- P&C Meetings During Self-Isolation;
- Climate and Sustainability Plans;
- Events Calendar and the Balmain Fun Run;
- Three-Year Strategy Plan;
It’s been a while between updates, so sorry for the length of this one!
It’s been so great to have most children back at school and whether they’re there for one day or more, I hope they’ve enjoyed it, too. Our teachers have done a brilliant job navigating this uncertain time and providing quality education, but parents deserve a medal too, for supervising their children’s learning while stuck at home.
What's clear is that we’ve all worked together as a community, kept each other safe and have confirmed how valuable our teachers and our school really are!
Last month, the P&C Exec held a Zoom meeting to discuss how to best manage what we need to do during this crisis. Bizarrely, there’s an old rule that doesn’t allow votes to be tabled online, so we can’t hold normal P&C meetings on Zoom for the time being. It’s a rule set down by the NSW P&C Federation and the NSW Education Minister, not our school. We think it’s outrageously old-fashioned in this day and age and have been working behind the scenes to lobby for it to be changed. Till then, we'll continue to meet as an Exec and hopefully open that out to others as restrictions ease.
In March, the P&C voted to adopt a Climate and Sustainability Report for our school focussing on three key actions:
- Creating a Climate and Sustainability Subcommittee of the P&C Association;
- Asking that Subcommittee to develop a detailed plan to help BPS reduce water, energy and waste consumption and support climate action, which might include other recommendations contained within the report; and
- Setting a target that by 2025 Balmain Public School becomes the most sustainable school in the Inner West with a plan led by students and the community with support from staff.
While COVID-19 has briefly stymied our progress in implementing these actions, we are ready to get going again and in the last two months have progressed work on the establishment of new solar panels for the school.
We’ve been investigating the Solar My School program – an initiative by the NSW State Government in conjunction with local councils.
Research shows that installing solar panels can provide another income stream for schools, the payback is within 3 to 6 years and as they need access to energy in the peak solar production period, schools get the most benefit.
This initiative was instigated by Ms Whelan, and recently Victoria and Ms Lambos went through an on-site feasibility study with Inner West Council and an external technical expert from Enhar Pty Ltd.
The good news is they think we can host two systems on the library roof. If we go ahead, 50 per cent of the cost will be covered by the NSW Government.
At some stage, we would love to present this all to the P&C. For now, we are exploring supplementary grants and other funding opportunities. We’ll keep you informed!
Next week I’ll share more information about the full climate report and our recommendations and information about how you can be part of the Climate and Sustainability Subcommittee. So, stay tuned!
Sadly, we’ve had to cancel most of our events this year because of COVID-19 but given how things are improving and the fact that children (and parents) need something to look forward to, we’re looking at hosting one or two events in term four. We’ll have more information in coming months.
We’re also working with the Balmain Fun Run Committee on the future of the run this year and again will come back to you when we know more.
Given the uncertainty and the unprecedented crisis, I think it’s important for us as a school community to have a clear understanding of what our priorities are. I’m keen to develop a three-year strategy that outlines priorities for the P&C as informed by you, the school community.
What resources do we want to invest in and how do we want to raise those funds? Which are the events that people want to see continue and the level of commitment/ volunteering we need to make it all happen, etc. Your feedback is critical to this process and I’ll come back to you in a few weeks with more information on how you can be involved.
As you can see, despite the shutdown there are still lots of things to look forward to and to get involved with this year. As we slowly go back to normal, we’ll continue to keep you updated. In the meantime, if you have any questions please email us at balmainpspc@gmail.com
Cheers,
Shehana, Victoria, Cliff and Alvin.
