Meeting of the Pupil Council held on Wednesday 28 April 2010

 Present: Scott Parker 6S, Ella Searle 6C2, Michael Heneghan 6M

David Gibson, 1C1, Alice Orr, 1G2,Jenna MacDonald, 1M1,Josh Hutson, 1S2

Alexandra Ness, 2G2, Lauren Cain, 2S1

Sam Elliot, 3C1, Lisa Burnside 3M2, Euan Greig, 3S1

Daniel Ingram, 4G1,  Connor Wilson, 4S2

Ashleigh Finlayson, 5C1, Callum Dickson, 5M2-

Teacher Representative: Miss Park

SMT Representative:     Mr MacKinnon

Apologies:      Chris Clelland 6M                               

MINUTES

From now on the minutes of the Pupil Council will be posted on MGS Online and members of the Pupil Council will be emailed the minutes if they so wish.  A copy of the minutes will still be posted around the school and issued to Register classes.

1. House points system

Following the appointments of the prefects for next session each house will be asked to nominate two prefects to look after the compilation of house points for that house.  These points will be posted weekly around the school so that all pupils can see how their house is progressing against the other houses.

1. Communication

The three 52” large screen televisions have been purchased.  One will be sited in the dining hall, one in the social area and one in the corridor leading to CDT.  At the moment a change order has been placed with Innovate, the Facilities Management company and when that has been accepted then the networking and scheduling box will be installed by FES.

It is hoped that the TV’s will be up and running in the social areas by the beginning of June and certainly before the end of term.

The school will not be transmitting TV programmes on those televisions, as they will be for internal school communication purposes.  The plan is to show clips of activities taking place in and around the school on a daily basis such as sporting activities, work in classes, activities in the hall and so on.  Initially one teacher in each department will be trained to ensure that there is a good supply of programmes to be communicated.  However, like all school activities it is about pupils participating and it is hoped in time that much of the programming will be produced and scheduled by pupils because the communication is essentially for pupils.

1. Prefects

It has been agreed that there will be fewer prefects next session than there has been in the past.  Those prefects will have specific duties that will have to be carried out on a daily basis and the prefect’s performance will be reviewed.

1. Grab ‘n’ Go

The actions highlighted in the previous minute in order to promote the Grab ‘n’ Go have been carried out and pupils can now get a Grab ‘n’ Go request sheet at reception and in the library as well as the register class.  Those pupils who order food through Grab ‘n’ Go will also have a replacement sheet put into their lunch pack so that they can order for the next day.

1. School Improvement Plan

Mr MacKinnon went through the proposed school improvement plan highlighting areas that would be of particular interest to pupils and asked for their views.  One of the aims is for staff to encourage pupils to use more IT in their learning and pupils indicated that they would like more training in computer literacy.  They would like more choice in their learning within IT with a selection of topics that pupils can choose and also opportunities for pupils to highlight areas where they would particularly need help.  Clearly pupils recognised that they come to school with varying levels of skill development in the use of IT and would benefit from this by highlighting this to the teachers and making suggestions of areas where they could further develop.  The senior pupils also indicated that in completing their S6 projects, which required a lot of IT, they would have benefited from a bit more training at a younger age.

Miss Park indicated that one of the things pupils need to be very diligent about is making backups of their work and saving their work properly and perhaps this is another area that needs to be rolled out across the school.

Much of the school improvement plan is about furthering Curriculum for Excellence and pupils were given an overview of some of the aspects of Curriculum for Excellence that the school is currently working on i.e. collaborative projects and developing opportunities for personalisation and choice in pupil learning.

1. 6.      General Behaviour

Some residents have expressed concern about the amount of litter being dropped down in the main street and on the way back to school.  Staff in school are not happy with the level of litter within the building either and there has been some vandalism in the toilets.  Clearly there are some pupils who are behaving in quite an antisocial way and this is reflecting badly on the school and on the vast majority of pupils who bin their litter and look after the building properly.  Every effort is being made to encourage pupils to bin their litter such as the presence of litter wardens and three pupils receiving a £20 voucher every month if they are caught binning their litter in the town.  The toilets are regularly patrolled and if necessary will be closed for part of the day to try and reduce any form of vandalism that may be taking place.  That being said, the toilets are an excellent facility and in the main are respected by the vast majority of the pupils.

Pupils reported that the hand dryers in both the boys and girls toilets need repaired and this will be carried out by FES.

1. Pupil Questionnaire

The questionnaire covering areas such as health promotion, behaviour, use of the website and equality and fairness is almost complete.  On completion, members of the Pupil Council will analyse the results of the questionnaire and it is hoped that this will be done before the end of the session. 

1. 8.      Senior Retirements

This will be the last pupil council meeting for Scott, Chris, Ella and Michael.  Mr MacKinnon thanked them very much indeed for their services at pupil council meetings as they have chaired and minuted every meeting.  While all four are sad to be leaving the school, they recognise that it is time to move on and everyone wishes them well both at university and in their future careers.  Another meeting will be held in June in order to progress the questionnaires.

Date of next meeting: Wednesday 9 June, Period 6 in Room C9

The notes from last meeting will be here soon.