PARENT COUNCIL CORE GROUP

Minutes of Meeting held on

Thursday 14 June 2012

7pm Earlston High School

Present
Sheelagh Aird, , Fiona Donaldson, Angie Henney, Michelle Strong, Ruth Magowan, Siobhan McDermott, Lynne Milligan, Isla McQuarrie Louise Ogilvie, Fiona McQueen, Ann Brown, Avril Tobin
1. / Apologies for absence
Caroline Keefe, Sarah Leslie, , Catharine Fletcher, Linsey McGillivray, Dean Sewell, Darren Todd, Kate Warner Carol Reid, Joanne Connington, Melanie Lawrie
2. / Minutes
The Minutes of the Meeting held on 3 May, 2012 were approved.
3. / Matters Arising
Ruth & I attended a Parent Council forum on 10 May: Glenn Roger (Acting Chief Executive) welcomed everyone. Colin Easton gave a presentation on Early Years Strategy; this has a focus on investing funding into Early Years- reducing poverty, revise/remodel/localities, redesigning services to providing a single door to access all services ie; SW, Police, Psychological services etc this would be within each primary school. There is a proposal to equalize funding for primary & secondary schools; top slicing secondary schools to achieve the balance.
Supply: Concerns regarding the drop in availability of supply teachers for both secondary & especially primary. This has arisen from the restructuring of payment. The present practice is that supply teachers are now waged for the first 5 days of any supply request at the lowest rate on the pay scale before reverting to the individual’s pay point. In some cases, this is a drop of over £70/day. This has achieved major savings for the Scottish government but has lead to teachers/classes doubling up. Most schools have their own database of teachers willing to travel to that school.
Review of implementation of Parental Involvement Act in Scottish Borders.
Appointment of DHT
I attended a meeting at SBC with MS & Jackie Swanston, where applications were reviewed (17) & a long list of 5 candidates invited for interview. The First interviews took place on Tuesday – I will leave MS to report in full – but would like to say thanks for being made so welcome on the team, & further thanks for all the paperwork & organisation that has taken place.
PC Forum Ruth & Isla attended the PC Forum meeting last Thursday – (I was unable to) & reported that much discussion took place around the Senior Phase following the instruction from SBC SMT that all secondary schools were to come into alignment & limit the number of subjects to 6 before selecting a maximum of 5 highers.
4. / CfE statement; This statement came from SBC SMT in response to complaints from parents the EHS was offering 8 subjects for the first 3 years of broad general education before dropping to a choice of 5 highers for the Senior Phase. The EHS SMT had chosen this (conservative) approach to preserve what already works & to give pupils a wider choice before narrowing down for university qualification. By restricting the choice to 6, pupils may struggle to make changes especially if needing a second language. After discussion, it was agreed to invite Yvonne McCracken to the next PC meeting on 29 August for further discussion & to find out if this would be enforceable especially as with the major implications for EHS students.
5. / Head Teacher’s Report
Miss Strong summarised recent events and activities which included:
·  The SQA Exam season is now over for 2012, with results expected on 7 August. Special thanks to staff for helping to prepare our young people so well. The lunchtime and after school support is greatly appreciated.
·  Pleasingly the last day before study leave went without a hitch. Well done to the Head Team for coordinated this so effectively.
·  Miss Strong joined the Catering Manager, Alistair McIntyre to join the EHS finals of Masterchef. It was a pleasure to be part of the event with a very high standard set by all six teams.
·  The interest in Duke of Edinburgh continues to grow with staff involved in expeditions, both practice and assessment expeditions, several weekends in May and June
·  The S2 Residential trips went very well with fantastic reports from trip leaders, coach drivers, hoteliers and members of the public.
·  The S3 Battlefields trip took place during the same week with great reports as well.
·  Seniors returned on 6 June and will start courses. Their formal induction will take place on 18 August.
·  Disappointingly Sports day (7 June) was cancelled due to very wet weather.
·  Leavers’ Evening (8 June) was another fabulous event for both leavers’ and parents. Thank you to the committee for organising this so well.
·  Robot Olympics- thank you to Mr Woodcock for coordinating this opportunity last Saturday. Unfortunately a technical malfunction meant that we weren’t ranked this year but those involved gained a great deal from the event.
·  P7 visit days (Tuesday 12 & Wednesday 13 June) The pupils appear to have had a great introduction to EHS, with parents giving positive feedback at the information evening.
·  EHS MUN (Model United Nations) Conference. This is the second EMUN, with 138 delegates from a wide spectrum of schools. A fantastic day of healthy debate.
·  Olympic torch (14 June) - a once in a lifetime opportunity. Thank you to Mr Changleng for coordinating the Olympic themed day – a great time was had by all.
Forthcoming events:
·  The School Show this year is Crazy for You. Rehearsals will take place next week with performances to follow.
·  The School garden is developing well with the help of Borders College, ASDAN students and committed staff.
·  The development of Leadership, especially student leadership is gathering pace. Special thanks to Mrs McDonald for her work in relation to this.
·  The Rights Respecting charter is also progressing well with the launch set for August.
·  The House System will be fully implemented in August.
Staffing
Congratulations to John Clarke (DHT), Carole Hall & Gayle Buchan( PE), Alison McPherson (Biology) on gaining posts in other schools. Lynn McCulloch (LS ANA) will also be leaving to work full-time at East Green Nursery. We will miss them all. Recruitment is under way.
6. / ASDAN presentation by Ann Brown
Award Scheme Development Accreditation Network
ASDAN is a curriculum developing & awarding body, offering programmes & qualifications that explicitly grow skills for learning, for employment & skills for life.
Vision:
Encourage, engage & motivate learners.
Promote active & experiential learning
Raise the expectations of learners
Reward a range of learning styles & contexts
Use assessment to further learning
Make learning relevant & transferable
Promote the worth & value of our qualifications
Values:
Providing opportunities for all to achieve
Promoting personal & social development
Celebrating success
Promote assessment for learning
Supporting personalised learning
There are a series of awards & EHS do;
Transition challenge
Bronze award
Silver challenge
Silver
Short courses
Students plan their task, choose key skills needed; ie communication, numeracy, IT etc. & then ‘do’ the task, which is then reviewed & completed in the appropriate workbook. Ann told us about some challenges, which had been completed including; entertaining the Swedish guests at EHS, completing work in the Gordon Community Woodland. ASDAN is used in schools throughout Scotland - & not just within Learning Support.
Ann brought along some of the pupils learning portfolios, fully illustrated with photos & written work of their challenges. We spent some time browsing through these excellent achievements. Ann told us about some positive outcomes for students who had completed ASDAN courses. ASDAN is also a registered charity & has a website;
7. / Sub Group
The sub group said farewell to 5 of the core members & are recruiting more for next term.
8. / Correspondence
There was no correspondence.
10. / AOCB
Parent Council members enjoyed nibbles bought by all before closing the meeting
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11. / Date of next meeting
Wednesday 29 August 2012