Parents' Association
A new website is to be released shortly.
email: parents@macrob.vic.edu.au
Visit the Parents' Association website for the latest news and information.
For most of us MacRobertson Girl's High School is a not a neighbourhood school. We send our daughters off early in the morning and they come back late in the afternoon or evening. They come from all over Melbourne, some come from outside of Melbourne, many of the girls travel large distances. Because the acceptance policy prohibits more than a couple coming from any one school, there are not a lot of people at the school that you or your daughters know.
The girls accept this and fortunately it is part of the MacRob ethos that they accept that they have to make new friends. It is a fact not much remarked upon that MacRob is a happy school. But the girls see and work with each other all day. For the parents it is very different. There is no neighbourhood circle. You do not know the parents or children as you did from the local state school, kindergarten or crèche. You don't meet MacRob students or their parents down the street.
We call ourselves parents@macrob, we are an association of parents of current and past students at Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School. We try to help parents to know the school, we try to keep parents informed and we try to help parents feel part of a community. We liaise with the school staff, students and council. We raise money and run activities and programs for the school, students, teachers and parents. We try to promote the school for the benefit of all.
You will first see us at the information evening for incoming Year 9 parents in November. We welcome year 9 parents early in the year with a free barbecue, where they can relax and meet each other socially.
We hold a second hand uniform and text book sale in December each year to help keep the price of attendance affordable. This is also a fund raiser for us which allows us to run our other activities.
We organise regional parent meetings away from the school so parents can meet other parents local to them and so promote the feeling of a community. After attending one of these you may meet other parents and students down the street, you may be able to car pool to school events, you will definitely meet friendly people. To assist parents with contacting each other we are also attempting to set up class contact lists.
We cater staff morning teas on an irregular basis to thank the school staff for the fantastic job they do. We provide basic catering for for school functions such as the whole school production, Winter Concert and the School plays.
As time permits we try to hold whole school parent events such as a Mother's Day event or a Father's Day event. Currently we are looking at organising an International Dinner at the school. Last year we invited a Psychologist to advise parents on helping students cope with VCE pressures.
We make funds available to the school for equipment and facilities as the need arises. We funded some audio equipment and services last year and will provide funding for new facilities in the VCE common room. We have a grant scheme to offer some financial assistance for extra-curricular activities for the students. We even have a student welfare fund.
Along with all this, or perhaps to organise them, we have monthly meetings. These are at 7:30 pm on the third Tuesday of every month that the school is open. To make your time at Mac.Rob as rewarding and enjoyable as it will be for your daughter, join us at parents@macrob. Our meetings and our activities are a lot of fun and very sociable. Our meetings are informative and our activities are to help and promote the school or to assist its students, staff and parents.
These meetings are open to everyone, we follow an agenda that is distributed to all parents who provide us with an email address, but they are pretty informal and friendly meetings. We discuss parent and school issues and upcoming events. We occasionally invite teachers to discuss their subjects with us. The Principal, Jane Garvey and Assistant Principal, Rebecca Vosper attend, as do Council Members which allows us to keep informed about what is happening at the school. The meetings are held in the meeting room on the second floor above the theatre in the Gym.
Jeremy Hunt,
2008 President
