| Agenda |
Action noted |
Action required |
| 1. Matters arising |
Hoodies for Poland trip
Pete Butter has gone ahead and ordered the hoodies – cost will be up to £750
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No 23 Bus
HT gave update on no 23 bus– still would like to follow up with John Swinney. Concern over what will happen next. PKC transport unit supposedly doing detailed audit of use. HT thinks they are limiting employment opportunities for local people. Transport Unit will be making a decision by end of March. HT will continue to work behind the scenes. SY was concerned that there has been no public consultation about the changes to the No 23 bus service
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Mentoring
No progress yet. Carry action point over.
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Gaelic teacher update
The post has been advertised. 2 applications have been received,1 probationer and 1 more experienced. AP has had a meeting with John Fyffe at PKC which was very positive. Thanks to Ian Campbell for organising the meeting. Ian suggested another meeting at a later date.
There is a possibility that one candidate could be taken on on full time and the other as supply. AP pointed out that Gaelic parents still feel that they would like to have some say in the interview process. LS said that would ask teacher to do a demo lesson so that more people would see the candidate in action. Parents can’t come and be in the classroom. There won’t be any parental involvement in the recruitment/interview process.
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Parent Council questionnaire
No progress. We will carry this over to the next meeting.
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Fund raising
LS raised issue of children attending events where they need to self fund buses to events and are representing the school. Could the PC support these costs? LS – school have spent roughly £8k on bus hire costs since September 2012. Costs involved are: Minibus hire, bus hire and fuel costs for a variety of trips including rugby, cross country, McManus gallery trip to Dundee.
School have been asking for a smaller percentage of costs as costs have risen and school are concerned about affordability for parents. Parents asked if BA could buy a minibus but minibuses are held centrally. AT asked if we could we apply to Griffin wind Farm fund. IC felt that this probably wouldn’t meet Griffin’s criteria.
KW asked what the school wants the PC to offer. Is it for a discretionary fund or a blanket contribution to supporting transport costs? We agreed to start from here and gather more information about the costs involved and the likely amount that the PC could usefully contribute as we go forward. Then PC could see what level of funding is needed.
One parent has raised the issue of longer school trips costs for larger families, with say three children to pay for three trips in a year is a big ask. Meeting asked if there are families that don’t get to go on school trips because of this. IC suggested that the PC could apply for a lump sum to local Community Councils to support these kind of costs. Griffin will not give out money to support costs that should be funded statutorily.
LS confirmed that where visits are part of the curriculum school would pay if parents were unable to but there are plenty of things that don’t come into that but will support the curriculum. HT thinks it’s worth talking to Griffin. How do we make trips inclusive? IC mentioned that Community Councils have a fund that school could apply to for funding. Criteria are that the applications enhance or enrich the experiences of people within local area.
SY said that we need to understand what the need and demand is for additional funding to support school trips.
AP suggests speaking to Douglas Craig. He will email details to HT. AT it’s how you present it. She got £7k for Farmers’ Market. Suggested she apply again next year. Potential to get funds for 2-3 years. SSE taking it in house over next year.
Next steps: apply to all 5 community councils for £500 from each.
KW asked if we can we afford to give some money now and monitor how long it lasts. It was felt that this would make things more manageable for families. Meeting agreed to give £500 now and see how long it lasts. School report back at next meeting on how things are going.
School will put the £500 into a separate account. Need to tell parents that PC have done this.
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100 Club
HT proposed setting up a 100 club as a fundraising idea. We would need a small lotteries licence. HT is not sure how long it takes. AT has asked Aberfeldy Rotary for their 100 club paperwork and they are happy to share it. We could ask for £2 per month which is not too expensive but people could buy more than one ticket per month. This seems like an easy way to raise money. We would set up a separate bank account for the 100 club.
HT is happy to apply for the licence. AT will get forms and any list of rules and send to HT.
We could aim to launch the 100 club at the school show at the end of June.
