PFA fundraising - how it is helping our students
On 7 March 2020 St Hilda’s school community came together to host our biennual school fair. This is always a great opportunity to both fundraise for our school and to showcase our school and community spirit.
We were blessed with a beautiful day and we timed things perfectly to luckily avoid the impact of COVID-19. On the day we saw hundreds of people turn out to support our girls and our amazing school, which produced one of the most successful fairs in recent years.
This year the PFA together with its extended parent, staff and student family put on an awesome event and we managed to raise just on $50,000 after expenses. Already monies have been spent and items ordered with many arriving in school for immediate use.
The new sandwich machine in the student kitchen arrived just in time for Level One. This model of sandwich maker can take up to 6 sandwiches at a time. We are hoping to get a faster through put of students heating their lunch and maybe less crowding in this very popular space that was incidentally created with monies from PFA fundraising in 2010.
Ms Bourfard, our Librarian is visiting English classes over the next few weeks helping students to access our new ebooks and audiobooks subscription to Wheelers Books.
DVC has recently benefited by a range of beautiful design books to help students when formulating their own design submissions. At present Mr Armstrong has purchased about half the books he was wanting. The remaining books are still being researched and will be ordered within a couple of months.
Mr Harris has a new piece of equipment in his Textiles Room. A much more sophisticated digital screen printing device. We are all very much looking forward to see items being produced with this high tech machine with students digital designs becoming a reality on fabric.
Science as a discipline relies on very accurate data. This data is used to formulate theories to help explain the world about us. At senior science levels accurate data is crucial when preparing solutions in chemistry or measuring in biology the added daily weight as a plant grows. The four highly accurate balances purchased will be very beneficial to experimentation in senior science. The PFA also helped out with the refurbishment of 301 over 5 years ago.
Wishing to teach Food Technology to industry standards has meant an upgrade of much of the equipment found within the Foods Room. Again the equipment arrived just in time for the return of students after lockdown and has enabled a more realistic assessment of food handling skills.
The Year 13 Digital Technology class are creating a very exciting range of digital resources for the 125 Anniversary of the school in 2021. A Kiosk, similar to those for airport check-in has been purchased to hold the information that the students are at present assembling. The design look and functionality have been major aspects of planning for this project. The girls intend to have a timeline of the schools’ history, details on buildings, uniforms, with small documentary videos on significant events and Principals' time at school.
The music department has a new sound bar and eight large bean bags have also been ordered.
The Kapa Haka needed to extend the size range of its piupiu and these handmade items can be very expensive. The five new piupiu and accompanying bodice and headbands are now being made.
Finally the really big news is the PFA is to fund an upgrade of the archway main student toilets. Within this space we will be commissioning some art works from Frank Gordon to create heart and warmth in this space.
On behalf of the organising committee we would like to thank all those who contributed to the day and to the days leading up to the fair. There was a considerable amount of work that went into this and we are immensely grateful to you all.
Thank you all for your ongoing support.
Kind regards
Linh Ashton