Preston Lodge High School
1
PRESTON LODGE HIGH SCHOOL
MINUTES OF PARENT COUNCIL
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
HELD ON
THURSDAY, 4 JUNE 2015
AT
PRESTON LODGE HIGH SCHOOL
Present:Colin Yorkston, Parent Representative and Chair
Karin Menzies, Parent Representative
Pauline O’Brien, Parent Representative
Jim Duffy, Parent Representative
Russell Devine, Parent Representative
Lynne Lewis, Parent Representative
Elaine Cargill, Parent Representative
Pam Currie,Parent Representative
Dawn Yorkston, Parent Representative
Saddah Aziz, Parent Representative
Gail Lugton, Co-opted Teacher Representative
Mr G Clark, Head Teacher
Mrs J Dunlop, Clerk
1.APOLOGIES AND WELCOME
Apologies were intimated on behalf of Fiona Torrance, Hazel Paterson, Clint Lanyon, and Cllr Innes. The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.
2.MINUTES OF 2014 AGM
It was agreed that the minutes of the 2014AGM were a true record.
3.MATTERS ARISING FROM 2015 AGM MINUTES BUT NOT ON THE AGENDA
a)Longniddry Rotary Club – the Rotary Club appear not have received the thank you which was sent and Karin Menzies agreed to send a replacement. (Action Karin Menzies)
b)National 4 – Gavin Clark confirmed that there was a different programme for Nat 4 students.
c)Coalfield Regeneration Trust – Elaine Cargill will contact them to see if any funding would be available. (Action Elaine Cargill)
3.ANNUAL REPORT
The Annual Report was tabled at the meeting (Appendix 1). The Parent Council approved the Annual Report.
4.CHANGES TO THE CONSTITUTION
There were no changes to the Constitution.
5.APPROVAL OF ACCOUNTS
Karin Menzies distributed the Accounts Summary at 4 June 2015 (copy on file), with the current balance being £833.40. The Parent Council approved the Accounts. Karin Menzies was thanked for her work on the accounts.
Gavin Clark agreed to contact PTs at the start of the new term and ask them for bids for funding. (Action Gavin Clark)
Karin Menzies had confirmed with Modern Languages that visualisers are available in the Library.
6.ELECTION OF MEMBERS
The constitution requires no less than 6 parent members and no more than 12 parent members. Four members are one year through their two year term (Russell Devine, Pauline O’Brien, Lynne Lewis and Elaine Cargill). Jim Duffy, Hazel Paterson and Fiona Torrance were standing down at the AGM and the Chairman thanked them for their work on behalf of the Parent Council.
The undernoted were elected onto the Parent Council for a two year term:
Colin Yorkston
Karin Menzies
Dawn Yorkston
Pamela Currie
Saddah Aziz
There remain three parent vacancies on the Parent Council.
7.ELECTION OF CHAIR/VICE CHAIR/TREASURER
a)Chair – It was proposed by Colin Yorkston and seconded by Karin Menzies that Pauline O’Brien be elected as Chair. There being no other nominations Pauline O’Brien was duly elected as Chair.
b)Vice Chair – It was proposed by Colin Yorkston and seconded by Pauline O’Brien that Lynne Lewis be elected as Vice Chair. There being no other nominations Lynne Lewis was duly elected as Vice Chair.
c)Treasurer- It was proposed by Colin Yorkston and seconded by Jim Duffy that Karin Menzies be elected as Chair. There being no other nominations Karin Menzies was duly elected as Treasurer.
