Here at Council, we have recently updated our database so that all new P&C office-bearers now receive this fortnightly email bulletin to keep you up to date with resources and opportunities of interest to schools and P&Cs. We hope you find it useful!

If your role with the P&C is ending and you no longer wish to receive this bulletin, you can unsubscribe, or change your details, using the links at the bottom. Please take the time to do this, rather than confining us to 'junk' (this causes us technical headaches).

By popular demand, we will be running our Effective P&C training workshop again this term. Covering ways to improve how your association works, recruiting volunteers, fundraising, and the P&C as an employer, this free workshop is for new P&C members and continuing officers alike. 

We are offering the followng sessions: Thursday June 25 from 6:30-9:30pm (Centre for Teaching and Learning, Stirling) or Saturday June 27 from 2-5pm (100 Maitland St Hackett), and the workshops will only go ahead if there is sufficent interest. Please contact our office to book your place.

Council's working group focusing on special education will meet at 7pm on June 3 at 100 Maitland Street, Hackett. All are welcome to come and have a say on issues surrounding special education, including the new Shaddock Review, nursing programs and the possibility of developing an App to make it easier to locate disability services. Contact us to confirm your attendance or to join the group. Find out more about the Disability Working Group.

This free workshop aims to equip parents and carers with the information they need to better support children with learning difficulties both at home and through effective communication with schools. It will be presented by educational psychologist Mandy Nayton on Thursday June 25 from 5:30-7:30pm at the Centre for Teaching, 51 Fremantle Drive, Stirling. All ACT public school parents are welcome, but should register by June 19.

Each year Council holds a policy conference to discuss additions and/or changes to Council policy. We need your input so that we can communicate as accurately as possible the collective views of public school parents in a range of different forums. The 2015 Policy Conference will be held at 6:45pm on Tuesday August 25 (Centre for Teaching and Learning, Stirling).

P&Cs are encouraged to propose any amendments or new policies to be considered at the conference. These must be submitted to Council by Monday July 3. An email with more information and a submission template was sent recently. Please contact Maclaren Wall (Council’s Policy Officer) with questions.

Yates Junior Landcare Creative Gardening Grants are open once more. There are 25 grants of up to $1,000 available for schools who can show innovative ways of creating a garden within their school or community. Applications close on Friday July 3.

More grants, and tips on applying, are available on Council's website.

Facebook user? Twitter fan? Follow Council on Facebook or Twitter (@ParentVoiceACT) for updates and news of interest to parents and P&C associations.

If your P&C has a social media presence, please link up with us to make information sharing easier.

We strive to provide information of interest to all school parents in the Council Communicator. If you think any of the items above are of interest to parents at your school, please pass them on via your school newsletter or whatever other means you wish. We would be grateful if you would share the invitation above to the 'understanding learning diffculties workshop' in particular.

We now have a template page for school newsletters to make it easier for you to cut and paste items to submit to your school newsletter under the P&C Council banner if you wish.