Class Sizes and Reclassification
Actions taken by the Parent Council
1. Facilitating parents who wished to express their concerns by providing contact details for the key people influencing the decision making at East Renfrewshire Council. Please click here for the contact details.
2. Raising the matter at the May meeting of the East Renfrewshire Council's Parent Council Forum - a group which includes two members of each parent council in the local authority area at which representatives of the ERC Education Department are present.This will be a useful opportunity to hear from the parent councils about the ways in which the budget cuts are affecting other schools in the local authority.
3. Writing to the ERC Director of Education,John Wilson,to emphasize the extent to which the class sizes are likely to increase if the changes go ahead,and to highlight that these increases will take place at a time when the school is losing a net total of two classroom assistants.Futhermore,the school will be operating with one promoted teacher short, as it is planned that a principal teacher post will not be filled for a number of months.
4. Writing to the local MSP,Ken MacIntosh,highlighting the impact of the budget settlement (as outlined in point 3 above) and how unfortunate this is in view of the very postive coverage ERC normally gains for the quality of its educational provision.
5. Writing to the Scottish Parliament Cabinet Secretary,Fiona Hislop MSP, highlighting that one, presumably unintended,consequence of the Scottish Government reducing the maximum class size for Primary 1, but not stipulating an accompanying reduction in the class sizes for subsequent primary years, is that pupils will be subject to ongoing class reshuffles as local authorities will inevitably seek to operate with classes at the legal maximum.
6. Netherlee, through the Parent Council and the PTA, is also a member of two national groups representating parent councils and PTA's, and the Parent Council will contact these groups to ensure they are aware of the impact of budget cuts in East Renfrewshire.For example, Judith Gillespie, who is the Development Manager of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, is often asked to act as a spokespersonon school matters and has given evidence to the Scottish Parliament Education, Lifelong Learning and Culture Committe.