5th February 2013

DRAFT Minutes

RATHO PRIMARY SCHOOL

PARENT COUNCIL & PTA

Minutes of joint meeting on Tuesday 5th February 2013 at 7.30pm & PC Meeting following



Present: *Annette Wilson (PC Treasurer) (“AW”), Jackie Wake, Jenni Belfall, *Mrs McGlynn (“CM”), Brenda Binnie (“BB”), *Chris Cartwright (“CC”), *Lisa McCarthy (“LM”), *Sarah Hall & *Christine Paterson (PC Secretary) (“CP”).

Apologies: Neil Langhorn (“NL”), Helen MacGregor (“HM”) Ruth Gillan, Melanie McAllan, Mrs Smith, Bobby Smith, Emer Grimley, Michaela Muir, Councillors.

Note: those asterisked attended the separate PC meeting which followed the joint meeting.

Joint meeting


PTA report (BB):

  • The family ceildh was a good night and made £500 profit. It is not intended primarily as a fundraiser though.

  • The PTA will be discussing the Spring Fair (20 April) at their meeting to follow.

PC report (AW):

  • The Comms sub-group are to meet before the end of the month.

  • Road safety: AW is to co-ordinate a group, involving people from Ratho Environment Group, the Over 50s, JRSOs, RDCC etc. She wants to keep it fairly small to start with.

School update (CM):

  • CM has met with HM to discuss how they will work together. Going forward there will be more focus on the specific purpose of the fundraising. CM also plans to meet with NL as PC Chair.

  • In the Nursery she is using funding to buy “puddle suits” for outdoor play. She wants to develop the garden to include a roofed area with a sandpit and seating around. She also plans to create an eco water wall and to increase the number of story sacks.

  • The interviews for the Principal Teacher post have concluded and an offer has been made. Hopefully the new person will start after Easter.

  • The new Nursery Teacher is also in place, hopefully to start 25 February.

  • CM has had a good response to the request to parents/carers for email addresses to email a link to the Friday note.

  • CM wants to set up a Communication & Vision Focus Group, comprising: 1 person from the Comms sub group (which has PC & PTA members), 1 teacher, 1 learning assistant & 1 pupil. The first task will be an audit of communications generally.

Item carried forward to next meeting: appointment of a PC/PTA rep on the Community Health Group.

PC meeting

Present: those asterisked above.

1. Road safety


AW has already reported on this in the joint meeting. CP advised that Councillor Bill Henderson is keen to get involved in anything we do and she will forward his email of last night to AW.

A couple of further road safety concerns were raised with CM:

  • There was an incident recently where a bin lorry reversed into the school driveway as school was starting and children were about. There are 2 issues: it should not be coming to the school at that time and whenever it is reversing, one of the workers should be at the back of the lorry directing the driver. This seems to be acknowledged by the Council.

  • The lollipop lady at School Wynd spends a lot of time chatting to people passing & cars stop at the junction to talk to her: is there a safety issue here eg if she did not notice a child waiting to cross? It was left with CM to consider raising this with her line manager.

2. Treasurer’s Update (Annette Wilson)


The £50 donation for the Christmas Tree has been received from RDCC. The £150 has not come in yet from Scotmid. Balances overall are fairly healthy and we should discuss at our next meeting what to do with any excess.

Regarding the PC bank account with RBS, it was agreed that the signatories should be changed: Bobby Smith is no longer to be a signatory and Neil Langhorn is to become one. Annette Wilson produced a form which needs to be signed to effect these changes.

The authorised signatories in the current mandate resolved that the signatories for the Parent Council bank account as detailed in section 2 of the form be changed in accordance with section 5 of that form, so that Bobby Smith will cease to be a signatory and Neil Langhorn will become one. The form was thereafter duly signed.

It was agreed that the mandate to RBS will therefore continue as amended.

Annette Wilson was authorised to send the signed form to the Bank.

3. Comms sub-group


Report as above.

4. School 30th anniversary


CM reported that the children are very involved in the planning of this. They are looking to engage the wider community. Events will take place in the last 2 weeks of this term.

5. New Principal Teacher


Her role will involve Support for Learning, French, Science and the vision for the school.

6. Meeting for Parents/carers only of the PC (re future role of the PC)


CC agreed to conduct a doodle poll to find a date for this.

In terms of a mailing list, those invited should be NL, AW, CP, RG, LM, HM, Melanie McAllan, Michaela Muir, Emer Grimley, Bobby Smith & of course CC himself.

7. AOB


  • Mrs Hall is resigning from the PC after Easter; Miss Bunten will take over.

  • CM was asked to check on the cleanliness of crockery/cutlery/trays for school dinners. CM reported that she has spot-checked before and suggests that any concerned child should come to speak to her when they have a problem.

  • AW mentioned an event which is to take place at St Thomas of Aquins High School on Tuesday 5 March from 6pm to 9m about the new secondary school qualifications.

8. Next meeting


Tuesday 5 March 2013 at 7.30pm.

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