Minutes of the Meeting of Strathblane Primary School Parent Council
Tuesday 4th March 2008
Present:
Staff: Jennifer Cunningham, Anne Spencer, Morven Bulloch, Rachel Allen, Lynne Arrol, Lyndsay Macdonald, Rhona McCrae, Sheena Mylles, Helen Retson
Parent Council: Debbie Bolton, Charlie Haggerty, Fergus Mitchell, Cathie Moir, Gun Orgun, Bernd Schwahn, Andy Thompson
Parents: Wendy Barratt, Nicki Corrigan, Eleanor Forrest, Wendy Hamilton, Robin Hoyle, Kim Jones, Jane McCallum, Val McCorquodale, Rhona Stevens, Bronagh Ewart (clerk to the parent council)
1.Welcome & Apologies
Andy Thompson opened the meeting and welcomed everyone. There were no apologies. Each person present then introduced him or herself.
2.Minutes of meeting held on 21 January 2008
There were no amendments to the previous minutes.
3.Matters arising from the minutes
Once the PC website is active Jennifer Cunningham’s HMIe presentation from the last meeting will be available for all to view. All other matters arising will be discussed later in the agenda.
4.Standing Committee Reports
The Strathblane Primary Fundraisers (formerly PTA) is the only standing committee at present. Wendy Barratt and Val McCorquodale are co-chairs and Cathie Moir is the link person on the PC. Minutes of their most recent meeting will be distributed to all parents shortly. Gun Orgun, treasurer of the PC, reported that both bank accounts are now open. The SPF account opened with a balance of £8694.74 from the former PTA account. £1000 of this has now been spent as follows: £500 towards school trips and £500 for the new reading scheme. The PC will receive £380 per annum from Stirling Council. To date £60 has been allocated for clerk duties for the three meetings (including this one) so far. Approximately £150 will be required to set up the new website.
5.School Report
Anne Spencer began the school report with an update on the Pupil Council who have recently bought some playground equipment and written an article for The Blane. Next they will be producing an anti-bullying leaflet for pupils. Following a recent pupil vote it has been decided to make Fridays a football–free day in the playground. This will come into operation after Easter on a trial basis for two months and the Pupil Council hopes to build up more playground equipment before then. P7 squaddies will be used to set up games for all the pupils.
Jennifer Cunningham reported that a school meals tasting evening was being planned for the summer term.
Jennifer also stated that she had received complaints from the library and the local shops about parent parking. She asked everyone to be sensitive to the parking needs of the local community. There followed some discussion about parking including concerns about parents/carers parking on the pavements, parking/stopping on the yellow lines and speeding. Suggestions made as to how to address these issues included sending a map to all parents to highlight safe places to park/drop off, encouraging more walk-to-school days, approaching the Kirkhouse Inn again to establish if parking was still available in their car park and involving local and traffic police. The annual Road Safety visit will take place on March 28th for primaries 1, 3, 5, and 7. Eleanor Forrest agreed to help the PC take this issue forward and Jane McCallum will be approached for help following her involvement with the Safer Routes to School Initiative.
Jennifer then went on to highlight a letter written by the staff and distributed to all at the meeting1. This letter outlined the following areas of concern:
Staff members feel hurt by the tone and content of the most recent PC letter/questionnaire2.
Staff representatives on the PC feel excluded.
Some comments on the questionnaire concerned curricular areas which are the responsibility of National and Local Government and are not open to change.
Staff are unhappy at the suggestion that they do not communicate effectively as there has always been an open-door policy in SPS.
There is concern that parents are being asked to email the PC in confidence about issues rather than approaching the staff directly.
There followed a time of heated discussion when the role of the PC, particularly in relation to staff representation, was debated. Charlie Haggerty stated that by law staff cannot be members of the PC but have the right to attend meetings. There was divided opinion on this issue. Andy Thompson explained that the PC is very different to the former School Board system. Legislation demands that the PC tries to increase involvement of parents, representing parent views and interests but developing a partnership approach. The following other main issues were raised:
The PC letter suggests that staff are not working together with the PC.
The former PTA felt somewhat excluded in the set up of the new PC.
