Welcome To Term 1
A very warm welcome back to the 2020 school year. I hope that you all managed a break of some kind and also an opportunity to spend time with your children and extended family.It would be difficult to move forward however without reference to the catastrophic fires which hit many of our communities around the country over the school holidays. Although in WA, the Katanning community has suffered significant losses and heartbreak this weekend, WA in general managed to escape the worst. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all our friends and families in Catholic school communities and indeed all communities across the country. It is never more important than at times like these for schools and parents to be working together to ensure our children and young people feel supported, as they manage the feelings and concerns they may be struggling with as a result of these extreme weather conditions, drought, fire and now torrential rain. Please ensure that you take the time to touch base with your child’s teacher to ensure you both know the best ways to contact with other.
The staff members of CSPWA have all hit the ground running since the office re-opened last Tuesday. We have been delighted to hear from those of you who have called the office looking for advice for the beginning of the year and it sounds like many of you will be having your first meetings in the next couple of weeks. Don’t forget to encourage the members of your parent group and the wider school community to ‘like’ Catholic School Parents WA on Facebook so that they can access the articles and information that we post on a daily basis. We will also be using FB to post information about our State Conference which this year takes place on 5th and 6th June. As with the last two conferences the opening dinner will take place at the Astral Ballroom at Crown on the Friday evening with the Conference itself being held this year at Catholic Education WA offices in Leederville. More information about that further down in the newsletter.
Towards the end of 2019 we commenced work on the CSPWA Strategic Plan 2020 – 2023. Laura Allison from CEWA very kindly gave up a Saturday morning as did many parents to come along and brainstorm ideas regarding the future goals and aspirations for CSPWA. The session was conducted through a strength based lens and this provided a really positive approach in taking the plan forwards. The Strategic Plan will be launched towards the end of Term 2 and a copy will be forwarded to all.
The Conference and Strategic Plan are just two of the pieces of work we are engaged in at the moment, with lots of other ideas and plans in the pipeline. It is however very important to Catholic School Parents WA that we are working on initiatives and resources that will benefit parents in our Catholic school communities and to that end we would love to hear from you. If there is any assistance you require or perhaps you would like a resource developed to assist you with a specific challenge please don’t hesitate to give us a call to chat about how we can help.
Theresa and I are looking forward to getting out and about over the next few weeks to meet with parent groups who have been in contact with us. We are looking forward to hearing your plans and hopefully being able to assist you with these.
Volunteering, sadly, seems to be on the wane in many places including our school communities. I would like to finish with a wonderful quote from one of our very dear councillors, Mrs Agnes Weymouth. Almost twenty years ago Agnes wrote:
“We live in turbulent times when substantial distrust exists between people, government and nations. It would be easy to excuse ourselves by not taking any responsibility for the affairs of the world and society around us – thinking there is nothing we can do. However as individuals and organisations we can at all times be honest with ourselves and honest with others and respect all people regardless of nationality, creed or political persuasion. Let us all continue to be known for our caring quality, integrity and trustworthiness”.
I find these works totally inspirational and I hope you do too. I wish you all a happy and successful 2020 with both your fundraising and in particular your friendraising!
God bless !
Siobhan