11th March 2008
Ormiston Primary School Parent Council Minutes of meeting held in the school on Tuesday 11th March 2008 Present Tina McAvoy (Chair), Lynne Archibald, Scott Gillies, Angela Kinnear, Mark Malcolm, Jill McCaul, Claire Pedder, Linda Stirling, Gail Walshe. In Attendance Cllr Ruth Currie, Cllr Jim Gillies, Cllr Donald Grant, Cllr Kenny McLeod, Alex Mackay (Clerk), Angus MacRury (Acting Head Teacher). 1. Welcome and ApologiesTina welcomed everyone to the meeting. Apologies were received from Jim Blane, Tracey Jefferies. 2. Approval of minutes of last minutes.Minutes approved by the Parent Council. 3. Outstanding items from 20.11.07 meeting:-3.1 Bank Account – Gail advised that the Parent Council now have an operational account. ACTION : Gail agreed to contact Val regarding extended liability insurance . 3.2 Parent Council goals over next 12 months – Angus agreed to look at Claire’s list regarding goals and items for the agenda. 3.3 Ross High Web Site – this has been postponed until the next meeting due to Tracey’s absence. 4. Parents NightFinal details were arranged for the stall at Parents Night on the 18th and 19th March. 5. Parent Queries Lynne raised a couple of queries brought to her by parents. Firstly she had been asked why parents of P1 and P7 pupils were not notified prior to the class photos being taken in order that they could have ensured that their child was dressed in their ‘school best’. From the discussion that followed this point it appears that some parents were notified while others were not.
Lynne had also been asked if it were possible to hand things in for storage for the school fayre in the autumn. Angus advised the council that the school was in the process of creating additional storage space. While it was not possible at present to store items it may be in the near future. Claire suggested that a date be set for the Autumn Fayre as soon as possible after the new head starts so that parents are able to plan clearout of toys etc and know when to hand into the school. Angus advised the PC at this point that 3 items had been stolen in the school recently. A letter will go out to parent informing them of this and reminding parents that pupils should not bring any items of value in to the school. 6. Email from Val – views of Parent Forum re: national bodyIt was agreed by the Parent Council that we do not want to survey our parents on this issue. Instead, we want to first survey them on how the Parent Council can help them and to obtain their views on the school and ideas for improvement. 7. Tranent Parent Council Liaison GroupTina advised the PC about the email received from the clerk of Sandersons Wynd PC inviting local cluster schools to join a liaison group. Some concern was raised about overlapping with the remit of other meetings. However it was agreed to send a representative from Ormiston PC to the first meeting of a liaison group. Action: Alex to contact the clerk at Sandersons Wynd and Val to confirm the frequency of other cluster meetings. 8. Feedback from Ross High Cluster Meeting Tina handed round copies of the minutes of the last cluster meeting. The first item on the minutes were the proposed budget cuts. At this point Angus confirmed that the cut will be 1.5% and he had received draft statements detailing this. He has been asked to declare any surplus members of staff in order that they can be relocated to other schools in East Lothian. However he is not anticipating any surplus in the light of Sheila Howat’s departure at the end of term.
Angus advised that there will be a cut of £7,808 in the budget for 2008/09. However the increase in the Predictive Needs Budget (which is calculated using a formula developed over three years and based on deprivation factors) should offset any budget cut. The new head teacher, Helen Gardyne, will be starting on the 8th April and Angus informed the board that it is highly probable that she will have to look at an increase in the number of composite classes next year. The maximum for a P1 class is 25 and there are a larger number than that applying for P1 places at the school. This means that it is possible that there will be a P1 class and a P1/2 class. This will have a knock on effect throughout the school. The model proposal is for 5 out the 7 to be composite. Tina asked about the proposal for new flats in the village. Cllr Grant said that small scale developments in villages had helped increase school rolls across the county. Angus has been advised that it was likely that in 2 or 3 years time the school would be back up to 8 classes again. It is also predicted that the nursery will be up to 30 places in both the morning and afternoon next year. The school roll currently is 181 pupils plus 50 in the nursery and is predicted to be 171 plus 60 in the nursery for the 2008/09 academic year. Angus also advised the PC that the school could still be allocated a new qualified teacher (NQT) but that this will not be known until June 2008. Tina requested that if anyone at the meeting had any issues from the minutes of the cluster meeting that they could be raised at the next PC meeting. 9. East Lothian Association of PC Members meeting – 18th MarchTina will attend this meeting. Action: Alex to email Val to advise. 10. Scottish PC Association Membership and AGMTina has received correspondence regarding SPCA membership. Ormiston PC are not currently members of the SPCA and it has already been agreed by the PC that because we are members of the SPTA that this second membership was not necessary. 11. AOCB11.1 The parent council agreed to confirm in the minutes of the meeting that Tina, Claire, Scott and Jill have all done the Recruitment and Selection Training Course. 11.2 Angela advised that she had been asked recently, along with a number of other parents in the playground, to speak to Stuart McKinnon, Quality Improvements Officer (ELC), to gather their views on the school. However Angela did suggest that there might be a better way to choose parents to interview. Gail suggested parents night. Angus told the Parent Council that Mr McKinnon has strict quality indicators and three visits per annum. He has new scope for the visits that now include speaking to six parents as well as children and staff. He is much more robust in his assessment and grading and will be returning to the school next Monday to observe learning. 11.3 Fiona Keyte is the successful candidate in the recently advertised post of nursery nurse. 11.4 Interviews for Jos Cowan’s maternity cover will be taking place next week and it is hoped that the successful candidate will be able to start at the beginning of next term. 11.5 Tina showed the meeting a copy of the successful logo from the recent competition. 11.6 Details of the B&Q awards have been passed onto Marion Wightman. The arts and cultural staff at the Brunton Hall are also keen to work with schools on bids for these awards. 11.7 Tina has given details of B&Q’s offer of tomato plants to the school to Angus. She thanked Claire Robertson for passing this information on to the Parent Council. 11.8 Claire agreed to give some thought to ways of obtaining parent feedback, possibly as a homework task for the children, so that it can be discussed at the next meeting. ACTION: Claire to prepare ideas for next meeting. 11.9 Cllr Grant spoke on behalf of all the councillors from the Fa’side Ward to thank the Parent Council for inviting them along to the meetings. He has attended eight Parent Council meetings within his ward and has been very encouraged by what he has seen so far. 12. Date of next meeting13/5/08 – Tracey to chair meeting.
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