EARLSTON HIGH SCHOOL
PARENT COUNCIL - ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
THURSDAY 1ST OCTOBER 2009.
PresentSusan Sutherland - Michelle Strong – Scott Renwick
John McLennan – Hugh Chalmers – Catherine Fletcher
Joe Tolland – Louise Ogilvie – Jo Conington – Fiona McQueen
Mary Bell – Siobhan McDermott – George Runciman
Angie Hemmey – Darren Todd – Jane Houldey –
Phillippa Brosnan – David McLean
ApologiesLyn Norman – Ruth Magowan – Dean Sewell
WelcomeSusan Sutherland, Chair, welcomed everybody present, introduced herself and gave a short rundown of the format for the evening. Susan said it was encouraging to see so many people in attendance.
Chairpersons ReportSee attachment for report.
GLOWSusan at this point handed the meeting over to Jill MacDonald who was about to give us an introduction to GLOW with assistance from Judith Weston.
Jill started by saying that GLOW did not stand for anything by letters but it did stand for Lighting up Learning.
GLOW is a web based intranet – a safe, secure site that children can talk to each other. It is a digital network to connect teachers and pupils throughout Scotland and is the first National Internet Teaching source for education. It is a ‘tool’ to enable the communication and collaboration with other teachers which is easily accessible.
Technology is advancing so quickly and children spend a lot of their time on their computers.
For example a teacher using GLOW in Earlston can be seen by other GLOW classes all over Scotland and share classes Teachers can evaluate work with pupils like an ‘in school tutor’. Judith has the aim that children will take over and form their own discussion groups but she stressed that GLOW is only one ‘tool’ that teachers can use out of many. There is also the problem that some pupils do not have computers at home but schools were making computers available at certain times for pupils to use.
A very interesting discussion took place among those present at the meeting with a general ‘buzz’ about the exciting prospect that GLOW was definitely enabling between pupils, teachers and other schools throughout Scotland.
Susan thanked Jill and Judith for their informative presentation on GLOW and said that their enthusiasm was ‘catching’ and she felt sure that all the members here tonight were going away to ‘pass on’ what information they had learned tonight
Election of Committee At the short meeting to be held after the Annual General Meeting the appointment of Vice Chair and the new committee would take place. Susan asked for names from anyone present who would like to be considered and the following names were put forward:-
Darren Todd - Jo Tolland - Sarah Leslie - Avril Tobbin
Joanne Conington - Justine Archenhold - Angie Hennie
It was agreed that all 7 of the above be accepted as new members and Linda would put an amendment into the Constitution to make the maximum number of the Core Group to 19.
At this point is was decided to take a break for refreshments and the tour of the new school would follow on directly after the break.
Due to time ‘running out’ it was decided to reschedule the short meeting of the new committee until the next meeting which was Wednesday 4th. November, 2009 at 7-00p.m. The meeting closed at 9-05p.m.
MINUTES ______CHAIRPERSON