MINUTES FOR THE INNERWICK PRIMARY SCHOOL PARENT COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON TUESDAY 03/05/2011
Present: Sally Harris (Chair), Rhona Menzies (Treasurer), Clare Cockburn (Parent Member), Tracey Webster (parent), Lynsey Brunton, (parent), Tricia Hilferty (parent), Irene Hogg, Susan Mayo
Attending: Caitriona Kavanagh (Acting Head Teacher), Jacqui Bell (Lib/Dem Councillor)
- Welcome & Apologies
Sally welcomed everyone to the meeting. There were no apologies received.
- Minutes for the previous meeting
Minutes for the previous meeting were approved as a true and accurate record
- Matters Arising:
The response to the letter sent by Innerwick parent council to Don Leadingham regarding their concerns about supply and future staff cover was described as ‘disappointing’ by parent members. They felt that the issues they wanted addressed were ‘skirted around’ and were not directly answered in his letter. Therefore, their letter had been forwarded to Richard Jennings – in the hope they will have their concerns answered. The parent council also hope that more information will be forthcoming. Caitriona and Jacqui recognised the tensions and the stresses that changing staffing levels can create. However, the parent council praised Caitriona and her ability to keep a consistency throughout the school for the children
Caitriona informed the Parent Council that the local authority recognised that for such a small school – it had a very good, able and active parent council and this was appreciated by the local authority, as well as the staff at the school
- Chair Person Items:
As Sally had brought up her most pressing item in matters arising – the meeting moved onto head teachers items
- Head Teachers Items:
Caitriona reported that all being well Angus would have a staggered return to his post as Head teacher after May. Meanwhile the staffing levels would continue until the end of the summer term. However, Caitriona informed the parent council that there was the possibility of not having enough children for three classes at the start of the autumn term. Parents expressed deep concern at this news – the present ratios were much more suited to the abilities of the children for their ages.
The Easter event was well attended and Caitriona thanked the parents for this
Caitriona asked for the parent councils’ opinion on assemblies – should they all be held in the church?
It was agreed by a majority of parents attending, that for more formal or for major Christian events that they should be held in the church and regular assemblies should be held in the school
- Treasures Report:
Balance carried forward / £1240.43
Feb 2011 Bonus Ball / +£ 193.00 / £1433.43
Tax / -£ 0.02 / £1433.41
Gross Interest / +£ 0.10 / £1433.51
Expenditure for Fair / -£159.51 / £1274.00
Bonus Ball Payouts / -£ 20.00 / £1254.00
Books for Accelerated Reading Scheme / -£148.28 / £1105.74
Income from Fair / +£629.77 / £1735.51
Annual payment from East Lothian Council / +£211.81 / £1947.32
Tax / -£ 0.04 / £1947.28
Gross Tax / +£ 0.26 / £1947.54
Smarties / -£ 9.00 / £1938.54
The Spring Fair was very successful raising a final profit of £478.33.
(Sally, at this point, thanked Rhona and all concerned for the effort the put in to make it such a success)
The IPSPC had a payment from ELC of £211.81 for stationery
Proposed expenditure:
Subsidise pantomime/school trip transport £118.00
Zoetrope £ 57.00
Nursery – Wooden stacking blocks £376.00
This leaves a healthy balance of £1,938.54
- Correspondence:
A brief discussion took place regarding ‘sign-along’. Some of the parents thought that it was more confusing than it assisted.
Susan was asked to email Val McIntyre regarding pre warning on any up and coming training for new parent council members in the selection process for new staff
Action: Susan to contact Val McIntyre
- Fundraising:
Caitriona congratulated the School council on their success with the Spring Fair...Rhona and Sally thanked everyone involved and expressed their relief on how successful the event was.
It was thought that the event should possibly run for 3 hours instead of two, next year.
Ideas were put forward for other fundraising events and are as follows:
Smarties tube – give a Smarties tube to each family to fill when empty with 20 pences – when full the tube held £12.00!
Auction of promises, including local businesses
Beetle drive
Bring-a-dish or ‘pot-luck’ luck night
Ladies night
‘Fun mats’ fundraiser for the whole school nearer Christmas
The auction of promises night was a popular choice for an autumn/winter event including entertainment with possible local musicians contributing to the night! Jacquie Bell knew of some possible contacts and would email them to Susan or Sally. A bar would be organised – however, a possible donation rather than payment for an alcoholic beverage, was suggested... Jacquie pointed out that this would have to looked at carefully due to the licensing laws
Action: Jacquie to email either Sally or Susan with possible musical contacts.
Leavers ‘fun mats’ for P7 parents. They could choose from a selection of photos brought home by the children to have on various items – all orders would need to be in by the end of May
End of term BBQ – it was decided to have the event on the 30th of June (time to be decided). As this was the first time organising the event by the new IPSPC, Susan offered to look at previous minutes regarding the format of the event and email Sally with the details
Action: Susan to email Sally re previous BBQ’s
Sally suggested a small sub meeting before the event to finalise details (date to be set)
It was also suggested that this would be the event to announce the results of the Smarties tubes...therefore to get the campaign started Smarties tubes were to be bought
Action: Christine and Tricia to buy a ‘pack’ of Smarties tubes from COSCO
- Any Other Business:
A major concern for a number of parents was the school transport servicing the west side of the catchment area. A & C taxis from Tranent, held the contract at present and unfortunately were falling short in service performance and standards of care – drivers were changing on a regular basis, driving too fast, not ensuring that children were seated safely and had their seat belts on before moving off, also working parents were not given prior warning regarding uplift/drop of times and slight route changes and when they phoned A & C’s HQ – staff were rude and very unhelpful. Although the present driver seemed to be OK, the upset caused by drivers changing so much meant some children were now refusing to go on the school bus and parents having to drive them to school. Jacquie Bell was sympathetic to the parents concerns and said that she would move it forward by bringing it to the attention of Richard Jennings and would feed back to either Caitriona or Susan
Action: Jacquie Bell to contact Richard Jennings regarding School transport issues and feed back to either Caitriona or Susan
Meeting Closed
Next Meeting Tuesday August 23rd 2011 at 7.30pm