Minutes of Cramond Parents School Council meeting

held at Cramond Primary School

Present / Apologies
Rebecca Mill (Chair)
Alison McKay
Helen Donaldson
Sarah Anderson
Claire McDowell
Alexa Pope
Alison McIntosh
Miriam Newton
Steph Croan
Kirsten Gosling
Fran Warren
Fiona Pengelly
Rebecca Hartley / Claire Woodcock
Katie Bruce
Kathryn Garvie
Caroline Duff
Sara Wood
Jim Poseley
Dominic Sharratt
Yvonne Gillies
Martin Stevens
Irene Campbell
Cath Kerr

Monday 27 April 201

Petra Cameron

Cathy Kistruck

Agenda Item / Discussion / Action / Person(s) Responsible / Date for completion
1. Welcome / Rebecca welcomed everyone to the meeting.
2. Apologies / Apologies were given as above.
3.  Acceptance of minutes of last meeting / The minutes were reviewed and accepted as an accurate reflection of the meeting, bar the following change being required:
·  An amendment needs to be made to the text “PE Teacher,” which should read P6 Teacher.
Helen to chase up on the School Streets project actions.
“Walk on Wednesdays” is going really well. / Helen to chase up on the School Streets project actions. / Helen Donaldson / 1/5/15
4. Treasurer’s report / The CSPC account balance was noted (£2,395), as was the balance of the 100 Club.
Spring Disco takings were £550 less expenses of £295, resulting in £255 profit.
Jim needs to chase Martin up regarding last invoice to pay for Our Place so we can establish what, if anything, can be paid back to school before the Summer Fair. / Jim to contact Martin regarding the last invoice for Our PLACE / Jim and Martin / 30/4/15
5
OUR PLACE Survey results / Helen presented the results of the Our PLACE survey. Key points are as follows:
·  42 people participated. The survey is still live (via the website).
Positives (as recorded from the survey’s responses in narrative and from further discussion of the survey results within this meeting):
1.  Due to Our PLACE, play has become more adventurous;
2.  It is great that it is open to the community outwith school hours;
3.  Our PLACE has resulted in children feeling more included in play than before, as there are more opportunities for “non-sporty” imaginative play (examples being play kitchens, and den-making);
4.  Our PLACE has resulted in play being dispersed all over the school landscape, with it providing a greater variety of play areas. New types of both physical and non-physical imaginative play have resulted;
5.  Overall it’s a great example of how the school and the local school community work together to fundraise and to develop new facilities;
6.  Children are displaying knowledge and understanding of health, safety and risk; translating what they have learned in the classroom to their play outdoors. They are demonstrating confidently their understanding of risk (to themselves and others), and are making their own decisions (noted by playground supervision staff) about the challenges they feel are right for them as individuals. In instances where children might be putting themselves and/or others in potential harm’s way, the playground staff are asking the children about their behaviour, whether they felt it was safe or not, and asking them to explain how they are going to make changes the next time;
7.  The new landscape offers the opportunity for challenging play choices. Underpinning this is a firm commitment to continually prioritise the health and safety of the children;
8.  The skills learned in this challenging play environment are the foundations for confident, responsible and individual decision-making about their own physical behaviour outwith school in the environments they will encounter as they grow into young adults;
9.  Our PLACE is being used as a model of Excellent Practice; pushing the boundaries in play;
10.  Accidents are monitored and recorded, as they always have been. Our PLACE has resulted in no more accidents, and with no increase in the severity of the resulting injuries, when compared with the previous playground’s accident records. The only difference lies with the nature of injuries being recorded. The previous playground typically resulted in injuries sustained from running and falling, or running and colliding. Our PLACE records show a typical injury might be from scraping along the gravel or on surfaces of the landscape.
Negatives (as recorded from the narrative within the survey results) and actions (as discussed within this meeting):
1.  Negative behaviour from children (such as throwing gravel) was noted as a concern;
·  Action (underway): this has and will continue to be dealt with by working with the children to teach responsible play;
2.  The maintenance of the gravel was highlighted as a concern. There is a need to sweep the gravel to keep it in the areas it should be in, and there is a concern over the risk of injury from sliding on the gravel and sustaining scrapes.
·  Action (underway): The maintenance of the gravel is being looked at, to ensure that drains don’t get blocked. The accident record shows that the gravel is not causing any more injuries than the other surfaces (and no serious injury has been recorded on gravel).
3.  Concern over the risk of injury on sharp edges, and specifically sharp nails sticking out of wooden blocks at the nursery area.
·  Action (underway): Nursery staff and Ms Adams (Business Manager) have been checking (daily checks) to ensure the safety of the wooden blocks.
4.  Children are getting really muddy
Action: teaching staff will continue to ensure that children wash their hands when they come in from the playground.
5.  There is more potential for serious accidents, given the rocks and boulders and sharp edges.
Action: the commitment to the health and safety of the children will always remain the first priority. The children are taught (firstly in the indoor classroom environment) about health and safety in their play, and the playground staff are noting that the children are, in the whole, demonstrating confidently their understanding of risk (to themselves and others), and are making their own decisions (under careful supervision) about the challenges they feel are right for them as individuals. In instances where children might be putting themselves and/or others in potential harm’s way, the playground staff are asking the children about their behaviour, whether they felt it was safe or not, and asking them to explain how they are going to make changes the next time. Playground supervisors are there from 8.30am and during school hours. During supervision sessions, the areas with rocks, boulders and sharp edges are specifically monitored and the observations have been that the children have been using these areas appropriately. The number of accidents has been less than in the previous playground. / Reps to please ask their year groups to bring in any unwanted loose materials for the children to play with (such as pans, pots, anything conducive to building dens, such as tarpaulin). / Reps / 1/5/15
