Cowie Primary School Parent Council

HEAD TEACHER'S REPORT

2011-10-09T07:20:00.000-07:00

Parent Council – 5^th October 2011

Headteacher’s report

Staffing

No changes

Budget

Items purchased:

· New dining room furniture

· Whiteboards and computers for 2 classrooms

School funds have paid for the works to the grounds and the grant payments have now replaced around 50% of the funds used. We will be fundraising next term – Christmas show and raffle.

Building work

Refurbishments works still to be completed:-

· Fencing and gates

· Ground works

· Guttering

We have an ongoing problem with the roof leaking above the staff room, and a problem with drainage behind the link corridor.

Open afternoon

The event was well attended and we received positive feedback from visitors.

Standards and Quality Report

The report has been completed, read by the authority and will go out soon.

Communication with parents

E-mail addresses are being collected so letter etc can be sent electronically and up to date mobile numbers, ahead of any adverse weather.

Website update

The Communications team have taken on responsibility; new items have been added and the group will keep the site up to date with news etc

Green Flag

We are delighted to have been awarded our green flag, the pole is ordered and the flag has been sent to us.

When doing a whole school litter pick prior to the visit, we were all shocked by the number of cigarette ends in the grounds.

Health and Safety

· Following the completion of the refurbishment we have renewed our fire exit procedures and practiced them.

· We had a near miss in the car park recently and have asked that no parents or children come into school via the car park. We ask the Parent Council to support us in this. The JRSO group will be asked to campaign about this on behalf of the school.

Next term:

· Parents evenings – all parents will be invited to both November and March evenings. Possible launch of active learning leaflet?

· Max in the Middle for P6 pupils

· Christmas show will be a whole school production with P6 taking the lead. Work on it will start after the October break.

PARENT COUNCIL MEETING 5 OCTOBER 2011

2011-10-09T07:15:00.000-07:00

Cowie Primary School Parent Council

Meeting Wednesday 5^th October 2011

Attendees and Apologies

Attendees: Jeff McGhie (Chair), Anne Williamson (Treasurer), Tammy Pollock, Barbara, Amanda Arkell, Vivienne Innes (Headteacher), Julie Moran (Secretary), Drew Yule (Guest)

Apologies: Avril Knox, Michelle McArthur, Christine Fairbairn, Sherry Houlihan

Jeff welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked them for attending.

Drew Yule – Community Worker (Cowie Community Planning Group)

Drew spoke to us about the Cowie Community Plan and the ideas put forward for future projects in the village, from a variety of sources following a previous community survey. He was looking to recruit new members to help drive this forward and to make it happen. I have passed the names of those who volunteered to Drew and I’m sure he’ll be in touch in the near future.

Head Teacher’s Report

I have attached a copy of this for your information.

Fundraising

Financially we are not in a position to organise a bingo night at the present time. Therefore, it was decided that we would go ahead with the sponsored event just now. The Dance-Fit Day will take place on Friday 28 October 2011 and details of this will be issued to parents soon. The school (teachers and children) are prepared to run with this event and will organise the dance routines, music and timings for classes on the day. The Parent Council will support this and will arrange for refreshments to be served. We plan to run this outside, but in the event of wet weather it will be located in the gym hall.

Any Other Business

We spoke about arrangements for the Halloween Disco on Wednesday 26 October. It was agreed the times would be the same as previous discos, 6.00 - 7.15pm for infants and 7.30 - 8.45pm for older children, and the ticket price would remain at £2.00. Julie agreed to ask Gavin if he was available to do the disco, Mrs Innes will organise the let for the school, Amanda will organise games and prizes, Julie will do the communication to parents and ask Rachel if she can run off the tickets. Julie will ask Avril, Michelle and Christine to organise juice, snacks, cups, apples etc. Anne and a couple of other parent helpers volunteered to sell the tickets in the school, from Thursday 20 October. Mrs Innes will invite staff and arrange for accident report to be available on the night.

Of course it will be ‘all hands on deck’ and we will ask for parent volunteers to help at the disco.

Date of Next Meeting

The date of our next meeting is on Wednesday 30 November 2011. See you all there!

MINUTES OF AGM 7 SEPTEMBER 2011

2011-10-09T06:02:00.000-07:00

Annual General Meeting 7^th September 2011

Attendees: Jeff McGhie (Chair), Anne Williamson (Treasurer), Sherry Houlihan, Tammy Pollock, Barbara, Amanda Arkell & Vivienne Innes (Headteacher)

Apologies: Julie Moran, Avril Knox & Michelle McArthur.

Jeff welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked them for attending.

· Accounts 10/11

Anne advised the meeting that there was only £36.62 currently in the account after assisting with the school trips and P7 leaver event at the end of last term. There followed discussion about fundraising for this year which is detailed below.

· Elections for 2011/12

Anne agreed to continue as Treasurer with Barbara seconding, Jeff agreed to continue as Chair with Tammy seconding. Anne advised the Julie was happy to continue as Secretary and Sherry seconded.

· Fundraising

Amanda agreed to look into organising a bingo night around the end of October/beginning of November, possibly at the Welfare. The Halloween disco is already pencilled in the calendar for 26^th October so would need to work around this. The group felt that it would be preferable to hold the bingo night at the welfare if this proved practical as they already had the equipment and have always been very helpful. However if the welfare was unable to accommodate us on a suitable date then it would be possible to hold in the new hall.

There followed a general discussion on what other events we should hold this year and the consensus was that we should only hold 1 disco (Halloween), the bingo night, another beetle drive around easter and a sponsored event, possibly a dancethon in April/May. This last would require co-ordination with the school to avoid any clashes.

It was felt that we should find out what sort of events the older children would like following some feedback that the discos were too ‘samey’.

Headteachers report

Vivienne gave a vote of thanks from the school to the parent council for their work over the last year particularly the assistance with funds and the organising of the grants for the garden project.

· Any Other Business

Vivienne is looking to set up a SNAG (School Nutrition Action Group) to focus attention on tuck shop, packed lunches, etc. The group would be made up from the children, parents, catering staff and staff and would be a long term project to try and improve the health and well being of everyone. It was noted that Fruity Friday would therefore have to return to serving fruit & veg, milk and water and perhaps toast rather than the tastier but less health options.

Sherry asked Vivienne if it was acceptable for the children who were brownies to get their teachers to sign off on badge content when classwork and the badges overlap. Vivienne said this should be ok and would let the teachers know.

Amanda raised the forthcoming Eco committee visit and asked if everything was in place for it as it was a popular topic amongst the children. Vivienne confirmed that, as far as possible, everything should be ok this time.

Headteacher's Report June 2011

2011-06-11T07:24:00.000-07:00

Parent Council - 8^th June 2011

Headteacher’s report

Staffing

Mrs Press has returned from maternity leave

Admin support has returned to work.

2 temporary SLA posts have been filled.

Refurbishment update

P5 will move out of their classroom on 14^th June and will be accommodated in P7 classroom and the open area.

Works should be completed during the holidays.

Budget

We have budgeted carefully in session 2010-11 to ensure we can purchase some large items for next session:

· New dining room furniture

· Whiteboards for the 2 remaining classrooms

Grounds

Applications for grants have been sent.

School Improvement Plan

After consultation with staff, parents and pupils the following have been identified for areas for development:

· Development of programmes in Numeracy and mathematics, Literacy and English, Health and Wellbeing

· ECO – green flag

· Assessment and moderation

· GLOW

· Parental involvement in pupils’ learning

Website update

We have had some trouble accessing the website to update it – this is because of a number of factors including the council blocking of some sites.

Miss Black has taken on the responsibility of the upkeep of the website. We have taken advice from our council IT team who recommend that school websites are used for information only.

GLOW will be used for class pages/activities.

Class excursions

All classes have been or will go on an excursion. Next session excursions will spread throughout the year.

