Easter Gourmet Hamper Guessing Competition

The annual Darlington Public School S&C EASTER GOURMET HAMPER GUESSING COMPETITION is back!

Please bring donations to the School office before Thursday 29th March

gourmet food • recipe books easter eggs • chocolate • wine • baskets • jams • chutneys


Ticket books will be going out in children's bags over the next week, there are extra books at the office if yours doesn't make it home!

Back to school

Happy 2012!

No doubt there are many excited kids out there raring to get back to school (and possibly some excited parents).

Just to let you know that from now on the S&C meetings will be held on the FIRST Wednesday of every month. So that means this Wednesday for the first one.

I realise it's a busy week for most of us, but it would be great to see you there. A great opportunity to get moving and plan out the year.

Cheers

Pete

Darlington School & Community Association (S&C):

President - Pete Wilson
Vice Presidents - Rebecca Askew, Michael Keating
Treasurer - Jen Burn
Secretaries - Anna Butler, Suzy Pickles

Hi Everyone

A last minute change of plans for this Wednesday’s meeting. As the final school week wraps up there are quite few things on, such as the Year 6 Farewell, which means many staff won’t be able to make the meeting.

Given many of the agenda items do require input and sign-off from the school, we thought it might be best to cancel the meeting and hit the ground running next year.

But we also thought it might be a good time for a very informal catch up at the pub (The Royal on Abercrombie Street). The S&C Executive will be down there from around 6pm on Wednesday if you fancy a shandy or two.

Thanks to all those who have contributed items to the agenda. They have been noted and if you would like any of us to follow up in the meantime please let us know. Or perhaps we can discuss on Wednesday night?

And one final thing. Due to a few people’s schedules we are planning on changing S&C meetings to the FIRST WEDNESDAY every month next year (that makes February 1, 2012 our next date).

Thanks again for your involvement with Darlington PS and if we don’t see you Wednesday night, have a great Christmas and enjoy the break.

Cheers

Pete and the S&C Executive

Darlington School & Community Association (S&C):

President - Pete Wilson

Vice Presidents - Rebecca Askew, Michael Keating

Treasurer - Jen Burn
Secretaries - Anna Butler, Suzy Pickles

With respect we acknowledge the Gadigal people as the custodians and traditional owners of the land where our children go to school.

"Voluntary School Levy - NSW Government policy enables all schools to request contributions from parents to enhance their School's educational and sporting programmes. School contributions are voluntary and payment is a matter for decision by parents. The voluntary school contribution for 2010 is $100 per child for the year, and payments can be made at the office. The S&C would like to encourage all families to make this valuable contribution to our school."

If you would like to receive emails from the S&C, please send an email to darlo.parents@hotmail.com with "subscribe" in the subject line.

Preschool Funding Campaign

As many of you will have heard, the State government has increased the fees for preschool by more than double. As the childcare rebate is not available for preschools in public schools our wonderful preschool at Darlington is threatened with closure due to low numbers.

Click on these links to read some recent newspaper articles about the issue:

August 16: Spelling out how NSW preschools can do better

September 8: Preschool fees move has parents doing sums and raising expectations

October 9: Preschool fee jump pressures parents

October 27: Preschool fee backdown is cheery news (for some schools)

October 28: Child's play no more - preschool enrolments tumble with new fees

November 1: A good early start is a child's best chance

To send a form letter to the NSW Premier, Barry O'Farrell, NSW Minister for Education, Adrian Piccoli, and your local State MP, go to Stop Fees in DEC Preschools at the NSW Teachers Federation Website. Please add a personal message if possible.

Best of all, please download the petition at the Redwatch website, get it filled out and return to the S&C President (details on the form).

Thank you to everyone

Just a quick note to say thank you to all involved with the Halloween Fete last Saturday and to all of you who came along. It was a great success. Bec Askew was phenomenal in bringing it all together, ably assisted by a great team on the stalls, a stellar bunch of performers, as well those of you who came along and departed with a few bucks to help our school out. I hope you had a good time.

It was also a terrific opportunity for the Darlington Public School Community to come together. It’s always great meeting new parents and those parents you don’t usually bump into during the hurried drop offs and pick-ups. We’re a good bunch, I reckon.

And most importantly, we raised $12,000!! A great effort. More news soon on where these valuable funds will be spent to further improve the great thing we’ve got going at Darlington.

Cheers

Pete
[S&C President]

Fantastic Halloween Fete

Dear Everyone,

Firstly a huge thank you for all your time effort in volunteering your time at the fete on Saturday. It was great to see so many smiling faces around the school, and you really helped make the day the huge success that it was. And thanks also to all of you who invited friends, family and neighbours along – I saw lots of grandparents, aunts and uncles all added to the atmosphere. I got feedback from lots of people that they really enjoyed the relaxed feeling, and that they felt welcomed into our school community – I think this is why we had so many people there from outside the school!

Thank you also to those of you who helped in the lead up to Saturday, whether it was selling wristbands at the gate, getting publicity for the event (we were promoted in a number of places including the City of Sydney site and the SMH Events section and I think even on ABC radio), helping sort out the massive amount of “stuff” we had donated to us, or setting up in the morning on Saturday.

We still have some money to collect from the silent auctions, but it looks, at this stage, like we have raised around $12,000 for our school!

Thanks once again, and I hope you had a really great day on Saturday – I know I did!

Bec
[Our Wonderful Fete Organiser]

Halloween Fete reminder

Hi everyone,

The school website is having problems being updated at the moment so may as well keep the blog running for a bit.

Don't forget the huge Halloween Fete is on this Saturday from 10 - 4. We are still asking for donations for the stalls:

• crafts, toys, games
• books, toys
• bric-a-brac
  
• records, dvds, cds
• preserves, jams, pickles
• biscuits, breads, cakes, slices, muffins (can be dropped off in the canteen on friday or the morning of the fete)
• quality products / vouchers for the silent auction
• bottles of wine, bath oils, food oils, food products etc for the Tombola Stall
• gifts for raffle baskets like soaps, oils, stationery, wine, gourmet foods, scarves, coffees, teas, nice cane baskets

Have a look at All recipes for some great Halloween cupcake ideas!