Policy Reminder

Just a quick reminder to all parents to let us know if your child will not be attending After School Care on a day for which they are booked. If we don’t know that they are coming, we will waste valuable time and resources looking for them to ensure that they are safe. A quick text or phone call on the day is all it takes. We really appreciate your co-operation.

Also if your family is a casual user of the centres or you have permanent bookings and wish to add extra days on a casual basis we do require that you provide us with a written request.  This can be by email, text to the centre supervisors or by filling in the diary available on the front desk at each centre. This protocol is to remove the potential for misunderstanding which might result in a child not being accounted for.

Fundraiser Update

Unfortunately, our chocolate drive has stretched out much longer than we had hoped. The good news is that we have so far raised about $900! We still have about 6 boxes of chocolates to sell in the fridge at Nth Perth, just waiting for sellers. Since we have already paid for the chocolates, each of these boxes represents pure profits. A few families still need to get their money in, so be quick because we have prizes for the family who sells the most chocolates!

With the proceeds we are going to buy uniforms and badges for staff. We are hoping this will go a long way to helping our professional image as well as making recognition of staff a lot easier. Staff will be voting on a short-list, but it will be up to kids to decide what shirt we’ll look best in. Help us to be in our new uniforms early next term by selling just a few more chocolates.

Calling for Committee Members

NORPOSC is a not for profit organisation managed by a committee of volunteer parents/carers drawn from North Perth and Highgate Primaries.  We employ qualified staff to run the centres.  

We are looking for at least 2 more committee members to meet our constitutional requirements and ensure our continued viability.   We welcome all interest and would currently really benefit from members who can contribute in the areas of

• IT support
• Human resource management
• Child development; or
• Fundraising and grant applications activities

Our service relies on parents/carers getting involved so please register your interest by emailing: norpcommittee@optusnet.com.au and a committee member will be in touch. 

Current Committee members are:

Karen Chew – President (Highgate)

Reuben Norris – Dep. President (Nth Perth)

Charles Gilkes – Treasurer (Highgate)

Lisa Hamilton – Secretary (Nth Perth)

Email Communications

We would like to move to sending out invoices and other important information by Email.  To this end we will be emailing all families for whom we have current Email addresses to ask that you are happy to receive information in this way and for families where we don’t have an email address we will be asking you to supply one. For those who do not wish this or do not have Email access we will of course continue to provide paper based invoices and information.

North Perth Centre Update

As the newest member of our team, I should probably introduce myself. For those who I haven’t met yet my name is Maija and I’m from Finland. I have a bachelors’ degree of Social Services and I’m also a qualified kindergarten teacher. I’ve been traveling around the world for the last six years, but I’m now happily settling down in Perth.

It’s been girl power at North Perth this term.   Mat is really busy with uni, so we won’t see him until next holidays. But not to worry , our energetic female trio will still be working.  Amazing Amanda works on Mondays and Wednesdays.  Olivia will entertain us on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Lovely Hailey joins us on Mondays.

We have started a few new routines this term.   We introduced Drop Everything And Read (DEAR) time last term and will keep on doing that every day. DEAR time is a great time to relax after a long day at school or provides an opportunity to do some homework.   We’ve also been trying different kinds of sports, trips to the secret play ground, having a cooking studio, doing heaps of crafts and just having a good time playing with friends.

On Thursday afternoons we have a club for older kids, year 4 and above. Olivia will plan the program with the club and they will do different kinds of activities as their own group. This gives older kids a great opportunity to have some time by themselves and do some activities that are targeted for their age group.

We are always happy to talk with parents about the centre or your child’s progress, when you drop in to collect your child.  However  if you want to have a more in depth discussion or to talk in a more private setting, I am now available on Friday afternoons in the office (at the front of the Town Hall).  Please just drop in or ring to make an appointment for a specific time.

