Minutes
RATHO PRIMARY SCHOOL PARENT COUNCIL
Minutes of meeting on Monday 6th September 2010
Present: Annette Wilson, Mike
Humphries, Christine Paterson, Gillian Brown, Ruth Gillan, Shona
Johnson, Angie Muir, Graham Muir, Pat Robertson, Bobby Smith, Ms
Denise Penrose, Mrs Sarah Hall, Councillor Ricky Henderson &
Councillor Alastair Paisley
Apologies: Councillor Cairns
1. Treasurer's Report (Mike Humphries)
Mike circulated a summary sheet showing
monies held in the Parent Council account, divided into Parent
Council monies and those in the Garden fund.
The current situation is fairly
healthy: there are credits of £497.90 in the PC account and
£1,559.94 in the garden fund and these match the latest bank
statement. 3 items are yet to be accounted for:
Cost of installing water tap for
the garden. Estimate was £205.
Mike is personally due about £60
for monies he paid out when the bank account was out of action.
We have received a cheque from
Anne Burton for £10.
Mike confirmed that operation of the
account now appears to be sorted out following some difficulties
arising after notification of new signatories to RBS.
Mike noted that a very small amount of
interest is currently earned and offered to investigate options for a
better rate. He will also make a claim for monies we are due for a
Clerk.
The Parent Council accounts should be
audited. Mike offered to find someone to do this.
There was some discussion about what to
do with monies sitting to the credit of the PC account. It was agreed
that subject to retaining a float of £50, these should go to school
funds. Ms Penrose will let Mike know what the money is spent on.
2. CEC Budget Meeting Report (Annette Wilson)
Annette attended this meeting.
Generally it is very bad news: massive cuts of £90 million have to
be made by the Council over the next 3 years. The Council’s
spending review is still underway but the Council says it will feed
parents’ views from meetings such as this into the process of
deciding where to make cuts. It seems that the Council is trying to
be more open about how it is going about implementing cuts.
Councillor Henderson noted that
efficiency savings of £91 million have been made over the past 4
year. The latest package of cuts is savings of £16 million to be
made from "back office and management delayering".
3. Vandalism to school property
Last weekend the goalposts in the back
playing field were brought down for the second time this school year.
As a safety issue this has to be sorted out immediately and the
repair monies come straight out of the school budget. This is
frustrating at a time when monies are so tight.
Perhaps James the janitor could help
with repairs?
Ms Penrose asked that people be
vigilant and call the police if they are aware of any incidents. It
was noted that one problem is that the area where the goalposts are
is not overlooked.
If it happens again Ms Penrose may just
have to remove the posts entirely. She understands portable posts to
be very expensive, so not a practical alternative.
4. School uniform
Various parents have commented to
Annette about the school uniform so she has compiled a list of these
and at the meeting gave it to Ms Penrose. Some people would like
to see more guidelines about school uniform. It was noted that
parents of boys in particular would very much like to see black polo
shirts return to the official school uniform list.
Ms Penrose had not previously seen the
list of comments. She does not want to do anything which will incur
costs unnecessarily for parents; also she wondered about views across
the parent body as a whole. She offered to investigate and feedback
at the next meeting.
5. School dinners
4 parents sampled the school dinners
earlier this year. Most thought the food was fine (although on that
occasion the fruit provided was not always very ripe). For a packed
lunch as opposed to the hot meal it is quite expensive.
Ms Penrose will follow up on a request
to find out if parents are permitted to use the school kitchens,
which are not currently used as the meals are brought in from
outside. Ms Penrose will also look into how the meals are served eg
can something be done if children don't want certain food on their
plate?
There was also discussion about making
an event out of the Christmas dinner: allowing all children (whether
or not they usually take school dinners) the opportunity to have it
and trying to make that lunchtime a festive "whole school"
occasion.
It was also suggested that nursery
children be given the opportunity to sample the school lunches with
their parents before they start P1.
6. Parental involvement
Ms Penrose explained that she wants to
write to the parents weekly, so has started a “Friday note”. She
would like to see more parents involved with the school and will be
asking parents to offer their services to the school in relation to
skills they have. While there is a lot of parental involvement in
the school already, most of it is with younger children and she'd
like to see more throughout the school, especially for the P6/7 age
group. Given that apart from James the janitor, the staff in the
school is all female, she'd particularly encourage men to take part.
We can expect her to be writing out,
asking parents to let the school know about skills they have, so that
a skills database can be compiled.
7. Parent Council website
Annette is going to take over the admin
of this. Everyone on the PC is asked to look at it and feedback to
Annette with any corrections needed and with ideas on how it can be
added to or improved.
Once that feedback has been given,
Bobby Smith, Neil Brown & Annette are to meet with a view to
working on any changes suggested.
8. Recruitment of new members/plans for Parents'
Night
Annette would like to display the
Parent Council website at the Parents' Night on Thursday 7 October,
ideally in the lobby area. Mrs Hall will arrange a laptop for that.
It was also suggested that as part of
the Parent Council display on Parents’ Night, we could have a
uniform exchange, in return for a donation to school funds. We could
run a survey seeking views on the issues mentioned above on the
school uniform. There could also be a wellie boot swap.
We should have refreshments also:
juice, teas, coffees, biscuits, nibbles, wine?
Everyone present confirmed their
willingness to do a slot manning the Parent Council area.
Interim meeting: Monday 27th
September at 7pm in the Bridge Inn to agree arrangements for
publicising the Parent Council at Parents' Night on 7 October.
Ruth reported that some parents are not
sure about what the Parent Council does, so there was also discussion
about how better to publicise the Parent Council generally and what
it does, not just at the Parents' Night.
It was suggested that a laminated
poster could be tied onto the school fence at the P1/2 entrance from
time to time with any PC news. About 20% of parents do not receive
parentmail, so we need to bear that in mind as regards any publicity.
Christine will write a synopsis of the
main points covered at this meeting, to be sent out with the minutes
themselves, to try to highlight what we do and encourage involvement
by others.
Annette has prepared a summary about
the PC which she will circulate, as we could make use of that more
widely.
Annette will also arrange to add info
re the Parent Council to next year's P1 handbook. A notice could
also be placed on the nursery noticeboard.
Annette would like to see the Parent
Council produce a newsletter, perhaps quarterly.
9. AOCB
Shona presented a report on the
school garden, with photographs explaining how the garden is
changing, what work has been done, and how the various classes in
the school have been involved. In particular she mentioned that
produce is now available from the garden (eg beans, plums, tomatoes)
and suggested that the individual classes could pick and use that.
She will do a letter for the new P1 parents and other new children &
their parents to let them know how they can get involved. Generally
the Group meets every Tuesday evening in the garden at 6.30pm.
Ratho Action Group is to get
involved in thinking about composting fruit scraps left over from
lunchtime. There is now a composter in the school garden.
All parents can help to contribute
to Garden funds by collecting Morrisons vouchers, enabling the
Garden Group to buy more equipment and plants for the garden.
Graham noted that Cala should be
in touch with the school to arrange school liaison re the building
site on Freelands Road.
Mike has received an email about
opportunities for the school in conjunction with the quarry at
Hillwood, which he will pass on to Ms Penrose.
It was noted that there is a
pitbull terrier being let out to roam unsupervised in the village.
Children should be warned to stay away from it.
NEXT MEETING: Monday 8th
November at 7pm