The PC should support the positive as well as addressing concerns.
Staff felt undermined by some comments on the questionnaire e.g. challenging the children academically.
The staff want to work together with the PC.
Responses from the PC included:
The PC has statutory obligations and rights and it’s function is to represent parents, not the school.
The PC has done its utmost to enable people to set the agenda – the whole process has been directed by parents.
All wording in the questionnaire came directly from views expressed by parents at the AGM.
The confidential email is not intended to be secretive.
After much discussion during which several PC members apologised that offence had been caused, Andy Thompson stated that he was pleased that the staff had brought this up. The PC always tries to be open and, in future, will be more careful about language/wording.
6.Feedback from Parent Consultation Exercise
Fergus Mitchell reported that one third of parents had returned questionnaires showing an increase in parental interest. The results are listed below in order of priority. The first points are where parents, in general, feel urgent action is required. Those at the bottom of the list are of less concern to parents, or they feel enough is being done already.
1. Advance the Multi-use Games Area and other play/sports facilities.
2.Anti-bullying strategies need to be put in place, and made to work effectively.
3.The standard of homework needs to challenge the children academically.
4.School dinners need to be improved, and balanced diets encouraged.
5.The study of foreign languages should begin at a much earlier stage.
6.Parents should get more involved in fund-raising.
7.We need more openness about targets, aims and goals academically.
8.Communication between teachers and parents needs to be improved.
9.Parents and children should be consulted in the refurbishment of the school.
10.Links between the school and the community should be strengthened.
11.The teaching of religion, including other faiths, needs discussion.
12.Parents and the elderly should be encouraged to give talks to the pupils.
These results form a basis to work on and the PC will discuss with staff how to progress these areas. Jennifer Cunningham reported that Rhona McCrae (P3 teacher) would be starting an after school French club after Easter for primaries 3 and 4.
7.MUGA – current state of play
Charlie Haggerty reported that £45,000 had been pledged from various bodies for this project. However he was unsure as to whether all this money was still available as some was time-limited and contingent on a certain contractor being used. He will look into this in time for the next meeting and would welcome any offers of help. There is also a group hoping to refurbish the playpark in the village and we need to ensure that we are not all applying for the same grants. The Community Development Trust could possibly provide advice and support as to how to move forward.
8. Food Policy – plans for parental consultation
Bernd Schwahn spoke about the School Nutrition Action Group set up to discuss how to improve school meals. This group comprises Jennifer Cunningham, two pupils, two parents and a Stirling Council representative. There have been two meetings, one in November and one in January. It has been noted that the quality of food has deteriorated and the uptake of meals decreased. The deterioration in food quality was confirmed by parents during a tasting session in November. A survey of parent opinion was distributed to the meeting for discussion and possible distribution to all parents and pupils. It was suggested to include a question to ascertain the reasons why some pupils have stopped taking school meals and also whether separate questionnaires for parents and pupils would be useful.
9. Breakfast Club Update
One person did apply for this position. However they failed to turn up for interview and the school has been unable to contact them. Therefore the Breakfast Club will close on April 4th. It was suggested that parents who use the club may be able to form a rota with one person supervising each day as a short-term measure.
10.Priority Issue: funding and expenditure guidelines for Strathblane Primary Fundraisers
SPF require guidelines about finances as they are no longer a separate organisation. Preliminary discussions have already begun and it was decided not to discuss this item tonight due to time constraints. It will be included in the agenda for the next meeting.
11.Car Parking and Pavement Obstruction
Already discussed under item 5.
12.Membership of Network Organisations for Parent Councils
Previously the School Board was a member of the Scottish School Board Association. This has now become the Scottish Parent Council Association and offers advice, education, training and liability insurance to parent councils. There is an annual charge for membership. There is also the Scottish Parent Teacher Council. We need to ascertain from Stirling Council whether we need liability insurance in order to run fundraising events and which organisation to join, if any.
13.Limited Liability Insurance
Already discussed under previous item.
14.AOB
None
15.Date of Next Meeting
Tuesday 1st April 7.45pm in the school.
Andy Thompson closed the meeting, thanking everyone for coming.