Minutes 9th September 2008
Present:
Anne Dowie
Susan Dalglish
Stewart Buchan
Gail Taylor
Steve Williams
Holly Kilday
Jean Balloch
Ronnie Summers (HT)
Tina McKinnon
Louise Kirkpatrick
Dianne Garvie
Clare Eadie
Lesley Paterson
Katharina Skwara (minute taker)
Apologies:
Jackie Harper
Heather Wallace
John Williamson (councillor)
Malcolm Shaffer
Ann Marshall
Andy Forrest (councillor)
John McNeil (councillor)
Barry Turner (councillor)
Denise McLister
Roger Knox (councillor)
Jayne Young
Margaret Stewart
Marguerite Ruickbie
1. Apologies
Apologies have been received from Heather Wallace, Jackie Harper, John Williamson, Malcolm Shaffer, Ann Marshall, Andy Forrest, John McNeil, Barry Turner, Denise McLister, Roger Knox, Margaret Stewart, Marguerite Ruickbie.
The following members of the council have resigned; Malcolm Shaffer, Denise McLister, Julie Ramsay, Jayne Young.
2. Correspondence
Email from Val McIntyre
a. Annual Report - Each Parent Council is required to produce an annual report and circulate this document to ALL Parent Forum Members. Jean produced the annual report in June and has already forwarded a copy to Val. The annual report will be included in a mail shot to all the parents.
b. Proposed Changes to Constitution - If you propose to make any changes to your Constitution these should be notified to all Parent Forum Members for their consideration in advance of an Annual General Meeting (AGM). Stewart proposes a few changes to the constitution, which will be discussed under agenda item 5.
c. AGM - A date should be set to hold your AGM and all Parent Forum members should be invited to attend. Any changes to your Constitution need to be formally approved at the AGM following consultation with your Parent Forum Members. The AGM will be held in the Music room on 23.9.08 from 7.30pm.
d. New Officer Bearers – There are 3 vacancies for office bearers; Chair, Vice-chair and treasurer. There is currently one proposal for the post of treasurer.
e. Email Accounts - A new corporate email account for each Parent Council will be up and running for the start of the new term. The Clerk will administer this email account and this should eliminate any problems with data protection. It will also enable email addresses to be shared amongst Parent Councils. Since Kat has resigned, Jean will contact Val to organise a login and password for herself to administer the account until the AGM.
f. Parent Council Information Leaflets - Parent Council would like additional copies of the leaflets provided in the Welcome Pack. These can be provided by Val if necessary.
3. Minutes of Last Meeting
The minutes of the meeting of 4th June 2008 were proposed by Claire, seconded by Jean, and duly adopted by the Parent Council.
4. Matters arising
Point 7h SQA Maths exam: “Both PC and the Head Teacher raised concern about the recent SQA Maths exam, which appears to have been excessively difficult and included material easier solved by higher standard methodology.”
Ronnie advised the PC that he wrote to the SQA on 20.6.08, detailing the concerns. He received a reply on 24.6.08 stating that the matter will be dealt with and that he will receive another reply – he is still waiting. The difficulty of the Credit Maths paper did not affect pass rates – more pupils achieved Grade 1 this year than last and the percentage pass rate for S2 was identical to 2007.
5. Amendments to the constitution
The Parent Forum has to be informed about changes to the Constitution prior to the AGM. It was decided to upload the Constitution onto the website and to put the proposed amendments in a letter to be distributed via the pupil post. Stewart will collate all the proposed amendments and email them to Ronnie, who will then write a letter to the Parent Forum.
Stewart proposed the following amendments:
a. Paragraph 5. Delete “distributing parents equally by year group”
An equal distribution by year group was discussed and the conclusion reached was that it is very difficult to administer since there is no control over who will attend the AGM. Equally, it is important not to allow one year group to have priority over others. It was decided to advertise over the website how many places are available. It was also decided that this would be further discussed at the AGM.
b. Paragraph 12. Insert “If a member of the council fails to attend two consecutive scheduled meetings, and also fails to pass apologies to the Clerk or Chair either directly or via another council member, they will be deemed to have resigned their council membership.”
Ronnie suggested to run this amendment past the legal department before considering it at the AGM. The PC agreed and Ronnie will report on their advice.
c. Paragraph 14. Insert “Office bearers will be selected or re-selected from MGSPC or affiliated interest group at the first meeting of the new session each year.”
It was agreed that interest group members do not also need to be PC members. The PC felt however, that the office bearers of the PC should be also members of the PC. It was decided to have a vote on this at the AGM.
d. Paragraph 16. Add “…in order that it be approved by MGSPC by the end of June.”
