St Margaret S Hope School

ST MARGARET’S HOPESCHOOL

PARENT COUNCIL MEETING

Held on 15th April at 7.30pm

PRESENT:

Tom Hill, Ingrid Norquay, Jane Phillips, Steve Sankey, Shaun Hourston-Wells, Ellen Pesci, Trish Nicholson, Kevin Denvir

APOLOGIES:

Eve Hourston-Wells, Andrew Drever, Lesley MacLeod, Kate Towsey and Sarah Wood

MATTERS ARISING

Signage: The School Travel Plan will determine how children travel to and from school on a regular basis. The findings from this will help us to ascertain whether we qualify for additional signage to assist those who walk from school, and cross at the Cromarty Square.

ACTION: Jane Phillips

Recruitment training -Ingrid Norquay and Steve Sankey attended the interviewing/recruitment course.
Treasurers report to be re-instated on the agenda, as of the next meeting for the new school year.
School Bus – following a phone call made to Stagecoach by Tom Hill to raise concerns which included a no-show of the bus organised to take children to Skara Brae and a spate of very early pick-ups resulting in children arriving too early to school, everything seems to have settled down and matters were handled appropriately.
New entrance to school – Tom Hill and DonaldKirkpatrick have risk assessed the current entrance and deemed it unsafe. The doors easily catch in the wind and tend to slam shut. In the meantime, the springs have been slightly tightened and on windy days, TH or DK will latch the door open at key times. TH was assured by OIC that as of this financial year (April 2014) funding was in place for the complete replacement of the doors.
Forward Plan – Fundraising plans for the complete school year will become a precedent, starting from August 2014. Ingrid Norquay said that she would confirm the fundraising plans at the next meeting. JP and TH were asked if the school wanted to contribute with ideas also.
School Roll 2014/15 – Wanting to avoid class splits or class disruption mid-year, Steve wrote to Leslie Manson to ask what the contingency would be if the maximum capacity was reached, as it has an potential total of 73 as of August ‘14, 75 being the maximum. (25 per classroom). TH is awaiting follow up from Peter Diamond on the matter.

Possibilty of taking on a probationer who would teach one agreed class, if council agree.

AGENDA

SCHOOL PLAN

Curriculum

Outdoor environments are now being included and planned for by Jane to allow for structured teaching sessions outside, with DK helping to improve outdoor spaces and having created new pegs for wellie boots – all parents to check child/children’s boots and provide bag for hanging where necessary.

Improved IT, useable computer stations for teaching, several new PCS and chairs

TH and DK armed with basic admin and trouble shooting skills to help maintain PCs.

JP checking that the resources are not crossing over between classes.

Library has had an overhaul by Ellen Pesci and Rebecca Hill – still a work in progress, but all items are in order and up to date.

Assessment tracking

Assessments being recorded in the same place with each child having an assessment profile. All teachers have been observed at least twice in the last year, with issues being addressed and actioned. Resources have been altered to reflect pupils’ needs. The future hopes to see more support for the very able children.

Support for learning

Improvement of progress in small groups.

Educational Psychologist has been helping to identify specific learning needs of pupils.

Community involment

Eco-committee established, library has been sorted out, a great deal of parent helpers for the school play, lots of hands on deck (garden) for the gardening and the pond has been cleared out. Well done to all!

FUTURE INVOLVEMENT: Hobbies will be starting up again soon, so family/friends wanted to come and share skills with the children.

Pre-School/Nursery

Lesley was reported to be pleased with the current full-day set up for nursery.

LIBRARY

Ellen reported that along with Rebecca Hill, they were hoping to try for some funding from an organisation called The Foyle Foundation who award grants for small school library regeneration schemes. New books are urgently required, and ultimately also a cataloguing system that the children will eventually be able to use to borrow and return books.

ACTION: Ellen Pesci/Rebecca Hill

MEMORIAL

Aa subtle shift in the memorial bench idea has lead to some much simpler solutions with Trish suggesting wooden carved benches, made by Chainsaw Creations – Tom had contacted the HT at the school in Hoy, as similar benches were seen there. Hopefully developments in this ongoing area will be seen very soon.

NATIONALSCHOOL GROUNDS WEEK

This commences on Monday 9th June, with JP organising an outdoor arts exhibition that people will be invited to come and see. It was suggested that the PC could use this week as a fundraising opportunity. It was decided that we would host a BBQ on the Friday of that week (13th!) More details to follow.

ACTION: Trish, Ellen and Ingrid

WEBSITE

Because OIC have been unable to deliver the website that was planned in October, TH has pressed forward with an independent site.Judith Scott has offered to help with some of the content.

For the PC, photos and contact details will be made available.

AOB

TREASURER’S REPORT – Letter from Paula Peace requesting the annual donation of £100 for Lagganlia is the only change to the balance, taking it to £538.81.

POT-LUCK NIGHT – A huge thanks to all those involved, particularly Trish Nicholson and Helena Dearness. A great night was had by all.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Strip the Willow sponsored dance on Thursday 24th April

End of year disco/prom – Monday 30th June.

NEXT MEETING – TUESDAY 2ND SEPTEMBER, 7.30pm