Minutes of School Council Meeting
Wednesday 6 December 2017
Fortian Room 6.00pm
1. Welcome and Apologies
Kathy Esson Chair
Joel Morrison Relieving Principal
Rachel Thompson Parent Representative
Lai Heng Foong Parent Representative
Rebecca Cameron Staff Representative
Don Newby Foundation and Fortians Union Representative
Ethel Talty P&C Representative
Jenny Curtis Community Representative
Oscar Iwas SRC Representative
Danielle Villafana SRC Representative
Jules Davies Executive Officer
Apologies were received from John Ockwell, Justyn Boyle, Jane Bell and Nicholas Mokl.
2. Confirmation of Previous Minutes
The minutes from November were confirmed.
3. Matters arising from minutes
As agenda
4. Correspondence
The School Council has been approached by the Sydney University Graduate Choir requesting the use of the Hall for their Chamber Choir rehearsals up to 10 times a year free of charge. This is a continuation of an existing agreement and was approved unanimously. Jules will inform the President of the SUGC.
The 1958 reunion group are visiting the school in 1958 and have offered to purchase a defibrillator for the school. The school already has one defibrillator and the parent representative confirmed that she will be organising a second. Jules will thank the 1958 reunion group and find an alternate fundraising project.
5. School Principal Recruitment
The Relieving Principal updated the Council on the promotion of the Principal to one of the positions of Director, Educational Leadership. The School Council congratulated the Principal in absentia.
There have been approx. 40 equivalent Director positions created in a Department restructure which has resulted in a large number of vacancies in schools, mostly at Principal level. To manage the recruitment of these vacancies the Department has advertised for a generic Principal role with a provision to allow aspiring Principals to list their preferences for individual schools. The first stage of recruitment is being run by a central panel headed by an Executive Director and several other Directors. They are running scenario based interviews to shortlist suitable candidates.
The second stage of the interview process will then be run by the Department in the usual way. In the case of Fort St, the panel will be convened by Virginia Pacey, Director of Public Schools for Marrickville, and will also consist of a teacher representative, the P&C President, a Principal from another school and a community representative chosen by Virginia Pacey.
The School Council Chair has spoken to the Director of Public Schools about the role of the School Council at FSHS. The Chair suggested to the School Council that some or all of the panel be invited to the next Council meeting to give Council an opportunity to share views on the school’s ethos and priorities. The School Council agreed and the Chair will contact the Director of Public Schools to formalise this. The School Council is keen to make a contribution to the selection process that is constructive. Views put forward by the School Council will identify what is important to the school in selecting a new principal and what is less important.
6. PMI Exercise
This item is postponed to February 2018.
7. School Website update
The School Council representatives have looked at the new website and feedback has been mostly positive. Comments received concerned the inclusion of the school’s administrative staff and uploading the 2018 school calendar
The website team will be meeting in the new year to look at improvements to the website and make small amendments.
Rebecca Cameron and Jules Davies were commended by the School Council for their work on the new website.
8. New School Plan update
The school plan will be made up of the same three directions as the existing plan; Effective Learning, Excellent Teaching, Positive Inclusive School Culture and Communications.
The connected curricular program continues from the previous school plan as part of the Effective Learning, Excellent Teaching directive and there is discussion as to how this fits into the school on an ongoing basis. There has been some dissatisfaction from students about the roll out of the project, and the school acknowledges some aspects that can be improved. The school has been working with student focus groups to that end. Keeping this strategic direction the same allows skills from the existing connected curricular program to be built into lessons and subjects across the whole school, for example in group work.
Student representatives added that their experience in Year 8 is that the connected curricular program is not always a focus of the teaching staff. The program in Year 8 feels inflexible with allocated groups and strict deadlines for presentations. The Relieving Principal acknowledged that this was consistent with comments from the focus groups.
The Positive, Inclusive School Culture will be using the new roadmap to evaluate our existing programs.
The school will also focus on bullying, especially cyberbullying. The school deals with incidents of bullying but will focus on collecting baseline data for the next year, and then look at how to make improvements.
The renewal of the school environment is also a focus and this will have an impact on student and staff wellbeing.
The communication strategic direction will focus on internal communication to the school community. More staff are now using Sentral effectively. The Parent Portal needs to be more effective as does the use of social media to celebrate student achievements.
The new school plan is not yet finalised and this item will be revisited in March 2018.
9. Library update
The architect presented a quote of $850K for the proposed work on the library. The school has now bought the plans from the architect and will go to tender through the Department to get 3 alternative quotes. Consequently there won’t be any work done over the holidays but it is hoped that work will be completed by term 3. This is the school’s main building priority. This item will be revisited in February when the Council will see the plans.
10. Building Refurbishment update
The Relieving Deputy Principal has been looking at other areas of the school that need improvement including the canteen area and Rowe quad, the robotics lab and the hospitality kitchens. A street artist has visited the school and will provide quotes for various options. There will be the opportunity for students to help with his artwork and there may also be an opportunity for student workshops. The SRC representative suggested that student groups, for example the diversity group and the environmental committee could be involved.
The school has also consulted a landscape gardener to assist with improving the environment.
11. Principal’s Report
Most of the school news is in the current Mercurius which can be accessed from the website. There have been many student achievements including the Year 10 History debating team and the Year 7 debating team.
The school has chosen a new canteen provider – Bon Appetit. They are already running canteens at other schools, understand the multicultural aspect of FSHS and were consultants on the healthy canteen policy. They offer online ordering and expect to be more profitable than the previous provider. They have also suggested that they present at a school assembly and at a P&C meeting.
There have been a number of staff changes including David Patane who is now a permanent member of TAS. There is one other TAS vacancy to be filled and a vacancy in History. Some long term temporary staff will be leaving at the end if this term.
Speech Day will be on Friday 16 February and will be an opportunity to honour Ros Moxham. Michael Kirby and Murat Dizdar will both be guest speakers and the event is expected to run for longer than usual.
10. Other Reports
P&C Report
The P&C held its AGM and the names of the new committee members can be found on the website and in Mercurius. The P&C is discussing focus topics for future meetings.
Jenny Curtis organised some Year 7 sessions to help build community within year 7 and encourage their participation. The feedback from these sessions was very positive and this will happen again towards the end of term 1 in 2018. These sessions will be added as part of the school plan under communication and will be ongoing.
The P&C wrote to Banksia Public School expressing the sympathy of the FSHS community after a car crashed into a classroom killing two students and injuring three others.
Student Report
The SRC ran a sausage sizzle but overestimated the number of sales, which limited its success as a fundraiser, although it was a good community event. The SRC also catered MAD night.
The Christmas social will take place on 13 December. The talent Quest will take place on 14 December.
Fortians Union Report
No report
Foundation Report
The Foundation met in November. The Board agreed to increase the amount payable from the Education Fund to students who apply for funding to help with extra curricular costs for example Olympiads, robotics and sport. The policy has been changed to a maximum of $500 for national events and $1000 for International events.
11. Other business
Rachel Thompson is resigning as parent representative. The School Council thanked Rachel and staff representative John Ockwell for their service, which has been greatly appreciated.
The school received an offer of a defibrillator and training from a parent representative who is hoping to have this formalised in the new year. Take Heart Foundation has offered to attend the school to run a heart day, or to present a basic CPR and emergency course at an assembly. A second level course for older students would be on a more practical basis and offers training in the use of an AED.
A third level is available for PDHPE students in Year 11.
The next Council meeting is on Wednesday 7 February 2018.
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