South Highland OWL Meeting

FCS Smithton Offices, 15th November 2016

Present: Shona Amos (FCS - Treasurer), Rachel Avery (Roots and Shoots Highland - Chair), Suzann Barr (Abriachan Forest), Roni Smith (Abriachan Forest), Sarah Walker (RSPB), Juliet Robinson (Freelance – Secretary)

Apologies: Emma Sinclair (Kincraig, under 5s), Anita Munro (Kirkhill Primary).

1. Rachel welcomed all to the meeting and thanked Juliet for taking up the role of secretary.

2. Actions/matters arising from last meeting

We all agreed to make sure any matters arising would be included in the meeting.

3. Finance update

Rachel thanked Suzann for submitting the final reports for the historic projects and doing the current grant application, that Rachel then edited to reflect our plans for this year. Final amount from Bonny Maggio at OWL Scotland (FCS) is:

·  £1000 for admin

·  £2000 for CPD events – 5 Saturday morning workshops and 3x numeracy CPDs

·  £500 for networking event in May 2017

- Juliet has invoiced Shona for time so far – Shona to send a cheque. Action point SA

- Sarah to invoice Shona for RSPB time and school charges. Action point SW

4. Saturday workshop update

- Suzann gave evaluation forms to Juliet – JR to put results in a table Action point JR

- Juliet to send evaluation form to Sarah for the next workshop Action point JR

- Group discussion about whether the workshops contribute officially to CPD time for teachers. Rachel to check this out with Christine Gordon of Highland Council. Might consider putting the courses on the CPD calendar if appropriate. Action point RA

- Group discussion about promotion of workshops – mailing list is growing organically from teachers sharing with colleagues, 19 new addresses since the last meeting. JR to add all to Dropbox list. Juliet suggested the use of Twitter, group agreed that this might be of particular use to younger teachers! JR to investigate setting up a South Highland OWL Twitter account. Action points (2) JR

- Group discussion about sharing photos from workshops – Suzann to send photos to JR from Abriachan session, Sarah to send photos after Carrbridge session. Action point ALL

- Group discussion about the South Highland OWL Facebook account. We all agreed that it would be better to change it from a ‘page’ to a ‘group’ so that people (not just administrators) can add content. Rachel to attempt this task. This should make the account much more dynamic like the FEI Facebook site. Action point RA

Once this is done, JR to put up reminder on Facebook for the next workshop. Action point JR

5. Scottish School of Forestry update

- Rachel summarised discussions with Liz Barron-Majerik of SSF. She is part of a team working to acquire a small piece of forested land behind Balloch Primary school to create a secure and ‘dog poo free’ area for education purposes. To be used by schools across the Inverness area. She would like input from this group. The group agreed that we should be involved and that we might have our next meeting at SSF to include Liz and to take on discussions, plus the possibility of having our next Big Networking event at SSF in May 2017. Rachel will contact Liz about this. Action point RA

- Group discussion about the clash with Shelter building workshop on 25 March 2017 with Highland LfS Festival based at Millburn High. Suzann suggested that the workshop could be part of the larger festival. Rachel is to ask at the next LfS meeting. Action point RA

6. Numeracy CPD development

The group discussed the proposals for working with Associated School Groups (ASG) to deliver at least 3 twilight sessions, staring in Spring 2017, and what the courses would look like. Various members of the group have contributed to the padlet board Suzann set up before the last meeting to share ideas of suitable activities. Please keep adding to it! Action point ALL

The link is https://padlet.com/wall/d52tvjbxsrli and the password is SHOWL1

Emma Sinclair emailed some great ideas to Rachel, which has now been shared with the group. The group agreed that Suzann would contact the Charleston ASG to get the ball rolling and aim for first session in late March, Sarah to contact Grantown & Kingussie ASG to get views and set dates for after the Easter holidays, Shona to contact another ASG, all before Xmas. Suzann and Roni will most likely deliver the first one and will write up the structure of the CPD to be shared with others who may deliver the course. If positive replies are slow to come from these ASGs, we could contact other primaries and offer the course to them.

Action point ALL

7. AOB

Group discussion about the National OWL networking event on 17 -19 February 2017 based at Kindrogan.

- Suzann is leading an Es and Os of shelter session at the event, but the group was unsure about how many from our group could attend and the costs. Rachel to investigate. Once this is done, JR to email information to the whole email list. Action point RA Action point JR

- Juliet asked the group about the North Highland OWL group. It doesn’t seem to be very active at the moment, JR to contact Hazel Maclean of FCS Golspie as there are opportunities for sharing ideas etc. Action point JR

8. Date and location of next meeting

Suggested dates 16, 17, 23, 24, 26 or 31 January 2017 at SSF?? Action point RA

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