BALLOCH SCHOOL PARENT COUNCIL
MINUTES OF MEETING HELD ON 26TH NOVEMBER 2013
Agenda item / Action pointPresent: Dani Buckingham (Chair), Karen Ross (HT), Steven Cumming, Rebecca Huxtable-Smith, Lorna Lee (minutes) Natasha Gibbs, Rachel Arkell, Catriona Barbour, Lisa Sturgess, Philippa Sharp, Eleanor Kydd, Fiona Jack, Hazel Whiteside, Jennifer Alexander, Morven Reid, James Ross
1 / Welcome and Apologies:
Dani welcomed everyone to the meeting. Also present were Cllr Gowans and Allan Bryce (Highland Council Road Safety)
Apologies: John Mackintosh, Cat Macleod, Claire Darling and Cllr Kate Stephen
Observers: Noreen Clarke, Jenny Cartlidge, Gareth Hall, Susan Birse, Kirsten Faulkner, Emma Andrews, Pamela Arbuthnott
The minutes from the previous meeting 17th September were approved
2 / Matters arising from previous minutes:
The P1 guide sheet had now been finalised and was a well received addition. It was suggested by Karen that a similar one could be created for Nursery Parents. It was felt it was most appropriate to draw this up just as new nursery parents where incoming so it could be noted what they wanted to know. A version could go out in June to be checked in August to make sure everything was included.
3 / School report
Karen advised the meeting that she was expecting a site visit on 27th November and she believed this may be to start the process of converting the school heating to gas, which would be a big improvement.
Facility Management – as expected there had been a few hiccups. Karen was now having to do the banking, crossing patroller not being covered on the first day of absence were some of the issues raised. A request for the top gates to be opened at 2.30pm rather than 3pm was still ongoing.
Requests for activities during Christmas run-up had been submitted 3 weeks ago but were still not agreed. Timeframes for responses to incidents were longer than would like.
However, Roy and Sean were both working very hard to keep things running smoothly and it was felt they were doing the very best they could for the school in trying times. It was unclear when the review of how the new policy was working would take place, or what format it would take.
As of August 2014 nursery children are to receive 600 hrs of nursery education as opposed to the current 450 hrs. At the moment the proposed option was for 2 x 3hr 10 minutes sessions each day being run. This has an impact on the nursery staff as well as the rest of the school due to the timings. Nursery staff would be required to work 23 hours in the nursery and then their other 12 hours elsewhere.
The behaviour management policy was still being worked on with some very ingenious ideas coming from the children who have been very involved in the work. One aspect already in place is the slips given to the teachers by the playground supervisors to notify them of any incidents – this keeps the teaching staff informed of all aspects of the child’s school day.
Karen also discussed the new ways of learning and teaching that were being utilised in the school which was building on the supportive foundations in maths and reading that existed in the school. There will be ICT support for those needing extra support with reading. Karen was happy to report that mental arithmetic is improving. This linked in with the school improvement plan.
Cllr Gowans then gave some feedback:
Facilities management – apparently the same issues are being raised by most schools. The cleaning of keyboards/ICT equipment had also been highlighted as an issue but Karen felt that was not an issue at Balloch PS.
There is due to be a meeting between FM management and the Head of Education to discuss the issues. The FM will be moving over to the management of TEC services.
Regarding the 600 hours nursery education. There was 2 options suggested and as yet neither has actually been selected as the first option had not been accurately costed. There is another committee meeting (adult and children’s services) in January and the options will be discussed again then. There is a lot of ongoing discussion with the nursery staff regarding the changes and how it will impact on the schools. He also stated that some staff were unhappy with the changes to the nursery hours.
4 / Treasurers report
The balance of the account is currently £835.46
5 / Concessionary Bus passes/Safer Routes to School
In order to gauge some opinions prior to the meeting Dani has issued a questionnaire to parents affected by the concessionary bus pass issue. 25 responses were received, 16 of these have been asked to pay and were not happy with the replacement walking route. Issues raised were: path not maintained, visibility, lighting, speed of the traffic alongside along with other concerns. It was highlighted that during the budget consultation around the shorter school day one of the suggestions that the public had was to save the money by paying for school transport rather than shortening the school day.
