Minutes of Parent Council meeting 3rd September 2014
Minutes 2014-9-3 (MS Word doc)
Roslin Primary School Parent Council
Minutes of Meeting on 3rd September 2014
Present: Shelley Kay (SK- chair person), Alex Clark (AC-Secretary/Minutes), Angela Newton (AG), Claire Witney (CW_Treasurer), Colin Burt (CB), Jo Wilson (JW), John Phillips (JP), Jon Steele (JS), Julie White (JW1), Kim Blair (KB), Lynne Harrower (LH), Mairi Needham (MN), Nina Sobecka (NS), Pam Stewart (PS), Rhona Farren (RF), Sam Hamilton (SH), Simon Bullock (SB), Zoe Fergie (ZF)
Apologies: Andrea Berry (AB), Annie Douglas (AD), Dawn Robertson (DR), Emma Torrance (ET), Juliet Ridgway-Tait (JRT)
1. Welcome. SK welcomed everyone to the meeting. JW introduced Colin Burt (P4 teacher) who was attending the meeting for the first time.
2. Minutes of meeting held on 4th June 2014 – accepted.
3. Matters arising
a) Staff update
PE: 3 teachers from Beeslack have been coming to Roslin to teach different classes. This arrangement has been a success so far, timetables are being worked on.
Support for P6-P7: A new initiative is starting next week to provide literacy and numeracy support for P6/P7. A letter will be sent to parents soon.
Music: Helen Martin (music teacher) has remained in her post. Focus will be on P5 for learning to play the recorder. More will be done with the keyboards and the other instruments. John Deed and Lyndsey Pow have been doing songwriting workshop with P6.
P5 vacancy: The post has been advertised and will be filled as soon as possible. JW acknowledged that it had been very disruptive for P5 pupils and apologised for the situation.
Group work: Classes within the middle and top area have been working together in house groups and mixed teams. This new approach has been a success and this type of work will continue.
Reception: Mrs Jan Sturrock retired at the end of the last academic year, advertisement for the post will follow. In the meantime Angela Foley is standing in.
b) PVG
JW spoke to the staff during the service day to make sure they follow the procedures regarding parents with no PVG working in the school. Parents need to sign an agreement with the school if they volunteer as helpers. It was thought that parents who come on a regular basis should consider getting the PVG.
c) Update on school improvements over the holidays
– New sinks have been fitted throughout the classrooms for hand washing and craft.
– Bilston nursery has benefited from a partial refit of the kitchen with a new dishwasher. A new whiteboard has been put in P1/P2. P2/P3 will get a new smartboard.
– Plans to improve the display unit at the school entrance to keep it more up to date.
– The classes in the upper area have been separated by dividers.
– Plans to focus on improving the nursery area in Roslin (carpet, kitchen area and dishwasher).
– LH asked if it would be possible to get a new table at Bilston for dinner time as one is badly damaged.
4. School improvement plan for the year
JW distributed a chart summarising the improvement plan for Roslin school. It will be available on the website and will be more detailed. Teachers will have an improvement plan for their class and will use it regularly. This approach should help children understand their targets as the improvement plan will focus on feedback from pupils and identifying targets. More involvement from the parents is also important in the process. Work will be done with the pupils and their teachers on ‘pupil profiles’ and these will be shared with parents. CB explained that pupils have started discussing their work across subjects by picking their best work and identifying areas for improvement. Children have also been working on the ‘Cool in school’ initiative.
JW will analyse the GL and PIPS data over the following week.
5. Panto
This year the panto will be Cinderella by a company called Hopscotch on the 3rd December 2014, there will be 2 shows at Roslin School. This arrangement will simplify logistics.
6. Fundraising
iPad appeal: KB gave an update of the hard work done over the summer by ET to set up the official raffle and secure some fantastic prizes. KB asked if it was possible to send each family a set of 10 tickets to sell (each ticket will cost £1). Sellers must be over 16. Any unsold tickets can be returned. A flyer will be sent out this week. In addition a team will go out to various places to sell tickets to the wider public. KB asked if it was possible for teachers to be given 20 tickets to sell. Extra tickets can be given if required. The draw will take place on the 6th December (Christmas bazaar).
Easyfundraising: AB will send a letter about easyfundraising soon.
Fun Day (6th September): The PC will be selling raffle tickets, organise a game and run the bookshop.
School calendar: ET had spoken to CW about having a calendar of events at the beginning of the year and a letter to be sent to parents to give more warning. These could also be included on the website calendar.
Christmas bazaar: JW will confirm the let for the building for the 6th December.
7. Charitable status
It was agreed to register as a Scottish charity as it will facilitate donations for fundraising. JP, MN and CW will update the constitution and the accounts will be mandated.
8. Signatories on Parent Council account
AH and CW are signatories on the account at present. It was thought that KB and AN could be added on the account to facilitate transactions.
9. Inviting Eleanor Connor (Information Officer at the Scottish Parent Teacher Council) at the next PC meeting
JR had suggested inviting Eleanor Connor to the next PC meeting to get a general overview and possibly discuss what the PC can improve. It was then discussed how we could centralise information regarding PC to help organise future events. SB suggested using Google docs which is a secure internet cloud and offered to investigate this option and set it up.
10. Communications
CW passed information confirming the SPTC (Scottish Parent Teacher Council) insurance renewal.
CW received a letter from Ragbag indicating that our target had been increased to 600kgs from 500kgs. This target would need to be achieved to keep the collecting point at Roslin.
11. AOCB
Retirement present: CW suggested the PC could give something to Jan for her retirement, possibly a card and a gift voucher for Pentland Plants.
Parent consultations: MN agreed to coordinate the crèche. PS will be running the bookshop on Tuesday.
Healthy eating: SB raised his concern about food combinations at the canteen. It was decided to discuss this issue at the next PC meeting and to invite Margaret McKenzie along.
Music: AN thought there was a lack of information regarding opportunities to try new instruments in P6 and wondered if was possible for pupils who missed out in P6 to try again in P7. JP commented on the condition of some of the instruments and the need for an audit.
Email: PS asked if the school could use email to better communicate.
Active school activities: RF asked if a learning assistant could be in charge of children for 15min whilst they wait for their after school activity. JW replied that staff were very stretched and this would be difficult.
Next PC meeting at Bilston Annexe – Thursday 13th November 2014, 6.30pm.