Diary dates

Friday 10^th June - Sports day

Wednesday 15^th – Friday 17^th – P7 to Bannockburn High school

Thursday 16^th June – P6 concert

Friday 17^th June – P1 induction

Monday 20th June - P5 and 6 to Dynamic Earth/Parliament

Tuesday 21^st June – P7 graduation

Wednesday 22^nd June - P1/2 to Kelvingrove, P7 to bowling and cinema, nursery certificate day

Friday 24^th June – service 11am

Other issues:

Shorts and shades discos – thank you to the Parent Council for organising this event

Fun Day raised £1313.45

Minutes of Meeting 8 June 2012

2011-06-11T07:18:00.000-07:00

Cowie Primary School Parent Council

Meeting Wednesday 8 June 2011

Attendees and Apologies

Attendees: Mrs Innes, Jeff McGhie, Julie Moran, Sherry Houlihan, Tammy Pollock, Barbara

Apologies: Avril Knox, Anne Williamson, Christine Fairbairn, Michelle McArthur, Amanda Arkell.

· Minutes of last meeting

The minutes of the last meeting were approved and signed.

Julie will e-mail Mrs Innes information about the Parent Council for new P1 parents, for the induction meeting on 17 June 2011 as previously agreed.

Mrs Innes will send out a note for a collection for Mrs Fleming’s retirement.

Mrs Innes confirmed that 167 children in the nursery to P6 inclusive have been on a trip this school term. The parent council agreed to subsidise £5 per child, in addition to subsidising the P7 leaver’s event. The autograph books have been ordered for P7’s to be presented at their graduation.

An update on the School Improvement Plan is shown in the Headteacher’s Report. Mrs Innes has confirmed that over the next session parents will have two parents nights, an invite to a class assembly and a visit to the classroom to look at what pupils have been doing. There will also be a couple of information evenings - format to be decided.

Shorts and Shades disco raised approximately £170.00 and was well supported and enjoyed by most children at the school.

· Headteacher’s Report

See attached for information.

· A.O.B.

Credit Union

A Credit Union Rep will visit the school shortly to speak to the children at an assembly, to raise awareness of this savings scheme. An update on this and the days the Credit Union visit the school to do the collections will be issued in a future newsletter.

School Fun Day

An update on the funds raised is shown in the Headteacher’s Report. A thank you note was received from the Fundraising & Events Team for our help on this day.

Future Event Planning

We agreed that we need to plan future fundraising events in advance at the start of each school year. Our aim for next session is to have a Halloween and Valentines or Easter disco for the children, a Bingo Tea event in September/October time and possibly a sponsored event in April/May time (for example Danceathon or Olympics Sports). We should also consider how we could support future Xmas Fayres, by possibly having a stall of our own.

Dates of next Meetings

These will be planned for the following months and detailed on the school calendar. Mrs Innes to link in with Julie regarding school dates for 2011/2012, prior to the start of the new school year.

October 2011

December 2011

February 2012

April 2012

June 2012

Headteachers Report April 2011

2011-06-11T05:44:00.000-07:00

Parent Council - 20^th April 2011

Headteacher’s report

Staffing

Our admin support is currently absent and will not be back until at least mid May.

Our 2 temporary SLAs have left; we now have 2 vacancies - one for 15 hours and one full time for the refurbishment. Supply staff have been requested.

School Holidays

Stirling are undertaking a consultation on the school holiday dates for session 2012/13. This consultation is running simultaneously with Falkirk and Clackmannanshire. Two important issues are being consulted on:

o should the October break start on Monday 8 or Monday 15 October?

o the option of having 3 local holidays in February (when added to the staff development days gives a full week of pupil holidays) or 2 days and retaining the traditional September Monday holiday.

o consultation closes on Friday 27 May so parents should complete the questionnaire which is available on the Council website - http://www.stirling.gov.uk/index/services/learning/schools/currentconsultations.htm

Budget

Parent Council has a budget of £878 (correct total at this point in time)!

Refurbishment update

P4, 6 and 7 classes moved into their new classrooms on 7.3.11. Reports from the children are very positive. P5 are still upstairs; there have been some issues with noise and plaster dust, but they have been rectified. The use of the grounds of the school is limited until the refurbishment is complete.

There has been some vandalism in the grounds recently; police are aware of the problem.

Literacy week

We held a very successful literacy week in partnership with Waterstones. Sadly our contact has left the company but the store are keen to keep up some form of reduced partnership with the school.

Grounds

We are in the process of trying to secure some funding for the grounds project, through the parent Council. Once funding is secured we will set up a Grounds for learning group to steer the project.

School Improvement Plan parent focus group

Questionnaires were sent out to parents/carers in school and nursery, findings shared. Children will be consulted next week. The developments will be included in our next School Improvement Plan.

Class excursion

Due to the current financial climate we have agreed that each class will have one excursion a year, linked to an area of the curriculum they have been working on.

New diary dates

29.4.11 - Royal wedding

27.4.11 - Dance-a-thon fundraiser

w/b 2.5.11 - Send my sister to school – Action Aid fundraiser

5.5.11 - Dalguise meeting for P6 pupils, 6.30

w/b 16.5.11 - World at work week

20.5.11 - P7 event – Show Bigotry the Red Card at St Margaret’s

Other issues/mail:

Cancer Awareness leaflets – how could these be best distributed?

Sprint design – fundraiser flyer

Walking bus

Fruity Friday

2011-06-09T07:04:00.000-07:00

Cowie Primary School Parent Council

Meeting 20^th April 2011

· Attendees and Apologies

Attendees: Jeff McGhie (Chair), Julie Moran (Secretary), Sherry Houlihan, Tammy Pollock & Viviene Innes (Headteacher)

Apologies: Avril Knox, Anne Williamson, Christine Fairbairn, Michelle McArthur, Amanda Arkle.

· Minutes of last meeting

The minutes of the last meeting were approved and signed with no changed. Viviene Innes advised that the issue with the school bell gaining and loosing time had been resolved after being traced to the power being disconnected on a number of occasions during the refurbishment works.

· Headteacher’s Report

See attached.

· Grounds for learning plan

There was a discussion around the grant applications that the Parent Council was making for the next stage of the grounds for learning masterplan. The proposal being put forward is the creation of a ‘picnic area’ with 6 picnic benches on artificial grass with a bedding border. This is to be located by the wall which is currently just tarmac. The feeling was that this would give a much needed area outside where the children could sit out on nice days during breaks as there is now no seating in the playground following the loss of the previous seating area during the refurbishment. There was unanimous support for the proposal to apply to Stirling Council via the community grant scheme for part funding for this stage of the works. Jeff McGhie to fill in application form and submit prior to 22^nd April as this is the deadline for the next round of funding. This would hopefully allow the works to be carried out during the summer break to avoid causing any more disruption to the pupils following the refurbishment works.

· A.O.B.

Mrs Fleming retirement

Viviene Innes advised that with Mrs Fleming retiring after 40 years+ service at the school, they wanted to do something special. The initial plans are for a 3 part celebration, a staff night out, an all school assembly and a combined post refurbishment launch for the whole community. The planning is in its early stages but the Parent Council agreed to be involved wherever possible.

Primary 7 end of term trip

The Parent Council agreed to contribute to the costs of the P7 trip and assist with the ‘graduation’ event. Mrs Innes to advise where the pupils want to go, the associated costs and the arrangements for the graduation event when available.

School Trips

The Parent Council agreed to contribute to the costs of the class trips as in previous years as far as our funds allow.

School improvement Plan

Mrs Innes to bring the draft improvement plan along to the next meeting for discussion.

P1 Information evening

Mrs Innes enquired if the parent council wanted to be a part of the P1 information evening either directly on the night or via the information packs. Julie to look out the leaflet used previously.

School Fun Day

Julie enquired if the parent council could have a stall at this year’s fun day for a 2^nd hand toy stall. Agreed this would be a good idea.

Disco

Julie enquired as to whether we could organise a ‘shorts and shades’ summer disco for the pupils in early June since there was no Easter disco this year due to the refurbishment. Agreed to hold an additional meeting on the 11^th May to discuss this and the end of term arrangements.

