What a huge finish to the year for the students, especially year 6!

From camp, to Whirligig, the Jazz picnic, Clovelly Farm working bees, bake sales, the tea towel project, and the mini fete, it has been the busiest term 4 on record!

To the parent and community volunteers who leaned in to make all of this happen, as well as the extra effort by the teachers, a massive thank you from all of us at the P&C.

At long last the School Hall Project is gaining momentum. The tender for the construction contract has closed and we expect it will be awarded before the end of term, by the Dept of Education. Stay tuned for the construction timeline. Thanks again to all those who have already donated to the project, we will relaunch the campaign in the new year once the final scope and price are confirmed.

The P&C applied and were successful in gaining the NSW Government Community Building Partnership Grant. Assisted by the ever-supportive Dr Marjorie O’Neill MP, the $120,000 grant for the school hall project will be matched by the Department of Education bringing the total value to $240,000; a huge amount which will really help ensure the new school hall project is brought to life.

I would like to extend a big thank you to the P&C members involved in pursuing and securing this grant; it really is a huge win for the school and our community.

I would also like to thank COOSC for their very generous $90,000 donation to the project which will also help the school maximise the execution of the much-needed hall upgrade.

The Clovelly Farm is taking shape following the initial budget support from the P&C, and ongoing support from CPS regarding upkeep and integrating the veggie buddies program into the school curriculum from 2023.

The first working bee was a great success with more volunteers than jobs!

We were able to clear the area and build the first planter bed. Since then the shed and compost bins have been constructed, along with the Clovelly Farm stickers being placed on the water tank.

We have a few more working bees planned for the final few weeks of term to build the remaining 4 planter beds.
A big shout out to the working bee volunteers and David Walsman. David is the brains behind all of this and will be donating the veggie buddies program.

Wow another action-packed year is ending! It’s been a year of fresh beginnings and change.

We have been able to open our kitchen again to volunteers, which has been great. It’s lovely meeting so many new families, something we haven’t been able to do for the last couple of years. Your help is much appreciated and ensures we can deliver our fresh meals to the kids on time.

Based on our observations and feedback from the community we have made a few operational and menu changes. Those being frozen items no longer go out in the lunch tubs. Instead, the children receive a frozen item voucher that they bring up to the canteen and exchange for frozen items fresh from the freezer. We have streamlined our supply chain, increased our selection of healthy options, introduced uniforms, and phased out frozen cups. Single-use plastics are no longer used; they have all been replaced by compostable materials.

One of the main canteen highlights this year was celebrating Grandparents Day with the school community. Yestyn and Ernie’s nan, Jude helped with the baking of 642 scones while Lucia’s grandma Mabel delivered the gluten-free scones from Wholegreen Bakery, a true team effort.

Sadly, with primary schooling coming to an end for our year 6’s means we bid farewell to another lovely cohort and some of our volunteers. Lucia’s amazing grandma Mabel will be wrapping up her canteen service on December 16th. Mabel has been part of the canteen family for 4 years helping every Friday. We will miss her dearly and we wish Mabel and her family all the best with the exciting times ahead.

On behalf of the canteen, we would like to thank everyone for their support over the year.

We love what we do and look forward to serving up more goodies and fun memories for the children in 2023.

Happy & safe holidays from Team Canteen (Amy, Kathryn, Trudy and Boris)

It was wonderful to see the school community come together for a night of great music and good company at this year’s Jazz Picnic held last Friday.

Each of the bands showed off the results of their hard work and dedication (and early morning rehearsals) over the year.

Thank you to Murray Jackson (Band Director), Ms Grentell (School Liaison), Mr Jackman (for rustling up the food truck), the Canteen team, COOSC, our awesome parent volunteers, and all the parents and friends who came along to support the bands and enjoy the music.

We’ve got great numbers for next year’s training band – so we are very excited to see the Band Program back to its usual strength after a tough few years of COVID.  Special congratulations to members of the Intermediate, Senior and Stage Bands who stuck with it through zoom lessons and rehearsals – after a good year of being able to play together, you sounded amazing.

Finally, thank you to Tini Mathies, our retiring FOTB Treasurer, for all your support of the Band Program.  Tini has done an incredible job and we will really miss her!

Your FOTB Committee

2022 Tea Towels

This year’s class tea towels proved popular, with more than 650 ordered and approx $1,500 fundraised for the school.

The students and teachers all shared their artistic self-impressions on the seven tea towels, a special way to capture this moment in time for Clovelly Public School families.

Christmas Trees & Puddings

What a lovely morning divvying out Christmas Trees and Puddings! I had lots of helpers, big and small. Lots of creative ways to take the trees home and lots of bugs to find amongst the trees, the kids loved it!

Thank you to all my lovely volunteers who gave up their morning (especially after all the Jazz Picnic fun). I’m still waiting for the final figures but we raised upward of $1,300.

Happy Holidays everyone,

Love Andrea