Give as you live website – HT has signed up. Download something onto browser and it flags up opportunities s to fundraise when you are shopping online. Lots of big shops on it. Not sure if we are eligible.
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Avon fundraising proposal
Parent, Ian Teal is a self-employed Avon rep. They have online brochure and Ian could set up a website where people would go to buy Avon products. His commission from people who bought products through school would go to school. The PC would not need to put up any money up front.
The meeting asked if we could set this up to test on a small scale. AP – it’s an unusual proposition. Lots of people do it through Toddler groups. HT asked KW and IT to work together to discuss taking this forward. Needs to be clear that it’s a PC venture – not a school venture.
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Co-op bag pack
This has been proposed as an easy way to make £500. 6 Gaelic parents raised £400 at the Coop in Aberfeldy. Getting a slot takes a while. AT could speak to Coop managers to ask what we need to do. Put email round to parents to help with bag pack.
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Pub quiz
Agreed to do another quiz – would probably be mid-week after Easter.
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Put this on the agenda for the next meeting (HT/SY). |
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| Put this on the agenda for the next meeting (HT/SY). |
| Email Douglas Craig’s contact details to HT (AP). |
Apply for licence (HT).
Send Aberfeldy Rotary forms to HT (AT).
Find out if PC is eligible (HT).
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KW and Ian to discuss (KW & IT). |
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Ask Coop manger re getting a bag pack slot (AT). |
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Talk to Craggs to see if they have a good date (KW) |
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| 3. Headteacher's report |
Principal Teacher for English recruitment process is underway. Hazel Murch has been appointed as Nurture teacher in Primary. This post supports children who may have attachment issue and offers a supporting nurturing experience to children and to parents as well A .6 SEN post is to be approved to replace Hazel. There has been lots of sickness absence amongst staff and pupils. The school wrote to primary parents asking them to keep children at home until they were fully recovered. The school have tried hard with supply.
Dr Armstrong - a group of secondary pupils won the regional trophy for the chemistry competition, Top of the Bench. They are off to the National final in Loughborough. The trip is paid for by the competition. This is a first for Breadalbane Academy and a great achievement.
Congratulations passed on to the Top of the Bench team from PC.
Gold mining trip. Chemistry dept has secured a partnership grant with the Royal Society to undertake activities with a gold mine in Tyndrum. This also secures new equipment in classrooms.
Science and engineering week – science dept has blossomed. They made a recent trip to Babcocks. Parent, Jim O’Neill offered to set something up with Babcocks. Interesting example to publicise to other parents.
w/c 18th March – big event ‘Who Killed Mrs Swan?’ to take place involving P7s and feeder school kids.
NASA – radio link with astronaut went really well. 9.23am on Feb 12th.
HMI coming w/c 18th March – PC has particular part to play. LS has information for HT. Letters will go out to parent and there will be focus groups. BA aren’t sure how many will come. There will be teams of roughly 8 plus others will come in at different times. They will start on Monday and finish with feedback reports on Friday morning. BA don’t know which classes they will be going into. The recent ELAV visit will help with preparation. There will be an expectation from HMI that BA have acted on action points from ELAV.
HT is only available on Tues 19th March – as on Jury Service on Wed 20th March. LS to tell HMI.
Mitie – facility managers at school have a programme of eco friendly information to tell children how school works in assemblies.
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| 4. Evidence 2 Success survey |
Issues have been raised in the press. IC has supplied some answers to the questions raised in the press.
AP was surprised that this has happened. He felt that it was astonishing that PKC has taken it upon themselves to ask such intrusive information about family life. He felt that this should have been an opt in rather than opt out questionnaire.
KW – didn’t get the letter informing parents about the survey before it took place. He supports the goal of the questionnaire but was surprised at how intrusive the questions were. Why did PKC need to know about who was living in the house?
KW raised concerns over the questions around knives and drug use for relatively young children. Thanks to IC for getting back so quickly.