· Date of next Meeting

Additional meeting to be held on the 11^th May to discuss proposal for disco and agree end of term arrangements and funding for trips. Any agenda items to be passed to Julie Moran before the meeting.

HEADTEACHERS REPORT FEBRUARY 2011

2011-02-23T11:18:00.000-08:00

Parent Council Meeting - 2nd February 2011
Headteacher’s report

Staffing
Cristina Press will return from maternity to P2/3 on May 30th, Jude Attwood’s contract will end.
We have 2 temporary SLA posts currently, one for 15 hours exceptional needs and one full time for the refurbishment.

School Roll
We have 30 P1 enrolments with 5 placing requests out. Class arrangements are not finalised yet. We may have 7 classes next session.

Budget
Parent Council has a budget of approx £270.00.

Refurbishment update
Phase 2a is going well, phase 2b will start shortly. Moving week should be the week beginning 14th February – this still has to be confirmed.
Use of the Community Centre is working well.
Haddens ran a safety competition for the pupils and donated £100 to the school. The winning posters are displayed in the foyer and other entries will be displayed around the school.

Literacy week
We have set up a partnership with Waterstone’s who are arranging author visits for every class, free of charge. The school will try to set up a savings club for children to purchase books from Waterstone’s when they visit the school.

Grounds
We are in the process of trying to secure some funding for the grounds project.

Credit Union
Councillor MacPherson is concerned that the pupils are not using the credit union much; we will invite someone from the credit union to talk to the pupils at an assembly.

School Improvement Plan parent focus group
The school will send out a questionnaire for parents and will collate the findings before the next Parent Council meeting so that the findings can be discussed.

Adverse weather
The Council will not be closing all schools across the authority in adverse weather conditions; decisions will be made at a local level. The school will look at setting up a texting service for parents.

Diary dates
Royal wedding will be a school holiday – 29th April.

MINUTES OF PARENT COUNCIL MEETING ON 2 FEBRUARY 2011

2011-02-23T11:14:00.000-08:00

Minutes of Parent Council Meeting on 2 February 2011

Attendees: Mrs Innes, Jeff McGhie, Sherry Houlihan, Anne Williamson, Barbara,
Julie Moran

Apologies: Vicky Carr, Amanda Arkell, Christine Fairbairn, Michelle McArthur,
Avril Knox, Tammy, Debbie Innes

■ Introduction/Welcome/Previous Minutes

Minutes were approved and signed and no changes were made. Our last meeting planned for 1 December 2010 was cancelled due to extreme weather conditions. Fraser Crawford from Active Stirling was being invited to this meeting, to give us some fund raising ideas for an active sponsored event this year. We plan to contact him in future to try and arrange this.

■ Headteacher’s Report/Update

Attached for your information (copy will be given by hand if not on e-mail). The Parent Council Budget takes into account the subsidy we gave the school and nursery for Xmas Panto trips, totalling £500.00.

We discussed that it may be a good idea to target parents when already in the school at ducks cafe, class assemblies, arts and crafts etc, and get them to complete and hand back the Parent Questionnaire about the school improvement plan at that time.

Comments to be passed back to Mrs Innes about the Active Learning Information Brochure that was handed out at the meeting.

■ A.O.B

1. Barbara/Sherry mentioned the timing of the school bell, ringing earlier or later than 9am and this can vary by up to five minutes. They also mentioned children not having access to the school five minutes before the bell on a wet morning.

Action: Mrs Innes will look into this and report back.

2. Sherry agreed to design a 'Wanted' poster to try and encourage more parents to get involved with the Parent Council, as we need to recruit new parents to help run this group. She will hand this to the school to advertise.

3. The group spoke about doing a fundraiser at the end of March to boost the Parent Council funds, to subsidise future school trips/outings. We spoke about doing a Beetle Drive, which Mrs Innes has experience of running at her previous school. We will need plenty helpers to organise and run this event and Julie agreed to speak to parents to see if they can help support this event.

Action - Julie to speak to other parents to see if running this event is feasible in the timescales we spoke about. Barbara to speak to Cowie Miners Welfare re dates at the end of March to see if this venue is available. All other details re communications to parents, ticket prices and sales, advertisement of the event, prizes etc, to be organised.

■ Date of Next Meeting

The date of our next meeting is Wednesday 20 April 2011 at 7pm in the school. Please pass your agenda items to Julie Moran before this meeting! Hope to see you all there. If the Beetle Drive is to go ahead we will organise a meeting before this date to discuss arrangements.

MINUTES OF AGM ON 8 SEPTEMBER 2010

2010-09-12T08:37:00.000-07:00

Minutes of A.G.M. on 8 September 2010

Attendees: Jeff McGhie, Sherry Houlihan, Mrs McClure, Tammy, Julie Moran
Anne Williamson, Avril Knox, Barbara, Amanda Arkell

Apologies: Michelle McArthur, Vicky Carr, Debbie Innes, Christine Fairbairn

■ Introduction/Welcome

Jeff welcomed and thanked everyone for coming to the meeting. Minutes from the last meeting were approved and signed and no changes were made.

■ Income and Expenditure for 2009-2010

The Income and Expenditure report is still being finalised and will be distributed to the group once this is available. The majority of expenditure for the last school year was used to subsidise school trips, from nursery to P7. The balance left in our account is approximately £500.00. The devolved budget, which is kept separate and is funded by Stirling Council, was used to purchase things like the school calendars, pay for food hygiene courses and equipment for the tuck shop, and paper and photocopying costs for the Parent Council.

The devolved budget available for 2010 - 2011 is £380.00. The cost of this years calendars will be taken from this budget, along with the insurance policy costs to cover discos and other events run by the Parent Council and any other appropriate running/admin costs.

■ Office Bearers for the new school year

The roles that were filled are as follows;

Secretary – Julie Moran
Chair - Jeff McGhie
Treasurer –Anne Williamson

■ Headteacher’s Report/Update

This is attached for your information, which Mrs McClure discussed at the meeting. As confirmed during our discussions Avril has agreed to help with the funding process for the Grounds for Learning Group and will liaise with Mrs McClure regarding this.

■ A.O.B

1. Sherry spoke about the Parent Council doing a fundraising event in the near future to boost our funds. She mentioned a few ideas, e.g. race night, or some kind of active sponsored event that the children can get involved with like a sponsored cycle.

Action: Sherry agreed to speak with Fraser Crawford from Active Stirling about the ideas discussed and will communicate her findings to the rest of the group, so that we can try and organise this sometime in October.

2. Amanda asked if the school was anywhere nearer to obtaining their first Eco Green Flag. Mrs McClure confirmed this was in the school’s plans and was achievable this school year.

3. Parents wanted to know the time for the P7 open night event at Bannockburn High School as noted on the calendar.

Action: Mrs McClure has since confirmed that this has been postponed and details will be communicated to P7 parents/carers to confirm this.

4. The date for the Halloween Disco has been scheduled for Wednesday 27 October in the school. I’ve asked Irene Gower to book the let for this and will pass round a checklist shortly looking for volunteers to help with this, similar to what we have done with previous school discos.

■ Date of Next Meeting

As mentioned this has been set for Wednesday 20 October at 7pm in the school. Hope to see you all there!

HEADTEACHERS REPORT

Parent Council AGM- 8th September 2010

Staffing
HT interviews set for Sept 23rd with visit to the school on Sept 22nd
-A. McClure Acting Headteacher and C. Armitage Acting Depute Headteacher
-Jude Attwood- currently in p2/3 while Christina Press is on maternity leave and Nicole Black in p4
-Ashleigh Cairns- probationer teacher in p3 class (classroom was previously the station) - accommodation is working well.
-Alison Bell who was appointed in June to do the one day a week non contact time is temporarily sharing the p1 class with C. Armitage. (AB on Mon, Tues and Fri) (CA on Wed and Thurs).
- Jill Turner a supply teacher is currently working on Thurs to cover the one day a week non contact time.
On the appointment of the new HT, J. Turner will leave, A. Bell will only work on Thursdays, C. Armitage will revert to full time in p1 and A. McClure will teach 2 days in p3.
We have a supply SLA in place for 15hours (exceptional needs) – Christina McFazden and permission was just granted yesterday to advertise this post internally.
We also got permission to advertise for a full time SLA (again internally) to help with issues arising from the refurbishment. All new appointments have to go through a vacancy management panel.

