Minutes of meeting held on 24th November 2015

LBPS – PTC –

Meeting Minutes

Linlithgow Bridge Primary School (LBPS) – Parent Teacher Council

OSCR Registered Charity : SCO35946

Tuesday 24th November 2015

Attendees

Gillian Kenmure (elected Chair) / P6 parent / Gillian Jardine / P3 parent
Rev Houston / Mrs Webster / Head Teacher
Fiona Wallace (elected Chair of Fundraising Committee) / P3/2 parent / Mrs Peters / Teaching representative
Mark Sweeney (elected Treasurer) / P3 & P5 parent / Andy Paterson / P3 & P7 parent
HonorWeatherup / P2/1 parent / LauraWeatherup / Nursery parent

Apologies

Lisa Dickinson (elected Secretary) / P4 & P6 parent
Katherine Burnett / P4 & P6 parent / Val Christie / P7 parent

Agenda

1 / Matters arising
-Football Strips
-Musical Instruments
-Dyslexia
2 / School Computers
3 / PCFC
4 / Update on Financial position
5 / Head Teacher’s Update
6 / Class representative feedback from parents
7 / AOB
  1. Matters arising

-Football Strips

We have decide to start again in spring when the lighter nights are in and we may get a few more children. The night has stayed the same. We are going to hold off on buying anymore equipment until we see if there is a better interest next term and if so the money is there and ready to go.

-Musical Instruments

Mrs Sharp has sadly left the school but luckily Mrs Knox has taken up the position of Music Teacher. Space has now been cleaned out with in the school in the upper GP room and Mrs Webster will speak to Mrs Knox and find out what equipment is needed/wanted. Alpha schools have said a container is an option but it has a lot of regulations along it. (Where it can go etc.)

-Dyslexia

At parent’s night Mrs Reynolds had a board up with support information, this is now in the entrance hall. The school feel they are doing a good job as they are a dyslexia friendly school and will help in any way possible. Andy is still happy to be the coordinate any future plans/meetings. Mrs Webster will make sure an update is in the next newsletter and also that the information on the notice board is available on the website.

  1. School computers

This item had been brought up to Gillian about the lack of and out datedness of the current computers. This was put to Mrs Webster who explained that the computers are only a few years old and are cleaned up and refreshed by the WLC IT team on a regular basis (weekly). IT people come to the school to carry out this work. The school gets a set budget each year for IT equipment and this has to cover everything from computers, netbooks, projectors and smart boards. There are currently 16 Netbooks within the school and these are used daily by each class for class projects etc. The school do not have a specific allocation of computers for children who have addition support needs as they budget does not currently allow for this. Currently children who may benefit from using a laptop more regularly in class for a specific learning need, such as dyslexia, can bring their laptop into class and use this (following discussion between their parents and the class teacher). Mrs Peters advised that this is working well. Mrs Webster advised if a family could not fund this she was able to approach West Lothian Council for funding and that no child would be disadvantaged in their education. The viability of the PCFC supplementing the current computer supply was discussed however it was felt that this was not sustainable given the issues with purchasing through designated suppliers only (as per West Lothian policy), day to day maintenance and the life span of laptops.

PCFC Update

We are now up and running with online banking and used it for Halloween disco and had a good response with half the ticket sales being made by BACS. The PCFC discussed the ongoing financial help that has been made to the school (books, playground, buses, etc) and are happy with the sum that has been requested as a reachable amount every year. Christmas cards have had a good uptake this year and hopefully will be in first week of December. It has been suggested to the school about the possibility of a catering trolley. This would allow for more opportunity to do baking and cooking in every class. As at the moment with the only cooking facilities in Nursery there is very restricted times that this can be done. The cost of one that has been looked at is around the £600 mark. Mrs Webster has taken this to look into the Health and Safety aspect of it and we can go over again at next meeting. Calendar of events are now in place and will be published on the Facebook page and also the school website.

  1. Update on financial position

Currently we are sitting with £3850 in the bank, plus £1900 in the gift aid account. We still have the Panto buses to pay for, alsoa cheque for £500 is to be made out for books and one for £150 for playground equipment. We are also going to replenish the benches in the lower playground and Mrs Webster will let us know what they are going to cost but looking at £650.

The last few events have all been a great success with the Ladies Sparkle Night bringing in a £750 profit, Halloween disco with a £350 profit and the Christmas cards with a profit of £250ish.

  1. Head Teachers Update

Staffing update - Mrs Sharp has now left the school with Mrs Knox taking over from her. Mrs Reynolds has started her MAT leave but Mrs McCusker has taken on the role of Support Teacher, this will allow a lot more interaction with the children as she is in everyday compared to Mrs Reynolds 2 days. Mrs Pattison will be helping to cover nursery to allow all this to happen.

School Improvement Plan – progress taken forward from SIP which include school focus groups and cluster groups focusing on Mind set and curriculum. Information on this will be on display at parent night next year and also on the website.

Big Maths Night – This was a great success with positive feedback from parents.

Active school coordinator Kevin is setting up more group activities and also applied for a Schools for Scotland Award which we are achievable at silver but he is looking for us to move towards a gold award. Mrs Bell is helping in this with more sports.

  1. Class representative’s feedback from parents.

Nursery feedback that a number of nursery parents felt that they had no idea of what the last Christmas fair money had been spent on and felt it had not gone to the nursery. It was clarified by Mrs Webster that the nursery fair is a school run event and that the PCFC do not receive the money from this event therefore do not have any input into how that money is spent. In previous years the event was run by the nursery and was their main money raising event for the year however due to staffing changes it has become a whole school event and is no longer solely a nursery event . However, Mrs Webster reported that it was likely that most of the money will be spent within the nursery which the committee felt was appropriate. There has been no decision on how the money from this year’s nursery fair will be used as yet.

Gillian Stewart brought up the idea of the SKY Skills this is a free resource available to children from P4 upwards and it is a great tool to interest children in media and technology. Mrs Webster is going to look into this as a trip.

  1. AOB

Still looking for a P1 parent rep so Mrs Webster has taken this forward to approach the parents. It was also brought up about parents still being in the carpark to drop off at breakfast club after 8.15am even though it is in the newsletter asking no one to enter the car park after that time. Mrs Webster is going to see if the janitors will patrol the playground for a week to see if this will help deter them from coming in.

Next Meeting

Thursday 10th March 2016 – 7pm

Tuesday 17th May 2016 – 7pm

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