As the peak body for P&Cs, we’re here to help you run your association well. We hope to provide the resources needed to stop each of our 92 member associations reinventing the wheel! We also voice your views to the Education Directorate and ACT Government.

At the beginning of July each year, we send out invoices for our membership fees to P&C treasurers, for payment by the end of July.

We think we provide your P&C with great value for money!

How does your P&C benefit from your Council membership? Well, read on!

Help running your P&C

We have extensive information, advice and tips for P&Cs, covering everything from running good meetings to licensing your raffle, from collaborating with the school and principal, to promoting your P&C. 

Plus there are checklists to keep you on track.

“Your To Do check-list was wonderful for me this year.”

We also have a range of templates for you to pick up and customise so that you don’t have to invent your own. There are pictures and brochures to promote your P&C, sample hand-over notes, templates for meeting minutes, and more! (Find them all here!)

 “I just wanted to thank you for the handover note templates in your recent newsletter. I will be handing over my Secretary role next year and this will save me time and effort trying to think about how to do it.”

Your membership also entitles your P&C volunteers to our free training courses. Each year, these focus on areas of greatest concerns to you—our members - like growing your P&C, getting grants and more!

“The grants workshop you held last year was both informative and inspirational. Since then I’ve been pleased to be able secure about $35,000 worth of grants for my son’s high school. So thanks for your role in that!”

We also offer advice, assistance and answers to your enquiries over the phone or by email. If you are finding the P&C hard going, or just have a quick question, do contact us. We also offer site visits and can attend your P&C meeting if needed.

“It has been a comfort knowing that I had the Council there if I needed advice. I really appreciate all Council have done for me personally and for the support that you give to P&Cs.”

Sharing expertise

We don’t have all the answers, and there’s an incredible wealth of expertise, skills and experience among our members, so we help  share that collective wisdom around. You can join our P&C Leaders Group on Facebook (a closed group) and put your questions to P&Cs across the ACT or come to our meetings and talk to others in a similar position to yourself.

“Many thanks to the Council for organising the monthly general meetings — great opportunity to meet people from other schools and discuss issues relevant to many.”

You can also join one of our groups on special topics (such as canteens, uniform shops or early learning) to ask the nitty gritty, or read articles sharing great work by P&Cs across Canberra.

“The Early Learning meetings are  informative and it is good to know there's support for EL activities.”

Insurance

Our group insurance scheme provides insurance for your parent association at reduced cost, and assistance in making sure you have the cover you need.

Keeping you informed

To help keep you on track our fortnightly ebulletin, Council Communicator, distils must-know, timely, information for your committee — from meeting regulations to current grant opportunities.

We also have guest speakers at our meetings who present information of interest to P&Cs, parents and carers. Recently, we’ve heard about school funding, literacy teaching, and improvements in the Education Directorate’s complaints handling processes.

The parent voice

Problem at your school? Can you see ways in which schooling could be improved? We voice your concerns and represent the views of parents and carers to the Education Directorate and Minister through formal submissions to enquiries, via representative positions on many committees, and through regular meetings with the Minister and senior Directorate staff.

“Thank you… for putting together this submission to government. [It] clearly presents the issues that have been raised at Council meetings and discussions.”   

Here are just some of the recent issues which Council raised with the Minister for Education and senior Education Directorate staff on behalf of parents and our members:

• ACT school capacity and enrolments
• complaints management processes
• hazardous materials in ACT schools and informing parents
• a range of school infrastructure concerns
• continuing remote learning for vulnerable families and students with disabilities
• safe-guarding school libraries and providing more school librarians
• school psychologist shortages and problems with accessing them
• relationships and sex education in schools
• Early Childhood Strategy and transitions
• implementation of individual learning plans
• inclusive education and suspensions
• a framework for better parent engagement
• fostering positive school-P&C relations
• making P&Cs more visible in Directorate and school communications
• making voluntary contributions and bookpacks family friendly
• canteen maintenance needs
• teaching literacy in schools. 

This article appeared in ParentACTion Magazine, Term 3, 2021. Updated June 2023.