No University teaching students allocated to Cowie as yet but Forth Valley HNC student begins in the nursery 20.09.10

School Roll
21 new primary one pupils with a total roll of 137 (79 boys and 58 girls).
51 children in the nursery.

Budget
Parent Council has a budget of £380
Any property charges will currently be picked up by the centre.

Refurbishment
Update of plans- small extension which can be used by the community (restricted access to the school)
Phase 1- Begins on November 15th 2010- Expected to take 10 weeks
Hall, dining room and kitchen to be stripped out and made into classrooms.
As previously indicated the community centre will be used for all PE, assemblies and lunches.
Council providing a ‘walk in’ container which will be parked outside the community centre so that all the PE equipment can be stored and accessed easily.
A temporary security system will be installed (access controlled) at the entrance to the community centre.
There are enough tables and chairs to accommodate all our packed lunches and dinners. On an average day we have 75 pupils taking packed lunch and 50 taking school dinner.
Decision has not yet been made re where the meals will come from but the service area within the centre is fine.
Discussions to take place over the next few weeks
¨ Who is opening and closing the community centre?- There is a caretaker but he only works 15hours
¨ Setting up the tables and clearing away? What happens when the janitor is on backshift?

¨ How the PE equipment is best accessed- by an SLA or by the janitor first thing in the morning.

¨ New timetabling –classes working together. This will be necessary to ensure 2 hours of PE for all as the centre has some commitments which it has to honour (School will have no access to the centre on Thurs (am)and Wed (pm).
Actions prior to November
¨ Keeping children safe. HT and DHT (in discussion with staff), to draw up procedures (including level of staffing)for moving back and forwards, fire assembly points, what to do when a child has an appointment, entering the playground, etc.
¨ All equipment resources in the hall area to be boxed, organized and labeled.
Phase 2 – Begins Friday February 11th 2011 (just before the holiday period) – p4, p6 and p7 classes to move into the new classrooms. P5 class will remain upstairs. All ERIS resources will be relocated prior to this and all classroom resources boxed to be ready for decanting to the lower area.
There will be wiring put in for a cashless catering system- fingers scanned.

MUGA update- Douglas Campbell said there was an error on the BS standard for the specification so delay to the start date.
Re Tender issue date -26th August
Tender return date- 3rd September
Site start – 11th Oct
Envisaged completion date- 5th November 2010

Parental Involvement Officer
Lesley Anne Livesey made contact last week and asked if the Parent Council Chairperson could make contact with her so that he is on the mailing list for any relevant information. She asked that parents make suggestions as to what they might wish to see happening e.g. First aid Training for parents.

Grounds
As the building works will impact on the area of the playground next to the hall and then the section where the upper classes line up, it seems appropriate to work on the middles section this year. Janitor has been asked to get quotes to remove the tarmac in the section at the wall. Following an incident at a Stirling school where a child was badly injured on equipment that the Parent Council had arranged to have installed, ROSPA is coming to inspect any playground equipment. In addition contact must be made with the property maintenance inspector prior to any installation of equipment. In addition to developing the one area, the priority this session is to acquire as much funding as possible. Jean Cowie at Viewforth and Di Blackmore from Forth Environment Link might be able to help.

Other matters
-Real issue of parents/carers keeping the school updated with phone numbers and contact details. A number of occasions already this term where numbers on record were unobtainable. Any suggestions? ID card/homework task, homework diary (good ideas).
- Many thanks for the calendars. Not on this because it was only just booked is the Scholastic book Fayre which will be November 16th- 23rd.
- Parental coffee mornings – Only for nursery parents/carers at present. Extend to the school? Tie into book fayre, etc –good idea.
- Meet the teacher event on Thursday 16th September 6-7pm Quite informal

MINUTES OF MEETING ON WEDNESDAY 2 JUNE 2010

2010-09-12T08:33:00.000-07:00

Minutes of meeting on Wednesday 2 June 2010

Attendees: Audrey Ross, Anne Williamson, Julie Moran, Jeff McGhie,
Sherry Houlihan, Barbara, Tammy

Apologies: Vicky Carr, Amanda Arkell, Christine Fairbairn, Avril Knox, Michelle McArthur,
Debbie Innes

■ Introduction/Welcome

Jeff thanked everyone for coming to the meeting. Minutes were approved and signed and no changes were made.

■ Headteacher’s Report/Update

Attached for your information.

■ A.O.B

1. It was agreed the Fruity Friday Ice-Cream day would go ahead on 11 June 2010. This went down a treat and the children really enjoyed it. It was a welcome change to the usual fruity treats.

2. Julie confirmed the autograph books were ordered and delivered to the school for the P7 graduation day.

3. Sherry mentioned the car boot sale idea was great but parents/carers needed more notice, which is the reason it was postponed in May 2010. We agreed to consider this again at the start of the new term.

4. Mrs Ross confirmed that the end of term church service was being organised by Mrs McClure.

■ Dates of Next Meetings

The proposed dates are shown below. I will check that the lets are available for these dates and will confirm any changes to be made.

1 September 2010 AGM (Annual General Meeting)
20 October 2010
1 December 2010
2 February 2011
20 April 2011
8 June 2011

Minutes of meeting on Wednesday 21 April 2010

2010-05-03T14:30:00.000-07:00

Minutes of meeting on Wednesday 21 April 2010

Attendees: Audrey Ross, Anne Williamson, Tammy, Julie Moran, Debbie Innes,
Jeff McGhie, Sherry Houlihan, Avril Knox, Michelle McArthur

Apologies: Vicky Carr, Amanda Arkell, Christine Fairbairn

■ Introduction/Welcome

Jeff thanked everyone for coming to the meeting. Minutes were approved and signed and no changes were made.

■ Headteacher’s Report/Update

This will follow separately.

We agreed that we would subsidise the summer school trips for each child in the school and nursery by £5.00, based on the current level of funding available in the Parent Council Account.

■ A.O.B

1. The group spoke about having a fund raiser before the end of the school year, to boost the funds in our account for the start of the new school year. Julie spoke about a pamper night similar to what the nursery did last year and proved to be very successful. Amanda Arkell spoke to Mrs Love about this and Mrs Love seemed more than happy to get involved and help the group organise this event. However, as we don’t have much time before the end of the school year this is something we can look at next term.

Another idea mentioned was a car boot sale to be held in the school grounds, with home baking, teas and coffees etc. Debbie agreed to co-ordinate this event, communicate and pull in other members of the group to help organise and advertise this.

Action – Debbie to organise a suitable date for the car boot sale, communicate this with the rest of the group, and Mrs Ross so that she can organise the let for the school. She will also pull in other members of the group as and when needed to help organise and advertise this event in the local press, village shops and school.

2. Mrs Ross has had very good feedback about the school calendars which were organised and funded by the Parent Council for the 2009 – 2010 school year. She asked if we would be prepared to do something similar again for the next school year?

Action – Julie has the template for the calendars and agreed to organise. Mrs Ross to pass school dates to Julie in due course.

3. Congratulations to both Anne and Avril who both passed their food hygiene course recently.

4. Each year the Parent Council organise and fund the Primary 7 leavers party. Mrs Ross confirmed that Mr Stevenson had already spoke to the Primary 7 class to ask what they wanted to do this year. The class opted for M & D’s Theme Park in Glasgow at a cost of approximately £10.00 per child. Arrangements for this trip are already underway.

Last year the Parent Council funded autograph books for the Primary 7 children as a leavers gift, and they were handed to them at their graduation party/assembly.

Action - Julie agreed to look at the costs of the autograph books, to do the same again this year.

