Parent council minutes 080914 by lynne lewis

Athelstaneford Primary School Parent Council Minutes of Meeting Monday 8th September 2014, 7pm Parent Council Members Present: Sandra Delahooke (Vice Chair) Pauline Paton (Parent) Catriona McKinnon (Head Teacher) Lucy Calder (Parent) Alison Hutchison (Principle Teacher) Jane Darlington (Parent) Susan Begg (Secretary) Sandra Mair (Parent) Elaine Mostyn (Treasurer) Sandra Delhooke (Parent) Nicola Semple (Parent) Niki Fallowfield (Parent) Jane Brand (Parent) Apologies: Debbie Coppinger (Parent) Draft Minutes Approved

Head Teacher Update

Ms McKinnon began by welcoming Mrs Overmeer as new member of staff, delighted she has joined our staff team. Also very happy to welcome our new P1s and ante-pre-schoolers all of whom have settled very well. Had to change our finishing times as per the recent letter to ensure that our P1-3 pupils all finish at the same time every day ensuring no disruption to learning for P1-3 class. No concerns or feedback from parents and new hours now be put on website. Very productive few in-service days, additional day was highly beneficial for us in looking at our progression in literacy and English from early –second level as well as beginning to make us e of a tool developed last year to provide a picture as to what achievement of a level looks like in Maths and Numeracy. Work being undertaken across each school to provide feedback on this document and ensure increased consistency of standards across ELC schools. Thanks for support with St Kitts and Nevis visit What a great event this was for our school in the summer. Hopefully everyone has had a chance to see the display in the foyer with some photos from the day. This was a last minute event not planned during school holidays and testament to our school and community spirit everyone was determined to pull together to make this the success it was. Richard Parker has asked me to pass on his thanks to all staff, parents and pupils who were able to attend. We opened our Baton from Beach Allen PS at our first assembly of the year (items on display in foyer) Also received postcards from athletes as a result of children taking part in the Athletes Village art competition and having their artwork displayed. Continue to build on this legacy with a visit from Alex ‘Tattie’ Marshall, Commonwealth Gold medal winner in a few weeks’ time. Staffing Update on days for myself (Teaching P4-7 Thurs and Fri) and Mrs Overmeer (Mon-Wed). Still fortunate to have additional classroom support with Mrs Darrie (Mon-Fri) and Mrs Gray (Wed+Thurs). Mrs Overmeer and I meet daily for informal discussion and weekly for formal planning sessions for the following week as well as additional planning for longer term plans, i.e. Aug-Oct is our first long term planning block and then Oct-Dec. Meet The Teacher and Parental Consultations Keen to hold this sessions tomorrow evening given that we have a new member of staff and also a reduction to 2 classes meaning that there may be questions surrounding the nature of learning and teaching within our new multi-composite classes. We intend clarifying routines for each class as well as looking at the nature of support and challenge that is provided. This will be informal and not time for individual consultations which will of course follow in only three weeks’ time. Please note one week

Athelstaneford Primary School Parent Council is a Registered Charity. Scottish Charity Number: SCO44133 parentcouncil@athelstaneford.elcschool.org.uk http://athelstaneford.wordpress.com/parent-council

Athelstaneford Primary School Parent Council earlier than normal. Hoping also to get parents to sign up as helpers in school at this event, either for trips, in classes or even better helping to organise an after school club. Our Village Then and Now We are very excited to be embarking upon this project this year with members of the wider community. Kay Mann is leading a project with P4-7 that involves them becoming Roving Reporters and going out to interview village residents old and new. The first session will be this Wednesday when they will look at questions etc. an then next week begin to draft letters to make appointments to go out and interview in small groups. Second aspect to this involves Diana Simcock and Emma Mackenzie joining us in school to undertake an art project. Initially this will also be P4-7, 3 or 4 sessions. First session will be thus Thursday afternoon when we will be out in the village with our sketchbooks making drawings of familiar buildings and comparing them to famous works of art. Subsequent sessions will add detail and hopefully lead to a collage of all sketches being produced to contribute to a larger piece of work that could include pieces from the wider community. Both projects will have the summer fair/gala event as their showcase and hopefully act as a focal point for the wider village community. The Glebe Still in discussions with regard to how we can make use of this piece of land that the church has gifted to the village for the next five years. Staff have made trips down there and initial discussions centre around outdoor learning opportunities and keeping are as wild as possible. We are considering allotments although we would be reluctant to take on anything that we cannot sustain given that we already grow some veg etc. in school already. In-Service days and progress with School and Cluster Improvement Plan Copies of plan available - Highlighted task sheet copied. Progression and Assessment Framework for Literacy and English –copy and explain Maths Holistic East Lothian Picture of Achievement –copy and explain. Cluster Plan – 1 plus 2 project HTs looking at Technology Cluster writing trackers. On-line payments Started now for milk, fruit trips and uniform. Only thing not currently able to pay for is school dinners. New Blinds being ordered for Nursery, office and P4-7 room. Reduce glare from the sun on whiteboard and hopefully keep the rooms cooler. New Laptops being delivered Wednesday –ELC purchase -netbooks 1 plus 2 pilot project – Info sheet copied for all Staff training in a few weeks’ time. Initial work with P1-3 class will be starting after October. This is a very basic vocabulary list of only a few words and important that all schools within the cluster keep pace with each other. All schools have until 2020 to roll this out, we are fortunate to be party of the cluster or nothing would be happening this year at all. We are benefiting from a cluster language student to support us. This year the L2 will be French although as this is a pilot there are no guarantees that this will be the language 2 that we move forwards with. Look upon it as our children are benefiting, staff re benefiting and any skills learned this year will then benefit us all whatever the language is that the cluster decide upon at the end of this pilot phase. Pupil Voice – Pupil Parliament We recently held our first session of our annual Pupil Parliament –paperwork attached. Vertical groups supported by a teacher worked through their self-evaluation tool to begin to evaluate against key Quality Indicators. This is the same process we go through annually in school and using the very same Quality Indicators that Education Scotland and the authority would evaluate our progress against. We have

