ post was due to Jake advising me of the initiative

from Brisbane Catholic Education – thank you Jake. The post reached 5,358 people and

gained 334 reactions, comments and shares. We have also had reach to Townsville schools

with comments supporting our school and its activities. That particular post spoke to people

and was shared to 26 other pages with further engagement and ‘on-shares’.

Engagement has increased with most followers looking at the pages between 6.00am-7.00am,

then another spike at 5.30pm, then 8.00pm-9.00pm.

Posts for commencement of term ‘call outs for help’ have included: Banking; Tuckshop;

Children’s Liturgy; Social Co-ordinator; Support-a-reader.

Raising awareness posts don’t have as much engagement but can be effective, depending on

the timing and frequency – the uniform pool post has provided some additional money to

the school.

Traffic control posts will continue to be an ongoing reminder, particularly as the term settles

in.

Have altered the weekly ‘what’s on’ post as the long scroll meant followers might find it

difficult to read if only glancing at the page and viewing from a mobile. The new post is also

printable. Will monitor engagement.

Would like to profile each P&F member on the page with either a photo or short video to

inform of P&F roles but also engage with school community. The People of the P&F (similar

to Humans of New York).