Netherlee Primary School Parent Council
Minutes: Wednesday, September 19, 2008 at Netherlee Primary School
Present: Ailsa Crum; Sara Lang; Val Graham; Margaret MacDiarmid; Liz Grant; Sandra Mitchell; Cress Maher; Brenda Williams; Sue McMillan, Lisa Bullen; Vivienne Wilson; Tim Adams; Steve Galloway; Karen Hussain
Apologies: Kirsty McNeil
Resignations: Margaret Kyle, Lesley McKenna
1. Minutes of previous meeting held April 2, 2008 were approved
2. Matters Arising not otherwise on the agenda
The Scottish Enterprise Healthy Eating Working Lives initiative has appointed a new local co-ordinator. Vivienne Wilson will make contact with her as VW’s day job overlaps this area.
3. Communication received since the previous meeting
a. Learning and Teaching Scotland had forwarded a wall calendar highlighting key dates for enterprise-related initiatives for schools. BW was interested in having a copy for the school.
b. A parental involvement newsletter had been received, outlining a variety of developments including: confirming that a National Parental Involvement Co-ordinator, Lorraine Sanda, had been appointed at Learning and Teaching Scotland, (Lorraine has been in post since January 2008); that the Cabinet Secretary with responsibility for education, Fiona Hyslop, had spoken at the annual conference of the Scottish Parent Councils’ Association; and that the Scottish Government was still to confirm what would be the nature of any national body to represent parent councils. The newsletter had enclosed with it a DVD providing information about the Curriculum for Excellence for parents and carers. SG took charge of the DVD and related information. Further information on all of these national developments can be found by accessing either of the following websites: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Home or http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/.
c. An invitation was received from the Scottish Parent Councils Association to renew the Netherlee PC membership for session 2008-09 at a cost of £45. It was agreed not to renew the membership until the form of the new national representative body is known.
d. ERC’s local transport plan for 2008-11 was received and VG took charge of the copy.
e. ERC’s Parent Council Forum had asked the school for a membership update and our annual report for session 2007-8. Action: AC agreed to prepare a short report based on our website material and to circulate it by email as it would require to be submitted by the end of September.
4. ERC Parent Council Forum
Ailsa Crum gave a brief overview of matters raised which included the Curriculum for Excellence programme and the Next Generation of National Qualifications for secondary pupils which would affect all pupils from the present P7 year group and younger, when they reached secondary school.
A national consultation was underway and would extend to Oct 31, 08. Any individual was able to respond to the consultation and Sandra Mitchell offered to put a paragraph in the October newsletter inviting parents to contribute their views directly to the national consultation website.
AC had passed electronic copies of the consultation information to Val Graham to circulate to all PC members with the next minutes.
The next meeting of the ERC PC Forum will take place from 7-9 pm at St Luke’s High School, Barrhead on Feb 18, 2009. Volunteers to attend were asked to contact AC.
Actions : SM to include newsletter item for October, VG to circulate NGC consultation details
5. 75th Anniversary
Everyone was formally thanked for their considerable efforts towards last term’s events, especially Karen Hussain for her many hours of commitment.
The sub group is co-ordinating the production of a commemorative booklet (1500 copies) with an eclectic range of material. The booklet will be distributed free of charge with the £1800 production costs covered by advertising. AC had obtained £1000 sponsorship from Eastwood Mearns Taxis. It is proposed that the material for the booklet should be ready by the October break. All PC members were asked to consider advertising prospects for a final push to raise the outstanding £800. In relation to the booklet contents, it was hoped that a small number of additional ‘memories’ from the 1980s and 1990s might be received. Action: SM to include an item in October newsletter re final push for advertising for parents with business contacts to potentially contribute.
6. Projects for the year ahead
a. Healthy eating
Sara Lang, Tim Adams and Vivienne Wilson will form a sub group to steer this project initially, calling on additional help as required. The first initiatives will be to encourage parents to prepare healthier lunch boxes and for healthier fare to be available at tuck shops. Currently there are too many confectionery items being eaten in favour of healthy snacks. (The PTA is also actively involved in the tuck shop campaign where there are some concerns about a potential loss of revenue through restrictions on the sale of items at tuck shops.)
Action: SL, TA, VW to liaise
b. Sports Day
The topic of a formal sports day had been raised at the parents’ drop-in session.