5. Debbie passed on some positive feedback about the closure of the school gates to Mrs Ross and the group.

6. Anne asked if the school were on track to obtain their first green flag, now that St Margarets is visible, as some children see this as an important milestone. Mrs Ross confirmed that we are on track.

Action - Anne agreed to donate her compost bucket to the school. Tammy mentioned that her partner would help out with keeping our playground tidy. Julie mentioned to Mrs Ross that parent volunteers to help with the nursery/school gardening would be helpful.

7. Debbie spoke about tile photo art work which is being done in the new hospital and thought the school would be interested in this.

Action – Debbie to provide further details and costs to Mrs Ross, so that this can be considered further.

■ Date of Next Meeting

The date of our next meeting is Wednesday 2 June 2010 at 7pm in the school. Hope to see you all there. Please pass your agenda items to Julie Moran before this meeting! Mrs Ross can you please orgainse the let for this meeting.

Headteacher report for Parent Council
April 2010

Reduction of class sizes for P1-P3
Additional staff member to facilitate classes of 18 and under. New class teacher appointed and will begin in August 2010.
Information to be sent to parents regarding next years classes during the first week in May. This will mean eight classes but with only seven current classrooms, we will use The Station with a spill out facility.

Refurbishment
Due to begin in October 2010. PE and lunches will require to be in the Community Centre. Four new classrooms, a new gym, kitchen and dining hall will be built. Lunches will be made in the kitchens at St. Margaret’s by our staff and transported across.

School Trips
Is it possible for the Parent Council to continue to subsidise school trips? In the past two years it has been £5 per child and also funding the P7 Leavers’ Experience.
The P7 would like to go to M7Ds in Motherwell. The breakdown of costs for this is as follows:
£7.25 unlimited access band
£3.00 wimpy meal ( Burger, chips and a drink)
£10.25 per child
£4.60 for adults

22 children £225.50
3 adults £13.80

Total Cost £239.30

If £6 per head was paid this would be a total of £1056 ( 176 children from Nursery to P6

If The Parent Council funded the P7 M7 Ds experience and £6 per head the total contribution by them would be £1295.30

The school fund would pay for the bus to and from M&Ds

Trips organised so far are:
Nursery Blair Drummond Safari Park P1-3 to Auchingarrich Wildlife Centre
P4 to the Royal Highland Show
P5 and P6 to The Science Centre
P7 M&Ds

Gardening Plans
The Parent Council had previously agreed to part subsidise getting plans drawn up for the school grounds. The Grounds group have secured a landscape company who are willing to do this for us as a goodwill / publicity gesture and so no subsidy will be required.

School calendars
These were a great success, costs involved were £150.
Will The Parent Council be able to support this next session?

Fruity Friday
This is a great success and very popular with the children and staff alike. Perhaps we need to think about a slight rise in prices to cover all expenditure.

Dates for your diary

Fun Day
Help required – organising stalls Friday 4th June

Sports day
11th June

Reports
Issued to parents Friday 11th June 2010

Theatre Visit
31st May Kosmic Krew funded by the school fund.

Internet Safety Night
St. Margaret’s Primary have invited our Parents along to an Internet safety night on 18th May. Joe Shaw from Stirling Council’s ICT Development team will be explaining what parents can do to keep their children safe online.

Headteachers Report from Parent Council Meeting in February 2010

2010-05-03T14:28:00.000-07:00

Parent Council Meeting
3rd February 2010

HT Report

Enrolled 25 children – some may be deferred entries where parents can request an additional year in nursery.

Mrs Armitage still absent – off for another week. Duck’s café and P1 Parents Evening will have to be postponed, letters to be issued tomorrow

Heart for Haiti – raised £159

Healthy Tuckshop – popular with children and staff

Dates for Diary

9th P6 Assembly
Parent Consultation on 11th – teas and coffees to be provided
15th – 19th Feb children on holiday from school
Health Week 8th -12th March
13th March Keeping our Children Safe on the Internet
P7 trip to Dalguise 15th – 17th March
Additional CfE day Tuesday 4th May 2010

Mrs Ross has asked for parents to be involved in the school improvement planning process. Parents who are able to should meet at school for a Parent Focus group on Friday 26th February at 11am – volunteers to come along. At this meeting it is hoped to devise a format for a whole school parental/ child survey.

Minutes of Meeting on Wednesday 3 February 2010

2010-05-03T14:21:00.000-07:00

Minutes of meeting on Wednesday 3 February 2010

Attendees: Audrey Ross, Anne Williamson, Barbara, Tammy, Julie Moran, Debbie Innes,
Christine Fairbairn, Jeff McGhie, Lesley Malkin

Apologies: Vicky Carr, Avril Knox, Amanda Arkell, Michelle McArthur, Sherry Houlihan

■ Introduction/Welcome

Jeff thanked everyone for coming to the meeting.

■ School Refurbishment Plan

Lesley Malkin, Corporate Asset Manager, from Stirling Council came to speak to us about a future refurbishment of the school. The good news is that Cowie Primary School is the next priority for the financial year 1 April 2010 to 31 March 2011. Resources permitted, the Council hope to finish the refurbishment of the school so that they do not need to return to carry out further work again for years to come.

Lesley wanted to have some input from the parents who have children at the school, what things they would like to see improved. The main priorities mentioned were the gym/assembly hall which is too small for the size of the school and needs to be made a lot bigger with a staged area, dining room and kitchen area need modernised, condition of the upper classrooms which need to be updated in-line with the refurbishment of the nursery and P1-P3 classrooms. The general maintenance of the school was also discussed i.e. drainage, guttering, and the grounds outside. Lesley mentioned that the Grounds for Learning group should link in with her for any plans they have to improve the playground, in view of the future refurbishment of the school.

Lesley confirmed that our comments will form part of the refurbishment brief outlined for the school. An architect will be assigned to draw up plans which will be submitted to the planning department for planning permission and a building warrant. Hopefully, works will start soon afterwards. Lesley will keep the group updated with the progress of this. We also agreed that the works should be carried out with minimal disruption to the children and further discussions will need to take place to decide on how this will happen.

■ Amend and Approve minutes from last meeting on 18 November 2009

No amendments made and minutes approved.

■ Headteacher’s Report/Update

Attached for your information.

■ National Parental Involvement Event & Local Events

Jeff gave us details of the National Parental Involvement Event to be held at the Radisson Hotel in Edinburgh on 20 March 2010. Invitations were distributed. If you are interested in attending you should contact Mike Kincaid at mike@eltconsultants.co.uk by Friday 26 February. This event is an opportunity to find out how parents and staff are working together to get the best for children and young people.

Copies of the latest Parent Council Newsletter dated January 2010, were also handed out. A copy is available in the Parent Council Folder for anyone that was not at the meeting.

A half day event to be held by Stirling Council in March 2010 at the Raploch Campus was also mentioned (theme - keeping our children safe and will include issues such as bullying and internet safety). Further details will follow in the next school newsletter.

Action – Mrs Ross can you include brief details of the event to be held at the Raploch Campus in March in the next school newsletter, for parents who are interested in attending and want to book their place for this.

■ A.O.B

1. Anne suggested having an Easter Disco for the children, as the Valentine one did not go ahead this year. The date mentioned was Wednesday 31 March 2010.

Action – Julie agreed to ask Michelle if Gavin is available to do the disco on this date and then further arrangements can be made to organise this and communication done.

2. Art fund raising ideas were shown to the group to consider for the summer fayre at the school. Mrs Ross is keen for the Parent Council to be involved in this.

■ Date of Next Meeting

The date of our next meeting is Wednesday 21 April 2010 at 7pm in the school. Hope to see you all there. Please pass your agenda items to Julie Moran before this meeting! Mrs Ross can you please orgainse the let for this meeting.