At a meeting of Parent Council Chairs Dani had spoken to the chair for Newtonmore who had managed to get their charges withdrawn after the involvement of the Police. Parents there had similar concerns around safety on the walking route to school.
Cllr Gowans explained that the concessionary travel will remain until the works on the path have been finalised (there is some minor works still required) and that with the colder weather etc there is every chance this will not be carried out in this financial year.
Allan Bryce from the Road Safety Unit explained his remit and gave suggestions on what his unit could do to help. He is committed to developing sustainable safer active routes to schools. He has budgets which can be used for some works and the amounts vary. For the larger grants an updated school travel plan has to be submitted and need to be backed up with data showing the numbers of children travelling these routes daily. These funding routes can be increased through other measures including the Ward Budget. He gave examples of costings for a crossing as being £25K.
He suggested that Parents who are concerned about the walking route should present “quotable” examples of where the concessionary travel has been allowed to continue to David Summers. The Western Isles was given as another example.
Cllr Gowans stated that the savings created by removing the concessionary travel were estimated to be £80k which is a small fraction of the budget of Highland Council. He said the appeal hearing had taken some time but that the Newtonmore appeal had been expeditious due to the involvement of the Police.
Several points were agreed:
Dani will email David Summers regarding the concerns and ask for a further survey /risk assessment to be conducted at an appropriate time to reflect the conditions the children would be travelling in and also pointing out that the path is neither owned nor maintained by Highland Council therefore could be of poor condition or snow covered.
Cllr Gowans also agreed to back this up with another email/letter to similar effect.
Dani/Lorna will get in touch with the local police to ask for some advice assistance with the matter.
The school travel plan (STP) will need to be reviewed – JeniAlexander, Susan Birse and James Ross volunteered to take this on board. This will include all routes to school and will also include the car park. Allan Bryce will send examples of travel plans to Dani/Lorna for distribution to Jeni and Susan. James will put a copy of the current STP on the website.
Allan Bryce will organise for his team to come and have a look at the car park with regard to safety features being installed such as footprints to show safe walking routes etc.
Allan Bryce will check on traffic data concerning the main Barn Church Road where there are also concerns regarding the speed etc of traffic with the volume of children travelling from the Moray Park area.
The lack of crossing patroller cover for the first day of absence was raised in this part of the meeting as well. Karen said that a request had gone out previously to request parent volunteers for cover but had been unsuccessful. Karen said training would be available to those volunteering. Dani then offered to send out a specific plea to parents once more requestinghelp with this. / Dani
Cllr Gowans
Dani/Lorna
Jenny/Susan
James
Allan Bryce
Allan Bryce
Dani
6 / School questionnaire
The background to the questionnaire was explained briefly to the observing parents. This document is a first draft. Karen had reviewed the document and made some suggestions. The teaching staff felt that the form was too long and it was agreed to review some of the topics and perhaps remove behaviour management and reduce some of the questions in other topics.
There was a bit of discussion around some of the topics such as extra curricular activities and suggestions were made.
It is still hoped to get this out to parents in January and as a base document this requires rework but it was felt that Dani and Karen could make the necessary amendments and the questionnaire could be issued as planned in January. / Dani & Karen
8 / AOCB
A volunteer was sought to compile a document that would introduce the Parent Council to Parents giving an indication of our remit alongside contact details and photographs.
This was an issue which was discussed and agreed at the previous meeting but due to other factors had been put to the side. Lisa Sturgess agreed to compile the document which could then be uploaded onto the school website. There is a pack which Becky or Dani will provide to Lisa which will help with this.
Dani also mentioned some information she had read from another parent council chair regarding improving communication between Parent Councils and schools, and the successful use of online tools such as school websites, school Facebook page and Twitter as mediums to inform parents of events/meeting etc. Due to time factors this could not be expanded upon at this meeting but Dani will try to circulate the report before the next meeting or we will include it on a future agenda. / Lisa
Dani
Dates of next meetings
Tuesday 11th February 2014
Tuesday 29th April 2014
With the AGM then being held in June