STENTON PARENT COUNCIL

ApprovedMinutes of Annual General Meeting held on Thursday 22nd September 2016

Present: Verity Sinclair (Chair), Fiona Amos, Vicky Whetton, Ciaran MacKechnie, Abby Lord, Anna Ross, Michael Veitch (Councillor)Veronica Brunton (Head Teacher), Suzanne Doggett (Clerk).

Verity opened the meeting, welcomed everyone and thanked them for coming.

  1. Apologies for absence: Val Thomson.
  2. Minutes of last meeting

The minutes of the Parent Council meeting held on 25th May were approved.

  1. Matters arising from minutes

50:50 Club: Vicki suggested that we should postpone the fundraising campaign for 50:50 club as everyone in the village is being asked to support the request for extra funding for the village hall. It was agreed to postpone the start of 50:50 club until January. Vicki will send an email for Suzanne to forward to all parents.

Flower Show: On behalf of the Stenton Horticultural Society, Fiona Amos thanked the school for hosting this year’s flower show at the school. It was agreed that the workshops that were held in the lead up to the flower show were very well received by the children and everyone was keen to repeat these next year. Anna asked if the younger children could receive a form of acknowledgement for taking part (such as a sticker) and Fiona agreed to feed this back to the Society.

Stenton Gala:Everyone was thanked for their help with the Gala this year.

Named Person: Veronica confirmed that the Named Person training is being rolled out as planned by East Lothian Council. However, the introduction of having a Named Person in each school has been postponed by the Scottish Government until legal issues are resolved.

  1. Chairs Report
  • Verity reported that there had been an informal parents meeting during the summer holidays to discuss ways in which parents can help boost numbers at the school. There was a discussion regarding the possibility of changing the catchment area to help increase pupil numbers. East LothianCouncil policy states that catchment areas are only altered if by doing so there was a positive impact on the children affected by the change. Veronica reassured parents that the council has no plans to close the school. Michael Veitch raised the issue that other schools in the area are over-subscribed due to all the new houses currently being built. Michael offered to take the catchment area question to East LothianCouncil. Richard Whetton has asked for projected numbers for the school from the Education department to give an idea of the school roll over the next few years.

5.Treasurer’s Report

  • There was no Treasurer’s Report as Val was absent from the meeting.
  • Val has offered to stand down from the post of Treasurer.
  1. Election of Office Bearers

Verity Sinclair was re-elected as Chairperson.

Ciaran MacKechnie was elected as Treasurer;Anna Ross proposed and Vicki Whetton seconded.

Vicki agreed to be the 3rd signatory with Verity and Ciaran.

  1. Any other business
  • Outdoor Play Equipment: The school have received a donation of recycled materials for the outdoor play pod. The children play with this equipment every day and are thoroughly enjoying using their imagination to play and use the equipment to learn in a variety of different ways. This means that the school will no longer be asking for the Parent Council to fund the purchase of new play equipment. As a consequence, Verity suggested that the parent council offer to make a donation of £1,500 towards the village hall refurbishment. This was agreed and it was also suggested that local businesses are asked to match the funding. Veronica agreed to arrange for the children to make a video to help attract potential donors. This will then be passed on to Ciaran so it can be forwarded to the local businesses which have been identified.
  • Religious Observance: Primary 1 parentsat the meeting (Abby, Anna and Ciaran) raised concerns over religious observance in Stenton Primary. In particular, they felt that Christian led assemblies should be balanced with other faith teachings. There was a discussion regarding this and there was a proposal to draft a letter to send to all parents to ask their views regarding religious observance in school. However Veronica suggested that in the first instance, any parents with concerns could visit school to observe Reverend Scott’s assembly on 30th September.
  • Vegetable Patch: Anna offered to come in to school to help fix the vegetable patch in the school garden. Abby offered to source wooden sleepers to replace the broken ones.
  1. Date and Time of the next meetings

The next meetings will take place on:

  • Monday 14th November 2016
  • Tuesday 28th February 2017
  • Wednesday 17th May 2017

All these meetings will take place at 7.30pm at the school.

  1. Thanks and close

Verity thanked everyone for attending the meeting.