Shawlands Academy PTC Minutes of 25.02.08 2

Shawlands Academy Parent Teacher Council

Minutes of Meeting

Held on

Monday 25 February 2008

Present: Sheila Duncan, George Smith, Susan Lawson, Marjorie Phillips, Laura Gilpin, Lesley Sherwood, Kathy Nicholson, David Formstone, Hilary McCafferty, Peter Alexander, Anne Grant, Omar Noor, Clare Houston, Balqees Ul-Hassan

Apologies: Cherif Merrouche, Lynne Sayar, Sue Downie

Minutes of previous meeting – Date for Rockfest set for 26 March, not 26 February as stated.

Matters Arising

Travel Plan The school were successful in their application to Glasgow City Council for Bike Share money and now have 30 bikes. They are hoping to lease perhaps 15 to pupils wishing to cycle to school and then use the remaining 15 for curricular and extracurricular work with pupils. Sandra Leitch has put in a bid to Sustrans for money to cover extras like helmets, etc. The school is expecting the imminent delivery of the Bike Sheds.

Rockfest Laura Gilpin had a meeting with prospective bands on 18 February. 5 actual bands turned up, which is not as many as in previous years, however she has now received a further 4 applications, which makes it a viable proposition. Lewis Gilpin will act as Stage Manager and liaise with the bands. Laura has arranged another meeting with the band leaders on 3rd March. 12 bands maximum. 7 pm start. Tickets will go on open sale the week before the event. Tickets £4.00. Laura did not ask if anyone needed practise sessions, but will ask at next meeting. Anne Grant will approach Paul, the technician for assistance with the projector for a stage backdrop.

Lighting: Seamus Black and Chris McLean met with the lighting company with the cheapest quote. It seems to cover all that is required and they say it is possible by the 26 March deadline. The money for this will be taken from the locker fund, which will then need to be topped up, hopefully by PTC fundraising.

Website Clare Houston had been unable to progress this. Cherif had offered to help Clare, but he will now be out of the country for the next month. Susan Lawson will assist Clare in the project for the time being. Anne Grant had spoken to Jackie and agreed that it would be good to get departmental course work on the web site. The intention is to involve pupils in the project. Perhaps allocate a pupil per department to co-ordinate the input.

Fundraising Lesley, Peter and Sue had had a brainstorming session and come up with a list of ideas. Unfortunately Sue had taken the minutes and was not present at the meeting. From memory, Peter came up with a few of the list as follows:

-  School Appeal, simply ask parents for a donation towards a nominated project.

-  Winter or Spring Fayre

-  Walkathon

-  Ceilidh/curry night.

Correspondence

None received, however, perhaps we should have received a request for renewal of the PTA membership of the SPTC. Are we a member through Glasgow City Council? Sheila to contact Kateryn Farrel or the SPTC to check this out.

Treasurer’s Report

Cherif was absent, so no report available

Head Teacher’s Report

-  Clean Glasgow Project (an anti litter campaign) has started despite the fact that the promised assembly talks had not taken place. One pupil had been caught and fined for littering. A second week will follow soon.

-  Prelims are completed and marked.

-  Staffing: Mr Sean McGlade has started cover for Maternity Leave in the Modern Languages Dept; Mrs Reid is covering the absence of the job share supply teachers covering Mr Donnelly’s paternity leave. Mrs Reid will stay on after the return of Mrs Ross/Mr Ahmed in order to provide some continuity and support.; Mr Andew Scott will cover the space in the Maths Dept till June 2008.

-  Building and Grounds – Eric O’Neil of GCC and Carnie Morrison of 3ED came to inspect the water damage to the building, and hopefully they will rapidly progress the necessary works.

-  International Education – Mr Black, Miss Atkins and 1 s3 pupil will travel to Brussels as part of the INDIE project (Inclusion and Diversity in Education).

-  Newsletter has been produced with a different format and was welcomed by the committee, although some parents were dismayed not to have received a copy home. The newsletter will be available on the website.

-  BBC News Project. – a group of S2 pupils were preparing news items to broadcast on 13 March. Some of the pupils’ work is also on the web.

-  Scottish Youth Parliament representatives are visiting assemblies this week in order to encourage candidates from this area to volunteer.

-  Quality Review begins on 26 February. Other dates are 4, 11 and 12 March.

Values and Vision

The teachers have already had input into this. It was agreed that at our next meeting we would split into groups for discussion.

33 Period Week

GCC are introducing this as from August. Benefits include a more efficient use of teacher class contact time and an increase in the number of periods of literacy, numeracy, PE and pastoral care in the lower school and an equalisation of all the subjects to 6 periods per week at Higher. There are however logistical problems with this as the day lengths will be different throughout the week. There are various models/alternatives for implementation. Period lengths will change to 50 minutes, but models include earlier starts, changing lunch breaks, variable finish, registration taking place during 1st period, without a dedicated registration teacher…..

The EIS were unhappy with the imposition of the 33 period week on staff without proper consultation and instigated an indicative ballot, as a result of which 10 schools had an EIS rep meeting with GCC. But Shawlands Academy is one of 19 schools implementing some form of system in August 2008. It is up to the individual school to come up with a plan that suits their own requirements. There was an all parents’ meeting on the matter, just before Ken Goodwin left. Although the system is primarily financially driven, increasing the number of periods per week is the only way of meeting government targets in PE, literacy and numeracy.

East Renfrewshire has already implemented the 33 period week and general feedback is that it works well. Of the Glasgow schools already up and running, there were some teething problems, but the feedback is generally positive.

AOCB

EAL – GCC has produced a summary which is on the Web. Anne Grant is on the working party for recommendations for implementation of proposals. Agreed to include on agenda for next meeting.

Items for Future Meetings

33 Period Week Values and Vision

Fundraising EAL Provision

Commenius

Dates for future meetings

17 March at 7.15 in the Library

28 April at 7.15 in the Library

Sd/03/03/08