Last night we held our final P&C meeting for 2021 and next week I’ll watch my newly minted 12-year-old graduate!
It’s hard to believe that seven years has passed since we took Luca to the BPS Teddy Bears’ Picnic (part of orientation before Kindy).
We waved Luca off on his first day of big school and he hasn’t looked back since! He’s loved his time at Balmain. In the years that followed, the one constant was the community he and we built around the school – a beautiful bunch of the best kind of friends, a village of parents ready to help whenever it was needed, many, many dinner parties and some drunken auctions(!), a book club and lots more. Our youngest, Sunny, also started Kindy here after spending his whole life before that chasing after the big kids in and around the school gates and Gladstone Park.
I know all Stage Two and Three parents have their own version of this story. There’s something so magical about joining your local school and what a wonderful school we have! The best thing about Balmain and our school is the community and I hope everyone gets to experience what a normal year is like in 2022 (in so many ways!).
What a year this has been. It’s certainly not what we envisioned at the beginning, as back then we thought we’d be hosting lots of events and having a normal year. It has been anything but.
The extended lockdown was hard on everyone – our children, parents and teachers. It certainly made clear how important and valued our teachers are and last night I thanked Maria and all our teachers again for their incredible work throughout the whole year, but especially during that time. I certainly believe that they deserve to be paid more.
I recently read an article about a shortfall of permanent teachers in public schools and asked Maria to talk to us about the situation in Balmain. Permanency is important for students as well as teachers themselves, and Maria explained what is being done to address the issue.
Last night, we also heard some exciting updates about projects that we’ve been working on. The new solar panels should be installed by the time school starts next year and the outdoor toilet upgrades should be completed in the first quarter of 2022 as well. A huge thanks to everyone who has helped get those two things over the line, especially Victoria Lush, Paul Galpin and Brendan O’Brien.
We had an update on our finances. Our current cash position is $93k which is down from the $111k at the last meeting. Key changes include underwriting the toilet upgrade by $34K and raising nearly $5.5k in donations for the HEPA air filters with more still coming through. Thank you for the huge support for that fundraiser.
Maria informed us that she’s had more funds come through as part of the IT levy and received 15 new iPads for the school through the Department’s IT points program. We’ve asked Maria to advise us at the first meeting next year whether the school has enough IT equipment to get through 2022 (and subsequent years). If there isn’t enough, we’ll all need to work out how we can best support the school to get more.
We were also updated on the 2022 Trivia Night which is scheduled for March.
I want to thank everyone for supporting all the Year 6 fundraisers. They’ve had a tough couple of years but it’s been heartening to see how the school community has rallied around them. This is the first time in the school’s history that the Yr6 Celebration will be a free event so thank you for the support and thanks to the Year 6 parent committee for all their hard work.
Finally, thank you to all our fabulous volunteers for helping us get through this year, and special thanks to our P&C Exec members Victoria Lush and Cliff Philipiah.
Victoria and Cliff are year six parents who will be saying farewell to BPS next week but frankly it’s hard to imagine the school without them!
Cliff has been an active school parent, volunteer and P&C member for over a decade. He’s organised many events and run countless BBQ’s. Cliff has always been happy to help and take on work to make the school a better place for his two beautiful girls.
Victoria has also been a wonderful volunteer, committed school parent, P&C member and Eaton St committee member. In the last seven years she’s achieved so much for the school and organised the P&C Exec group. Our new solar panels will be installed soon thanks to her dedication and tireless work and there’s no one who has better taste in wine and cheese!
It was also Victoria and Cliff who introduced the Giving Assembly at Balmain and they both hope this beautiful event stays on the school calendar. The rest of the Exec are keen to keep it on too as we are the only school on the peninsula who work with the Salvation Army in this way and we believe the message from the Giving Assembly is an important one to share with the children during the holiday season. This year’s Giving Ceremony is on next Wednesday. The children have been busy decorating their boxes so please send in a toy before then if you are able.
If you see Cliff or Vic between now and the end of the year, please take a moment to say thanks - we couldn’t do what we do for the school without amazing volunteers like them.
And if you see a teary parent or two at the school gates next week, chances are it will be a year six parent remembering their child’s own first day at BPS and marvelling at how fast it’s all gone. Give them a wave, before you know it, it will be your turn!
Happy holidays! I hope you enjoy the break and find some sunshine. See you next year.
The P&C Exec - Shehana (Luca in Year 6 & Sunny in Year 1), Gemma (George in Kindy & Joshua in Year 3), Cliff (Logan in Year 6), Paul (Jasper in Year 1) & Victoria (Harry in Year 6)