Jean produced the annual report in June and issued it to the PC for comments and approval, prior to it being sent to the Parent Forum. The PC felt that this procedure should be formalised, and that the parent council should approve the Annual Report before it is sent out to the Parent Forum.
e. Paragraph 22. Insert “22a. The Clerk will circulate an agenda to parent council members at least four days prior to scheduled meetings.”
It was decided that PC members should send agenda items to the chair, or the clerk, seven days in advance.
f. Paragraph 28. Add “…of MGSPC or affiliated interest group.”
Everybody agreed that the interest groups who raise the money should be able to decide what it is being used for, considering that interest group members are not necessarily PC members.
6. Curriculum for Excellence
Ronnie explained the changes of the new Curriculum for Excellence involving a broad curriculum in S1-S3, with course choice delayed until S3 and which will see an introduction of a new literacy and numeracy test. There is a consultation until the end of October on changes to assessment and qualifications and he issued leaflets on this. There are 4 main proposals and 15 questions in the consultation which can be found on the Scottish Government website. He discussed the practicalities of introducing yet another test earlier to the timetable and the difficulty of a flexible exam system. In addition, he asked the parents views on when children should sit the literacy and numeracy examination. He feels that a feasibility study should be carried out for this proposal, since it runs the risk of being an assessment led curriculum. Ronnie explained that the new Curriculum for Excellence will have an effect on every child from P7 onwards and that he would like to have the PC’s feelings on the proposed changes. He asked the parents to reflect on the issue and to report back to him, since he intends to write the school response by the end of October. Louise volunteered to co-ordinate the parents queries and to email Ronnie with their final questions.
7. AGM
The AGM will take place on 23.9.08 in the Music room. Kat will book the Music room for 7.30pm and members volunteered to bring refreshments. It was the decided that the agenda items will be;
Chairs report, Office Bearers, Members of PC, Treasurer’s report, Amendments to constitution, Reports from Interest groups, Head Teacher’s report, Members of the Parent Council queries.
Claire reported that £781.92 are in the account. The PC decided that £600 should be used for the school, whilst Ronnie will put forward suggestions at the AGM about how best to use the money.
8. Reports
a. Fundraising Group
The fundraising group has not yet met, but has the following ideas for funding this year;
i. Car boot sale on the 25.10.08
ii. Xmas raffle with money prize draw
iii. 50/50 sheets at parents nights (it is also important to attend the parents nights to increase the PC’s profile. It would be good to have some volunteers for this)
Claire will contact Val to confirm the centrally held budget and how best to access it.
b. Communications Group
The communications group has not had a meeting yet, but the group will ensure that the constitution is uploaded onto the website.
c. Health Interest Group
Six people have shown interest in setting up the Health Interest Group and are going to meet up to start the ball rolling. In addition, there is a free ½ day course being run by the NHS through the Health Promotion Service at The Quay, Musselburgh on the 24th September from 9.30a.m. - 12.30a.m. The course covers Eating for Health/Promoting a Healthier Diet. Lesley will be attending the course and application details have been forwarded to all other interested Health Interest group members. Ronnie suggested Stewart McKinnon is a good contact at local authority level.
9. Head Teacher’s Report
Ronnie stated that the school had a good start to the term despite the roadworks outside.
a. Uniform
The Uniform change had gone excellently and he thanked the parents for their support.
b. Exam results and overall progress
Last year’s exam results were very good: the number of pupils achieving 5 passes at Grades 1-2 rose from 24% to 30%, and the number of pupils achieving 5 passes at Grades 1-4 rose to 77%, our highest ever. This has improved the school deciles, the way we are compared to other secondary schools. Higher pass rates dropped very slightly. Overall, progress has been steadily building up for the last six years.
c. HPV vaccine
The vaccinations of all female 2nd year students in Scotland are imminent and all parents have been notified.
d. Staffing
Recent staff changes are included in the mailshot. There are currently 4 vacancies and interviews will occur w/b 15th September.
e. Budgets
Ronnie informed the PC that this is still an area of concern. The budget is not balancing and Ronnie is in discussion with Finance about this. He feels that a large part of the problem is the lack of understanding of how secondary schools staffing is calculated to translate into delivery of the curriculum. The timetable is running very efficiently and he sees little slack in it. A point was raised that cutting budgets at the same time as introducing new examinations, which will need additional staffing time, are not compatible.
f. PT Partnership with Parents & Pupils
Ronnie mentioned that this was Gail Taylor’s last meeting as Acting PT Partnership with Parents & Pupils. Jane Park will be returning as PT Partnership with Parents & Pupils (and also as a co-opted member of the PC). The Parent Council thanked Gail for her time commitment.
10. AOB
The next meeting: AGM, Monday 23.9.08 at 7.30 - Music room