8.HEAD TEACHER REPORT
a)Budget Update – Gavin Clark noted that the school is still unclear on the budget, although savings have been made by reducing temporary staff who will not be re-employed after the exam leave, this is saving the equivalent of 2 FTE. The school have not been allocated as many NQTs as they had asked for. There is currently no intention to declare any permanent teaching staff surplus. There is still a significant deficit and this has been acknowledged and ringfenced by the Education Department and Gavin Clark noted that a plan from the authority on how to tackle this is expected. Gavin Clark agreed to update the Parent Council at the September meeting, noting that any changes required such as the reorganisation of departments etc would have to occur soon to have an effect on the 15-16 budget.
b)Aims and Values Pictures – Gavin Clark noted that this has not been progressed but will be done for the start of the new term. (Action Gavin Clark)
c)Google Classroom – this had been a successful although the parents’ session was not particularly well attended. Preston Lodge will become the first wireless secondary school in East Lothian and pupils will be able to bring their own devices to school to enhance their learning. There will be the same protocols, firewalls and permissions in place as currently to access the internet on school computers.
Colin Yorkston noted concern on ensuring that pupils are not playing games etc when they should be learning. Gavin Clark noted that there will be challenges but explained that there will be a very clear policy on their use, with individual lessons for pupils on what is expected as well as the use of Airhead as a dashboard. There will also be challenges for teachers as the pupils’ expectations will be higher.
Lynne Lewis agreed to send Gavin Clark a link to a seminar she had attended which showed Durham University’s Research on technology in classrooms. (Action Lynne Lewis)
Dawn Yorkston asked about pupils who didn’t have devices to bring into Classrooms and Gavin Clark noted that there will be clear approaches to inclusion. More of an issue will be if pupils can’t access computers at home if a lot of lessons are on the internet. It was agreed that Gavin Clark would update the parent council at the next meeting. (Action Gavin Clark)
d)Staff – Gavin Clark reported that the school have been allocated 7 NQTs. There will be adverts for a permanent computing teacher and temporary CDT teacher and it anticipated that these posts will be filled by August. There is a national shortage of computing and CDT teachers and there have been discussions with Advanced Higher pupils regarding post higher provision if there is a problem with the recruitment and alternativehigh quality provision will be found. For Biology the most appropriate course is to offer an Open University Course rather than an Advanced Higher in Biology.
The school will be providing English, Maths, History, and Physics Advance Highers as there are already confirmed sets for these subjects.
e)Charitable Trust – Gavin Clark is hopeful that a date for the induction meeting of the trustees can be found during the last two weeks of term, with a full trustee meeting being held in the new term. Jim Duffy can no longer represent the Parent Council but he will remain on the Charitable Trust as an ordinary member. Colin Yorkston and Pauline Obrien will represent the Parent Council and there is now an additional vacancy. It was agreed that the Parent Council members would consider whether they would like to be a trustee and a further discussion would be had at the September Parent Council meeting. (Action All)
Gavin Clark noted that succession planning would be agreed at the first full meeting of the Trustees.
The current trustees were noted as:
Teachers – Fearghal Kelly, Clint Lanyon
Parent Council – Pauline O’Brien, Colin Yorkston
Council – Cllr Shamin Akhtar, Cllr Willie Innes, Cllr Steven Brown
HT – Gavin Clark
Unaffiliated – Peter Ford, Angus Tulloch, Jim Duffy, Robin Hill
The gender imbalance was noted, although it was agreed it was difficult to ensure equality from a small pool of potential trustees.
f)National 4 Pupils – Gavin Clark explained that this year there had been an individual programme for Nat 4 and Nat4/Nat5 pupils. Pupils should have been in school, unless they chose not to come. There was a discussion about the absences of some pupils and Gavin Clark agreed to follow up with Mrs Binks to see if any inactivity from the school had resulted in pupils not attending. (Action Gavin Clark)
It was noted that there is no specific direction from the Scottish Government on what kind of programme should be provided only that there should be a programme.
g)Timetable – Gavin Clark noted that the school have decided to go back to starting the new timetable in June. Most pupils in the senior school are doing a two year course, so there will be no change. For the remainder there have been subject input sessions which will give work for new classes which can be done in the subjects which are not continuing into next year. Gavin Clark noted that there has less uptake of subject input sessions as expected but will report back to the September meeting on how this has gone. (Action Gavin Clark)
h)School Calendar – the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 East Lothian School Calendars have been aligned with Edinburgh and Mid-Lothian schools.
