St Joseph’s School, Malvern

Parents & Friends Association

49 Stanhope Street, Malvern 3144

Parents and Friends Meeting Minutes

DATE: Tuesday, 25 November 2014

TIME: 7.30 pm

PLACE: Parish hall at St. Joseph’s Primary School, Malvern

Item / Notes
1. 
Welcome and attendance / Jason Williams welcomed all attendees to the meeting.
2. 
Present & Apologies / Present:
Jenny Hogan, Letecya Stacey, Jason Williams, Kirsten Scott, Alistair Williams, Angie Toffoletto, Stacey Farrell, Sonya Ryan, Kym Gardiner, David Kahan, Mary Benvenuto, Tania Karamitos, Shahan Priamo, Irene Edenton, Polly Mason.
Apologies:
Sara McIvor, Bernadette Lucas-Gallon, Scott Lucas, Claudia and Andrew McInerney, Sonia Rohan, Veronica Hilbert.
3. 
Last Minutes / Minutes from 07 October meeting were noted and taken as read.
4.  Principal’s Report / Jenny Hogan commented on the following:
Jenny thanked those that attended and commented that this meeting is about celebrating the year.
The core business at St Josephs is education and giving our children the tools to be their best.
The community spirit is very special here at St Josephs. It is often taken for granted, but thank you for it.
The P&F is made up of three areas, which are service, social and fundraising. These three areas are often intertwined.
The social opportunities help to build on the community spirit. The class reps are vital for bringing parents together through coffee mornings and evening dinners.
The area of services both provides a service to the school community and raises funds that enable the school to purchase items that they otherwise couldn’t.
The uniform shop. We are lucky to have uniforms onsite.
The second hand co-op is a valuable service that also provides additional funds to the school.
The Mothers Day / Fathers Day stalls are a valuable service to the students who get great enjoyment out of selecting a gift.
The St Joseph’s care group is a fantastic service that offers assistance in times of unexpected need.
The class reps – Thank you to Stacey Farrell and all our reps. They are a valuable link between the school and the families.
The working bees both save the school money and are another example of the fantastic school community.
The Christmas giving tree is a service to the local community. It is a little thing that makes a big difference.
Other social events were the welcome picnic, rockapedia (thank you Claudia and Andrew McInerney), Kids space, barefoot bowing and the principal’s morning teas.
Hot lunches are a service to the school, social for the parents that help out and also an important part of the fundraising.
The cake and produce stall is a fantastic fundraiser. It has also become a way of getting the community together. It is a service, social and fundraiser.
The Art show was a celebration the arts that made Jenny very proud of the children. It was a wonderful display of visual and performing arts. The money raised was fantastic.
We have been able to do things in the school and purchase items that we would not be able to without the efforts of the P&F. Some of the items are:
Guided readings books and take home readers, which are very important to the literacy program.
Maths games
The Lectern
16 new laptops and trolley
We will also be purchasing more Ipads with the money raised by the art show and the last cake and produce stall.
Our community has united together and the hard work has enabled us to do so much.
Your children are becoming good citizens by seeing how you give to the school and wider community.
Although she could not be here tonight I would like to mention Sonia Rohan. She has been instrumental in the P&F in putting up her hand for the art show, production, cake and produce stall and many other things. I thank Sonia and Anthony and they will be missed.
Jenny sincerely thanked the committee for everything they do.
5. 
Treasurer’s Report / It was reported that the P&F’s final closing balance, as at
24 November was approx. $13,500.
The key areas of fundraising were:
Art show $25,000 (once wine purchases are included)
Hot lunches $11,500 (with a couple more to come)
Cake and produce stall $8,800
Uniform co-op $2700 (excluding the money earned by families)
Rockapedia $840
We have transferred $42,000 to the school so far. We would like to transfer another $8000, which will bring the total transferred to the school to $50,000 for the year. This is a record amount to be transferred in one year.
This amount excludes the $1500 for the new football jumpers.
6. 
Overview of 2014 / Jason commented on the following:
We have had an incredible year. Being part of the community we have fun and in the same time raise funds for the school.
The art show with the indigenous theme was incredibly put together by Catherine Gill.