Parent Council Meeting - Minutes 18 November 2009

2010-01-27T13:10:00.000-08:00

Minutes of meeting on Wednesday 18 November 2009

Attendees: Audrey Ross, Anne Williamson, Michelle McArthur, Barbara, Tammy Sherry Houlihan, Jeff McGhie, Julie Moran, Debbie Innes

Apologies: Rachel Byrne, Vicky Carr, Avril Knox, Amanda Arkell

■ Introduction/Welcome

Jeff thanked everyone for coming to the meeting.

■ Amend and Approve minutes from last meeting on 7 October 2009

No amendments made and minutes approved.

Anne Williamson confirmed the amount of £193.35 raised from Halloween Disco.

■ Headteacher’s Report/Update

Attached for your information.

■ Update about Healthy Tuckshop

Some members of the Parent Council have agreed to oversee and run this on a trail basis to see how it works. A taster session will be held at school during break time on Friday 18 December. All children will be able to taste some healthy fruity snacks and shakes that will be made available, and will receive a leaflet with further details about the tuckshop. We plan to run this every Friday after the Christmas break and will report back to the group on how this is going at our next meeting. We hope to get other available parent helpers involved to help out with this on a rota basis.

■ Fundraising/Event Update

Nothing to report.

Mrs Ross suggested at the meeting and in her update that we have a think about running an event for parents, i.e. ‘Yummy Mummy’ night, or coffee mornings. The group agreed to consider this for the following term.

■ A.O.B

1. The group asked Mrs Ross if photo calendars of the children in their costumes would be on sale again at the Christmas Concert.

Action – Mrs Ross agreed to speak to Mrs Stubberfield who helped organise this last time.

2. Mrs Ross spoke about the Transition Group (from primary to high school) which will start up again in January 2010 and parent volunteers from P6/P7 will be needed.

3. Debbie mentioned the steps which lead from the school to Scotstoun Road, as they are in a very poor state of repair and could cause an accident.

Action – Mrs Ross will look into this and report back to the group with her findings at our next meeting.

■ Date of Next Meeting

The date of our next meeting is Wednesday 3 February 2010 at 7pm in the school. Hope to see you all there. Please pass your agenda items to Julie Moran before this meeting! Mrs Ross can you please orgainse the let for this meeting.
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HEADTEACHERS REPORT

Parent Council Meeting
18th November 2009

Mrs Ross suggested that the order of the meeting should be as follows:

Apologies
Minutes should be read and approved.
Matters Arising from Minutes should be gone over
Any Standing items to be included
Finance
HT Report
Fundraising Committee
AOCB

HT Report

IWB installed in P4 – only one for P3 required now cost £2750 plus a desktop at £415, plus a license approximately £3225

Refurbishment – Upper cloakroom now finished although more coat pegs are required. New toilets also operational.

Christmas Concert – letter re. tickets will be issued tomorrow (Thursday 19th Nov), ticket allocation by 27th November, then all extra tickets will go on sale. Raffle tickets will also be issued. Raffle will be drawn at the evening performance.

E mail – trying to put more and more out by e mail or placing on the school website.

Sports Awards Evening – 25th November

Remembrance service – held jointly with St. Margaret’s on November 11th at War Memorial

Initiatives for Parent Council
Tuck Shop
Fundraising ?
Parents’ Coffee Morning – monthly, termly?

School Fundraising
Fun Day in June as always
Events team to organise a school sponsored event
Comic Relief event

HALLOWEEN DISCO MONDAY 26 OCTOBER 2009

2009-10-30T08:37:00.000-07:00

Following the success of the Halloween Disco, an amount of £193.35 was raised and will be used to help fund school resources and future school trips. Thank you to all the parents and teachers that helped organise this event and helped on the night. The children had a ball!

Minutes of Meeting on 7 October 2009

2009-10-18T08:35:00.000-07:00

Minutes of meeting on Wednesday 7 October 2009

Attendees: Audrey Ross, Julie Moran, Anne Williamson, Michelle McArthur, Barbara, Sherry Houlihan, Jeff McGhie, Amanda Arkell

Apologies: Rachel Byrne, Vicky Carr, Avril Knox,

■ Introduction/Welcome

Mrs Ross thanked everyone for coming to the meeting.

■ Appointment of Chair for 2009-2010 school year

The new joint Chairs appointed were Sherry Houlihan and Jeff McGhie. Congratulations to both of them and we look forward to working with you in the future.

■ Income and Expenditure for 2008-2009

Now that the figures have been finalised, I attach a copy for those of you that have not received this information. The balance left in our account is £1,262.77.

■ Halloween Disco

We spoke about arrangements for the proposed Halloween Disco. Details of what was agreed are shown below. We appreciate all the help you can give to make this event a success for the children at Cowie Primary School. We hope to get more parents involved on the night to ensure that this runs as smoothly as possible;

Task Who’s doing what

Date/Time Date agreed was Monday 26 October 2009 (slightly earlier than
normal, so that we could secure disco and let for the hall).

Times (P1-P3) 6.00pm – 7.15pm
(P4-P7) 7.30pm – 8.45pm (again slightly earlier times than
before as it’s a Monday night).

Ticket Price £1.75

Letter to Parents and
Design of Tickets Rachel agreed to do this. The letter will need to be issued to parents
on Monday 19 October 2009 and tickets will be on sale after this
date.
Rachel, can you arrange this communication and hand into the school
or e-mail for copying for this date?

Theme/Decorations Mrs Ross will speak to Bernadette about decorations we used for the
last Halloween Disco. If anyone has decorations we can use, please
hand into the school so that we can decorate the hall and dining area.
You may also want to carve a pumpkin and bring this along on the night
for display purposes? We need volunteers to decorate the hall/dining
area on Monday 26 October, before the disco starts – please can you
help with this???

Organise Let for hall Mrs Ross will organise the let for the hall for 26 October.

Disco/Music/Lights Michelle confirmed that Gavin was free to do this on 26 October.

Drinks/Snacks Amanda offered to get snacks/crisps. (Amanda do you also have the
sweetie cauldron from last year??)
Michelle offered to get diluting juice and cups and will speak to
Christine/Vicky re this.

Games/Prize Amanda suggested using games from the last disco as they were a
success. She agreed to dig out resources for these games for both discos
(approx 3 games for each disco).
Julie agreed to get prizes for best dressed for girl & boy at both discos
and party game prizes.

Touchy/Feely Boxes As these worked well last year, we agreed to do them again. Anne and
Michelle offered to do 2 boxes each with things like jelly, spaghetti,
foam, custard etc instead (and spiders and worms). They will arrange
these for each disco.

Posters/Flyers Julie suggested that Rachel may have posters/flyers from last year,
and agreed to ask if she could print a few off to hand into the school to
advertise the event.

Ticket Sales P1-P3 – Avril/Michelle offered to help sell the tickets
P4-P7 – Anne/Julie agreed to help sell the tickets.

Agree Responsibilities/
Roles on the night We didn’t have enough people at the meeting to agree actual roles for
the night, on who would take tickets at the door, serve snack, help with
the disco and party games, supervise the boxes, watch over the toilets
etc. We need to ensure we have enough helpers on the night at both
discos so they run smoothly. We will do a checklist nearer the time and
ask other parents to be involved.

Accident Report Audrey will have this at the discos to note any accidents that take place.

Invite School Staff Audrey agreed to do this.

Eastside News Audrey agreed to contact them about this event.

Apples To be honest we spoke about apples and the mess the water made the
previous year. No decision was made about the apples. Let me know
your opinions, and if anyone wants to offer to get them if we agree to go
ahead with the ‘dooking for apples’ (with a fork, of course)?

As Treasurer, Anne will reimburse any of your costs, so please provide receipts of your expenditure direct to her.

■ Future Fundraising

We briefly spoke about future fund raising ideas and agreed to have a think about this so that we could do a fund-raiser early next year. Some of the suggestions mentioned were a bettle drive, race night, sponsored events, bingo etc. We could discuss this again at our next meeting.

■ Date of Next Meeting

The date of our next meeting is Wednesday 18 November 2009 at 7pm in the school. Hope to see you all there. Please pass your agenda items to Julie Moran before this meeting!

