This is my third, and final year as President and I want to say a thousand times ‘Thank you!’ to every parent past and present who has given generously of their time to support our community by volunteering and all those who have participated in the wide variety of events and activities organised by the P&F every year.

It’s been an honour to serve the Wyvern community and I’ve loved being connected to the school in such a meaningful way. It has been a privilege to have a relationship with the teachers and staff that extended beyond the ‘everyday’. Wyvern parents and boys should appreciate how lucky they are to have this team influencing and shaping our future. We are blessed to have such caring and capable people looking after our sons.

This year, we introduced a Constitution, which sets out our goal to assist the development of Wyvern House by: promoting the welfare of our students; fostering community spirit; working in close co-operation with the Head of Wyvern House and supporting the school’s objectives; and providing funds or facilities as agreed with the Head of Wyvern House.

At the Information Night held each term, parents learned about cyber safety, how to get through puberty, financial literacy and Wyvern’s extension and enrichment programs, and Mr Holden provided his regular ‘school report’.

Thanks to our volunteers at the Uniform Shop, the P&F funded the Wyvern Music Weekend, Shakespeare Festival, Poetry Competition, Wyvernbald Exhibition, Year 2-4 flexible learning area, and art, music and sports equipment. And we reduced uniform prices (once again).

In addition, we organised and funded the Welcome Cocktail Party, Welcome Picnic, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day breakfasts to encourage community spirit and social connection among Wyvern parents and children. The breakfasts, in particular, have become increasingly popular with 500 guests attending each time, and our gift catalogues made it easy for the boys to purchase something for mum and dad.

The Welcome Cocktail Party and Welcome Picnic held at the start of the year are also well attended, but they serve an additional purpose of welcoming and introducing new parents to our community – and are complemented by our New Family Mentor Program. At the picnic, we organise supervised activities for children to get them playing together and to make it much easier for parents to meet, get to know each other and catch up on summer holiday stories.

For mums, the annual Women of Wyvern – WoW – dinner is a special feature of the social calendar and this year’s event, held at the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM), was surely the best yet.

Many dads once again spent the weekend with their boys at the K-2 (Narrabeen) and Year 3-6 (Berry) father and son camps, which always spark and cement friendships among the boys as well as their fathers.  Year 6 had its own father and son camp at Narrabeen, following a very special mother and son night out at the ANMM to celebrate the end of an era.

I would like to acknowledge the members of the P&F Executive team, whose care, energy and spirit drew me to join them in the first place and kept me with them for so long. Some have been on this team even longer than my four years, while others joined last year or this year, but all have made a mark on the school. Without this very special group, this space would be blank.

Natalie Mina
President Wyvern P&F 2016