CSPWA President's Welcome
As we have been saying now for the past few years … this year has been one like no other! The inevitable arrival of COVID into our WA community eventuated taking our experience to a whole new level with mask wearing and exclusions from school and work such a reality. Isolation and quarantining in great numbers greatly affected our communities especially in the early stages of the year. We have eventually transitioned to a stage where we are able to ‘live with’ COVID in our community and we are truly grateful to our school leaders who have navigated through these uncertain times.
Now that December has emerged as the month displayed as we glance at our calendars (and we exclaim “how did this happen?!), so emerges the end of year celebrations, final graduations, Christmas assemblies, Nativity re-enactments, end of year reports and so on. Term 4 usually flies by as so many projects are fulfilled and the culmination of much work is evaluated from the year gone. This time of the year is also when we transition our planning for 2023 into action to ensure a smooth commencement to next year.
The office of CSPWA is well and truly at this stage as the school year comes to its close. Much work has been done to assist many parent groups with their ACM’s and with the introduction of the Terms of Reference (ToR) to ensure compliance. This work will continue into the new year as new committees and the school communities continue to ensure good governance of the P&F groups. Our CSPWA staff are very happy to continue to assist P&Fs with the transition from the traditional constitution they have been operating with to a ToR document.
As always, we encourage a good handover from the current year’s P&F committee to the incoming group. Having a smooth, supportive transition can help get everyone off to a flying start in 2023. We encourage everyone who has a new Office Bearer position in the new year to attend the CSPWA Induction Evening on Thursday 2nd March at 6pm; it will cover the new P&F Terms of Reference, updated Office Bearer role descriptions (including new guidelines for the P&F Treasurer) and information on how to access our P&F resources. There will be a webinar available for regional and remote schools after the Induction Evening.
So, with the end of the year approaching I take the opportunity to thank the CSPWA councillors who willingly give of their time because of their passion for parent engagement in their children’s education, and I offer my heartfelt gratitude to our dedicated office staff Nicole, Jennifer and Siobhan. Their dedication, drive and enthusiasm is infectious and undoubtedly authentic. We are looking forward to another productive and successful year ahead in 2023.
Finally, on behalf of the staff and council of Catholic School Parents Western Australia, as we sit around our Christmas Trees, nativity scenes and Advent wreaths, I wish all our Catholic School families a very happy and safe Christmas, remembering the true meaning and celebrating the coming of Our Saviour.
Marina Hayward