Skerries Educate Together National School,

Kellys Bay, Skerries, Co. Dublin.

Roll No. 20307O. Tel. 01-8494050, Fax: 01-8494058, email:

Board of Management Agenda. Thursday 8th November 2012 at 7.00pm

Present: Aisling O’Connell (Chairperson), Tomás Hickey (Principal), Cormac O’Connor (Parent Representative), Gina Jordan (Parent Representative), David Wright (Patron’s Nominee), Claire Meeghan- Jou(Teacher Representative).

Apologies: Kimberly Tully (Community Representative). Oliver McEvoy (Community Representative/Treasurer).

Invited Speaker: Jean Timmons (Vice Principal)

Item / Issue / Decision/Action to be taken/ Comment
1 / Opening of meeting (5 Mins - Aisling) / Aisling welcomed the newest members to the Board: Claire Meegan and Gina Jordan. Introductions were made by all. The Board has aproximately 2 ½ years left to run to term.
Tomás outlined the roles of each member of the Board.
2 / Matters arising from minutes of last meeting, correspondence , Principal’s report (20mins Tomás) /
  1. Acceptable Usage Policy: An amendment is to be made whereby parents are permittted to only take photos of their own children when in the school.
  2. E.T. Uniforms: Aisling will Meet with Angela Murphy who was researching how other Educate Together schools have addressed this to discuss this further.
  3. *Accounts- Grant ready Accounts. The Board will find out whether it’s time for the school to be auditted.
  4. The vetting policy needs to be finalised.
  5. The Treasurer will furnish the Board with a monthly report.
  6. SESE Curriculum – 2012: Science. 2013: History & Geography. Other curricular policies being developed this year include Music, Art and Craft and Physical Education.
  7. *Traffic- Road markings. The Board discussed and agreed to cover the cost of aproximately €750 for road marking outside the school. Cormac will contact the contractor.
  8. *The booklet “Patronism & Pleuralism in the Primary Sector” is now available to the Board from the Dept. Of Education. It will be kept in the Principals office.

3 / Learn Together/Ethos information and feedback. (Jean – 20 mins) / Jean outlined the “Learn Together” programme ethos. The evaluation was conducted 2 years ago and it’s presentation is recommended to all future new Board of Management.
The role of the Board is to ensure the program is:
  1. Multi- Denominational
  2. Co- Educational
  3. Child centred ( the BoM makes decisions based on the best interest of the child)
  4. Democratically run.
The Learn Together strands are: Belief Systems, Equality & Justice, Morality & Sprirtuality, Ethics & Environment with pupil involvement through the Student Council and the Green Council.
Information is being made more widely available on the noticeboard outside the staff room. There is a notelet given on enrolment. There is an open door approach for informing parents about our ethos. Parents can also find information on what their child is is learning through the Learn Together Program on the Schools Website by Clicking on the menu tabs: Ethos → Learn Together → Childs class year.
The Learn Together cirriculum will also be available in the new school library when it opens.
Annual Ideas – 2012 Africa Week starts 1st February. There will be an African Art Exhibition. The PA Committee were contacted to promote parent involvement, a post was put on the PA Facebook Page by the PA.
A free class photo with the childrens art will be available to all parents. Parents will also be able to purchase their childs artwork for €5.00
4 / Board of Management Ongoing Communication and arrangements at meetings 30 mins. (Aisling and Tomás) / The B.O.M. meet monthly. Reports and Summaries: All preparations are to be done prior to meetings. Tomás will request any topics for consideration for the Agenda to be emailed to 2 weeks prior to the next meeting. Athe Agenda will be compiled by Tomás and Aisling and sent to all Board members one week prior to the meeting. There will be no “Other Business” discussed at meetings.
At todays meeting Tomás furnished the members with the Acronyms list. Board members agreed to retain this list and refer to it when reading ongoing reports etc.
*Aisling discussed topics of confidentiality: the Board is a corporate body, therefore, individual voting is confidential, as is the agreed report.
5 / Board of Management 3 year Plan
Review of last plan and opening discussion on plan going
forward.30- 40 mins (Aisling and Tomás) / The 3 Year Plan is linked to the Mission Statement. Any topics or tasks not addressed by the end of the current plan will be added to the next 3 Year Plan.
Policies to be addressed in the current 3 year plan are as follows:
The Assessment Policy(standardised tests). Deis Policy (will be done by teachers). Student Council Policy. Rental Policy. Parental Involvement Policy. Homework Policy. Multi- Cutural Policy. Custody Policy. Communication Policy. Teachers extra vacation Policy. Staff Development Funding Policy. Volunteers & Helpers Policy.
The B.O.M. continue to support both the PA Committee and the Afterschool Clubs Committee and will be mindful of this onging commitment when looking at our next 3 year plan.
New Building:GP room- it won’t be know what equipment is needed until it’s open, though the Board needs to anticipate spending for it. The Capitation Grant increases according to pupil numbers as the school grows.
It was discussed that heating and electricity bills will also increase when the new building is open.
The possibility/ feasability of obtaining a wind turbine to help with the energy bills was considered. Gina will research this further.
The PA are funding the new school library.
There is no Computer room planned but it could be a possibility although it is no longer DES policy for schools to create computer rooms. Currenetly the school is equipped with the baseline configuration for ICT with whiteboards, projectors, one laptop per classroom , wieless mice and wireless keyboards. Sylvia, the teacher on staff with responsibility for ITC has suggested purchasing a number of laptops to be accessed by classes periodically (mobile computer room).
There has been good involvement with progressing the Outdoor Classroom. There is already a Sub- Committee set up for this. Plans are in place but it cannot begin until all building work is finished. It is estimated that building work will take 8 months to complete.
11 / Next meeting (5 mins) / 7.15pm, Thursday,17th January 2013.