CASTLE HILL HIGH P&C Association

General Meeting MINUTES

7.30pm on Wednesday 19th February 2020 at Castle Hill High School.

Meeting opened at 7.30pm Chair: Liga Hegner Minutes: Wendy Mynard

AGENDA

1. Attendance See attendance list at the end of these minutes.

2. Apologies Libby Madders, Riushaad George, Aaron Gan, Dearne Bennett, Nasreen Moonim (note that only notified apologies are included).

3. Confirmation of previous minutes

Confirmed: Ewa Graham Seconded: Liga Hegner

4. Business arising from previous minutes

• Nil

5.1 Correspondence IN

• P&C Federation emails and bulletins

• Letter from the Smith Family re: sponsor child

• Letter from ARPANSA

• Q&A from Environmental Health Trust

• Request to donate $3000

5.2 Correspondence OUT

• Notice of meeting to whole school, agenda and minutes to members.

• Response to anonymous donation

6b. Principal’s report

A warm welcome to all to the new school year and especially to new parents! Vicki presented a report on the 2019 HSC results and here are the highlights:

• There has been a steady performance and slight incline in terms of CHHS performance in the HSC Top Comprehensive Public Schools. Graph showed 2016-19. We have gone from 10th to currently 7th in the state amongst comprehensive high schools.

• In terms of the top 150 all NSW schools, Castle Hill HS achieved 89th and here is a snapshot of our local area: - Willoughby GHS – 67 - Cheltenham GHS - 80 - Hills Grammar – 84 - Cherrybrook THS – 88 - CHHS – 89 - Killara HS – 90 - Pacific Hills – 93 - William Clarke – 98 - Epping BHS – 117 - Carlingford HS – 124 - Turramurra HS – 141 - Gilroy, Oakhill, Rouse Hill Anglican College, Marion College – NOT in top 150.

• CHHS is a school for all comers! We challenge, build character, don’t charge the high fees and we perform well – this is not a one-off, this is a trend.

Some More Statistics for CHHS

• We have 7 All Rounders in the 2019 HSC. This means they achieved a Band 6 in 10 Units: Molly Donkin, Mark Perl, Sepehr Pirmoradi, Alannah Reynolds, Eve Shvartsman, Jessica Sullivan, Nicky Tang.

• 6th in state in Advanced English

• Highest ATAR – 99.7 Sepehr Pirmoradi

• 45 students gained an ATAR over 90.

• 29 courses had a school vs state mean greater than 1.0

• 26 courses had a school vs state mean greater than 2.0

• 16 courses had a school vs state mean greater than 5.0

• 2 courses (IPT and Aboriginal Studies) had a school vs state mean greater than 10.0.

• The following courses gained Band 6s more than 10% over the state mean: - Business Studies, Legal Studies – 10% - English EALD, Maths Standrd 2 – 11% - Community and Family Studies – 12% - Maths 2 Unit – 17% - French Continuers – 20% - Englineering Studies – 21% - IPT, French Beginners – 26% - Society and Culture – 29% - Design & Technology 33%

Questions

• Will the “no more out of area” for Gifted & Talented impact on our HSC results? This is going to be something to watch in terms of the trends. There are a number of significant factors that impact the results – teachers and the cohort make a real difference, not only CHHS cohort but the state cohort.

• The High Achievers Assembly is an excellent way to highlight those who have performed exceptionally well. The Dux is the speaker. Current Year 12 is the audience. There was discussion about expanding the audience but it is about the space (or lack of). Perhaps this can be filmed in the future and placed on Sentral for all to see. There is no venue for the whole school but this is not a problem just for CHHS – most schools have this issue.

• What can parents do to assist their child to perform well? Vicki feels that we need to “back off”. Be supportive, take a protective stance but let them find their way. Let them have secrets and let them make a mistake. The school can fix things and parents do not have to be involved in absolutely everything. They do need to be given space and to able to make the decision to come to us when they need to. Don’t try and fix their chaos for them! This advice resonated with many of the parents at the meeting in terms of their own historical experiences. Great advice Vicki!!!

