Message on behalf of the P & C

Are you thinking about how you can be a part of the school community? Come along and join the P&C! Tonight, Monday 18th March is the VAPS Parents and Citizens meeting and Annual General Meeting (AGM). It is being held on site at the school starting at 6.30pm and we are asking parents to attend if interested.

What is the Parents and Citizens Association?
The “Parents and Citizens Association” (P&C) is a group of parents, carers and local residents who volunteer their time and skills to help the Victoria Avenue Public School (VAPS) community.

Key ways our P&C contribute are:
- Coordinating services such as the uniform shop as well as subsidising certain items
- Driving fundraising activities to provide extra opportunities and resources to the school
- Organising community building events
- Acting as a liaison between the school and parents

We are incredibly proud of what we have achieved so far at our relatively young school. However, over the last few years we have had to drop some of the activities that we used to coordinate, such as the canteen and walking school bus, due to lack of volunteers. These were disappointing decisions that had to be made as there were not enough parents to volunteer some of their time, even on a one off basis, to support these functions.

We are a group of parents who just want to further enhance our kids' experience at the school. You will be surprised by how proud your children will be when they see you at the school helping out and how in turn that makes you feel.  I would like to say thank you to the parents who do turn up to support and volunteer, and hope that you can continue to support the P&C events when you can.

P&C plea
We desperately need some new volunteers!  Over the last few years we have lost a large number of our regular volunteers, mostly due to families moving away from the area, or children moving on to high school. This has left a  very small core group of volunteers who regularly donate their time. Unfortunately, it is always the same few people who volunteer, which puts huge amounts of responsibility on them and on us as a committee.

With more volunteers, we are able to lighten the load on any one person, as well as create more fun activities for the kids. All the current position holders have full time jobs, and fit their volunteering around work by helping out in the evenings with behind the scenes tasks (and trust me there are plenty of those!) or taking time off or accessing time in lieu. It is heartbreaking when we run an event and ask for volunteers, receiving little response and then see loads of parents turn up for the event. It is also hard for the same people who regularly volunteer to always work all of the events that are organised and not actually get time during the event to spend with their own family. More volunteers = less time for everyone!

I am writing this plea to you to ask that you consider becoming a volunteer for 2024, whether you are a new parent with a child in kindergarten or have been a parent at the school for many years. Please consider donating some of your time or skills to assist us in achieving all that we would like to in 2024.

We are not asking you to give up hours of your free time each week, we appreciate how precious that can be. Perhaps you have some down time at work and have the capacity to be able to coordinate a one off fundraising event like a raffle or stall? Perhaps you are in marketing and can design a poster for an event? Or perhaps offer an hour of your time occasionally to help out in the uniform shop on a Monday afternoon? Perhaps you have a fundraising idea or a suggestion on a fun activity for the kids?

Whatever way you can help, please come to our AGM tonight to hear more and to meet some of the friendly team. I really look forward to seeing you there!

Tash
P&C President