Minutes of Annual General Meeting on 2 September 2009

2009-09-16T11:19:00.000-07:00

Minutes of A.G.M. on 2 September 2009

Attendees: Keith MacAskill, Audrey Ross, Julie Moran, Bernadette Wheatley,
Anne Williamson

Apologies: Amanda Arkell, Rachel Byrne, Michelle McArthur, Vicky Carr, Avril Knox,
Scott Ferguson

■ Introduction/Welcome

Keith welcomed and thanked everyone for coming to the meeting.

Keith discussed some correspondence he had received addressed to the Parent Council. The only action point to take from this was a letter from Mrs McClure, Deputy Head at the school. She asked the Parent Council if they would consider funding half of the money needed to get a professional plan drawn up to develop school grounds. The other half is being funded by the school and the estimated total cost is £200.00 - £500.00. The letter mentions that this outlay is essential for dramatic changes to be made to the school grounds.

Action: A response has been sent to Mrs McClure to confirm that the Parent Council will support half of the funds needed for this plan to be drawn up, as mentioned above.

A thank you card was received from the P7 class and their teachers, for the leavers night the Parent Council organised to the Buzz and Pizza Hut. They all had a great time!

■ Income and Expenditure for 2008-2009

The target we set to raise as a group last year was £2,000.00 and this has been smashed! The Income and Expenditure report is still being finalised and will be distributed to the group once this is available.

■ Office Bearers for the new school year

Due to poor attendance it was not possible to fill all roles needed at the meeting. The roles that were filled are as follows;

Secretary – Julie Moran
Treasurer – Anne Williamson

Rachel as Vice-Chair of the group last year, was nominated to be Chair by Julie, seconded by Anne. However, as she was not able to make the A.G.M. this will be confirmed at the next meeting.

Mrs Ross thanked Keith for the tremendous support he has given her. Keith mentioned that although he is no longer Chair of the Parent Council, he is easily contactable if we need his help in anyway. He also mentioned Scott is happy to assist with any questions or help needed to improve the school website.

■ Headteacher’s Report/Update

This is attached for your information, which Mrs Ross discussed at the meeting.

■ A.O.B

1. The condition of the boys toilets at the upper end of the school was mentioned and how wet the toilet floor is when the children are getting changed for gym. Raised by Anne on behalf of Michelle.

Action: Mrs Ross will look at this.

2. We agreed that we need to try and get more parents engaged in the life of the Parent Council and to look at different ideas for future meeting to boost numbers, i.e. cheese and wine, offer crèche facility. So that we can discuss plans for the Halloween Disco a meeting has been set for Wednesday 7 October at 7pm in the school. This meeting will be low key and refreshments will be available, tea, coffee, biscuits and cakes.

Action: Mrs Ross agreed to target parents and issue a flyer a week before this meeting to try and drum up some interest. Mrs Ross will organise the let for this meeting. She also asked the group to consider the purchase of cup holders, which we have previously loaned from Bannockburn Primary School. Julie will organise refreshments and will look at the cost of cup holders.

■ Date of Next Meeting

As mentioned this has been set for Wednesday 7 October at 7pm in the school. Hope to see you all there!

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HEADTEACHERS REPORT

Parent Council AGM
Wednesday 2nd September 2009

Staffing
Mrs Fleming now working 3 days per week covering teacher non class contact time.
Mr Kearney working in the P4 class along with Mrs McClure
Mrs Gentleman from the nursery promoted to Senior Early Childhood Educator at Fintry, Mrs Gernon has replaced her.
Miss Bradley now working for 2 hours each day in the nursery to support the three hour entitlement for every nursery child.

School Roll
The school roll is currently sitting at 143 in the school and 60 in the nursery.

Refurbishment
Toilets 5/6 week programme of refurbishment. Disruption is kept to a minimum.

Parental Engagement Opportunities
Two curriculum evenings planned throughout the session
Parental evenings planned for November and February
Two parental focus group meetings planned for January and March
Request in newsletter for parental helpers and e mail addresses

Challenges
Out of school lunches – children still not bringing in notes indicating that they are an out of school for lunch.

Poor response for Dalguise – only twelve children paid a deposit. Initial letter went out in February 2009. Several letters and phone calls since.

Thanks to Parent Council for all the events planned last year, for their financial support towards the cost of school trips and also for the new school calendars.

Wishes for this session;

Fundraising for remaining IWB

Rainy day boxes for each classroom, in particular P1, P2 and P3

Continued support for school trips at end of year.

More parents engaged in the life of the school.

Minutes of Parent Council Meeting on 27 May 2009

2009-06-14T09:17:00.000-07:00

Attendees: Keith MacAskill, Audrey Ross, Rachel Byrne, Julie Moran,
Bernadette Wheatley, Fiona Ferguson

Apologies: Avrix Knox, Christine Fairbairn, Debbie Innes, Amanda Arkell, Vicky Carr,
Anne Williamson, Tammy Laird, Scott Ferguson

■ Introduction/Welcome

Keith welcomed and thanked everyone for coming to the meeting.

■ Amendment to Minutes of 25 February 2009

A proposal has not been put forward to Grounds for Learning for a wooden play area in the playground. The area with the wooden snake is currently being looked at, at the front of the school, and perhaps the school may access Grounds for Learning funds to help improve the area.

■ Headteacher’s Update/Report

I attach a copy of this for your information. As you can see this also covers some of the outstanding/action points from our last meeting, i.e. Community Council Planning Group donation received by the school, as video presentation done by children on the village of Cowie. Also access to the school from the Community Centre has been restored.

■ P7’s Leavers and Dance-Fit Day

Rachel spoke about the P7 leaver’s party and Dance-Fit Day. She had previously issued an update to all on the Parent Council about these events to keep everyone in the loop.

P7 Leaver’s Party

The children had decided they wanted to go to Megazone and then onto Pizza Hut. Rachel looked into the costings for this which you all have a copy of. We opted for Buzz, which is the new laser/soft play complex recently opened in Falkirk. The date for this party has been set for Thursday 25 June and a communication will be sent by Rachel to the children in P7 so that we can finalise numbers/cost.

Action - Audrey will communicate this event to all staff at the school, as they may wish to attend the meal at Pizza Hut. If any member of the Parent Council is interested in attending, please contact Rachel to let her know.

It was also decided that we wouldn’t go to the expense of purchasing disposable cameras for the P7 leaver’s party. Instead Audrey suggested that we use the school’s digital camera/flip video.

We spoke about buying autograph books as a gift for the P7’s. After looking into this, the cost was £1.79 + V.A.T. per book and a small delivery charge. The group agreed this was a good idea and the children could use the books on their last day to get teachers/friends autographs and messages.

Action – Julie has agreed to order the autograph books and Audrey has agreed to arrange for a photo of the P7’s to be taken to put in the inside cover of the books. Rachel agreed to organise certificates for the P7 children so they can be presented to them along with the autograph books at their last assembly. Bernadette will also liase with Rachel to arrange the certificates.

Dance-Fit Day

Again details of this event, following a previous meeting with members of the fund raising group that attended, have been communicated to you by Rachel. As you know this event is to try and help raise funds for the Parent Council, which will be used towards school resources and to subsidise future trips etc.

A letter and sponsor form has since been issued to every child at the school and nursery, which gives further information. Audrey has kindly agreed to facilitate this danceathon event, with assistance from Active Stirling. As you know, all children who return their sponsor sheet and money will be entered into a free prize draw, to win a school shirt signed by the Scotland Football Team.

Action - Rachel is trying to source bottled water for this event. She will also contact the Eastside News to try and arrange press coverage of this event. Julie will communicate with Airth Primary School, as they have a moveable stage which they have kindly agreed to let us use on the day.

If you can volunteer your help on the day this would be much appreciated.

■ A.O.B.

