Minutes of Parent Council meeting 31st August 2011
Roslin Primary School
Parent Council
Minutes of meeting on Wednesday 31 August 2011
1.Present:
John Phillips (JP) (Chair), Claire Witney (CW), Shelley Kay (SK) Lynn Harrower (LH), Lesley Liddle (LL), Anna Hulton (AH), Suzanne Rowe (SR), Donna Hogg (DH), Sean Lyon (SL), Pam Stewart (PS), Annie Douglas (AD), Sam Hamilton (SH), Pat Brack (PB), Jennifer Allison (JA).
Apologies: Mairi Needham, Juliet Ridgway-Tait, Sarah Keer-Keer, Angela Newton, Caroline Findlay, Julie Owenson, Fran Jones, Mark Turner, Nina Sobecka, Alison Hughes, Suzanne Black, Joyce Frankish, Kim Blair, Owen Thompson and Les Thacker.
2. Minutes of the previous meeting on 8 June 2011 were agreed
3. Matters arising
(a) Gate between school and park – funding is not available from Midlothian Council. It was agreed that the PC should try to raise funding for the gate as we believe it will improve school security. PC has funds to contribute to cost if necessary. Estimated cost is £651 (inc VAT).
Action – SK to approach Roslin and Bilston Community Council for a donation.
(b) School sign – Owen Thomson is arranging a sign for the school.
(c) Hedge – agreed that we should plant a hawthorn hedge along the school boundary between the school and the community hall as no funding is available to upgrade the fencing.
Actions – AH to ask The Friends of Roslin Glen for a donation towards the cost of the hedge.
SR to obtain a quote for the cost of plants and planting.
4. School Website
JP has set up a webmail address for parents to use if they want to send queries to the parent council, it is: roslinprimary.parentcouncil@gmail.com.
Action – JP to organize counter for website to record the number of ‘hits’ it receives.
5. Bank Account Signatories
It was agreed that the bank account signatories should be the office bearers: Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary and Treasurer.
The Account name is to be changed to Roslin Primary School Parent Council.
Action – AH to liaise with Kim Blair to handover Treasurer duties and confirm bank account changes.
6.Head Teachers Report
(a) Music Tuition
The music teachers have been confirmed as Liz Stephen and Grant Alexander.
The music working group would like to arrange a meeting with them.
Action – JA to establish if there is a time when they would both be available to meet with the working group.
(b) Lets
The school is allocated 24 hours of free lets per year and this is virtually all used by school events. Charges over and above this are £17.40 per hour.
There is a possibility of sharing a let with the Boys Brigade, alternatives are to use the church hall or the Bilston Pavilion.
Actions – JA to contact the Boys Brigade about sharing lets.
DH to investigate possibility of holding meetings at Bilston Pavillion.
Location of next meeting to be confirmed.
(c) School Handbook
Proof readers required for new school handbook.
Action – SK, CW and AH volunteered, JA to liaise with them directly.
(d) Support for Learning Post
Interviews for this post are scheduled for Friday 9 September. It will be a 4 days per week post.
Concern was expressed about how Mrs Helliwell’s departure was communicated to parents, particularly the parents of children who were supported regularly by her. It was felt that it would have provided more reassurance to the parents of these children if they had been told more about how the handover process would be managed.
(e) P1 induction and first day experiences
Action – JA to organize a questionnaire for parents of P1 pupils to learn from this year’s experiences and improve for next year.
(f) Behaviour policy
Action – all to review draft policy and provide ant comments to JA by 6 September.
(g) Homework policy
Action – all to review draft policy and provide ant comments to JA by 6 September.
The PC felt that both the above policies should be communicated to parents as soon as possible, since they are already being implemented in school.
7. Communication
Action – all to check parent council mailbox and review correspondence.
8. AOCB
(a) Sponsored walk raised c £3000.
(b) Heinmann Active Maths resources, which were funded by the Parent Council, have been received and are being put to good use already across the school.
(c) The next bookshop will be on Friday 7 October.
(d) Christmas fund raiser to be a calendar. Each class will contribute a piece of artwork.
(e) School Sale – a working group needs to be established.
(f) Press Committee Badges – PC have agreed to fund badges, the cost is £20
(g) Sports Day Teas and Coffees raised £20. The format of 2012 sports day to be discussed at the next meeting.
(h) Bags-2-school, Mairi Needham to be asked to provide details of how this event used to be organized by old PTA.
(i) Mosaics – action for SR to liaise with Sarah Keer-Keer about mosaics.
Next meeting Wednesday 2 November venue TBC
Dates of meetings for the rest of this session:
25th January 2012
14th March 2012
9th May 2012
13th June 2012
AGM will be held on Wed 23rd May 2012
