PARENTS & FRIENDS ASSOCIATION

St Martin's Parents & Friends Association meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 7.30pm in the Staff Room.

The objectives of the P. & F. Association are as follows:

• Hospitality and Welcoming Group
• Tuck Shop
• Sunday Funday
• Uniform Shop
• Music Support Group

Each year the P.& F. Association works in closely with the school Principal and staff to determine the needs of the school, make a list of priority projects and draft a budget for the year.

In the last year the association has worked hard to provide an impressive range of resources and facilities for the school.

These include:

• New Playground Equipment
• Landscaping Grounds
• Providing Classroom furniture
• Ambulance Subscription
• Sunscreen for all classes
• Welcome Bar-B-Q
• Grandparents Day.

An energetic P. & F. Association is vital to the survival of the school. Parents are encouraged to support the P.& F. functions and give serious consideration to membership on one of the committees during the period your child is at St Martin's.

PARENT PARTICIPATION PLAN

St Martin's Parents and Friends Association has a Parent Participation Plan (PPP) which has four important purposes:

• To acknowledge the invaluable contribution that parents make to the quality of education offered at St Martin's (We would have to charge substantially higher fees if we did not receive the enormous support of parents working in a voluntary capacity at the school);
• To establish a fair and equitable distribution of labour so that the many necessary tasks performed by parents was not left to "the same old few";
• To be better organized to make effective use of our parent assistance;
• To promote a stronger sense of community among our parents by working together for the benefit of the children enrolled at St Martin's.

One of the key features of our PPP is the range of options offered to families. We understand that families are different and have many other competing commitments. The PPP is designed to give plenty of choice so that no family should feel that they are unable to contribute to the life of the school.

Each family will receive a PPP early in the school year with the expectation that a service will be selected and the form returned to the PPP co-ordinator. Parents will then be contacted at a later date by individual co-ordinators regarding specific tasks to be performed.

BOOK SALES

The school provides a bookshop service at the end of each school year. Book lists are provided late in the year and parents may place orders for books and stationery which will be available for collection from the De Porres Learning Centre before the end of the school year. Additional Texts books required will be supplied in class early in the school year and invoiced to the school fee account. Most items contained on our stationery booklists are sold in all local newsagencies and stationery suppliers.

HOSPITALITY AND WELCOMING GROUP

St Martin's has an enthusiastic Hospitality and Welcoming group.
Your PPP will contain details of how you can assist this group.

SMOKE FREE ZONE

During 1990 St Martin's School was made a Smoke Free Zone. The smoke-free zone practise has recently been endorsed by and is an official policy of Brisbane Catholic Education.

These are the guidelines which we request all parents and visitors to respect:

• All buildings are smoke free at all times
• The open areas such as the Carpark, the valley, and the playground are smoke free during school hours.
• For after school hours smokers are requested to smoke only in outdoor areas.
• Parents dropping off and picking up children are requested not to smoke in the school area.
• Posters and stickers are displayed around the school to indicate that the area is smoke free.

The smoke-free zone practice has recently been endorsed by and is an official policy of Brisbane Catholic Education.

BUSES

Several bus companies, including Awon and the Brisbane City Council operate services to St Martin's and San Sisto College en route to Mayfield and Belmont State primary schools and Camp Hill High School. All buses operate from designated bus zones in Mayfield Road and services operate to Carindale, Tingalpa, Belmont, Belmont Hts., Hemmant and parts of Carina, Carina Hts. and Camp Hill. Full details of the routes may be obtained by contacting our office staff. Awon Bus Route No.202, Brisbane City Council No. 880. A new service, Brisbane City Council Route 881 was introduced in 1997 and follows the route below:

CARINDALE - ST MARTIN'S / SAN SISTO COLLEGE

A.M. SERVICE

Departs Carindale Shopping Centre Platform D at 7.55am. turns Right into Carindale St., left into Winstanley St., right Donnington St., left Creek Rd., left Pine Mountain Rd., right into Scrub Rd., right into Cribb Rd., (U turn to 515 terminus) 8.00am. Left Scrub Rd.,left Kilmorey St., left Eromanga St., left Talavera St., left Winstanley Rd., right Firmiston St. 8.10am. Left Kidwelly St., left Bridgnorth St., left Old Cleveland Rd. to overpass and Bedivere St., right into Cadogan St. 8.15am left Meadowlands Rd. 8.20am. Right Creek Rd., left Stanley Rd. and left into Mayfield Rd 8.20-8.25am

ST MARTIN'S / SAN SISTO COLLEGE - CARINDALE

P.M. SERVICE

Departs SAN SISTO at Mayfield Rd at 3.10pm. Left Old Cleveland Rd., left Narracott St., left Creek Rd., right Meadowlands Rd., right Cadogan St., left Bedivere St overpass to Carindale St., right Carindale Shopping Centre Platform B 3.20pm. Right Carindale St., left Winstanley St., right Donnington St., left Creek Rd., left Pine mountain Rd., right Scrub Rd., right cribb Rd., U Turn to 515 Terminus 3.30pm. Left Scrub Rd., left Kilmorey St., left Eromanga St., left Kilmorey St., left Talavera St., left Winstanley Rd., right Firmiston St. 3.40pm. Left Kidwelly St., left Bridgnorth St., left Old Cleveland Rd. to Carina Bus Depot.

TUCKSHOP

The St Martin's Tuckshop is managed by a Sub-committee of the P. & F. Association. Currently lunches and morning tea (little lunches) are provided on Monday Wednesday and Friday.

Orders for are handled through a "bag system".

Each child must have 2 bags, clearly marked "Little Lunch" and "Big Lunch" with lunch requirement listed, Name and Class clearly marked and the correct money enclosed.

The tuckshop depends on volunteer labour and your support is sought to keep it running. A form will be sent home early in the year with Price List to seek your help. The children enjoy seeing their mothers at school, so please offer your services where you can.

PARENT SURVIVAL KIT

A Parent Survival Kit is issued to each family at the commencement of the school year. This contains such items as:-

• School Dates
• Parent & Friends Projects
• Details of Working Bees
• Uniform Information
• Tuckshop Menu

SECONDARY EDUCATION

We St Martin's is the one stop centre for Primary Education for both boys and girls in Our Lady of Graces Parish. Parents have a considerable choice of Catholic Secondary Schools. Children who have attended St Martin's have graduated to the following Catholic Colleges:

San Sisto College, Carina (all girls) *
Seton College, Mt. Gravatt (co-educational)*
Clairvaux College Upper, (Mt. Gravatt (co-educational)*
St Thomas Moore College, Sunnybank (co-educational)*
St Laurences College, Sth. Brisbane (all boys) *
Iona College, Lindum (all boys) *
Villanova College, Coorparoo (all boys) *
Loreto College, Coorparoo (all girls) **
Lourdes Hill College, Hawthorne (all girls) *
All Hallows' College, Valley (all girls)
St Joseph's College, Gregory Tce. (all boys)
St James College, Valley (co-educational)

* These Colleges require parents to enrol their children two years prior to commencing Year 8, i.e. application for enrolment should be made when the child begins Year 6.
** Loreto College requires parents to apply for enrolment for their daughters when they begin Year 5.

We have a Directory of Catholic Secondary Schools available for perusal at our school office and information specific to several of the colleges to which the bulk of our children go from St Martin's.