i)Activities Week – Gavin Clark reported that letters willbe issued on Monday about the home programme. The plan will be to offer the same programme as last year, with 16 different activities being offered at a uniform cost of £10 which is being subsidised by the funds raised from the 5K walk. Gavin Clark noted that for next year there will be provision of a 3 day camping trip for under £100. There was a discussion on the numbers of pupils attending in the last week of term and there was a suggestion of moving Activities Week to the last week of May. However, it was agreed that this may lead to two poorly attended weeks rather than one and it was agreed that the Activities Week would remain the last week of term.
j)5K Walk – for this year the 5K walk will only be for S1 but next year will return to being for S1-S3.
k)PLus – this is now being issued once a week and is been well received. From August the school will be updating all parent email addresses and PLus will be issued direct by this means.
Date of Next Meeting : 3 September 2015
Preston Lodge High School Parent Council Annual Report – 2015
Introduction
Every school year presents challenges, whether ongoing or new, and this session has proved no different. These challenges have provided opportunities for the Parent Council to be actively involved in discussions with staff and fellow parents to help clarify issues and tackle concerns as and when they arose. The strong relationship between Preston Lodge Parent Council and the school staff, particularly the co-opted teacher members and the management team, led by headteacher Gavin Clark, makes these discussions and progress on such issues much easier and more productive.
Involvement
As has been the case for the last few years Curriculum for Excellence has loomed large on many discussions that have taken place over a number of Parent Council meetings. Given that it seems that CfE is still work in progress and the school has to be mindful of outside influences it is envisaged that such discussions will continue throughout the next session. Members of the Parent Council have played a valuable and important role in raising concerns/misunderstandings that some in the Parent Forum have. This has given the senior management team, mainly through the headteacher Gavin Clark, the opportunity to explain the rationale of the decisions that they have taken and their hopes and beliefs for the coming years. Although this engagement has primarily been undertaken by Gavin Clark, two other members of SMT (Calum Stewart and Yvonne Binks) have kindly attended Parent Council meetings to deliver presentations and ‘chew the fat’. Katie D’Arcy Burt also attended a meeting to discuss the importance of Higher Order Thinking for the pupils and students, and the strategies members of staff are using in the classroom so as to develop these skills. We are grateful that Katie took the time to do so.
Involvement by members of the Parent Council will move to a higher level next year with the formal launch of the Preston Lodge Excellence in Learning Foundation in the coming weeks. This initiative has been in the planning stages for a while now and will soon be up and running. It is an exciting time for the school community as Foundation could make a significant impact on pupils and students as well as staff. It is particularly pleasing that the wider community are going to be actively involved in the Foundation rather than just teachers and parents.
Some members of the Parent Council have also attended other forums and fed back to the group. These include Pauline O’Brien (Mains Issue Report), Lynne Lewis (Area Partnership) and Elaine Cargill (Coalfield Regeneration Trust).
Fundraising
The Parent Council continue to support the highly enjoyable Burns Evening which helps raise some money that can be diverted to different areas of the school. However, the evening would not be as successful as it is without the invaluable contribution of the staff and students. Special thanks are given to Gordon Kidd as well as the professional staff and students of the Hospitality and Home Economics department. The Parent Council recently purchased resources for the Modern Languages Department and hope to support many other initiatives early next session for different areas across the school.
Conclusion
As has been the case for the last few years there are many changes anticipated for the coming session. Some of these will be the result of decisions taken by others, such as SQA or different levels of government. Others though will emanate from within the school or the local community, as innovative initiatives are developed and introduced in an attempt to deliver the best experiences possible for all of our children.
If you are interested in finding out more about your school Parent Council meetings are generally held on the 1st Thursday of every month during term time starting at 7.00pm. All parents and carers are welcome as and when is convenient for them.