Invergowrie Primary School Parent Council
Draft Minutes of meeting on 04.09.13
Present
Cllr Roberts, Cllr Pover, E. Douglas, S. Kyle, G. Kerr, D.Young, K. Little, L. McGavin, M. Trickett, K. Baillie, H. Mackenzie, J.Young, J. Mills
Apologies
W. Maltman, J. Milne, D. Chaudhuri, N. Gellatly
ACTIONInvergowrie Public Art Project
Mrs Douglas had invited Kirstie Bailey from the Arts Development Council to talk about the Invergowrie Public Art Project. The project is being run in Invergowrie because there is a new school being built and the art created will be displayed in the school. The project will involve children, parents and people from the community. It will begin once the school is completed. A steering group will be set up, which Kirstie will facilitate. This group will look at what sort of artist would work best for Invergowrie and what sort of art would work in the community. They will create an artist's brief and will then interview possible artists, though the children would not be involved in the interview process. The chosen artist will then create a proposal for the group to consider.
The leaflet asking anyone in the community to get involved will go out with children this week. Anyone interested is asked to contact the school.
An electronic copy of the leaflet is to be e-mailed to Joanne Mills if anyone would like to pass it on to a member of the community who might be interested. / ED
Transportation to Harris Academy
The Harris Academy Parent Council Chairperson, Mandy Trickett, had asked to come along to the meeting to inform parents of the difficulties some children are experiencing with the school transport. If you live in Invergowrie, Dundee Council, then the children receive a free bus pass for 24/7. If you live in Invergowrie, Perth & Kinross Council, then there is a direct bus to and from the present Harris Academy. However this does not allow children to go to after-school activities. If you live outside of the Invergowrie PS catchment area then no transport is being provided. This affects 23 families in the Carse of Gowrie.
Cllr Roberts pointed out that if PKC children go to a DCC school, then PKC will not receive any money for the transportation of those children to school. At the moment PKC are paying for Invergowrie children to get to Harris.
Mrs Douglas is setting up a meeting for parents of P7 pupils so they can make an informed choice about where their children go to secondary school.
Mandy to keep Kelly informed of the situation.
Minutes of previous meeting
At the AGM we held a review of the year at the same meeting as business was discussed. Next year, we will separate these meetings to different times on the same evening. That way the minutes from one AGM can be carried forward to the next year.
The Young Scot card issue had been an error, which has now been resolved.
Thanks were given to the Little family for organising the whole school photo.
Awards for All end of grant form has been sent in and the project is now complete, except for the issue of the DVDs.
Morrisons have agreed to all the requests of the children for the outside area of the new school.
The uniform sale made £10.
A photo of Marie with the children and her Cook of the year award is still to be taken. Linda McGavin agreed to do this.
The minutes were agreed. / LMcG
New school build
The building will be completed on schedule.
It is hoped that the certification date will be 7th October, when the school will be passed from the building contractors to Perth & Kinross Council.
There will be two exceptional closure days on 28th & 29th October. These will be used to allow teachers to unpack the boxes and familiarise themselves with the building. Essential health & safety and fire drill training will also be completed on those days.
The staff are packing just now and are deciding on suitable resources to take with them.
Any equipment not taken will be re-utilised by PKC.
The removers start on 14th Oct.
The huts will begin to be demolished on Mon 21st Oct.
It is hoped to have an open afternoon in the new school, possibly on Fri 8th Nov.
There will be some sort of official opening at 9am on Wed 30th October.
No traffic or road issues have been noted
Subgroups
Fundraising
Linda suggested as a fundraiser. It could be done in a similar way to easyfundraising with a link to click before buying the product, or it could be done collectively through the school, in a similar method to the class photos. The fundraising group will look into this.
Whole school photo – this will be sold simply as a photo and not on anything gimmicky as the faces will be too small to be seen.
Kelly to check the costs of printing the photo.
All children were included in the photo, even those who haven't agreed to having their photograph used. Susan Kyle to check with the parents if they would be willing on this occasion to have their child included.
Curriculum
A Carse of Gowrie spelling bee might still happen but no details yet.
Communications
A photograph of Marie with some of the children is to be included in the next newsletter.
Awards for All
The DVDs are ready and will be given away on the last day of term. They will be posted to the previous P7s. Any extra DVDs will be sold at the next school open afternoon at a cost of £3.
It was agreed that we would like to buy a present for Pat Lawrence for all the work she has put in to the filming and editing.
The children will write a thank you letter to Pat. / Jill M
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WM
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Headteacher's update
The Standards and Quality report for this year is ready and will go out to all parents at the end of September. The Quality Improvement Officer, Karen Young, will visit the school on 18th Sept to discuss the school's improvement plan.
A member of staff to cover the reduction in class contact time is still to be appointed.
The Captains and vice-captains for the houses had 30 applicants from P6&7. Group interviews were held and they have now been chosen.
A new comenius project will begin this year. Invergowrie PS will be working with Beaumont again, along with schools in Spain, Sweden, Germany and Norway. The focus will be on learning styles within P4-7. We hope to show off co-operative learning. We will do more pen-pal writing. Mrs Howie and Mrs Inglis will go on the first trip to Suffolk in September.
The Parents Evenings will take place on 25th & 26th November this year.
The nursery parents are saying in their response sheets that they don't know about the Parent Council. The agenda for this meeting was posted in the nursery cloakroom. A leaflet is to be created giving details about what the Parent Council do, who we are, when we meet etc. This can be issued to the parents of all new starts at the nursery. Julia to write the information and Joanne to ask Wendy if she can put it together in a leaflet. The leaflet is to be created asap. / JoM
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WM
Treasurer's report
Attached
Dates of meetings this year
6th November, 15th January 2014, 5th March, 28th May, / JoM
AOCB
Kelly has been sent a leaflet about raising money for Guide dogs for the blind. This will be passed to the Pupil council to discuss.
The Blake MacMillan Trust has asked if we could sell candles at a fundraiser we are doing. It was agreed that the candles could be handed in to the staffroom to see if anyone wanted to buy them. There could possibly be a stall at a fundraiser which the parent council is organising.
P1 parents had asked Hayley if there could be a breakfast club. Mrs Douglas responded by saying it could be considered if there was enough interest. There would need to be at least 15 children every morning to make it viable.
Neil Gellatly had asked about music tuition, specifically how it was offered to pupils and if parents would be consulted. Also, what instruments are offered at Invergowrie?
Mrs Douglas responded. Piano and violin are offered. The P7s are offered a place first, then places are offered to the P5-6s. If there is more interest than spaces, then auditions take place. This is primarily to check the keeness of the child but will also touch on their musicality. The information is available in the school handbook and on PKC website.
Kelly had received a thank you card from Mrs Speedie for the lovely picture which was created by Gill Hastie and the pupils at the school. Thanks will be passed to Gill.