general/ whole school – Loirston School

LOIRSTON PRIMARY PARENT COUNCIL

3^rd October 2018 6.15pm

DRAFT MINUTES OF MEETING HELD 03/10/2018

ATTENDED

Parents – Jacqui Murdoch (JM), Kelly Gordon (KG), Karen Strachan (KS), Emma Kennedy (EK), Nicola Argo (NA),

School Representative – Mr Nicol (CN), Mrs Hidson (KH), Mrs Pert (TP)

APOLOGIES

Fleur Tarling (FT), Karen McClymont (KM), Moira Cutler (MC), Kelly McGrogan (KMcG)

AGENDA

Welcome/Apologies
Approve Minutes of last meeting/review outstanding actions
Fundraising Subgroup update
Treasurers Report
School Update
Feedback on HM Inspectors improvement letter and Curriculum rationale document
Chairperson Notes:
- Training opportunities
- Aberdeen City Parent Forum Rep
- Termly Parent Meeting
- Newsletter feedback
AOCB

WELCOME AND APOLOGIES

The meeting was opened at 6.30pm by the chairperson, who welcomed everyone and thanked them for their attendance. – KG

APPROVAL OF MINUTESF FROM PREVIOUS MEETING / REVIEW OUTSTANDING ACTIONS

Minutes Proposed – CN

Minutes Seconded – EK

OUTSTANDING ACTIONS

Music equipment – Ordered and received, KH will forward receipt to EK.

Money for classes –£50 per class at present paid over to school in September (KH, EK).

Christmas Cards/Gifts – Templates ordered and have been distributed to the classes – deadline for return is 12^th October. – (JM, EK)

Christmas Fayre Raffle donation letters – Letters have been drafted and will be issued (EK, JM).

Parent Council Newsletter – has been distributed (CN, KG)

Cove Chronicle – article in the chronicle regards to School and Parent Council (CN).

FUNDRAISING SUBGROUP UPDATE

Meeting was held on Thursday 20^th September 2018 very positive meeting and great attendance. Currently 12 parents are part of the group. A lot of discussion around the room with ideas and very enthusiastic. Focus on organising upcoming events (Halloween Disco (30/10) and Christmas Fayre 1/12)). Minutes available on request.

Following items discussed:

Halloween Disco – More parent helpers required, glow sticks to be purchased. Emergency contact detail forms to be issued next week. DJ has been booked. Helpers can attend around 5.30pm to set up, access will be provided. Teacher(s) will be present at each Disco.

Christmas Fayre – School stalls to be confirmed (KH). Stall required for school calendars. Discussed if feasible to extend to other parts of school to free up space in the gym hall especially if additional school stalls required. Santa Grotto could go in the yellow unit kitchen.
Chocolate Donations – Suggestion was made for the pupils to have a come as you please day the last day of term (12/10) and donate chocolate for the tombola. Agreed a good idea. CN to confirm.
Future Meetings – School representative to attend, next meeting 7^th November 2018 6.30pm at Loirston School
Tabards – idea to help identify parent helpers at events. KH confirmed school have lanyards and tabards that we can use.
Future Fundraising – KH has asked Parent Council to consider financially supporting and further fundraising for upgrading IT equipment. Investment in replacement/new iPad/tablets to support delivering curriculum. Approximately 40 Chromebooks and 45 iPads.

First stage would be to provide teachers with iPads to support classwork as they would be able to connect to the projectors to demonstrate, model and showcase learning more easily to pupils. Approx. cost – £5,260 school can fund approximately 50%. Parent council to investigate funding the remainder.
Second stage would to provide more tablets/chrome books to pupils as this would support increased digital learning opportunities and develop children’s skills. Further discussions are required with teachers to determine what they prefer regards to iPads/Chromebooks. This would require a specific fundraising campaign along with pupils to focus on next year as this would be a huge investment. Ideas suggestions made for a family movie night, quiz night and ladies night.

ACTIONS

Early access to school for parent helpers at first Halloween Disco – CN
Confirm school stalls at Christmas Fayre – KH
Confirm plan for utilising other areas within school for Christmas fayre – CN, KM
Confirm dress down day with optional chocolate donation on 12^th Oct – CN
Provide Fundraising Subgroup with tabards and lanyards – KH
Add future fundraising for IT investment to fundraising subgroup agenda – KMcG

TREASURERS REPORT

Balance in Bank – £5,755.78
Items to be deducted from balance are: Music Equipment and Contribution towards playdale

ACTIONS

EK to pass cheque to school on receipt of music equipment invoice from KH
TP to confirm when invoice for play dale received and EK to provide cheque for agreed amount

SCHOOL UPDATE

Young Inspectors – This is a pilot project which Loirston will take part in with Education Scotland. Planning for this is still at the early stages and Loirston are 1 of only 5 primary schools that are to be involved. Upper primary (P4-P7) will participate and will get to go and visit other schools.

