The requirements for a Year 12 Certificate are being reviewed by the ACT Board of Senior Secondary Studies (BSSS). One suggestion is that English and maths should be compulsory. What do you think?

We have declared our next Executive Meeting an open meeting in order to discuss this and to determine the position which Council should take on behalf of parents.  Please come along and join the discussion, Tuesday June 10, 6:45pm at Sports House, 100 Maitland Street, Hackett. The review also covers: the number, purpose and types of certificates to be issued at the end of year 12; the scope of different packages; and, recognising extra-curricular activities and vocational education and training (VET) towards the certificate.  

Council's Disability Working Group's next meeting is on Thursday June 5, 7pm at Sports House in Hackett. If you have an issue relating to disability education, please come along and share it. All welcome.

NSWBuy is now ready for P&Cs to register and start saving. The procurement agent offers up to 25% savings on a massive range of items and canteen produce. Contact Council’s office if you have misplaced the registration form sent to treasurers a few weeks ago. If your P&C is thinking of making any purchases, it is well worth checking their prices first. 

The Education Directorate is running a morning workshop on Wednesday July 2 to provide expert advice to parents of children with learning difficulties on the ways iPads can support them in their early years. The workshop will cover top iPad tips and Apps for literacy, other subjects and for supporting behaviour and organisational and social skills. Contact Julie Ireland by June 26 on 62072331 to attend.

A revised version of Council’s Policy Document is now available from our website.

Our annual Policy Conference will be held at 7pm on Tuesday August 26 and this is an opportunity for you to have input. P&Cs are encouraged to propose any amendments or new policies for consideration at the conference. These must be submitted to Council by Monday June 30. An email with more information and submission templates has been sent to all P&Cs. 

Please contact Maclaren Wall (Council’s Policy Officer) if you have any questions. 

Did you know that any P&C records which relate to events where the P&C had duty of care for students need to be kept for 20 years? Ideally, these records should contain names of parents involved in student supervision in case there are future claims relating to care. Normal P&C records such as meeting minutes and treasurer's records and accounts need only be kept for 5 years.

Healthy Active Kids is a new website packed full of games, videos, recipes and activities to help kids live a healthy, active life at school and at home. To celebrate the launch of this website, primary school teachers can enter a competition to win one of five $5000 grants for their school's lifestyle projects. Entries close May 30. 

Nominations for the ACT 2014 Fred Hollows Schools Award are now open for students in Years 3 to 6 who show good citizenship, compassion and community service. Anyone can nominate a student online until August 22. For posters to advertise the awards at your school, contact the Fred Hollows Foundation.

The ACT Government wants to hear what is important for children and young people in the ACT. They are setting a vision for a whole-of-government and whole-of-community approach to promote the rights of children and young people based on this. To participate, complete a short survey or make a submission in a format that is most suitable to you (that is, in writing, drawing, photographic or video formats) and send it to children@act.gov.au by 30 June 2014.