Are you new to your role at the P&C? We have prepared this FAQ about Council to answer your top questions.

The Education and Training Directorate (ETD) now requires all schools to have a formal, signed agreement with their canteen service provider, including P&Cs who run their canteens. If your P&C runs the canteen, you will shortly receive a deed for the supply of canteen services from your principal for you to sign. The standard contract can be altered to suit your own conditions, agreed by the school, by changing  'Attachment 2 - Rules of the Deed'.

In response to P&C questions, we have sought answers from ETD which are summarised in these FAQ about Canteen Deeds, including some suggested Rules to attach to the Deed.

If your school no longer has a separate Preschool Parent's Association, and preschool parents are instead represented through your P&C, Council recommends that a formal preschool sub-committee is established and its formation is minuted. Further, Council recommends that the sub-committee is a member of the Canberra Preschool Society who offer assistance and advocacy for preschool parents.

The national literacy and numeracy tests taken by students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 each year are set to move online from 2017. ACARA, who administer NAPLAN say this will provide better assessment, more precise results and a faster turn-around of information.

The writing task will also change a little this year - there will be two different writing prompts/questions (one for Years 3 and 5; and a different prompt for Years 7 and 9). Previously there was one prompt for all year levels, which led to criticism last year.

A series of traffic measures employed in some Canberra suburbs mid last year are now being evaluated and you can have your say. Some of the changes affect streets around schools. The online surveys are for specific traffic-management changes made in Holt, Weston Creek, Chisholm, Richardson, Gilmore, Macarthur, Fadden and Gowrie.

The Active Kids Challenge is an 8 week program (in Term 3) offered free of charge to all ACT primary schools to encourage kids to be active for at least 60 minutes a day. Schools can sign up at any time and receive a range of materials, teacher resources and inspiration for the whole community.

Did you know that our website now contains a page of links to excellent resources for families, from where to find help with homework, mental well-being or financial planning, to how to help kids plan their career path and stay safe on the internet. 

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 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 to share the information with your school community.