LOCHFIELD PARENT COUNCIL (LPC)

COMMITTEE MEETING

TUESDAY 3rd OCTOBER 2017, 7pm @ ST. ANDREW’S ACADEMY, PAISLEY

PRESENT

Chair - Suzanne Hill (SH), Deputy Chair - Sharon Ronald (SR), Treasurer – Clare Guy(CG), Secretary - Lorna Illingworth(LI), Louise Galbraith (LG), Shona Bird (SB),Gavin Gray (GG),Gail McGowan (GM),Emma Burns (EB), Kelly Reid (KR)

APOLOGIES

Vicky Colquhoun (VC), Karen McAllister (KM), Susan Gray (SG), Kirsty Donaldson (KD), Anne Wilson (AW), Sandra McLeod (SM), Jennifer Thom (JT), Claire Macgregor Duncan (CMD)

ADVISOR

Marie Renton (MR)

WELCOME AND APOLOGIES

SR opened the meeting on behalf of SH.

MATTERS ARISING FROM LAST SESSION

All matters covered by Agenda

FUNDRAISING EVENTS

HALLOWEEN DISCO – Wed 25/10/17

  • Letters out in school bags yesterday also asking for parent helpers (MR will also ask for teacher volunteer helpers). Following the mtg, MR has confirmed the teachers will help on the night
  • DJ has been booked
  • CGhas spoken to Peter Mulholland, who will source sports cap bottled drinks (some free, some discounted). He has recommended we source crisps ourselves

CHRISTMAS FAYRE – Sat 2/12/17 (11am – 1.30pm)

  • Whole school let booked (£120 versus £60 for a midweek evening)
  • Sub-committee met 2 weeks ago
  • Entry £1 per family + £1 for tea / juice / cake (homebaking)
  • Up to 10 stalls in gym hall (toys, hair bows, Eigen etc)
  • Bottle stall / gift & food tombolas – there was a discussion around asking for donations for these on the 2 Fridays leading up to the fayre. Any requests will clearly state that donationsare voluntary.
  • Team room in Room 5 - £1 for tea / juice / cake (homebaking)
  • Kids activities in Room 1 (Xmas cards, calendars, biscuit decoration) – 50p per activity or 3 for £1
  • MR will ask if choir can sing – this has been confirmed following mtg
  • Possible Santa’s Grotto – does anyone know someone who could be Santa?

CHRISTMAS CARDS

  • Fairly low take up on this (70-80 pupils)
  • It was mentioned that some schools get pupils to complete drawings at school – it was noted that there’s pros and cons to it being done at home or at school

MOVIE NIGHT / ALTERNATIVE SOCIAL NIGHT

  • Pupils were asked what they would like to have :

P1-3 mostly wanted a movie night – Wed 24/1/18 (£3)

P4-7 mostly wanted an activity night – Wed 7/2/18 (£1 + tuck shop)

(dancing, chill out area, IT activities)

  • LI will book lets

PARENT VOLUNTEER LETTER

  • Around 10 parent volunteers gained from this request

OTHER FUNDRAISING

EASYFUNDRAISING

  • 5 new supporters and £9 income raised in last month
  • 38 supporters in total and £69 income raised to date

SMARTIE TUBES

  • CG will check cost of Smarties in Booker cash n Carry & SR will check cost in Morrisons and then arrangements will be made to buy them, label them and then give them out to pupils to fill (if possible before October break). Returned Smartie tubes will be put in a draw at an Assembly and luck winner will receive a £20 Braehead Soar voucher

FOOTBALL CARDS

  • As we are progressing Smartie tube filling now we may try the football card fundraising in the future

MORRISONS BAG PACK

  • Morrisons have introduced taking a percentage of monies raised to go towards their chosen charity (up to 50%) so we won’t be progressing further with this

TESCO BAGS OF HELP / FLIGHT PATH FUNDING

  • SH is in the process of submitting applications for both of these

POLICE MUTUAL ‘FORCE FOR GOOD’ FUNDING

  • SB has again kindly submitted a request for £1,000 for playground upgrade (we received £300 towards gym mats last year so may not qualify again this year)

TREASURER’S REPORT (delivered by Clare Guy)

  • Bank A/c balance £4,134.42Cr as per RBS statement dated 3/10/17, this excludescheque(s) for £590* (sound systemmaths resources) & £22 for AGM let

Revised funds available = £3,520.42

*since the meeting the School plans to bank cheque on Fri 6/10/17

  • CG advised that cheques numbered 374 – 377 have been cancelled as they had been pre-signed by VC before bank signatures were changed following the AGM.
  • CG advised she has spoken with RBS around ways to simplify our banking arrangements with possible use of a debit card, BACS payments as well as the introduction of a cash float* of around £150 to avoid office bearers being out of pocket for agreed expenses until cheques can be signed. CG will contact the RBS Clubs & Societies team to discuss these options further. The committee agreed in principle to these changes which will require to be written into the Constitution (Cheryl has since emailed electronic copy of Constitution to SH).