Maija Raittinen, Assistant Director and North Perth Supervisor

Highgate Centre Update

I’m sure everyone has had a chance to meet our newest staff member, but I would like to officially introduce everyone to Lucy. Lucy has recently moved over to Perth from Rome, Italy. Her last job was working with traumatized and troubled children, so I think she is finding Highgate nice and relaxing. Lucy also has a Masters degree in Child Cognitive Psychology. I think we can all agree that she’s a wonderful asset to our staff team.

We have recently decided to try and shift our programming to be more ‘project-centred’. This means that children will get to be part of a project that will last over at least one week. They will get to work on it from its inception to finish. We have found that the children feel a sense of achievement and pride when their project has been completed, much more so than with single day activities. The idea for this method of programming started with the Uthando Doll project and watching the children’s commitment to ‘getting the job done’.

Our first big project has sprung up out of need.  Most of you will have seen our rickety bookshelves.  Well, instead of buying new shelves, the children and staff have been working hard to fix, strip, re-design, paint, collage and mosaic them into a fabulous asset for our centre. I would like to make a special mention to Elena and Carys who removed all of the old wheels; Leila who helped me put on new ones; Maia, Luke, Thomas, James, Morrigan and Lewei who worked super hard to strip off the old melanine; Adrian who helped screw in the new brackets; and Omar and Antonio who helped with the HUGE clean-up.

Good job guys! We will make sure we include a picture of the bookshelves when they are finished.

If any parents, carers or children have any other project ideas be sure to let me know. 

Amie Hamilton – Centre Director

News from the Committee

Nearly 2 terms have passed since our last Newsletter and we have certainly been busy. In that time we have fare welled Mt Lawley Out of School Care to whom we provided a temporary home after they lost their premises at the school.  We wish them well as they re-establish their services at new premises close to Mt Lawley Primary.

We also welcomed a new supervisor, Maija, to our North Perth centre in Term 2.  Read on a little later in our newsletter to learn more about Maija.

We have also been busy reviewing our strategic plans and our vision and mission for our service.  After a couple of debilitating years where we have been working hard to save the organisation from closure and to stabilise finances and staff we felt it was important to take a fresh and positive approach to our future.  Read on in our newsletter for our first draft of a new Mission Statement. We welcome comments.

We have also continued to work on improving our invoicing and we appreciate your patience.  We realise we must provide timely and accurate invoices and this remains as a key focus for us in the coming weeks.

NORPOSC Committee

Mt Lawley Out of School Care Opening New Centre

Hi All
Mt Lawley Out of School Care are opening a new centre close to the school which will begin operation on 16th August 2010. 

This means that North Perth Out of School Care Centre will no longer be operating a bus service from Mt Lawley Primary School with the last day of service on 13th August 2010.  Parents of Mt Lawley children currently in our service need to enrol in the Mt Lawley service and contact details and enrolment forms are available from our North Perth centre.

For families paying by direct debit, invoices for July will be sent out by mail next week and any outstanding amounts owing will be deducted from your final direct debit payment.  Then future direct debit payments scheduled will be cancelled.

If you have any concerns don't hesitate to contact Maija or the committee.
Karen Chew, President

Fee increase for After School Care

Dear Parents,
Our centre has now transitioned to the new modern federal award.  This has meant a significant increase in our staff wages costs and as a result we need to increase our fees by $1 per day for after school care.  The new daily full fee is now $21 per day effective for Term 3, 2010.
While this doesn't cover the full wages increase, we are confident that we can find savings in other areas to make up the difference.

NORPOSC Committee

Welcome to the NORPOSC Blog!

Hi Everyone,

To improve our communications with our members we have joined the 21^st Century by starting a blog for our organisation!  So Welcome!

Have fun exploring our site.  You will see on the left hand side links to important information as well as links for you to download forms and publications.  You might like to download our updated Parent Handbook which has the latest information.  We will using this site to give you more regular information about what is going on in the centre as well as posting holiday care programs so that you can get them hot off the press.

The site also has all our contact details of our senior staff and committee members.

Keep an eye out on this site and let us know if you have any suggestions.

Best wishes for this term.

Karen Chew

President