Lochside Academy – Primary 7 Pupils started their 1^st phase of transition visits to Lochside Academy on Monday 1^st October where workshops looked at engineering Our P7 pupils were successful in helping to build a large model bridge which they were then able to walk across. Further visits to happen next term.

Partnerships

AFC Community Trust partnership visiting the school each Friday to work with groups. A visit of the stadium has been planned for Tuesday 9^th October for the Primary 6 & 7s.
Shell Partnership – planning is at the early stages and TP to provide an update at the next meeting.
Cove Rangers Football Club – School is exploring an opportunity to access Balmoral Park to support PE lessons for P7 pupils.

School Uniform – Proposing to change the way parents buy school uniform. School looking into sourcing uniform through Tesco online. The benefits would be that ordering the uniform would be more convenient for parents and the costs would be reduced. It would also take the organisation of uniform sales away from the school office. Only negative is that they do not supply hoodies.
Homework Policy – School are reviewing policy and parents will be consulted. Looking to issue an A4 summary from term 3 onwards to share the focus of learning for each class.

Parents Evening – There will be 2 parent evenings this school year. 1^st parents evening will be in November and will focus on meeting the teacher and how the child is progressing. A shorter school report will be issued prior to the Easter holidays. 2^nd parents evening in June will focus on each child’s next steps in their learning for next session. Staff to discuss in more detail.

Parent Council to attend both parent’s evenings and promote Parent Council and fundraising subgroup to assist with increased parental engagement.
Book Fayres – Parent Council asked to organise. First Book fayre to be held during November parent’s evenings and one afternoon (for anyone not able to attend parents evenings).

Open evening(s) for parents in January, currently planning, more information to be provided.
Group Call/Expressions App – Still several parents have not downloaded the application. Reverts to email if application not downloaded. Reminder that there are no Group calls unless it is an emergency due to the cost of group call.

SCHOOL UPDATE – OTHER

Fundraising/ Parent Council split is good.

We will work with Parent council on Policy developments

We are working on class summary sheets to aid parent support of focus topics each term

Will continue to work with parents/parent council on school improvement plans

ACTIONS

- CN to review and determine if we need to consult parents on uniform changes.
- CN to advise on changes to homework policy

EK to feedback to fundraising group for parent helpers for parent’s night.

CN to update on open evening plans

TP to provide an update on Shell partnership

TP will feedback when she receives more information on Young Inspectors.

FEEDBACK ON CURRICULUM RATIONALE DOCUMENT

Mrs Hidson gave a good summary of what is covered within the document. Feedback very positive as a good overview of how the teaching staff plan to deliver the Curriculum of Excellence to our children. Positive feedback on achievements recognition. This is a living document and will updated every year. Question raised on how parents can support the curriculum. Can this be covered in the document?

ACTIONS

KH – change document to PDF to assist with viewing on tablets.
KH – looking into how other schools cover parent support of the curriculum
KH – investigate what we can add to documents for parent support

FEEDBACK ON HM INSPECTORS IMPROVEMENT LETTER

Very positive letter. Still areas to work on but we are on the right track. Local Authority will follow our progress. Media Coverage was very positive. Feedback was that there were areas where parent engagement is required. How can parent council help to support these actions?

ACTION

CN to discuss with Parent Council how we can support the actions at future meetings

CHAIRPERSONS NOTES

Parent Council related training opportunities if people wish to get involved in. Information on the blog. Anyone interested please get in touch with the parent council.
Aberdeen City Parent Forum – Looking for any volunteers who wish to attend. 2 Reps per ASG (Lochside plus feeder primary schools) on committee is the preference. Next meeting 6.30PM 5^th November 2018, Town House. We would like to send a representative to the meeting.
KG attended the termly parent meeting on 25^th September, good information shared by Parental Engagement Development Officer. Welcome packs received by each school. Email to be received on actions from the meeting. Plan to hold a Parent Council/Headteacher workshop next year.
Newsletter – Positive feedback received. Photos help parents and children. Thanked school for bag drop. Intention to issue a termly newsletter.

ACTIONS