69 | UWCSEA Annual Report 2019/2020
PARENT COMMUNITY We are fortunate to have an active and engaged parent community, and enjoy an exceptional level of support from parent volunteers.
Parents’ Associations On both campuses our hard-working Parents’ Associations (PA) are managed by an elected committee of enthusiastic volunteers—all parents at the school, who offer their time to serve the school community. In addition, a large number of parent volunteers support the many events and programmes run by the PA throughout the year. By helping parents connect with one another and to other important groups, the PA contributes significantly to one of the College’s most important strategic goals: to build a united, diverse and strong community. In a typical year, the PAs organise an exciting and diverse array of events and activities, from large, campus-wide events, to social coffees and lunches, to regular and one-off activities or outings. They are also generous supporters of the UWCSEA Foundation (refer to the Impact of Giving Report 2019/2020). This year, many of the events on the annual cycle of activities were interrupted by COVID-19; at the same time however, there were many opportunities to support the community in different ways. Our PA volunteers rallied and continued to contribute as class or grade-level and nationality representatives to coordinate information flow and feedback in these unusual times. Importantly, they were also integral in supporting our boarding and scholar communities during the trying period of lockdown and into the summer holidays when many could not travel home. Many boarding students were welcomed into the home of our community during this period. Events that did take place included buddy programmes to welcome new families joining the school in August 2019 and January 2020, support for the annual Admissions Open Days in September and October 2019, the annual High School Careers Fair and Transition to University events in early 2020, and welcome events for scholars at the start of the school year. Both Parents’ Association are registered as a society in Singapore under the Societies Act. They operate individually and have independent constitutions and Managing Committee structures which are governed by a constitution and bye-laws, with independently audited financial statements available to members each year.
