January 09

Netherlee Primary School Parent Council

Minutes: January 28, 2009 at Netherlee Primary School

Present: Ailsa Crum; Sara Lang; Sandra Mitchell; Cress Maher; Brenda Williams; Lisa Bullen; Kirsty McNeil; John Stoner; Margaret MacDiarmid; Steve Galloway; Karen Hussain; Susan Skirving; Lesley Farm; Vivien Wilson; Sue McMillan; Cllr Ralph Robertson

Apologies: Tim Adams; Val Graham; Liz Grant; Shona McKenzie

1. Minutes of previous meeting held December 10, 2008 were approved subject to modification of a date from 2008 to 2009.

2. Consultation on National Body

Ailsa reported that she had attended a consultation meeting in Glasgow at which the majority of delegates were in favour of a national body. The main reasons in favour of a national body were,

To represent parent’s views
Provide a single source of information
Disseminate and share best practice
To promote a focus on “the whole child”

Those against the national body cited the following reasons;

Too much diversity
Happy with existing body (SPCT)

Consultation responses are to be with Scottish Government by the end of January and will be subject to Ministerial consideration.

3. Scottish Network for Parental Involvement 28^th Feb.

Ailsa said she was unable to attend the above event and offered for anyone interested in attending to let her know.

Other forthcoming events are;

Making Partnerships work, 14 March, Stirling Univesity
Curriculum for excellence 1 & 2 July, Strathclyde University

Action: Anyone interested in attending to let Ailsa Know.

4. Pupil Internet Access & Safety

John inquired about the use of e-mail accounts in School. Sandra clarified the following;

Each class has its own e-mail account
ERC has firewalls in place, however if it doesn’t work children know to alert teachers
Access to the internet is supervised and pupils are able to use search engines
All internet access and e-mails are backed up
All secondary pupils have an individual e-mail account
Pupils are not able to access social networking sites

In discussion it was agreed that sites such as curriculinks (http://www.ea.e-renfrew.sch.uk/curriculinks/) are a valuable resource that other parents may like to know about.

Action: Brenda to put curriculinks in next News Letter

5.Update from elected members

Ralph reported there had been no progress on the proposed doctor’s surgery this could be because of undermining and / or availability of funding.

ERC would be agreeing its budget for 2009/10 on 12 February.

6.School Support for the Parent Council

Sandra spoke to this agenda item. Sandra reaffirmed the position that the Parent Council is responsible for its own administration work. School Clerical staff will not be contacted in relation to tasks associated with the Parent Council.

In discussion the administrative tasks of the PC were identified as;

Taking and circulating Minutes (to date this has been undertaken by PC members)
Photocopying and circulating PC letters (SM offering to photocopy and to distribute through class teachers).
Occasional correspondence (to date undertaken by PC members).
Booking room lets (previously undertaken by PC members via school office & now to be undertaken by PC members via electronic form).

The PC has a small budget to allow it to employ a clerk (non PC member). Previous attempts to identify a clerk have been unsuccessful and the PC has continued to undertake the majority of its own admin. Sandra indicated that PC members should not contact school office staff about any PC business; Sandra would deal with all such enquiries personally. Sandra confirmed that the school office would, however, continue to provide support for the PTA.

Action: Sandra to include an advert for a clerk in next School News Letter

7. Project Updates

Health and Wellbeing group

Kirsty and Sara provided the following update

Met on 9 January and will meet again on 20 February
The children are designing a poster for the healthy eating campaign
Lesley Palmer, schools co-ordinator will be joining the group
The children will be making a leaflet to go home to parents

Sports Event

Lesley and Ailsa provided an update on behalf of Liz.

A number of volunteers have been identified
Liz has met with the schools co-ordinator, Lesley Palmer to put together an agenda for the sub group in February.

75^th Anniversary

Ailsa reported the following;

All money was in with the exception of £10 & the printers invoice had been received.
The licence for Quark Express has been organised to allow it to be installed on individual Macs.
Extra copies of the booklet are available and some will be distributed to the local libraries, churches and synagogue.
Karen will provide Sue with a PDF file so the booklet can go on the web site.

8.Curriculum for Excellence

It was noted that curriculum for excellence guidance can be downloaded from the website http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/parentzone/

Susan asked if level tests have been phased out. Sandra confirmed that level tests will remain until an alternative is agreed.

9.Date of Next Meeting – 11 March 2009