• Academic Achievement is important but don’t forget the importance of other activities – the musical, Caso Rock, sports, annual showcase etc.. etc…

Other information

• 2020 numbers - 1921 students - 125 teachers - 20 admin staff

• The Year 7 Camp went very well, despite the rain.

7.1 President’s Report

• Liga welcomed all new families

• Liga introduce members of the Executive Team who were present.

• Congratulations to the parents of our P&C community whose children received

outstanding HSC results and those who received acknowledgement at the presentation

night at the end of last year.

o Liga mentioned that it was an honour for her to attend and to have the

opportunity to present awards.

o The P&C contibuted $20,000.00 to fund HSC tutors.

• Parenting ideas subscription:

o This will be included in the newsletter.

o It is budgeted for again this year.

• Business Unit’s: current process assessment and change initiative.

o Areas of process improvement have been identified by Trinity, Victoria, Adele

and Liga. The collective financial knowledge is mind blowing, much rhobust

discussion about how to move forward this year.

o Current model not sustainable for a number of reasons. The responsibilities are

now beyond what any volunteer organisation should have to manage.

o Making changes to align with business compliance, taxation and industrial

relations requirements

o Streamlining functionality

o Upgrading technology

• Ingrid volunteer of year nomination and awards dinner:

o 9 years of service

o Finalist for our region out of 16

o Wendy and Liga attending on Friday 28th February to support her

• Huge amount of administrative work ahead:

o File move to one drive: consolidation of 7 accounts

o Federation provided free access with unlimited storage – this was a result of

them finding that P&C Exec turnover across many P&C’s has been difficult, with

no hand over and a complete absence of historical documentation. This is to

safeguard us from that in the future

o Finance operations manual to be written in line with changes.

o Documentation of all roles and proper handover processes for each

o Making sure our employee job descriptions are up to date and contracts in place

for all

• Social media platforms:

o Review website and FB: discussion for the Executive Team whether need to

maintain

o Vigilance required. Need permanent moderation

• Grants: ongoing need for help

• Liga ended her report to announce we have started the year with an anonymous

$3000.00 donation.

7.2 Treasurer • This is Victoria’s first report as our new Treasurer and she is taking on the Business Units for now.

• Budget January to now – we are $40,000 ahead in terms of budget but of course the cost of goods has also increased. Other expenses are down on last year.

• Canteen and Uniform Shop figures are currently up on last year. Victoria has now met all of the Canteen and Uniform Shop staff.

• Building Fund has received a $3000 anonymous donation.

7.3 Canteen • POS system is being trialled and the students are very excited about it.

• Canteen staff distribute food that cannot be kept to the students.

7.4 Uniform Shop

• All going well.

7.5 EMR Panel • EMR group – EMERG - that our P&C has been involved in for 5-6 years – will not exist anymore. It has been going since 1997. Carolyn has been attending meetings in Melbourne, regularly. See correspondence attached.

• Great news – another mention for CHHS on the work we have done re: the mobile phone tips for students. The Environmental Health Trust is a world renowned USA site for all things wireless.

https://ehtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/WiFi-in-Schools-Toolkit-EHT.pdf See page 2 right at the top where it discusses how Castle Hill High School has tips to help students reduce phone radiation. (see attached)

7.6 Building Fund Panel

• Nil report

7.7 Events • Nil Report

8. Current Business

• Members present to pay gold coin if they wish to have membership and voting rights. Victoria will issue a receipt. Wendy to update records for 2020.

9. Business without notice

• Nil.

Meeting closed at 8.39pm. Next meeting Wednesday 18th March, 2020 at 7.30pm. General meeting – please bring a

gold coin for membership and right to vote at meetings if you did not do so at Feb meeting.

Signed as a true and accurate record:

President Secretary

25 02 2020

Attachments:

Attendance List, showing payment 2020

Apologies

Letter Smith Family

ARPANSA communication

Environmental Health Trust Q&A