Minutes
RATHO PRIMARY SCHOOL PARENT COUNCIL
Minutes of meeting on Monday 5th
September 2011 at 7pm
Present: Bobby Smith (“BS”), Ruth
Gillan (“RG”), Annette Wilson (“AW”), Christine Paterson
(“CP”), Mrs Sarah Hall, Councillor Alastair Paisley, Shona
Johnson(“SJ”) & Neil Langhorn from about 8pm.
Apologies: Ms Denise Penrose,
Councillor Ronald Cairns, Councillor Ricky Henderson, Angie Muir &
Graham Muir.
1. Representation on the Parent Council (“PC”)
There are currently representatives on
the PC for most classes. We could do with a parent from the P1 class.
[Neil Langhorn is a P1 parent who came along to the meeting later and
he has agreed to join the PC].
It was disappointing that no other
parents had turned up but it was noted that the meeting could have
been better advertised, and also notified further in advance.
2. Music teaching in school
As a Parent Council we are agreed that
we’d like to target some surplus funds which we have on improving
the provision of music teaching within the school. At the moment
only 6 children per year receive violin tuition from Mrs Miller.
There is no new woodwind tuition (Mr Lamb is only continuing with
existing pupils in P7). For those not getting violin, there is only
the singing programme [“ABC Music”] used in the school. Mrs Marr
used to provide music tuition but has of course retired.
The excess PC funds [£360] could be
put towards the purchase of some musical instruments or to fund an
after school club or even a one-off workshop. A workshop would cost
in the region of £300 to £400 – is that good use of the money?
BS has spoken to Ms Penrose and she is
looking at this generally.
This led to a general discussion about
the loss of external specialist teachers in school who can enrich the
children’s educational experience eg Ratho now has no PE
specialist, no art specialist, no language specialist and reduced
music tuition as above. Instead an increased burden falls upon class
and other teachers within the school to provide this. We understand
that it is not the school’s fault that this is happening; rather we
understand it to be the result of external budget restrictions.
Alastair Paisley offered to write to Gillian Tee for more information
on this worrying trend.
AW mentioned that she may have a
contact who could provide chanter teaching.
3. School Garden report (Shona Johnson)
SJ reported that the garden is
flourishing.
A group of parents meet there to work
on Tuesday evenings, usually from the start of term until the October
break and then work starts again around Easter.
Garden funding is healthy. The garden
has a balance in hand within the PC account: £890.67. At this
year’s Spring Fair garden parents arranged another plant stall.
Items sold included “Sunshine in a Box” packs containing
sunflower seeds. Some of these were planted in the garden and the
tallest will win a prize. Funds raised from the plant stall were
donated to the PTA on this occasion.
New features in the garden are a
wildflower meadow at the entrance and a wormery. Mrs Hall and her P2
class looked after this last year. A parent donated money for a
memorial bench which was installed by Pete Hill & Mike Humphries.
The cubs built a birdhouse and installed that.
New helpers for the garden would be
welcome, and SJ will think about how to encourage these.
The garden was used last term for
Golden Time, and for garden gym. Various skills were taught in Golden
Time. Garden art was created which is now in place around the garden.
A parent managed to obtain £350 worth
of funding from Dobbies which was used to buy various plants and
pieces of equipment for the garden. The contact at Dobbies will come
to visit the school soon to see the garden and find out how the money
has been spent.
SJ has prepared a new garden report
which will be posted on the PC website. In the meantime a hard copy
can be made available upon request.
4. School orchard
This is in the school grounds, at the
bottom of the kick pitch.
The Council has agreed to cut the grass
around the trees 3 times a year, which should be sufficient. The
trees are fairly clear around the base of the trunk. They are staked
and have ties.
Mrs Hall will mention to Ms Penrose the
possibility that we might be able to obtain further free trees from
the Woodland Trust, if we want them.
5. National Parent Forum of Scotland
BS should receive an invitation to
their AGM in October.
