St. Fillan’s Parent Council
Minutes of Meeting
Monday 14th September 2009
In Attendance: Audrey Harrison (Chair)
Liam Coyle (Vice Chair)
John Hutcheson (Head Teacher)
Elizabeth Nugent (Staff Representative)
Eileen Cawley (Treasurer)
Julia McKeown
Margo Brennan
Marie Spratt
In relation to formal agenda business, Baillie Margot Clark was in attendance.
1) The minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved.
2) Placing Requests – At the last meeting, Audrey Harrison tabled a letter and it was agreed that this would be added to a distribution list which would be sent out to parents asking for direct correspondence with Fiona Hyslop on placing request concerns. This letter was sent out on 22nd June 2009 and a copy sent to Education Services.
A reply was received from Margaret Doran stating that local authorities are guided by statute (1980) and that no legal grounding is in place to affirm recommendations for class sizes set out by Scottish Government.
Margot Clark intimated that policy is indeed a matter for local authorities and would often not contradict Fiona Hyslop.
Jonathan Findlay, Convenor of Education and Local Authorities had indicated that parents have to act collectively to achieve required results and Margot Clark indicated that he could be made available at a meeting to speak to parents directly on their concerns over placing requests.
It was agreed that other local authorities are under pressure with placing requests and many schools are looking to have to take in children over capacity and at an earlier meeting, Margaret Doran had made assurances that St. Fillan’s children would not be housed in huts.
John Hutcheson indicated that under the Glasgow Management Structure that class sizes were seen as a guideline only, and not legislation and it was agreed that work must be done to ensure that the last non-teaching room was protected, and could be used as such, instead of being turned into a classroom after placing requests had been formalised and approved. It was agreed that the strongest argument for safeguarding this room would be to indicate that children’s educational experience was being compromised.
3) Traffic/School Crossing Issues – Audrey Harrison informed the group of work being carried out on walking/cycling routes by a school in Kings Park. A proposal was made whereby a cyclist would meet the children and accompany them to and from school, however the bid failed. John Hutcheson indicated that Road Safety councillors are looking at the cycling proficiency track to enhance it for the children being tested. Eileen Cawley indicated that correspondence with Harry Laird was still ongoing after David Parry vetoed his earlier promise to supply a school crossing patroller at the site of Kings Park Avenue/Aikenhead Road. Eileen indicated that she would contact him again and would report at the next meeting,
4) Head Teacher’s Report – John Hutcheson gave a report on the School Improvement Plan and indicated that Mrs Nugent/Mrs Balloch would be working on the school’s Health Promotion Policy. Resource packs will be provided and it was the policy of the Scottish Government that all schools would be looking to promote literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing as standard. It was agreed that Audrey Harrison and Raymond Peacock would look at including this on the school website.
5) Art/Garden Project – Drawings were shown to the group and Julia McKeown indicated that David McEwan gave a quotation that the job could be done for £14,000 and with all other fees would come to approximately £20,000 and offered more money to cover the costs of the project. Julia put a further bid to Linn Area Committee over the summer after feedback from an earlier one in February said that it was lacking in technical information. The response to this further bid has been more positive and has indicated that they need two further quotations before approving works. One of the quotations is at least £4,000 less than City Building and another declined to quote as they had felt that the project was too small and/or complicated. It was agreed that Margot Clark would take this bid up on our behalf and back our application and it was agreed that confirmation would be needed from David McEwan to ensure that additional funds will still stand.
6) Holyrood Parent Council – It was reported that exam results at Holyrood, after it’s peak last year, had settled down slightly and was now on or just above the national average.
7) AOCB - It was agreed that a Rosary would take place in the school from 5th October until the children broke up for their Autumn break. It was agreed that a call would be made asking for volunteers. In addition to this, Elizabeth Nugent asked that parents be encouraged to send their children to school with healthy lunchboxes.
8) Date of Next Meeting – The date for the meeting was set for Monday 26th October 2009.