Thank you all for your support during my term at Sunshine Beach State School. As communicated, Mr Steve Taylor will step into the Acting Principal role next term whilst the permanent recruitment process for the long-term school principal is finalised. It has been a privilege to work alongside the talented Sunshine Beach State School staff this term and interact in a school with such confident and respectful students.

In other staffing news, Gayle Howlett will be taking leave for the remainder of this year. Gayle has been a teacher at Sunshine Beach State School for 16 years and through her teaching skill and caring heart, she has positively impacted the lives of thousands of students. Thank you, Gayle, for your steadfast and joyful commitment to Sunshine Beach State School.

Another long-term staff member, Mr Greg Brennan officially retired this week. Greg had also been on staff at Sunshine Beach for 16 years. We wish Greg all the best as he steps into his retirement and acknowledge with thanks and gratitude, Greg's contributions to our students’ lives and to our school.

P&C Association – we need your help!!!

We have amazing parent volunteers for our class reps and to help with classroom roles as required. However, it has been difficult to fill the executive roles on the P&C.

Last Wednesday night, we had our school’s P&C meeting and Annual General Meeting. Our long-term president Steve Hunter was not renominating for president as he has graciously served in this role for 5 years and his youngest children are now at high school.

Unfortunately, it was a very small turn out for the meeting and of the four executive positions, we only solidly have a Treasurer. Thank you, Sally for continuing your outstanding service in this role. Steve has agreed to stay on as president for Term 2 however is not able to commit beyond that. If we are unable to form a functioning executive team for the P&C – the P&C will go into caretaker mode. Caretaker mode means that P&C operations shut down and the school takes on some of the operations of the P&C. 

What this means right now:

• We are actively encouraging nominations for the positions of President, Vice-President and Secretary.
• Term 2 fundraising and P&C organised events – e.g., Mother’s Day stall cannot go ahead at this stage.

What this means long term if we are unable to fill these positions:

• P&C goes into caretaker mode.
• Tuckshop service will be impacted – lessened service delivery (P&C operates the tuckshop)
• The fundraising capacity of the Tuckshop would be compromised as the school would need to utilise some of the tuckshop profit to employ an Admin Officer to complete the administrative jobs currently done by P&C exec team related to wage payment, payments to suppliers etc.
• P&C fundraising activities such as Jogathon, Father’s Day stall, International Food Fair are unable to go ahead.
• The major fundraising input that the P&C provides for student resources would be adversely impacted. P&C fundraising (mainly derived through tuckshop sales) over the last couple of years has been directed to the junior playground refurb, student lap tops, permaculture garden teacher, netball uniforms and digital resources.

I understand these roles can sound daunting on paper, however we have templates and processes in place to support. The school leadership team and previous P&C executive members will ensure that we are by your side to transition into a P&C executive role and assist with any required tasks. 

If you are interested, please let me know so that I can follow up with a chat to outline the roles within the P&C exec team and how we can support you with this role. There are only two P&C meetings per term to attend. P&C members and executive team officers can also be grandparents or community members who are supporters of our school. This is currently our most pressing priority as a school community- let’s work together to keep our P&C services and events running.

Thank you to the 2024 Executive team

The P&C plays a vital role to coordinate parent input which informs the school's strategic direction in a way that achieves the best learning outcomes for the school's students. Our school community is extremely grateful for the time and effort the 2024 P&C executive team have given to support our Sunshine Beach State School community events, as well as enabling our students to have access to additional resources, learning experiences and fun activities that add to the magic of primary schooling. Thank you to our wonderful 2024 P&C executive team:

Steve Hunter (President)
Lauren Rovers (Secretary)
Sally Imber (Treasurer)

And a grateful thank you to other 2024 executive members - Liz Boyd and Lauren Doherty.

Project funding wishlist for 2025

Thank you to all parents who completed the recent digital survey to consider the direction of 2025 P&C fundraising. The results are below:

• Enhancement to permaculture garden – 54%
• Playground expansion – 21%
• Netball / basketball design – 20%
• Tiered seating and mural – 5%

Several parents indicated their willingness to contribute to project teams, as per below:

• Student focused activities – 10 parents
• Environmental awareness & sustainability – 7 parents
• Fundraising, grants, and funding – 3 parents
• School grounds and infrastructure – 3 parents
• Community liaison & philanthropy – 2 parents

Based on this information, if our school community can establish a P&C executive, the next steps would then be to invite the interested parents from the environmental awareness and sustainability group to meet early in Term 2 and work with school team to outline an enhancement plan for the permaculture garden and propose this as focus of fundraising for the P&C. Thank you to all parents who nominated in these focus groups, we will call on your input as projects arise in the school related to these focus areas.

Wishing you all a safe and relaxing upcoming holiday break.

Lisa Cutter (Acting Principal)