In this edition of our Meet our… series, we chat with our new P&C President Louise Ware.
Louise was voted in as President at this year’s AGM, having previously volunteered as our Secretary through 2020, and as a P&C member for several years prior.
Hi Louise! Let us know what work you do as President of our school P&C.
The President can be as involved as they want to with the school, the school executive team and the many P&C projects we have going on. I find I spend a few hours each day on school grounds!
At the moment, I’m working a lot with the school Executive coordinating our activities and will be representing the P&C on the panel to choose an outside hours school care service. The new build construction team also involves the P&C with things like tree removal, which must be approved by the P&C. I also work closely with our tuckshop convenor, working out what new equipment might be needed, any changes to the menu or suppliers and supporting the fun days we have, like the recent Winter Wonderland.
My passion is providing enjoyable spaces and access to quality outdoor and loose parts play for our students. This is particularly important in our urban catchment, with many of our students growing up in apartments, and limited access to green spaces. I’ll soon be meeting with Nature Play, Queensland Government funded outdoor play advocates, to re-design our bark play area near the tuckshop, which has me very excited!
Wow, sounds like a lot! I’m a busy, working parent – how can I help?
One of the best ways our parents can show support for the P&C is to attend our meetings and have your say. We are a small group and can only make big change when we have the support of our parent and school community. To make things easier we are now offering our P&C meetings via Zoom – turn off your video and join in PJs if you want! We’d love to have more (and more representative) voices at the table.
Our P&C is really very lucky with our school parents, who reach deep when it comes to fundraising. We surpassed our intended tally of $10,000 recently with our Obstathon which was really amazing (note, some expenses are removed from our final tally). Our next fundraiser is to purchase plants and other supplies for our Beeston Street Garden – and we’d love some volunteers to help plant out the space, too. Watch this space for a dedicated fundraising page for this new project.
I’d like to have a chat before I get involved – is that possible?
Yes, absolutely! We hold a Parent Hub about twice a term (trialling a Thursday morning from 8.15am, near the tuckshop) – and will advertise these through the Events page on our website, the school newsletter and our regular P&C newsletter. You’ll be able to chat with some of our executive at the Hubs, and some of our general members turn up, too.
Otherwise, please reach out on email president@nfsspandc.com.au with any ideas or questions you might have. I’d also recommend signing up to the P&C newsletter as it’s the best way we have of communicating with our parents. Plus you get the news before the general community!
Tell us something about you?
I’ve been a parent at NFSS for 5 years. My son, James, is in year 5 and my daughter is in Prep!. I became a member of the P&C in 2019, and held the position of secretary last year.
I take a strong interest in governance and future planning, and I am keen to make tangible improvements to our children’s play time. So far, the P&C has funded ‘giant’ games for play at breaks but there is so much more that is possible. I’m looking forward to the remainder of 2021 when I hope other parents and teachers that are interested in providing spaces and equipment for imaginative and explorative play can gather and make it happen!
