Celebrating our parents, carers and communities
More than 26,000 volunteer parents and carers support public school P&Cs across NSW. Billy Kos reports.
06 March 2024
Behind every NSW public school is a dedicated community of parents, teachers, and students all united by a common goal - to provide everyone at their school with the best educational experience possible.
And today, schools across the state celebrated the valuable contributions of their local Parents and Citizens (P&C) Associations, which lie at the forefront of this collective and play a vital role in shaping the success of their schools.
Ahead of P&C Day, Secretary of the NSW Department of Education Murat Dizdar, and P&C Federation President Yvonne Hilsz visited Botany Public School to highlight the valuable contribution P&C’s make to public education in NSW.
“On P&C Day we say thank you to the thousands of parents and carers all over the state who invest their time to help make our schools the best they can be,” Mr Dizdar said.
“Their tireless commitment to community engagement and involving themselves in all aspects of effective schooling embodies the spirit of public education and directly benefits students, teachers and support staff across the state.
“We know that parental engagement improves learning and wellbeing outcomes for students, and P&Cs provide an ideal opportunity for parents and carers to get involved in their child’s school and maintain these benefits all the way through their learning journey.”
P&C Federation President Yvonne Hilsz said P&C Day celebrated the valuable contributions of more than 25,000 parents across NSW who volunteer their time and expertise to fundraise, run canteens and uniform shops, provide extracurricular activities, host events and build their school communities.
“It is a moment to pause and acknowledge the P&C members that come together to create vibrant school communities that offer opportunities, resources and experiences for the benefit of all students,” Ms Hilsz said.
“The life of a P&C parent is different at every school and last year P&Cs across NSW raised more than $40 million, which supplements operations, resources, activities and infrastructure..”
Principal Heather Strachan said Botany Public School had worked closely with its P&C to restore a strong sense of community.
“Beyond their great fundraising activities, our P&C has worked hard to shift the focus of their role more into community and supporting school initiatives,” Ms Strachan said.
“Through this lens we introduced a school band program, established Christmas markets that welcome the wider Botany community into the school and built a busy community user program that offers great extra-curricular programs for local students, including chess, drama, dance, and Chinese language.
“All of these additions have been enthusiastically received by the school community and are only possible thanks to the hard work and commitment of our P&C.”
The P&C Federation is the largest education volunteer group in NSW and represents 1869 local school Parents & Citizen’s Associations, with 7849 members and almost 26,000 volunteer parents and carers.
P&C Day is held annually on the first Wednesday in March.