An Overview of the St Patrick's Community Council

The Community Council provides the opportunity for members of the school and Parish community to support the mission of Catholic education. The Council is your voice in the school community. The members are your representatives, and they support the Principal, the Parish Priest and other staff in providing leadership and direction for the school. Working with the Principal and staff, the Community Council members meet twice each term.

Regular council meetings serve as a forum for the sharing of information, opinions, ideas and plans toward the realisation of spiritual, cultural, social, educational, and recreational programs and activities that meet our school needs and interests.

The Community Council  membership shall be open to all parents, guardians, staff of St Patrick’s Parish School and members of St Patrick’s Parish. Meetings are fairly informal and take place normally in the 2nd and 7th week of the term at 5.30pm for one hour.

The School Community Council has a major role to play in our school by:

• Supporting the development of the Catholic identity, ethos and mission of the school.
• Providing a parent forum to find out more about the school and to receive feedback
• Helping to build community and supporting the engagement of parents 
• Promoting the school in the local community
• Developing partnerships between parents and teachers
• Supporting school initiatives through fundraising
• Providing advice on maintaining the school
• Developing, approving and monitoring the annual budget, including school determined levies, loan commitments and the fees collection and remission policy
• Assisting in local policy development
• Advising on student and parent support

It is envisaged to have a regular changeover of the Community Council’s parent members, with the usual term of membership being two years. This allows a greater number of parents to be involved over time and a variety of opinions can be heard on matters relating to the education at St Patrick’s Parish School.

At its simplest form, the Council can look something like this diagram, with committees of volunteers to undertake specific roles. This allows people to opt in for a limited time and to use their talents in specific ways.

Examples of committees might be a class parent network, marketing and communication group, school environment committee, finance committee, school fair committee, a catering group, uniform shop group, Parish representatives… the list goes on and is simply a way to meet our needs.                                      

As a result of this, it may regularly change.