// Community Engagement Parents and Friends The St Hilda’s P&F Association continues to facilitate engagement between parents, the school and students, to enhance and develop a special experience for our school community. All parents are encouraged to get involved and contribute to the life of our wonderful school. The P&F Association is a volunteer and service-based association, totally dependent on the generosity, dedication and talents of our committee and membership group. There are regular meetings and activities are reported in the St Hilda’s newsletter and via the School App. Throughout the year the St Hilda’s P&F Association and the Year Group Representatives arrange many events providing opportunities to come together in Year groups and as a whole school community. In 2020 the P&F hosted the Welcome to School Sundowner, which was well attended by new and returning families. They provided food, drinks, parent name badges and entertainment, and made families feel welcome on our campus. 26
During Arts Festival they provided the refreshments to students with the help of parent volunteers. Parents usually attend Arts Festival to watch the costume parade, solo performances and House dances, and always lend a helping hand to the P&F, while on campus. Due to COVID-19 in 2020, a number of events had to be cancelled or postponed. The Dusty Boots and City Suits evening, which is held at Steve’s Hotel, and the combined CCGS and St Hilda’s Soiree, which is held at Freshwater Bay Yacht Club, had to be cancelled. Both events are usually well attended and filled with good food, music, dance and laughter.
However, they still managed to host two very successful events. The Cheese and Wine Mixer, which facilitated communication and sharing of ideologies between P&F members and committee members. The Christmas Sundowner demonstrated the true spirit of St Hilda’s by bringing together parents, students, teachers and the community. Our very talented musical students’ performance of the Christmas carols was harmonious and joyful. The P&F worked collaboratively with the Music department, Alliance Catering, Facilities Team and the School’s Event and Liaison Coordinators. Each year the P&F generously contributes to funding requests from the School, parents and students. The P&F was able to fund these requests from membership fees and fundraising. Fundraising is usually attained through selling Entertainment Books and the Mango Madness Drive. However, due to COVID-19, we were not able to raise any funds in 2020. At the Special General Meeting in December a new committee was voted in for 2021. The members are: President
Nivrithi Naidoo
Senior School Vice President
Anthea Cooke
Junior School Vice President
Sivabalan Vasudavan
Secretary
Eileen Sullivan Roost
Treasurer
En Khong
General Committee - Jane Aberdeen, David Fleming, Shahron Prosser, Melanie Roberts, Julia Shadlow-Bath.
Community Survey Results In Term 3, St Hilda’s undertook an online survey of current parents of day students and current parents of boarding students to identify the needs and priorities of the St Hilda’s community and gauge these findings against previous benchmarks. Data was collected between the 27th of July and the 23rd of August 2020. Overall satisfaction with the School remains very high with advocacy increasing, particularly with parents of day students. St Hilda’s commitment to teaching and learning remains the highest rated key performance indicator with improving the quality of teaching and parent-teacher dialogue being areas of critical importance.