At least three of the current parent council members with older children have helped on at least two occasions at the biennial PTA sports event - and some more often- so were able to contribute to this item from personal experience.
The PTA ‘hire’ the pitch from its earliest available time on a Saturday; it is block booked for football training in the mornings. With 735 children it is a challenge to run a series of heats and finals across all class groups in the available time.
Everything has to be run in “real time” on the day. With regret, the school’s PE specialist (one staff member) is unable to organise the heats herself during class time and supervise the rest of the class simultaneously. (PE time is part of McCrone time so she cannot call upon further assistance unless the help of supply teachers is enlisted at an additional cost.)
Liz Grant agreed to take a lead on investigating the possible development of the sports/fun day organised by the PTA. One possibility raised was to find out if any additional resource to support this might be available through the active schools co-ordinator. It was noted that considerable parent support is required on the day for people to act as marshals and race officials. It was agreed that the full parent body should be contacted in the next few weeks to see if the requisite number of volunteers can be reached and identified early so making the task easier on the day. Actions: LG to set up sub group; SM to put item in October newsletter
c Scooter to school
KH asked if it would be possible to identify locations for locking up scooters in the school grounds to promote the idea of ‘Scootering to school’. Action: KH and SM to consider how this might work
d. Maths homework
It was noted that the school had previously identified working with parents in relation to the maths curriculum as an objective for the coming year. It was agreed that the previous minutes would be consulted and the school would consider the form any such joint work might take. Action: VG to refer to previous minutes. SM to consider the kind of support the school might wish.
Subsequent to the meeting, it was noted that the minutes of the PC meeting held on 13 February 2008 had stated:
‘Curriculum info' - SM reported at the most recent in-service day the staff considered the school operational plan and had an early look at priorities for 2008-09. It was thought that the PC could assist in three key areas:
I) working in partnership to review maths homework. This was an area that although working well would gain from an in depth look perhaps with a series of pilot projects to explore parental involvement.
II) contributing towards health and well being topics. It was noted that there was concern about the contents of pupils’ packed lunches and this might be an area for joint working with the PC. The school has also submitted a bid to run a healthy eating project in August 08.
III) Enhancing communications with parents generally.
There was discussion about the kinds of information relating to the curriculum that parents would be particularly interested to receive and would find most beneficial in supporting their children’s education. A number of parents had suggested additional information on homework including tips on supporting children generally and particularly on the approaches being adopted by the school (eg the maths techniques being taught). There was also some discussion on the kinds of information it is useful to have about the topics being explored in class.
Some parents had expressed interest in receiving information about the topics that were about to be covered during a year or a term. Staff present indicated that there could be benefits to children beginning topics without having previously explored the subject matter at home, and suggested that there can often be more significant benefits in children receiving home support after a topic has been covered in class. It was agreed that this matter would be returned to at future PC meetings and in partnership with the school.’
7. The AGM
This will be held at 7.00 pm on Tuesday, October 21 in the staff room. There will be a short introduction, the election of office bearers and then a business meeting. Nominations will be sought for Chair, Vice chair, Minutes secretary, Web Wizard/Treasurer.
A pink paper letter will be sent to parents/ carers highlighting the work of the PC and the way it dovetails with the PTA. “Joiners” will be invited to take part in all aspects or just be part of sub groups eg healthy eating. P1 parents and carers will be targeted with a reminder.
Actions: VG to book let, look at last flyer and draft letter for inclusion with next newsletter.
8. Updates from
a. Headteacher - The school roll is at 735, with P7 sitting at 130 pupils and nearly “full”.
SM ran through the schemes, pilots and initiatives that had been launched, eg Peer monitoring; choirs; NPS Young Traders. An HMIE film crew will film a video called ‘Journey for excellence’; teachers Stewart Bryce & Mark Weir have been invited to contribute at a national conference on science initiatives within the school. The orchestra has had an invitation to play at a concert following on from their success at the Glasgow music festival. This concert will be at the RSAMD later in the year.
b. PTA - Cress Maher advised the PC re the healthier tuck shop scheme, the soon to arrive PTA syllabus and the forthcoming Hallowe’en events.
10. Future meetings
It was agreed that a series of dates would be identified for the PC meetings in the year ahead. Action : AC to identify dates with the school and email PC members.
The next meeting will be the AGM, at 7.00pm on Tuesday, October 21, 2008.This will be followed by a business meeting of the Parent Council.