Haddington Infant School Parents

Further to the recent letter from the Parent Council outlining the proposed cuts in the East Lothian Education budget, please find attached the draft letter to  David Spilsbury.  All parents / carers are strongly urged to use this draft and to write to Mr Spilsbury detailing your concerns.  A copy of the PC letter is also attached.

David Spilsbury draft letter

Covering Letter re Budget Consultation from HISPP

The School Development Plan for 2008-09 is attached.  Please note the following abbreviations:

HGIOS = How Good is our School a document produced by HMIe (Her majesty’s Inspectorate of Education)
CATC = Child at the Centre (a nursery document produced by HMIe
CfE or ACE = Curriculum for Excellence
CAT sessions = Collegiate Activity Time (what the staff get up to on a Friday afternoon)
NQT = newly qualified teacher
HGIOS = How Good is our School a document produced by HMIe (Her majesty’s Inspectorate of Education)
CATC = Child at the Centre (a nursery document produced by HMIe)
CfE or ACE = Curriculum for Excellence
CAT sessions = Collegiate Activity Time (what we get up to on a Friday afternoon)
NQT = newly qualified teacher

his-development-plan-2008-09

Heather Stewart, deputy chair of the Parent Council, wrote to Fiona Hyslop expressing her concerns about the budget cuts faced by the school.  The 2 page response can be read in the following 2 attachments: Page 1 and Page 2 (sorry but you will need to use the rotate function under ‘view’ in Adobe Reader in order to read the docs the right way up)

Please see HAGS Actions 16/06/08

Please see the latest PTA Minutes

£257.50 was raised from the recent event - thanks to everyone who contributed.  The money is to be used to purchase DVD players for each classroom and the leads required for the whiteboard wands purchased last year after the ceilidh fundraiser.

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The first Haddington Action Group (HAGS) meeting was held on 16^th June with particularly good representation from Haddington Infants, King’s Meadow and Knox.  Also in attendance were a representative from St. Mary’s, Iain Gray (MSP) and Don Ledingham (ELC - Education) - unfortunately no councillors were able to attend due to prior commitments.

Concerns about school budget cuts, proposed class sizes, composite classes and roll capping at Knox were strongly voiced.  Don Ledingham explained the position for ELC.

In summary, this is an issue about money - no surprises there then.  As you can see from the SPTC Newsletter, funding is a very complex area.  From the ELC perspective, they have been tasked by Scottish Government with making efficiency savings of 2% for the next 3 years - this is tied into the freezing of council tax bills.   Where they make these savings though is up to the council.  In addition and of particular concern to Haddington Infant School is the £50,000 cut in the predictable needs budget which has resulted in the recent loss of one nursery post.

A number of actions were agreed and details will be circulated later.  A further meeting has been scheduled for September and we hope to have local councillors present.  In the meantime, Iain Gray has promised to keep lobbying the Government on our behalf.

The last fundraising event of this school year is the Summer Garden BBQ on Friday 20^th June 2008 from 5.30pm to 7.30pm in the annexe playground (or the annexe hall if the weather is bad). Tickets are on sale at the school office or at the gate on the night.  There will be face painting, a mini beast hunt, a quiz, bug mask making and a garden word search.

The next meeting of the Haddington Infant School P.T.A is the A.G.M on Monday 1^st September 2008 at 7pm in the staffroom. All parents, teachers and carers are very welcome to attend.

Please see attached the latest SPTC Newsletter and in particular the item about local funding - backchat103.pdf