The live auctions were a performance in themselves.
The art show is a total school effort, which included the service of all the teachers.
b. Social functions
Barefoot bowling – Mary and Tania once again put on a great social night. It was the biggest turn out to date. The teams were mingled, which helps the new prep parents to meet other parents.
Welcome picnic
This was our first attempt at trybookings. Thank you Shahan for setting up the trybookings and your nametags. The picnic was held later this year, which worked better for the prep families. We will continue this next year. The weather went from extreme heat to freezing cold, but everyone still had a great night.
Rockapedia
This was a fun night for all. Even the band commented that it was the best venue they had performed at.
Thankyou to David Kahan for the bar staff and licence. The event would not have been the same success without it.
Christmas end of year picnic
This is a great way to end the year and another opportunity to invited the 2015 prep families into our community. We hope to have some active members of the P&F to look out and introduce them to existing families.
Cake and produce stall
The children’s excitement speaks for the value they place on this event each term.
Mothers day / Fathers day coffee morning
The earlier start (0800) has worked well as it allows working parents to attend. Next year the children will sit with their parents during mass.
Many things do not come under the p&f, but contribute to make the school the supportive community that it is. These include the care group, new uniform shop, refugee support group and many more.
The P&F needs more people to attend the meetings. We have a great core group, but need people to come along and share their ideas. A great example of this is Andrew McInerney. He came to the meeting and spoke so passionately about the Rockapedia that everyone was willing to support it. It turned out to be a fantastic social event that raised nearly $900.
Jason provided some wonderful entertainment as he spoke so passionately about the various aspects of the p&f.
He has added to the nickname for various event organisers. We have always had the hot mummers (hot lunches) and we now have the smart cookies (cake and produce stall) and killer bees (working bee).
7.  General business: / The St Josephs audio visual presentation was played. The presentation captures the essence of our school community.
P&F Committee positions 2015
Every parent at St Joseph’s is a member of the P&F. Just by being a parent at the school you are part of the P&F. Unlike some schools you do not need to be invited.
While we need your help we need your network. We need those involved to come to the meetings and bring a friend. New people bring new ideas, which can go a long way.
The current vacant roles are:
Chairperson
Secretary
Newsletter
Working bee coordinator
Production coordinator
School disco – Junior and senior
Principals morning tea
Christmas picnic
The roles that have been filled are:
Treasurer – Sara McIvor
Assistant Treasurer – David Stegehuis
Class Rep coordinator – Stacey Farrell
Class list coordinator – Letecya Stacey and Stacey Farrell
Hot lunch team:
Head coordinator – Kym Gardiner
Finances / Purchasing – Vanessa Guthrie and Letecya Stacey
Cake and produce stall head coordinators – Sonya Ryan and Letecya Stacey
Christmas giving tree coordinator – Veronica Hilbert
Book club coordinator – Rhonda Davey
Book club coordinator assistant – Amy Alston
Working bee helper – Scott Lucas
Second hand co-op coordinators – Irene Edenton and Louisa Visentini
Welcome picnic coordinator – Shahan Priamo
Staff appreciation lunch coordinator – Sue Marro
Kids space or similar coordinator – Bernadette Lucas-Gallon
Barefoot bowling coordinators – Mary Benvenuto and Tania Karamitos
Graduation – Letecya Stacey
Social events 2015
Barefoot bowling: It was decided that this event would go ahead and Mary and Tania offered to organise it again.
Kids space: It was suggested that we might look for a new venue. A new play centre has opened up in Clayton which will be investigated.
Upcoming events:
School disco this Thursday- Please RSVP via Try bookings
State election bbq on Saturday – Thank you to Jim Batziakas for donating 500 sausages.
Malvern memorial will also be providing a cake stall
Working bee – Sunday (11-3pm)
Jason thanked the committee for the support they have provided to the school, especially Letecya for the support she has provided him.
Kym Gardiner made a special thankyou to Odette Wan who is stepping down from her role of purchasing for hot lunches. She has performed this role for the last 5 years.
Next meeting – TBA in 2015