HoustonPrimary School Council AGM
26th August 2015 7.00pm
Attendees:
Nicki BarrettLorna NelsonJoanne Thompson
Cheryl StewartDimitra StefanatosDiana Brooker
Louise DunnElizabeth LindsayTracey Sweetin
Lorraine WilsonJillian McPhersonJenny Murray
Zoey HillmanClair BarclayAllison Livingston
Joanne CraigTracy McDonaldSabine Burkart
Dawn CampbellLavanya PrasanthSonia Ahlawat
Susan HunterJohn GaffneyMorven Feely
Michelle ClarkSamantha BallantyneSharon Welsh
Joanne O’BrienScott HunterFiona Nuttall
Audrey ArmourPaul ArmourEmma Gilmour
Peter SpeirsSuzanne HamiltonKirsty Thomson
Paul EvangelistaShirley FergusonLorna Harvie
Elaine RawsonJulie HislopLeonora Campbell
Charlotte TaylorAmanda JohnstonPeter Speirs
Victoria SawersSheila McHargJames McDonald
Julie DochertyDebbie Stewart
Apologies:
None received
Chairpersons Report
Nicki opened the meeting by thanking everyone for coming along to the AGMand offered a very warm welcome to the new faces here tonight. The support of everyone here tonight is greatly appreciated.
Mrs Murray has done a great job in taking the school forward as Acting Head and a very big thank you to Mrs Murray and the rest of the staff who go above and beyond what’s expected in educating and looking after our children.
The School Council’s Social Committee led by the dedicated and enthusiastic Zoey Hillman had a very busy and successful year in 2014/205 and all four events were big successes, well supported by the children and their families. A massive thank you to Zoey and her fantastic team, who all put in a huge amountof time and effort in organising and running these events. Unless you are involved, you don’t appreciate how difficult it is to maintain these events especially with rapidly decreasing members.
Nicki asked for volunteers to give their names for an hour or so each term to help out at the Book Club, Uniform Shop or the Social Committee.
Headteachers Report
Mrs Murray was delighted to see such a big turnout at the AGM tonight.
Books4You have had another successful year and big thank you to Alex and her team for giving of their time to support this club and we are looking for new members to support the book club.
Uniform update- Mrs Harvie and Mrs Welsh have maintained a well stocked uniform shop and offer a most efficient service throughout the year.
The school role stands at 481 pupils, P6 & P7 are full and there is one space in P5 which will be filled form the waiting list.
Staffing changes – Although retired, Mr Milligan will continue to work in the school on a Thursday, Mrs Margaret Johnstone has joined the office team and the Head Teacher position will be advertised shortly and interviews will take place in due course.
Curriculum for Development – Big Maths introduced and further work on early years strategy. Vertical Learning - working in wider groups across different ages.
Eco Committee – litter, outdoor learning environment. Spanish offered to P5 – P7 in addition to French. Expand IT and embed new ipads and aim is to build on existing stock.
Treasurers Report
Another successful year, and funds raised YTD of £7,346.49 and pleased to present a cheque to Mrs Murray for £5,000 tonight. Breakdown of events:
- Halloween Disco£1,138.20
- Christmas Fayre£ 414.18
- Heyes Images£1,900.00
- Valentine Disco£ 697.50
- Summer BBQ£3,196.61
Funds paid out for benefit of school totals £1,138.88 and this was for:
- P7 leavers dictionaries£540.94
- Mobile adventure course£455.00
- P7 leavers dance table decorations£ 17.94
- Valedictory service cakes£125.00
Bookclub Report
Sales are significantly down from the previous year - £973 compared to £1,465. It should be noted that sales in 2013/2014 were unusually high but still a drop compared to the year before this - 2012/2013 £1,079. As in previous years we had author visits from Catherine MacPhail and Gerry Durkin which the children find really valuable and Books 4 U sold £160 of books at Catherin MacPhail’s visit. Funding request to the school council tonight to support these two visits again for 2015/2016. Due to a number of existing helpers’ children leaving the school the Book Club is in desperate need of helpers which is run entirely by parent volunteers. This involves manning the shop for an hour on a Tuesday or Thursday lunchtime twice a term. The Book Club can’t run without volunteers and there will be a rota drawn up when we know how many volunteers there are for this.
Current balance is £432.12 and as all the monies taken by Books For U for books bought is passed over to the Travelling Book Company this balance represents the value of stamps that remain on the children’s saving cards.
Uniform Report
Both Lorna and Sharon gave the uniform shop a considerable amount of their time last year. All stock has now been moved to an upstairs cupboard and is sorted in size order – insufficient storage space and funds to keep large amounts in stock at one time.
Thanks to Mrs Johnston for including uniform orders in the pupil organisers. Parents can download an order form, send it to school with payment and receive their order within a week or two.
Our suppliers give us a specific date in May for our order to be received to secure delivery before the end of term and this cut-off date is made clear in the letter that goes out to parents. In 2014/2015 £2,315 of orders were received on time and £3,117 late including £300 in the last week of term. This can lead to over stocking and an unhealthy bank balance as has happened in the past so Lorna and Sharon need help in getting this message across to parents so that accurate orders can be placed and uniform is received by parents on time.
The uniform shop was very busy on P1 induction days however sales were down on the previous year by almost half.
Sales 2014/2015 £8,193, 2013/2014 £14,170 and 2012/2013 £12,874. Are parents buying uniform in Paisley (which is more expensive) or buying plain garments from other retailers? Feedback was given from a parent on the poor quality of the polo shirts – we used Trutex a few years ago, changed to Russell Athletic and after negative feedback on quality and fit, back to Trutex again. There aren’t a lot more brands left to choose from.
Balance in the account is healthy at the moment which enabled Lorna to hand over a cheque to the school for £2,000 tonight which leaves a reasonable balance to replenish stock with.
Events Committee Report
Big thank you to all the time and energy given by the small group of 9 parents who organise the fundraising and social events and also to the additional parents and teaching staff who help out at the events – these wouldn’t be possible without this support. Huge thank you too to Jason Andrews at the River Inn, Caroline McHarg ofMcHarg’s Bakery, DJ Stuart Ritchie and Paul Armour for their support this year.
Net funds raised 2014/2015 of £5,446 from the four events and breakdown up above in Treasurers report. The Summer BBQ is still our biggest fundraising and social event and whilst less was raised compared to the previous year we were just delighted it went ahead as the weather was so changeable. Some of the stalls had to be cancelled due to high winds plus we had a lot less helpers than last year to run the stalls. The Christmas Fayre was noticeably quieter than in previous years and is our least profitable event, raising £414. General consensus is we need to look at what we do for a Christmas fundraiser and all ideas are very welcome.
For this coming year we have some of your longest serving members on the events team moving on as their children move up to Gryffe High School which leaves a core of 7 parents from 350 families. For these events to be successful again this year we need new helpers and fresh ideas and without this the events won’t be viable. To provide some context, with all the time and energy that goes in to making these events so successful, if every family were to pay £2 a month we would raise more towards resources for our children than we have ever done through these fundraising events but it wouldn’t be as nearly much fun for our children and we lose the community aspect of these events.
Can you support the events committee? It’s only 4 hour long meetings each year and/or a couple of hours on the day of the events. Spread the word, come along, have some fun, meet other parents and ensure that together we keep the fundraising for our children a success.
Election of Office Bearers
Nicki BarrettChairperson – staying in role
Joanne ThompsonVice chair - staying in role
Lorna NelsonSecretary – staying in role
Cheryl StewartTreasurer – staying in role
AOB
Nothing raised
Date of next meeting – To be confirmed