QCPCA

To say the last two months have been busy would be an obvious understatement. Taking on the role as President has meant quite a large commitment by myself and I must say to all of the QCPCA team. My main goal is to keep QCPCA an effective link between Parent’s & Citizen’s Associations and other organisations. The efforts and achievements of 2005/2006 officers and state executive have been very significant and reach across all areas and issues affecting every state school. I can only hope to provide the leadership to our organisation that it is accustomed to. One of the many challenges is to always work on ways to build and maintain greater efficiencies in they way we communicate from within QCPCA to our Affiliated members and other organisations.

I have always been passionately involved with my children’s schools and their educational journeys from preschool to university. I would always encourage all parents to be involved with all aspects of their children’s educational journey. If we demonstrate an active engagement and interest in their education they will see that we value it and thus they will be more inclined to value their opportunities as well. After all, the youth of today will be the leaders of tomorrow and we all hope to be living our retirement with confidence that our and their futures will be secure. Therefore I see one of the largest challenges facing all P & C’s is to actively participate in the school community to ensure that all students have equitable access to educational opportunities.

We at QCPCA are ready to tackle the challenges of the year ahead. We will monitor the roll out of the full time Prep Year across the state and will be relying on all primary school communities to assist us in that process. We have been advocating strongly for improved teacher aid time for Prep Classes. There have been increases in the models and we know we will continue to monitor the achievements of next year so we can be assured that the prep year is successful.

As important, will be the continued implementations of ETRF for senior school and the middle phases of schooling. The ongoing challenges for schools in implementing & monitoring many of the new initiatives promises to provide an exciting time ahead. We, as your collective voice to Education Queensland, Government and Industry, need for P & C’s to keep us informed of the issues that matter. We know an individual P & C can always liaise directly through the communication channels of Education Queensland and other organisations but we are often aware that your issues are similar to other P&C’s/schools and we can advocate for results for you by presenting issues supported by multiple examples. Please communicate with us by your most convenient method. Our regional network is quite vast and is easily accessible. If you are not aware of your regional contacts please ring and ask or check our web site. By working together we can achieve more and by letting us know about your issues we can support your school communities better.

We have recently completed our State conference and AGM – this year it was held at the Mecure Hotel in Brisbane. It never fails to impress me when I see parents from around the state coming together for the benefit of their children.

As usual we covered a great deal of ground in the education sector and delegates spoke passionately on a range of topics that impact on our kids. There is a conference report a little later in Parent Talk, but I thought I would share with you some of the issues that were discussed:

•  We will be calling on the Government to provide mandatory teacher / teacher aide supervision of all designated student set down and pick up zones
• A constitutional change to allow the State Executive to appoint a person to be an adjunct member to assist with special projects or provide expert input at that level.
• Concern was raised about the escalating cost of education and ensuring parents were given advance notice of costs so they can be planned for.
• The development of a QCPCA position paper and policy statement on Chaplaincy in schools
• QCPCA opposes the expansion of the Australian Technical Colleges concept that takes away from the State’s TAFE system. Those colleges already in place will be supported
• QCPCA will closely monitor the rollout of the Prep Year and survey all Primary Schools during 2007
• Concern was raised about the conditions and volume of work expected of school Administration & Ancillary staff and the impact it has on our children

This certainly gives us a fantastic launching pad to represent you, our affiliates in the coming year.

I am committed to continue the tremendous work that has been achieved by Wanda Lambert and the QCPCA Team and ask that all P & C’s assist us in maintaining our relevance to you. We can only hope to achieve to the level that we are supported by our affiliates.

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