Welcome
Feed back from last meeting
There were no outstanding items from the last meeting, not otherwise covered in the agenda.
Events
· International Week – Carrie Hodgson was thanked for organizing the musicians and dancers for International Week. Everyone agreed that they had been a success and thoroughly enjoyed by students, staff and parents. Y3 had also had the opportunity to spend some more time with a couple of the groups as part of their Unit of Enquiry. Sophia Panagos gave details of the fair, which would be held on the 7th from 10.30-2.30. The children would be given passports and each table/country they visited had flag stickers to give them. Brian Sack had produced a music video which would be played during the event.
· International Games Night – this would also be on 7 November and would be run along the lines of the Maths Night, with mainly French, Spanish and Latin and Modern Greek games.
· Fun Run – Not as many children were running from BISNY this year. Amy would be at the meeting point in the Park from 9 am with a placard. All the tshirts and information had been handed out to the children who were running
· Mum’s Night – a reminder had gone out via Paperless post for this event on 11 November. Shu was doing the catering and the food looked and sounded delicious.
· Dad’s night – Andrew Topen had booked Tuttles for 13 November and invitations had gone out.
· Used Halloween Costumes – Money would be donated to the Right to Play and left over costumes had been taken to a goodwill store.
· Operation Gratitude/UNICEF – Lesley and Katrina asked that the UNICEF boxes and Halloween candy be brought back to school by Friday 7th so that they could sort the candy and separate the coins. UNICEF had written asking if they could visit the school. The letter should be passed to Ms Ghouse. Ms Grainsky, Ms Smith and Ms Tregenna were the staff involved in community service/charity donations.
School Photos and Uniform
The photos were available and sibling photos taken. Some people were a bit confused about how to get the class photo, which was an additional item at the bottom of the packages page.
Charity Drives
There was some discussion about holding food or clothing drives, especially associated with Thanksgiving. It was agreed that it was too much for the school to organize, but perhaps something close to Thanksgiving such as a food drive in conjunction with City Market could be done. There should a be a short window of opportunity to donate items, so as not to clutter the front office etc.
Guest speakers at PA meetings
Last year Mrs Carter had come to speak about school lunches and this was very successful and well received. It might also be possible for the language and music specialists to come and explain the curriculum etc as long as they were early in the meeting because of teaching commitments. It was agreed that this would be a good idea.
Ms Ghouse
Ms Ghouse began by thanking the PA for organizing International Week.
Each House in the school had selected a charity, and house points meant a donation from the school to these charities, such as Right to Play and WaterAid. Students in MYP were required to undertake some charitable work as part of the IB program and in Y9 it was quite formal and a graduation requirement.
The timings for the Winter Concert on 12 December would be available shortly.
Future Events
Folk Dance Night – it was suggested that it be moved from December to the Spring and possibly hold it out on the Plaza. This would involve permissions from the Plaza management and Stacy would contact Will and Michele Shwarz to set this in motion. It was suggested that it might be included in Arts Week, but definitely shouldn’t clash with the play. A chairperson is needed.
Movie Night – at the end of January – needs a chairperson
Open Floor
· There was a request that the play not have so many rehearsals, especially for those with minor roles. The number of rehearsals was a factor which discouraged people from signing up.
· Weill Cornell medical center were looking for volunteers as they were studying the neural function at the center for autism.
· Some parents did not receive the weekly HM news, and others found information was sporadic. One parent did not know that the reception class had been on a field trip until the return. There was a lengthy discussion about class websites and where information could be found. It was agreed that Ms Ghouse would ask Rodrigo to put a link to the various class websites on the parent portal, in an effort to streamline the processes parents have to go through to find information and especially diary dates.
· 5JC would need a new class rep from January
The next meeting will be on 4th December and agenda items should be sent to [email protected] by 1st December.