6. Procedure at future PC meetings
AW suggested that we start a practice
of reviewing the previous meeting’s minutes at the start of the
following meeting, and signing them off. This makes sure that action
points are followed up etc.
SJ suggested that we should run
meetings with a formal agenda.
CP suggested that as secretary she
should formally take on the task of compiling an agenda before each
meeting and remembering to ensure that the meetings are notified
further in advance.
Dates of the current school year’s
meetings were agreed as follows:
Monday 7 November
Monday 30 January 2012
AGM: Monday 30 April 2012
Although these dates mean that we meet
generally at the start of each school term, BS is keen for us to able
to hold extra one-off meetings should circumstances require.
We will ask for these dates to be
notified to parents/carers generally in one of Ms Penrose’s Friday
notes. We also asked that Mrs Hall, who maintains the school
website, add them to the school’s online calendar.
Other points:
We agreed that it would be good for one
of us to attend Balerno HS PC meetings. BS is also keen to encourage
links from our PC to the PCs of Kirknewton & Dean Park Primary
Schools. He thinks Dean Park has much closer links with Balerno HS;
this is perhaps an inevitable result of the geographical proximity.
BS also wants to know more about the
cluster rep who attends the CCWP on our behalf.
At the next PC meeting we should ask
the PTA to attend to give us an update on their activities.
We should also at the next PC meeting
have an agenda item about the emergency weather plan. A meeting was
held last year after the school closure in December 2010 and action
points were agreed with Ms Penrose; these should be reviewed at our
meeting this November for the coming winter.
7. Next Parents’ Night
We agreed that as a PC we’d like to
have a presence at this, to publicise the PC. We want to display the
PC website and also the school website on laptops. AW will enlist
some P7s to show the websites to passing parents. Mrs Hall will
organise the 2 laptops.
AW will also draft a survey to be
handed out on website/communication issues.
8. Points for Mrs Hall to raise with Ms Penrose
GLOW: A request was made
for parents to get better information about this.
Markers in school: RG
requested that washable whiteboard markers be used in school,
as currently they are not washable and children are coming home with
ruined clothing.
School cardigans: The new
school cardigans are much too big for the age stated on the label.
It would help if those already purchased could be exchanged for
smaller sizes. Pending children fitting into those which have
already been bought, can they wear grey wool cardigans?
School photos: These did
not happen last year and there was no communication about them.
Also, although the contemporary style of photograph seemed to have
more support among parents, it was the traditional photographs which
were to be taken. Is it disruptive to have the photos taken? Does
the school receive an income from the photographer reflecting with
the volume of photos purchased? RG noted that it is cheaper to
order photos direct from Tempest rather than through the school.
Path behind nursery building
used as access to school for P4 & up: This is muddy &
slippery in winter. Can anything be done to improve the surface eg
can slabs be laid?
Communication for a new school
year: A request was made that communication be improved for the
start of a new school year eg advising which door the children are
to use to come into school; at what time the children finish school
on each day etc. This especially needs to be done for new P1
children.
Infectious diseases: RG
suggested that guidelines be put on the school website about what to
do if your child has such a disease eg how long is it before they
can come back to school?
Wildlife Rangers: There is
the after school club but Earth Calling also used to come into the
school to work with the children during school hours. Is this still
happening?
Netball: Miss Bunten is to
run this after school club. What is the start date?
Parentmail: What is
happening? Is it to be dropped or still used during this school
year? Last year the PTA funded it. If it is no longer used, how
will the school organise one-off urgent communications to
parents/carers? Will that be through the text service and how does
that stand? To aid communication, we asked that more details be put
into the entry on the school website calendar about an event eg not
just the date of the event but when you click on the entry, details
of the time, who is to attend it, any other relevant information etc
could be added. However, we need to bear in mind that that only
about 70% of the school’s parents/carers have internet access.
9. Date and time of next meeting
Monday 7 November at 7pm.
