Justine Hofman – Head of P&F

Exciting changes for the Emanuel School P&F!

Since COVID we’ve been rebuilding the Emanuel School P&F with the aim of engaging our parent community more meaningfully with our School. Over the past year-and-a-half, our committee-based structure has enabled parents and carers more opportunities to contribute and connect with other families through fun, community-minded initiatives.

We’ve had many parents and carers let us know where they are interested in getting involved and worked to match volunteers with particular events. It has been great to channel this enthusiasm from our School community! So far this year, over 40 volunteers have joined committees and more than 150 volunteers have contributed to running our events.

There have also been challenges facing the P&F. Getting volunteers to step up to look after the more time-intensive, ongoing demands of the P&F like financial reporting, communication and administrative tasks has not been easy. We are also working with a constitution that needs to be updated to reflect our School’s current and future requirements.

So, together with the School Executive Team and the School Board, the P&F formed a Structural Review Committee to look at ways the School and the P&F could collaborate more efficiently and for ways the School could provide greater support to the P&F. The Committee consisted of some parents within our community who have experience with Parents & Friends Associations, have legal and accounting expertise, or who are active on the School Board.

We consulted with the Association of Independent Schools NSW (AISNSW), Presidents of P&F Associations and Principals at other independent and Jewish schools in Melbourne and Sydney to learn about how their P&F’s were governed and the challenges and opportunities they faced. We learnt that many of our experiences were shared by other P&F Associations and Schools.

Some common themes emerged:

• Parents and Friends Associations are facing a decline in volunteerism, particularly in key executive roles due to time-poor and stretched families where both parents work.
• Many schools are providing administrative support and other resources to scaffold their Parents & Friends Associations by taking care of their administrative and financial functions.
• There is a trend towards bringing Parents & Friends Associations under school structures, partly for better collaboration in terms of utilising school resources and school property to run events, and partly due to governance requirements (particularly in maintaining and auditing financial records and for insurance purposes). This approach is particularly common in circumstances where the Parents & Friends Association does not run the canteen or the Out-Of-School-Care (OOSH) program, does not hire staff and is not required to enter into legal agreements with third parties. This structure is recommended as the most appropriate following a review of best practice governance of Parents and Friends operations with AISNSW.

After bringing these findings together, the Structural Review Committee, alongside our School Board and School Executive, determined the best way forward is for the Emanuel School P&F to come under the School’s administration.

Under this structure, the P&F wIll be governed by a Charter setting out its scope and function. It will maintain its purpose to engage, connect and represent the views for parents and carers of the school while also contributing to some fundraising for facilities and initiatives for the School. The intention is to see the P&F working more cohesively with the schools administrative team and more closely aligned with the School’s strategic goals. It will also mean the School will provide support to the P&F in financial management, marketing and administrative capacities.

We would like to invite the broader School community to consider the proposed P&F Charter P&F Charter and provide any feedback to the P&F Structural Review Committee for consideration. Please email any comments/concerns to pandf@emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au by the 11 August 2023.

The P&F would like to notify the community of the following upcoming meetings:

• The P&F Termly meeting to be held on School premises at 7.00 pm on 19 September 2023 (i11 in the Innovation Centre). The P&F intends to present the proposed new structure and Charter as an agenda item at this meeting.
• A P&F Special Resolution Meeting to be held in the same location as the P&F Termly meeting, immediately following the P&F Termly meeting, at 8.00 pm on 19 September 2023. At this meeting the P&F will hold a vote to officially rescind the P&F Constitution, via special resolution.

We look forward to seeing familiar faces and welcoming some new faces at the upcoming P&F meetings.

Primary School 40^th Shabbat Celebration 
RSVPs close soon 

Don’t forget to register to join our Primary School 40th Kabbalat Shabbat and Challah Make celebration on Friday 4 August 2023. For planning purposes we need final numbers by next Friday so please RSVP here.

Dates for the diary

• Friday 4 August 2023: Primary School 40^th Birthday Celebration (8.15 am – 10.10 am)
• Friday 25 August 2023: Father’s Day morning (7.00 am – 8.20 am)
• Friday 25 August 2023: Father’s Day Gift Stall (children shop during school)
• Tuesday 19 September 2023: P&F Termly Meeting at 7.00 pm 
• Pre-loved Uniform Shuk collection week: 18 September 2023 – 22 September 2023
• Monday 9 October 2023: Pre-loved Uniform Shuk Sale 
• Friday 3 November 2023 – Monday 5 November 2023: Spring Family Camping Weekend