*cash float would be held in a cash box within School safe (Note : this

Would be on an uninsured basis)

  • CG also proposed the creation of a group email box where all committee members can pick up Agenda, Minutes, messages etc. The committee agreed in principle to this and CG will look into how this can be done.

HEAD TEACHER UPDATE (delivered by Marie Renton)

  • Staffing :

-Mrs Macgregor Duncan’s leave of absence due to her mother’s death

-Classroom Assistant on a Wednesday & Thursday(Michelle McElwaine) will be paid for with Pupil Equity Funding (PEF) money

-Mrs McSkimming has returned to work

-Student teacher starting in P7 on 23rd October, Heather Gunn. 4 week block then returns on 19th Feb for a 6 week block.

  • Cinebus has been in all classes – ‘I am me Scotland’ – lessons on bullying, hate crime, disabilities, inclusion etc.
  • European Day of Languages – focus on Spanish as we are introducing L3 Spanish. Pupilslearned how to count to 10, greetings and 2 songs and Skyped Miss Ingleson in Madrid.
  • PACE workshopfor P7 on WW1.
  • Totnosh has started - 11 pupils this block, Monday afterschool. All pupils who expressed interest will get on a block at some point in the year.
  • Pupil Council now elected– Head boy and girl will be decided in the next few weeks once Mrs Macgregor Duncan returns.
  • MacMillan coffee afternoon- raised almost £1,000, £83 of which pupils raised via their own enterprise ideas of loom bands and guess the money in the jar. Thanks to all.
  • Pupil Equity Funding (PEF):

-after school tuition to support reading starting with some pupils. ½ hour per week 10 weeks before Christmas and 10 weeks after Christmas.

-PEF teaching one day by Mrs Baillie and one day by Mrs McSkimming starting. Selected children to support in class to help close learning gaps.

-IDL: Resource to help reading / spelling and dyslexic type difficulties. Classroom Assistants trained to use this resource daily with pupils identified as needing this support. Starting this week. If your pupil is using it in school, they can also use it at home. They will use it for about 15-20 minutes a day in school. The success rate is after 26 hours of use they will increase 10 months in reading and 11 months in spelling. If they use it at home, that increase will happen sooner.

  • Maths resources– thanks to Parent Council for maths resources which have now been bought
  • Upcoming dates for diary :

-Thursday 16th Nov Progress Meeting with parents.

-7th Dec Xmas lunch

-14th Dec am, 15th Dec pm Nativity

-it was noted by some committee members that a few of the dates on the school Annual Planner are incorrect. It will be corrected & re-issued to parents shortly

GENERAL

  • Facebook – continues to work well
  • Parking – no specific incidents discussed
  • Congestion around infant gate & surrounding pavement area – congestion continues. MR is considering speaking to infant teachers about having a relaxed 8.45am start, like a wet play time, where pupils will come into classrooms then rather than playing outside. It was noted that pupils really enjoy playing outside and it’s disappointing that we have to consider stopping this for all to counter the actions of a relatively few parents.

Community Police Officer Grant Valentine spoke with parents one morning last week but it may be that Police need to treat this as a safety issue

  • PVG (Protecting Vulnerable Groups) Review – SH has spoken with PVG body and is satisfied that we have sufficient PVGd members to be attendance at events alongside teachers to meet requirements. SH will collate up-to-date list of PVGd committee members.

Reminder – a non PVGd adult cannot be left alone with a child

  • Parent Council Liaison Mtg– Thanks to GG for attending meeting on 12/9/17, minutes / summary notes available on request with key point being :

general improvement in attainment but more work required as well as looking at how to engage parents morein the learning process

presentation on the NPFS - National Parent Forum Scotland of Scotland’s review of the Parental Involvement Act which is now 10 year old

NPFS conference is Sat 10/3/18. Deputy First Minister John Swinney will be delivering a keynote speech – under consideration is the possibility of authorities holding local conferences that day with VC link to the national conference

Next Parent Council Liaison meeting is 7/11/17 – GG plans to attend

  • SH spoke about the work Rookie Rockstars (music & anti bullying charity) can do in schools – making music with pupils to help promote confidence, self-esteem and positive friendships and then pupils perform in a show that families can go and watch. Parents etc pay around £5 to attend the show and that along with any proceeds of any merchandise bought helps to fund their next project. MR was very interested in this and took website details away to look further into it.
  • Photos of Committee Members for notice board, Facebook & website

Committee members to message LPC Facebook page attaching a selfie photo for this purpose

Next Meeting : 7pm Monday 6th November 2017 at

St Andrew’s Academy