Ormiston Primary School

September 2007

Ormiston Primary School Parent Council

Minutes of the meeting held in the school on Tuesday 18th September 2007

Present Lynne Archibald, Scott Gillies, Tracey Jeffries, Angela Kinnear, Tina McAvoy, Jill McCaul, Claire Pedder, Gail Walshe.

In Attendance Anne Torley (Head Teacher)
Alex Mackay (Clerk)
Val McIntyre (Principal Officer, ELC)

1. Welcome.
Anne welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced Val McIntyre to the Parent Council meeting.

2. Val McIntyre – Principal Officer for East Lothian Council.
Val explained to the meeting that her remit is to enable the roll outs of the new Parent Councils, to support parents and to ensure compliance with the legislation. Val advised the Parent Council that the head teacher must be present at every meeting. Anne Torley is there in an advisory capacity only and the Parent Council is independent of the school and its teachers. Following the Act coming into force on the 1.8.07, Val confirmed that East Lothian Council is committed to this new venture.

2.1 Insurance. Val advised the parent council that ELC have agreed to organise and pay for insurance for all Parent Councils for this year only. This has been done through the Scottish Parent Teacher Council (SPTC) but thereafter the individual councils will be required to organise and fund insurance from their budgets. ELC have also negotiated with ELC an extended liability cover for £6 per year which she advised the Parent Council to take out as soon as possible.

2.2 Budget. Details of this will be handed out to the head teacher which will then be forwarded to the Chair and Clerk. Additional funds are available to the council to cover admin costs etc. The clerk’s payment is separate from this.

2.3 Bank account – each parent council is required under the new legislation to open a bank account. 3 signatories are necessary with any 2 to sign at any one time for withdrawals. The books are to be audited annually.

2.4 Cluster meetings - Alan Blackie (Director of Education) and Don Ledingham (Head of Education) are keen for the old cluster meetings to continue. This will done under the name of East Lothian Association of Parent Councils. In this area it covers 41 schools and 1 representative from each school will be invited to attend. These meeting will offer guidance for agendas etc and will take place probably once a term. The 1st meeting is 11th October.

Val stressed that the Parent Council must represent all parents and that it must go back to the Parent Forum members to consult and discuss with them. Val advised the meeting that she would return next year to discuss with Anne the work of the Parent Council.

2.5 Training Courses. These will be available to Parent Council members and are currently being developed. Val advised that members have the right to be on a selection panel for the recruitment of senior vacancies within the school but only if members have been on the relevant training course. Val strongly urged members to do this course.

Claire asked Val how the decision of Ormiston Parent Council to rotate the Chair would fit in with ELC policy. Val suggested that members should decide what suits the council best however she did express some concern over the potential confusion with communications and ‘slippage’. She thought that maybe 2 members should share the Chair over the period of a school year. The general opinion of the meeting however was that they were happy with the rotating chair and felt that communication would be sufficiently effective through the Clerk and the Head Teacher. Anne and Val confirmed that the new constitution had been passed through the legal department at ELC.

Alex offered to email Val with any queries that arose from the meeting. Val asked for a list of all members/office bearer and meeting dates to be sent to her.

3. Introductions
All those in attendance at the meeting tonight introduced themselves and Anne stressed that she was very keen to work with parents and to know their thoughts on various issues affecting the school.

4. Select Office Bearers
Three office bearers are required in the constitution. Everyone agreed that the chair would rotate on a voluntary basis. Claire, Scott, Tina and Tracey all agreed to chair 1 of the remaining 4 meetings left in the school year.
Gail volunteered to be the Treasurer.
Gail, Jill and Tracey volunteered to be the 3 signatories for the account. Anne advised that she thought the bank account had to be opened at the Bank of Scotland in Haddington. Alex will check this with Val and advise Gail.

5. Select co-opted members
The Parent Council agreed to invite the following on to the council as co-opted members: 1 staff member, Jim Blane (Chair of Community Council) and Mark Malcolm.

It was suggested and agreed that other staff members could be invited to meeting as and when it was felt relevant to specific agenda items.

It was also decided to invite 1 of the four councillors for the Fa’side ward to each meeting.

6. Dates for future meeting this year
The dates were set as follows: November 20th, January 22nd, March 11th and May 13th. All at 7pm. Alex will arrange the school lets. Claire will chair the next meeting in November. Spring Fayre meetings will be held separately nearer the time.

7. Agenda Items for next meeting.
It was agreed by the Parent Council that Alex would email everyone 2 weeks prior to the next meeting to request suggestions for the agenda. Anne advised the meeting of some the areas that could be covered in future meetings.

It was also agreed that once drafted after the meeting, minutes would be sent round to everyone by email. Minutes would also be posted in the library, notice boards in the playground and on the school website.