6
Cramond’s Got Talent / Catherine Kerr has been working hard on organising this and she would like more volunteers to help on the night and for reps to encourage entries.
There was a suggestion that the competition element ought to be minimised, giving more focus to the celebration of the skills and confidence on show. / A parentmail to go out to encourage entries and volunteers.
Lex to meet with Catherine to determine how much of a focus the event will have on trophy winners. / Lex Pope
Lex Pope and Cath Kerr / 1/5/15
8/5/15
8
Fundraising Summer / Claire sent the e-mail to explain which year groups will be responsible for each fundraising activity/area (see minutes of 2 March 2015). No comments were received.
The suggestion would be that the reps send an e-mail to their year group to get volunteers, rather than the reps carrying out all (or any) of the work themselves.
Rebecca explained the concept of the block car racing (extract from minutes of 26 January 2015):
Participants design, build and decorate cars before a race event by carving their desired shape from the balsa wood block. Weight may be added and the car finished with paint and decoration, in accordance with the local race rules. Four wheels and axles are provided in each kit, along with instructions and a design template. The cars aregravity powered as they run on apurpose-built sloping track. Prizes areawarded based on speed, but also design and creativity.
It was noted that there would be a challenge in organising the logistics of how the competition element would work. The school would have to run the heats prior to the actual competition day, and the track would have to be set up in the school somewhere.
Discussion centred around the following questions:
·  where should we set the track up?
·  How many heats should be run?
·  Will there be enough time to have the block cars as part of the summer fair, or should it be a separate event in September?
It was concluded that the summer fair would have some sort of taster to show/sell the cars and that the actual race event would take place as a separate event, probably in September, giving the children a project to work on over the summer holidays, in building and designing their cars.
The types of stalls to be included in the summer fair were discussed (e.g. vintage car, irn-bru racing, plant stall, face painting, second hand uniform, fire engine, second hand wellies stall, candy floss and popcorn, ice-cream (suggestion was that cornetto-style pre-packaged ice-creams be the preference over the tubs of ice-cream), nails and make-up and more).
The price for entry was discussed. The suggestion was that it should be free.
The P7 money goes towards their leavers do. / Claire to resend the e-mail so that all reps are comfortable with the tasks they are responsible for.
Discussions to continue to work out the logistics of the block car racing event.
Claire to organise a meeting to pin-down the final organisational details with the volunteers. / Claire
Rebecca and Claire
Claire / 1/5/15
1/5/15
15/5/15
10
School lunch update / Steph gave her report on the school meal which she enjoyed alongside the children last week;
1.  Good organization
2.  Good food
3.  Enough time
4.  Pleasant experience
5.  Well supervised
The challenge she noted was with the supervision of how much and what the youngest children were eating, but Mrs Donaldson explained that when the children come to deliver back their trays, it is often noted that they may have not eaten enough of their main and they are given a second chance to do so back at the tables.
11 100 Club update / 86 tickets are in the lottery. Reps are asked to please publicise the 100 Club to parents. / Reps to publicise the 100 club lottery to the parents in their year groups. / All reps / 1/5/15
12 School update / Building:
The fire upgrade is underway which will improve the seals and the self-closures of the doors.
Letters have been distributed to explain to neighbours that work has been happening during the night.
New gym hall:
Helen is trying to find out exactly what is happening and the proposed usage date will be August 2016. October 2015 will be the earliest initial works. Helen to share updates as and when the information is available.
The P1 and P2 playground is going to be the area upon which the build takes place. When it is built, they will go out to use the main playground (this will be under supervision and new rules).
P1 and P2 predicted intake:
The intake list is currently at 65 and is predicted to be at 60 on the actual date of starting school. Notably, this avoids any need for composite classes.
Community events:
8 May will be non-uniform day and this will be at a charge of £1, with the proceeds going to the Royal High Homes for Romania charity.
15 May: there will be a coffee morning to raise money for a very important local cause and the children will be asked to bring in 6 cakes.
Sports day: Thursday 28 May. Cargilfield are on their mid-term holiday and so we are using their field on that day. Morning will be P4-P7 sports at Cargilfield, and with a return to Cramond for a family picnic lunch at school (tables will be provided outside). The afternoon will be the P1-P3 sports at Cramond. There will be more of an element of competition throughout this sports day.
It was noted that the P4 tennis lessons on that day and on the Muddy boots day will be cancelled.
There is going to be a new Active Schools coordinator, due to reorganization within that area. The current coordinator Neil Russell has been outstanding and will be missed.
There are a few potential opportunities for after schools activities which sound interesting and need further discussion:
1.  Knitting (6 week course on a Wednesday).
2.  Textiles
3.  Guitar lessons
4.  Crafts lunchtime club
13
Items raised by parents and carers / Nursery rep:
With regard to the Almond valley trip on the 2 June, to which parents/and/or carers must accompany their child, there is comment that If you are a working parent then you can’t go, which then means your child can’t go. There are solutions to this, and Lex is looking into this. The idea was to create a family day out. / Lex to work on solutions for the nursery trip / Lex / 1/5/15
12
AOCB / NA

Date of next meeting: 1 June 2015 7.15 – 9pm