Community Matters



Community Matters promotes
> community support
> connectedness
> fundraising
> heritage
> education

This initiative is designed to actively involve families in the school community and help create a welcoming, inclusive environment. School Council has been keen to build on the good work of our past parent volunteer groups (the more tradition P & F), while re-shaping community activities and volunteering to accommodate families’ increasingly busy and often complex lives. Consequently activities are now designed to be short and project-based, giving time-poor people more flexible ways to contribute to the school community.

 

Some previous initiatives of Community Matters

 

Freezer Angels
One of the centrepieces of Community Matters has been the introduction of Freezer Angels. This program provides gourmet meals to people in our extended school and kindergarten community in times of need. Meals are cooked up throughout the year by kind volunteers in our School Kitchen and frozen for distribution as required. The volunteers - who don’t know who they are cooking for - have had a lovely time whipping up big batches of soups, casseroles, tagines, pastas, desserts and cakes. Each year there are many grateful recipients.

 

Fabulous events
A range of wonderful community and social activities are run throughout each year. These usually include the annual Mothers Day and Fathers Day Stalls, Welcome Picnic and Mothers and Fathers Day events. All are well-attended and a lot of fun. 


Learning community
Each year a series of free iPad workshops are offered to parents early in the year. In past years members of our community have also run other free workshops for the community including screen-printing and seed-raising & plant propagation. If you have a skill you would like to pass on to others, we would love to hear from you!

 

Fundraising and charities

Fundraising forms a small but important part of our community. Each year we hold annual pie and mango drives and have the popular Melbourne Entertainment Books for sale.  In the past we have also had fun runs (cleverly masquerading as our cross country event!) and there is a very popular bi-annual Twilight Fair.  In election years our school is used as a polling booth and we take the opportunity to run the traditional sausage sizzle and cake stall.

 

Fundraising is used to help pay for items that can't be afforded (or in some instances are not permitted to be funded) by the school's education budget.  In the past fundraisers have helped pay for shade sails and the football goals.  Occasionally we also hold fundraisers (such as icy pole and hot chocolate days) to support the expenses of the Freezer Angels program.

 

In past years our community has also generously raised money for the Salvation Army and donated hundreds of gifts to Kmart’s Wishing Tree Appeal.

 

Volunteers don't get paid, not because they're worthless, but because they're priceless