Draft
Castlemore Public School
School Council
Annual Report for the 2010-11 School Year
Dear Parents/Guardians and School Community
Welcome back! We hope you had a safe and enjoyable summer. The Castlemore Public School had a challenging and rewarding 2010-11 year. The school council held six meetings on the dates listed below:
Oct 20 2010
Nov 11, 2010
Jan 13, 2011
Feb 10, 2011
April 14, 2011
May 12, 2011
The purpose of the school council is to help improve student achievement and to enhance the accountability of the education system to parents. School councils are advisory organizations. A school council’s primary means of achieving its purpose is by making recommendations to the principal of the school and the school board. Boards and principals are responsible for considering the recommendations made by each school council and for advising the council(s) of the actions taken in response to the recommendations. Accordingly, included with this report is a summary of the advice that the school council provided to the principal and to the school board in year 2010-11, as well as the responses from the principal and school board on how this advice was taken into account in decision making.
Parents’ raised concerns regarding absence of adequate school buildings. Principal suggested that Council should contact the School Trustee. Council Chairs arranged the community information night on January 13, 2011 for the trustee, Ms. Malhi to attend and address parents’ concerns.
An open house was held on January 13, 2011 for Council and the parent community to provide input on selection of the School Leaders and proposed boundary changes.
Importance and need for having awards/rewards via tracking individual and group achievements by students, and recognizing them.
Voice Synergy System to deliver important upcoming events/messages to parents.
Parent Council membership has been a concern and various options were discussed during the year. It was agreed to have a brief presentation at the open house by the Council Members to raise awareness of the Parent Council, Council members to wear name tags during school events. Going forward, it was agreed that a monthly draw will be held at the school to choose a parent name and sending them an invitation for the parent school council meeting(s) beginning academic year 2011-12.
In addition, the council meetings were open to the public to encourage input from parents and other members of the school community. Additional achievements of the school council during the year 2010-11 included the fund-raising activities, and the proceeds were used to fund projects in accordance with school board policies. The list of these fundraising events and other activities as follows:
Movie night for the school children and their families.
Library swap sale to expand books collection in the school library.
Exit portfolio interviews for grade 8 students.
Peel Health Nurse would be arranged if the parents felt there was a serious need
to address their concerns, if and when needed.
Collectively, current School Council and the Principal will continue to explore ideas to build a strong School Council over the academic year 2011-12.
Minutes of the meetings held and financial records are available for public inspection at the school office.
Some of the initiative(s) planned for 2011-12 council are:
Create an email address for council and have it accessible through school’s
website for parents to address their concerns. Council chair (s) or secretary should
have access to receive and reply to these messages either via email or during
council meetings.
Home Alone Program was discussed during year 2010-11 and to be addressed with the City.
Have minutes of the council meetings posted on the school website.
Next Meeting will be held at 6:30 pm on October 5th 2011 in the school library.
We wish to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of many individuals who contributed their time and efforts to the success of the school council last year. Special thanks are due to the following members of the school council: Mr. Manoj Sharma, Ms. Jayashri Raghunathan, Mr. Sam Reddy. In addition, we would like to thank Ms. Lewis for her dedication and excellent leadership skills and guidance, efforts and time taken to address parents’ concerns during the council meetings. A special thanks to all those students and teachers who invested the time in fundraising activities. Finally, we would like to wish the best of luck to candidates in the September 2011 school council elections. Collaboratively, the school council and the Principal will diligently work to build a stronger and committed council that will address concerns of the Castlemore to make it a safer and better learning place.
Sincerely yours,
Mr. Sam Reddy, Chair
Mrs. Preetkamal Shahi, Co-Chair
September 26, 2011
Page 1 of 2