MINUTES OF
COCKENZIE PRIMARY SCHOOL
PARENT COUNCIL MEETING
HELD ON
TUESDAY, 10 MARCH 2015
AT COCKENZIE PRIMARY SCHOOL
Present:Jen Monaghan, Chair and Parent Representative
Matt Justin, Parent Representative
Laura Marshall, Parent Representative
Ruth McGill, Parent Representative
Fiona Foley, Parent Representative
Stuart Dow, Parent Member
Jacqui MacKinnon, Head Teacher
Debbie Mercer, Depute Head Teacher
Jacqui Dunlop, Clerk
1.WELCOME AND APOLOGIES
Apologies were intimated on behalf ofSharon Malcolm Jayne Graham, Louise McLean and Cllr Innes. The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. It was noted that Vivienne Costello had left the parent council as she no longer had a child at the school.
2.MINUTES OF MEETING OF 14 JANUARY 2015
It was agreed that the minutes of the meeting of 14 January 2015was a true record.
3.HMIE REVISIT
Jacqui MacKinnon confirmed that a letter was on the HMIE Website confirming that they would not be revisiting the school due to the staff issues at the school. This had been confirmed to Jacqui MacKinnon by phone in January where they had discussed that fact that with so many staff absences there was no point in the revisit as not as much progress as expected had been made. A report will be done in August or September with the revisit taking place in October, November or December regardless of the staffing issues. HMIE are supportive of this and it was noted that Cockenzie Primary School have had 965 days of reported teacher absence compared to Dunbar Primary school which is the largest school in the Authority with only half the reported absences. Mrs MacKinnon was confident that the school would be in a much better position for the revisit in October, November or December. Jacqui MacKinnon will be emailing parents regarding this.
When HMIE sign off a school they do not return for 7 years. The Authority QIO attends the school for meetings with the Head Teacher on a weekly basis.
4.PROGRESS REPORT
Jacqui MacKinnon reported that at the Easter In-Service day there will be an evaluation of the Action Plan and what has been achieved. New trackers have been instigated in maths and reading and intervention is now being carried out where there are gaps in a pupil’s learning. Speedy Skills are being implemented and this has been well received by the pupils.
It was agreed that that an Open Meeting for parents along similar lines to what was run in 2014 would be a good idea and teachers would be on hand to demonstrate new initiatives which are now taking place.
5.PARENT CONSULTATIONS
These will take place on the Wednesday prior to Easter, even although the Thursday is a holiday. There will be Nursery Consultations offered both in the day and evening with extra staff brought in that week to allow the Nursery Teacher and Nursery Nurses to be available for the consultations.
6.NURSERY RESTRUCTURE
Mrs MacKinnon updated the Parent Council on the Nursery Restructuring. One of the Nursery Teachers is off sick until June and currently there are three nursery nurses off sick. There still remain a lot of different faces in the nursery for pupils and Mrs MacKinnon agreed that the school needs to communicate this better to parents.
The Nursery has now been restructured into six groups of 10 children with a Nursery Nurse working with each group. The Nursery Teacher rotates around the groups and does extra teaching in the morning.
7.HEAD TEACHER’S REPORT
JACQUI MACKINNON TO PROVIDE
Questions which arose:
a)INCA – tests are carried out to see what age a pupil is relative to their chronological age for maths and English. This will be explained at the curriculum evening to parents. It should be possible at parent consultations to indicate where a pupil is, ie above or below, although this is only a snapshot of the pupil on a particular day. The authority are paying for the tests in P3, P5 and P7 and the school have paid for P2, P4 and P6 as this enable to the school to measure progression.
b)Joined Up Writing – this is not a priority for the school currently. The school still teaches handwriting and presentation is really important but it would take 3 CAT lesson to roll out the teaching plans for this. Some schools recommend that this start in P1.
c)Education Psychologist – Jacqui MacKinnon confirmed that Dr Binnie does go into the nursery and has a caseload. There have been 12 referrals for deferred admission into P1 and Dr Binnie will also be working with pupils who have been identified as possibly struggling in P1.
d)2015/2016 Teachers – Jacqui MacKinnon confirmed that teachers will be allocated to a class next year depending on the needs of the school and not as usually happens on the teacher’s preference. Teaching staff of the new academical year will not be announced until nearer the end of the summer term.
e)Base – Stuart Dow asked if the Base was removed from the school would money be lost from the budget. Jacqui MacKinnon confirmed that the base is funded centrally from a separate school budget. It does impact on the school’s budget however, as the school has to resource it. If there was a shortage of space at the school then the authority could be asked if it could be located in another school. There are currently three Bases in the Authority, Windygoul, Wallyford and Cockenzie.
f)Curriculum Rationale–Debbie Mercer explained that all stakeholders need to have a better understanding of what good learning would look like at Cockenzie Primary School. She has liaised with staff on their views, and the Pupil Curriculum Responses Group have come up with the pupils views. The next step is to gather parents views and Debbie Mercer will issue a letter to parents which will set out the staff and pupils views and ask parents to identify what they feel is important from these two lists and have an opportunity to add their own views. The Pupil Curriculum Responses Group will then gather the information and present this to the school and this will form the foundation from which the school will build its curriculumand will be what drives the school forward.
Fiona Foley asked if the school had a Motto and currently it does not but Debbie Mercer will incorporate this into the feedback. (Action Debbie Mercer)
Houses were discussed and the school only use these at Sports Day but it is something which may be considered in the future, but it was important to get the curriculum right first.
It was suggested that on the Progress Evening that the school values were listed and parents could vote for what they felt was most important.
Debbie Mercer agreed to look at how the survey was presented to parents including using Survey Monkey. (Action Debbie Mercer)
8.AOCB
a)Red Nose Day – there had been concerns by some members of the Parent Forum, about the lack of notice about Red Nose Day, however the Parent Council felt that as long as information was out prior to the weekend before an event, this was adequate, in the current workload of the school. Concerns were expressed about some unhelpful comments on Social Media.
b)Parking – an article had been published in the Courier regarding parking at the school. The parent council is working with both the Community Council and East Lothian Council to address this and Colin Baird will be visiting the school to look at the issues.
c)Quality Assurance – Matt Justin noted concerns that the local authority had not picked up the failures in the school prior to the HMIE Inspection although there were regular visits by the QIO. The same QIO is still visiting the school on a weekly basis. Cllr McKenzie had also been unaware of the serious staffing issues which were ongoing at the school. It was stressed that the current leadership of the school was not a concern, but rather the role of East Lothian Council. It was agreed that this would be raised at the Local Association of Parent Councils Meeting.
d)Parents Consultations – it was agreed that “understanding your report card” would be available at parents consultations so that parents understood the new terminology associated with Curriculum for Excellence.
e)AGM – it was agreed that the AGM would take place on 19 May 2015 at the school. The Progress meeting would be held separately from this.
Date of Next Meeting: 19 May 2015 – AGM.