The Lakes South Morang College Newsletter SCHOOL COUNCIL
Hello Parents & Carers,
March School Council Meeting
Amazingly, we are at the end of Term 1 already, feels like yesterday that we were at the Meet & Greets! Lots of events have already taken place including the Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony; Welcome BBQ; Harmony Day; Athletics Day (no rain delays this year!); Cross Country try - outs; Crazy Hair Day; Learner Review Meetings; the Easter Raffle; International Women ’ s Day Lunch at Parliament House and excursions for many year levels. Entering a new School Council term, as reported previously, the urgent ‘ must do ’ items regarding buildings and grounds have been completed after a three - year program of improvements and upgrades. Therefore, our focus for 2025 is on supporting our Leadership team on improving our learning environments. It has been exciting to see the introduction of the digital screens in the Prep to Year 3 classrooms on the Primary Campus that were installed over the summer break. They can transform the classroom into a more engaging, interactive, and effective learning environment. Seeing them in action earlier this month and being used in every single classroom was really impressive. Likewise, the introduction of the Resilience Project initiative this Term has been fantastic to help our student ’ s build mental strength, embrace challenges and develop a growth mindset that will carry them through life, both inside and outside the classroom.
Following the AGM, our regular March meeting commenced. At this meeting we:
•
Heard an update from Mr Panas on the new Kindergarten build, including the plans.
•
Heard a detailed report from our 2025 Secondary School Captains and their aspirations for what they would like to achieve in their role this year. It was wonderful to hear they would like to:
a)
celebrate and showcase more of our community ’ s multicultural backgrounds, and
b)
amplify student voices to have them more engaged with school issues.
•
Discussed and endorsed a piece of advocacy work to the Department of Education on the issue of schools outside the Whittlesea school region running daily student pick up/drop off busses into our region to collect their students. Discussed and endorsed a second piece of advocacy work to the Department of Education addressing the inconsistencies related to the Department ’ s ‘ Find my School ’ website. Discussed Fundraising ’ s upcoming activities (Mother ’ s Day Stall on May 7, Mother ’ s Day Breakfast on May 9 and potential Pie Drive in Term 2/3).
•
•
Annual General Meeting
Our most recent meeting on March 18 began with our AGM. I am pleased to announce that the three vacant parent/carer roles were filled by Anna - Lisa Tewma, Jenny Archibald and myself (all returning) and one student vacancy was filled by Taylor V (there were no staff vacancies).
•
Requested that communication go to the Collingwood English Language School regarding traffic safety along Gordons Road.
Curriculum Charges
Our Council members for the 2025/26 term are:
A huge thank you to families who have paid 2025 Curriculum Charges, it is appreciated. Schools provide students with free instruction to fulfil the standard curriculum requirements and we want to assure you that all contributions are voluntary. Nevertheless, the ongoing financial support of our families ensures that our school can offer the best possible education and support for our students. The school ’ s budget is partly reliant on voluntary contributions – voluntary contributions allows program area budgets to increase and goes towards building and ground upgrades, all for the benefit and enjoyment of our students. It is important that we work together to provide the best facilities.
Parent members:
DE members:
Jenny Archibald
Bill Panas (Executive Officer, College Principal) Bonnie Lee (Secondary Campus Principal)
Josie Benfari
Amanda Farrelly (President)
Bek Sutton
Kathryn Lieschke
Keara McIntyre
Veronica Marsh
Helen Skendaris
Guests:
Anna - Lisa Tewma (Treasurer)
Marcus Abney - Hastings (Primary Campus Principal)
Thank you again for your support and partnering with us in 2025.
Grant Voss (Vice President)
Dale Saliba (Secretariat)
Community Issues & Parent Feedback
Student members:
Finally, Council is here to represent the whole school community, so as always, if you have any issues, ideas, questions that you would like raised at our next Council meeting, or any other support, please feel free to approach any of our members or send an email to amanda.farrelly@education.vic.gov.au. Likewise, if you have any suggestions on how parents/carers can partner better with the school with regards to their child ’ s learning, or how we can enhance the school in general and our community relationships, we would be keen to hear from you too. Council meets twice per term on a Tuesday and visitors and observers are always welcome.
Tijana M
Taylor V
The three Executive Roles were declared vacant and nominations held and accepted for the President, Vice President and Treasurer roles. School Council rep membership of the two sub - committees, Finance and Fundraising, was also decided. We discussed the purpose of the subcommittees and what they try to achieve, outside of regular School Council meetings. Finance is a mandatory subcommittee as per the Department of Education, but as a school we can decide what other subcommittees we hold and we decided that Education will not be run again this year. Lastly, the 2024 Annual Report to the School Community was also presented by Mr Abney - Hastings and endorsed. This report celebrates our school ’ s highlights in the 2024 school year and is a public document that will be published on our website.
Have a wonderful Easter break,
Amanda Farrelly School Council President
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker