ABOUT YOUR CURRENT CLEVEDON SCHOOL SUPPORTERS (CSS) (nee PTA)                       

 
Rae Poole has been on the CSS for 3 years and hasn’t gone mad yet....in fact feels this team of women are just warming up and there are many good times ahead. With  4 boys at the school, involvement with the CSS, summer polo, and a small corporate food experience business there are never enough hours in the day! Some ask why does she do it?? That’s simple...the school is the heart of the community and it is important to have strong role models helping the kids get what they need in their classrooms and when it’s as much fun as this team is being part of the CSS it’s a no brainer!

 Anuwela Howarth recently moved into the hood after living overseas, I have two daughters at the school and one son ready to attend already although only two years old! I have been on the CSS this year, 2011 and been very busy creating a multitude of signage and artwork needed for the recent Garden Party and now pending Baa Baa Race event. It has been an enjoyable time and as a result of joining the team have made new friends and feel part of a great rural community with a great school.

Di (Diana) Bilbrough joined the CSS at the beginning of 2011 and we have two children Lily and Charlie at Clevedon School. To me being involved in my kids school life is a real privilege, as it not only enhances and broadens my life, I get to carry on the legacy of my parents who were very involved in our primary years which I remember with pride. We are also new residents to Clevedon area and through the CSS I have been able to meet lots of other parents, community people and spend time with the fantastic CSS girls organising great events. We have been living overseas for the past 4 years in Singapore and Bahrain and having missed the kiwi style of life, we love the fact that our kids attend a wonderful rural NZ school.

 Leanne Chamberlin has been living in Clevedon for 7 years, having spent most of her life in Papakura. She is married to Mark, and they have two daughters – Amy (5) and Zara (4).  Leanne has a background in communications, and currently works part-time for Manurewa High School in a media liaison role.  When she’s not working, looking after children, or running the family horse-agistment farm, Leanne hopes to be able to make a positive contribution to the school’s fundraising activities.

Liz Gasson is enjoying her second year on the CSS  - a group of fun loving and motivated parents. I am currently teaching 3 days per week at Ramarama Primary School. Prior to my current role, I worked as a teacher at Clevedon School before leaving to have three children – Pippa (6), Holly (5) and Ben (4). I am married to Brian, himself a past pupil of Clevedon School and whose father (Maurice Gasson) is well known in the community as past principal of the school.  Our family loves being a part of Clevedon School and the community and we are all excited about the amazing events planned for this year.

Ambassador Programme

The Clevedon School Supporters have introduced the Ambassador Programme which uses parent representatives from each class to be the contact point for the school and the CSS.

Typically they have collected all the parents contact details from their respective classroom and some classes have already organised a get together, to get to know other parents in the class!.

They have been very valuable when baking has been required (such as for the swimming sports and catering for 130 people at the James Nottingham discussion) and are also a great point of contact if in an emergency we need to circulate a message to all (eg if the power goes off and the sanitary system fails).

The CSS are grateful to the parents who have volunteered their this year.

NEW STRUCTURE AND APPROACH FOR THE CSS

At the June Board meeting a combined PTA and BOT group agreed that the PTA should become a sub-committee of the Board.  This was done for three reasons.

Firstly, legislation changes around charities meant that if the PTA remained a separate entity and in its current form, then 30% of its fundraising income would be taxed and given to the government.  It was obvious that this sort of tax burden should be avoided at all costs.

Secondly, the BOT was very keen to establish closer ties with the PTA and use the combined resources of both groups to the benefit of our children.

Thirdly, under its current elected committee structure, the PTA was having difficulties attracting willing volunteers.  Everyone felt that this reluctance to come forward was due to the belief that a commitment to help was a long term burden.  As a result of this lack of help, the burden was falling on the shoulders of a few. 

Therefore Parents can now choose to assist on one project at a time, with no future obligations. We believe this will fit better with increasingly busier families and allows the sacrifice to be more timely, more focused and most of all more rewarding and fun to be part of!!!

Over the course of several discussions, the BOT and PTA agreed a new working structure and mandate to address the three issues above.  Everyone felt that changes would be beneficial to all concerned.

The new approach can be summarized as follows:

1. The sub-committee would be called the Clevedon School Supporters and its mandate is to facilitate community engagement through events.  Its secondary purpose is to raise funds.  Everyone felt that successful fundraising is the logical conclusion of a great community event.
2. This group would evaluate potential events and seek approval from the BOT to proceed.  This group would also be the conduit for people with community event ideas to approach the School.
3. Each event would be formed as a project with a dedicated project team (that may or may not include people from the Clevedon School Supporters).  This project team would plan and run the event, enrol as many helpers as it needed, and then disband removing any fears of long term burden for our volunteers.

So, for example if someone/or group of parents had an idea for a parent version of a quiz night, they would then contact the Clevedon School Supporters.  The Clevedon School Supporters would discuss the merits of the idea and if appropriate and achievable, they would ask the BOT to initiate the project and delegate running the event to the person/or group who had the idea in the first place.  The person/or group would then enrol the people required to successfully run the event and make it happen.

We all believe it is a simple and efficient structure, but it is a bit different so we are going to run with it for six months and then review it as we do for everything.

If you do have an idea for parent community events please contact any of the following who are the inaugural members of the new Clevedon School Supporters through the School office.

BOT / CSS