Athelstaneford Primary School Parent Council reframed these points as questions to stimulate group discussion. We will meet next week once again to report back the findings of each group and begin to narrow down the priority areas to no more than three key priorities to take forwards this session. Whole parliament twill vote, decide and have ownership of these priorities. The parliament will then decide on an appropriate number of groups to take this forward led by a member of staff. Groups will meet every 4-6 weeks during school time to move forward their priority. Moderation this year Cluster Moderation continues again this year. Starts next month when the team visit Gullane. The team will not be visit u until April of next year when the will be looking at Writing and Maths. We shall continue to engage in our own in-house moderation activities using exactly the same proformas and expectations the Moderation Team will have. E-Profiles – Talking and Thinking Floorbooks P5/6/7 last year made us of E-profiles and this will continue this session for P4-7. Achievement folders will also be updated and revisited as will our use of Talking and Thinking floor books, These were used last year from some IDL work in some classes.

Chair’s Update Office Bearers The positions of Chair and Secretary remained vacant after the last meeting. Susan Begg nominated Pauling Paton to take on the secretary role, she was seconded by Elaine Mostyn and kindly agreed. Sandra Delahooke was nominated Chair by Elaine Mostyn and seconded by Jane Brand. Nicola Semple was nominated Vice Chair by Sandra Mair and seconded by Sandra Delahooke. Elaine Mostyn has kindly agreed to remain as treasurer. Recruitment of Acting HT Sandra began by outlining the proposed recruitment schedule. The post had been put to North Berwick cluster heads but there were applicants. The post will now be advertised and interviews take place on 25th September. David Scott QIO and Richard Parker, Business Mgr will compose the panel. Nicola Semple agreed to represent the Parent Council on the interview panel. Fundraising Group Jane Brand, Niki Fallowfield, Jane Darlington and Lucy Calder have all kindly offered their service to help Debbie Coppinger on the fundraising group. Short discussion followed on how fundraising has worked. We raise approximately £500 per event and there are usually 4 events per year. It was proposed that the PC, in conjunction with the Sleigh Bells charity, run a monthly pub night in the village hall with proceeds splite between the PC and Sleigh Bells, who donate to the Sick Kids Hospital. The first date is 27th Sept, and then 30th October. The Christmas Fair is on the 6th December.

ELAPCM Update

Nicola Semple gave an update on the ELAPCM meeting. Alison Mitchell gave a good talk on Area Partnerships. She is looking for a point of contact from APSPC to attend the next Area Partnership meeting. Darrin Nightingale will present an internal summary of the new national exams at the next ELAPCM meeting on 27th October. The Scottish Govt is to give funding to local authorities to present information to parents on the new exams. It is envisaged these will be in event format and open to primary school parents and carers. DN outlined his proposal to tackle issues of quality and availability of supply teachers in primary schools. Contracts have been changed so that supply teachers no longer receive a lower rate of pay for the first 3 days in post and DN is considering appointing 6 teachers F/T to cover supply throughout the authority.

Athelstaneford Primary School Parent Council Budgets – £240k needed in savings from secondary schools over the next two years to cover falling school role. After this school role is projected to rise again. DN doing his best to minimise the impact.

St. Andrews Day Celebrations All agreed that the school would like to participate in the St Andrews Day celebrations and it was acknowledged that the participation of the school children needs to be more ‘joined up’ with someone taking responsibility for coordinating the children on the day.

Financial Update The balance on the PC account is £3,086.25. Of this £1,070 is committed to the garden project and £300 ring fenced for the Skatepark Steering Committee. The PC discussed whether £1,000 spent on the garden was a good use of resources especially as the school now had access to additional green space at the Glebe. It was decided that there were other spending priorities, notably “Grab and Go” kits, Alison Hutchison explained that these were packs that contained all the essentials teachers and pupils needed for outdoor learning. Jane Brand also mentioned Digital Weather Forecast Kits. A Science Hut was also discussed, perhaps to be housed in the playground. Sandra Mair said she should be able to access resources for this through her work.

Athelstaneford Skatepark Project

The skatepark has now received planning permission and funding from Viridor Credits for £49,500. We still need to find £5,000 to cover third party contributions and tree planting as a condition of planning, before the funds can be accessed. Susan Begg will continue to source funding and welcomes support and help from any parents. AOB It was noted that the school bus had been empty on many occasions. NS wondered if perhaps there was an opportunity for savings. It was noted that there were several children who would be taking the bus, notably in the early years but that their parents had made other provisions until they were settled and confident with school transport. Date of Next Meeting Thursday 8th November