Minutes of Parent Council meeting 6th March 2013
Roslin Primary School Parent Council
Minutes of meeting Wednesday March 6th 2013
Present: John Phillips (JP) chair, Rosie Cowie (from Community Learning And Development) (RC), Sarah Keer-Keer (SKK) minutes, Sam Hamilton (SH), Claire Witney (CW), Shelley Kay (SK), Annie Douglas (AD), Zoe Fergie (ZF), Jon Steele (JS), Chris Yapp (CY), Nina Sobecka (NS), Jennifer Allison (JA) Headteacher, Caroline Findlay (CF), Laura Cameron (LC)
Apologies: Linda Smith (LS), Mairi Needham (MN), Anna Hulton (AH), Teresa Reid (TR)
COMMUNITY PLANNING
Rosie Cowie spoke about a community consultation that is taking place in Roslin and Bilston. The consultation happens every 5 years. It is done by the local authority and is about local authorities trying to engage with local communities. This went out in Bilston in Oct. 2012 and has gone OK but there have been some issues with the consultation with Roslin, with limited contacts being established, those include Lorraine Martin and Claire Halliday. Roslin Survey is due to go out 18th March in library and other areas like the pavilion. It will not go through letter boxes. SKK suggested putting the surveys into school bags, and JA agreed so long as RC can see to the photocopying.
MATTERS ARISING
School grounds
Play equipment: The large scale play equipment is all in! CF brought along letters and photos of the children playing on the equipment from the pupils in the infant area to say thank you to the Parent Council for driving through these improvements to the school grounds.
Garden: There is going be a gardening club run by Chris Yapp, Kenny Young and Annette Valentine on Thursday lunch times, possibly starting before Easter and working initially with P4/5. CY has some trees that need planted soon, the no mow areas that already exist where suggested as possible good sites for the trees, and maybe Bilston grounds as they have had some of their new trees damaged. Raised beds have been proposed and Garry at the council is happy with these, though JA needs to check Health and safety standards are met. JA suggested the gardening team visit Bilston grounds on occasion, possibly on a Friday morning with some of the older Bilston pupils to look after the garden there.
Dog fouling and Security: Steven Small has visited the school grounds with JA, CW, JP and Eric Stark and confirmed various parts of our improvement plans which have got funding and are due to be implemented during the Easter holidays. There will be a new 1.8m fence from the school office to the boundary fence with a gate for vehicular access which will be kept locked. This fence will extend along the boundary between the school and the pavilion/park to meet the existing high fence. Dog grids and special dog proof entrances will be installed at the gate near the MUGA and at the gate opposite this near the top area playground.
The main entrance gate at P1 and the gate opposite at P3 playground will be locked during the school day from 9am – 2.50pm approx. and over night from 4pm – 8am approx. The gate near the MUGA and the gate opposite will be locked during the school day at similar times to infant area gates but will be unlocked at all other times.
These changes will cause some difficulties for people on the west side of Roslin for example accessing the nursery during the day and for the elderly walking to the village. Changes proposed in phase two will help to address this. Phase two plans have yet to be approved and funded by Midlothian Council but involve opening access from Charlton Grove and creating a fenced path along the existing fence line to the main entrance gate at P1. This would allow pedestrians on west side of Roslin to access the school and village without having to walk all the way round.
JA to liaise with Steven Small on this and how they might advertise to the community the upcoming changes
Communication methods
Facebook: CW has asked parents what they thought and got a mixed opinion depending on whether the parent used Facebook regularly or not, those that do were in favour but felt email would be more successful in reaching the majority of parents. SK advised that it is possible to have a read only site with no facility for posts/comments. SKK suggested it might be beneficial to use both email and Facebook if possible. LC is to ask the IT department (Alan Thompson) their advice.
Text/email: Various people mentioned that they had not been receiving email communications from the school. JA is to look into this. Emails are free to send but SMS texts are paid for by the school.
Website: SKK asked JP if it was possible to get the school newsletter as a webpage as well as a downloadable pdf as the html is more accessible than a download for some people and platforms.
Hand dryers
JA had contacted the Clerk of works but has had no response due to absence but will feedback when receives a quote for installation.
Parent consultations
Everyone agreed that these seemed to go very well.
Disco
BIG thank you to LS, KB and MN for organising the discos. Kids had a great time. The profit was £16. Boys Brigade has requested that we not run a disco on a Wednesday as it clashes with their class.
TRANSPORT
JA talked through a recent change to the P3 bus. She requested that any parent with any concerns about recent changes come and talk to her directly.
Children living in Bilston are able to attend P1 and P2 at the Roslin site if they so wish places permitting. Transport to those classes from Bilston would usually be undertaken by the parent however bus transport can be applied for by contacting Debbie Hunter at Midlothian council.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Red Nose Day is on Friday 15th March and there will be a dress down day with a donation from pupils.
There will be a visit to Roslin Kirk for an Easter service on Friday 22nd March. There has been a recent publication on the religious education and observance in schools that JA wishes to discuss at the next meeting. JA will circulate the relevant document to all members of parent council prior to the meeting.
Health week is from 8th to 12th April. TR and CF are organising events. Mark Blair is helping with rugby. Julie Owenson is helping with alternative dance. The sponsored walk is planned for Thursday 11th April, during health week. This year the route is in Roslin Glen and will be led by two of the Rangers. The school needs parent volunteers to help with the walk and to provide refreshments as per last year. SK will look into the possibility of getting a free bus for the Bilston children to join in the Roslin walk.
The teachers would like to have use of the games hall in the Pavilion during Health week, and asked the PC for help in getting a free let. ZF agreed to speak to Yvonne Anderson re a free let for health week.
COMMUNICATIONS
JP mentioned that we got notice of a PC chairs meeting with only 5 days notice.
AOCB
–Ragbag first collection made £76. We need to encourage parents to continue to use the permanent Ragbag recycling bin located to the right of the school reception.
-JA mentioned that Penicuik High School has an open day on the 14th March.
-School uniform. Information letters and order forms will be sent out before the end of term. CW to action and to order sports t-shirts.
-Midlothian Science Festival. SKK talked about this festival and asked the PC if the school would like to be involved and if the PC would sponsor a science workshop or talk the same way it might sponsor a theatre visit. CW and JP said possibly, but needed more details.
-Homework. JS spoke about the volume of homework, which he and some other parents feels is too much sometimes. When raised with the teacher the stock response has been ‘just don’t do it all if it is too much’, which he does not find helpful. JA asked JS, and any other parent with concerns about homework which are not resolved by the class teacher, to speak to her directly as the issue seems specific rather than global.
-Gym tuition at Bilston. ZF asked why Bilston does not have a specialist gym teacher and asked how much gym is being done as the children have not been getting changed for gym very much. JA explained that gym lessons are being taken by the class teacher (possibly without getting changed?) and that there is no budget for specialist teachers, including gym teachers, for P1 and P2 at either site.
-Sports Day. NS asked about plans for this. Last Friday in May is the first choice and the first Friday in June is the second choice. The working group has had an initial meeting and CW has emailed notes on this to all involved. JA asked if Bilston children would like to come up to join the Roslin campus sports day. Bilston parents will canvas opinion from other parents on this.
-Scottish cup. SK told us that Hearts have the Scottish cup, and are taking round local school for the kids to see. JA and SK agreed that the cup could come into assembly on Red Nose Day for the kids to see and take photos.
Next meeting: Wednesday 8th May Roslin Kirk Hall 6.30pm