IC told the meeting of the shocking things that he has encountered since becoming a councillor ie the number of children who are abused and the number of parents who have issues with substance misuse. Plus the number of children PKC is involved in in looking after. We shouldn’t be complacent. All the information is stored confidentially.
AP – Questionnaires were not online before it happened. Some parents have raised the issue with the Information Commissioner. AT wasn’t aware of the questionnaire and was concerned over the potential impact on children. ER commented that some of the older primary children were articulate about their reactions to the questionnaire.
AP wanted to know why the questionnaire asked children for their date of birth. Why is the child’s Scottish Candidate number on the form?
AP – feels that it is unacceptable to ask children for this information and wanted this to be minuted.
Emily Ross was not aware that parents hadn’t received letters.
HT hasn’t studied the questionnaire in detail but does have concern with some questions.
AP – has looked at background. Thinks this is about someone’s PHD. HT would like to know from PKC why council has decided to become involved. Renfrewshire also involved. Is this an instance where council should have come to Parent Councils to sound them out beforehand?
Why can’t parents see questions before they give consent? IC agrees they should have been online beforehand.
HT – mechanism should have involved parents at outset. Would be interested to hear from PKC about this and hopes council will undertake a review following this exercise.
LS – had a long presentation about it in October 2012 – there had already been lots of groundwork.
KW – is there something that PKC is aiming to do that they couldn’t have done without this information?
LS this is about meeting needs of children in long term.
IC - there has been an 89% response rate so far.
1% have opted out.
KW – would have appreciated more information in advance. HT would like to feedback to Council that PC feels that the way consent was obtained from parents was not ideal – not informed consent. Would have preferred better idea of questions beforehand.
LS – aim is not about identifying abusers. More about well-being. To give a better understanding of where children are at.
AP – where is data stored?
HT – could IC report back at next meeting to Council response to parents’ concerns.
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Report back to PC re any further discussions with PKC about the survey (IC). |
| 5. Any other business |
KW – school sent home letter about illness about children coming to school when kids were still contagious – is this an increasing problem? Are children still coming back while they are still ill. Are children being sent home?
Emily Ross – Primary are encouraging parents to wash water bottles every day. Also trying to encourage children to wash their hands.
PC is supportive of this approach.
KW wanted to check situation re wearing of blue or white polo shirts in primary. ER to check.
AT – several people have raised issue of litter and smokers from school at Lower Birks. LS - this is a constant battle for the school. Parents also need to take responsibility. There is someone on detention every week for smoking. The children just move around. School has spoken to the local police officer – to see if they can help.
The school know who the children who smoke are. They offer cessation support. AP - Can police do on the spot fines for litter? should the school to remind children that it is an offence? This issue has been raised at Community Council meetings. BA also has issues with adults on campus not putting rubbish in bins.
SY asked if we could have a female speaker at Celebration of Achievement. PC agreed this was a good idea.
Graham Armstrong – don’t have a Higher Chemistry trophy. Could PC fund a permanent trophy which would cost £200 - £250? PC agreed that this was a good idea and to fund the Parent Council prize for Chemistry. BA has fewer trophies than LS would have expected. HT said that the PC couldn’t fill every gap in the range of trophies. Perhaps businesses could support trophies for other subjects. GA – real reward is being recognised for achievements. LS get someone to look at trophy gaps.
AP is a Dun Collich trustee. They have 57k trees to plant and are seeking community involvement from local schools. ER and LS keen to be involved. AP will put Sandra Winter in contact with school. Best time to plant trees is in spring - could be something to be done in Communities Week
Next meeting – 26th March 2013, 6.30pm. Pitlochry.
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Check most recent advice to parents re uniform shirts for Primary (ER/LS).
Approach Pitlochry High School to be meeting venue
(LS). |
| 6. Next meetings |
Future meetings
Next meeting: Tuesday 26th March, 6.30pm, Pitlochry, venue to be confirmed.
Subsequent meetings
Tuesday 30th April, 6.30pm, venue tbc
Tuesday 28th May, 6.30pm, AGM. Royal School of Dunkeld.
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