1. Rachel and Julie spoke about the Parental Involvement Conference, which they attended with Amanda on 23 May 2009. David Cameron hosted this event and spoke about the Curriculum for Excellence, attempts to develop this, why change the way children learn, engaging parents in Curriculum for Excellence, and showcasing Curriculum for Excellence using Riverside Primary School as an example. There was also an opportunity to ask questions and for small group discussions.

Lesley-Anne Livesey, who helped organise this event, has collated the action points and these will be circulated once available.

2. A National Parent Conference: Making Partnership Work, is being held at Hampden Park in Glasgow on Saturday 13 June 2009. I have circulated copies of this event to those on
e-mail to see if interested in attending. If you want paper copies of the information about this event if you are thinking of going, please let Julie know ASAP.

3. Keith spoke about meetings that he and other parents had attended about the transition from P7 to Bannockburn High School. He mentioned to the group how useful he and others found the meetings and it’s a good way to get involved with the transition. He encouraged us to attend these in the future, if we get chance to.

Keith also spoke about the lollipop crossing cover which was secured, following Anne’s husband who recently passed away. We agreed that we would send a card to Anne, from the school and parent council, at this sad time to let her know that we are thinking of her.

4. Audrey asked if the Parent Council would like to organise and produce a calendar, which would be issued to all parents at the start of the new school term and would include dates of all planned events taking place at the school throughout the year.

Action – Audrey will pass the dates to the Parent Council by the start of the summer holidays and Rachel agreed to get an example of this calendar from Bannockburn Primary, as they do something similar.

Audrey has also asked that we think about disco dates for 2009/2010, avoiding certain school dates. Any future fund-raising events will need to be considered and slotted into the calendar once it’s available.

■ Dates of Next Meetings

The dates of the next meetings are as follows;

2 September 2009 – AGM (Annual General Meeting)
18 November 2009
3 February 2010
21 April 2010
2 June 2010

Minutes of Parent Council Meeting on 25 February 2009

2009-03-13T06:34:00.000-07:00

Minutes of Parent Council Meeting on 25 February 2009

Attendees: Scott Ferguson, Keith MacAskill, Audrey Ross, Rachel Byrne, Julie Moran, Bernadette Wheatley, Fiona Ferguson, Michelle McArthur, Tammy Laird

Apologies: Avrix Knox, Christine Fairbairn, Debbie Innes, Amanda Arkell, Vicky Carr, Anne Williamson

■ Introduction/Welcome

Keith welcomed and thanked everyone for coming to the meeting.

■ Points from the last meeting discussed/carried forward/outstanding

- Keith confirmed that the action points from the Area Parent Council Network meeting he attended will be circulated once available.

- Stuart Hislop from Cowie Community Planning Group has not been in touch with Mrs Ross since attending our last meeting. Fiona agreed to speak to Stuart and has since asked him to get in contact with Mrs Ross with his proposals as previously discussed.

- The fenced grassed area in the school playground will be used by the children when it’s not wet and mucky. Mrs Ross passed a leaflet about artificial grass to the Parent Council as this would allow children to use this area all year round, if sufficient funds were available. It’s always something to bear in mind for the future.

- Mrs Ross has contacted Colin Whiting about the entrance to the school playground at the Community Centre access point, and is waiting for him to get back in touch.

- Tammy mentioned the broken glass in the playground which is still a problem. Mrs Ross confirmed that a sweep of the playground is done before children arrive prior to 9.00am, and a further inspection is carried out after this. Tackling this problem is proving difficult. The vandalism, broken glass and rubbish is a community issue and it was mentioned is happening in other villages. Mrs Ross has since e-mailed the local community policeman, Malcolm O’May, about this problem and to pass on our concerns.

- A proposal has been put forward to Grounds for Learning for a wooden play area in the playground. It was also discussed a mural may be painted on the school playground wall by Stirling Council youth workers, which would also involve participation from children in the village.

■ Headteacher’s Update/Report

For those on e-mail, I’ll get a copy of this file from Mrs Ross and e-mail to you separately. I attach a papercopy of this for those not on e-mail.

■ Budget Update

Bernadette confirmed the amount raised from the Valentine Disco was £184.00, plus £890.59 raised from previous events = £1,074.59. There is also £330.00 which was allocated to the Parent Council by Stiring Council and is being held in the Devolved Budget.

■ A.O.B

1. Rachel spoke about the Pamper Night which is being organised by the nursery at the school. Rachel wondered if they had set up their own Parent Council/Group and if we could have helped with this event in anyway. Parents/carers who have children at the nursery were invited to buy a ticket for this event, and these invites may have also been extended to Primary 1 parents/carers. Flyers have also been put up to advertise this.

Action – Mrs Ross has since spoken to Mrs Love in the nursery about this event. Mrs Love has confirmed that this is not a fund raiser and is being used to develop a sense of community in the nursery. Mrs Ross spoke about providing an opportunity for the Parent Council to meet with new Primary 1 parents, with a view to getting them more involved in future.

2. Fiona spoke about the last fund raiser, being the Valentine Disco. For future events she thought it was a good idea to appoint a person to drive/steer the fund raising group. This would involve delegating and looking for volunteers to take on various tasks who are in the group, and want to be involved. Also pulling these tasks together before the event takes place. Fiona suggested Rachel to take on this role as part of the fund raising group. We agreed that Rachel would do the leadership role for the next fund raiser to see how things go.

3. Ideas were discussed for the next Parent Council fund raiser. We spoke about a ‘Danceathon’ on the same day as the school Fun Day, which is planned for the end of May.

Action - The fund raising group will consider this further and will liaise with Mrs Ross if this is going to take place.

4. The Parent Council normally organise the Primary 7 leavers party. Last year the Primary 7 class was asked what they would like to do to celebrate their time at the school. They decided to go to the Megazone in Falkirk and a meal at Pizzahut. This will need to be organised in advance if they decide this year, for example, to have a dance/disco.

Action – Mrs Ross agreed to speak to the Primary 7 class when they are at Dulguise, to ask them to have a think about what they would like to do this year. Fund raising group to link in with Mrs Ross to see what was discussed and to take this forward.

5. Keith asked what the group thought about using some of our funds for the Primary 7 class, as pocket money when they go to Dulguise (the trip has already cost them approx £110.00 each). As the Primary 7 sometimes get a leavers gift, we decided that we would consider this instead, i.e. autograph book.

Action – Fund raising group to consider Primary 7 leavers gift.

6. Keith spoke about the new hospital and the transport links to this. He expressed his concerns about the volume of traffic that would be diverted through the village and past the school, if the main road from Bannockburn Hospital to Plean was closed, i.e. due to an accident. He just wanted to make us aware of this for the future.

■ Date of Next Meeting

The date of the next meeting has been set for Wednesday 27 May 2009 at 7pm in the School. Prior to this date, the fund raising and curricular groups may meet up and discuss issues they can then share at this meeting.

Minutes of Parent Council Meeting on 19 November 2008

2008-12-08T14:36:00.000-08:00

Minutes of Parent Council Meeting on 19 November 2008

Attendees: Scott Ferguson, Keith MacAskill, Audrey Ross, Rachel Byrne, Julie Moran, Bernadette Wheatley, Fiona Ferguson, Michelle McArthur, Vicky Carr, Anne Williamson

Apologies: Avrix Knox, Christine Fairbairn, Debbie Innes, Amanda Arkell

■ Introduction/Welcome

Keith welcomed and thanked everyone for coming to the meeting.

■ Headteacher’s Update/Report

This is attached for your information, which Mrs Ross discussed at the meeting.

■ Behaviour Policy

A copy of the Positive Behaviour Policy was given to the group at the meeting. I attach copies for those who didn’t attend the meeting.

Action: If you have any comments or concerns regarding this, can you contact Mrs Ross direct.

■ Area Parent Council Networks

Keith spoke about the meeting he recently attended at Raploch Community Campus. This was to gauge where Parent Councils are and where they are going. Eight Primary Schools and one Secondary School were represented at this meeting. The attendees were split into groups to brainstorm the good/bad points and their wish list (which was to try and get more parental involvement). Keith said it was a very intense meeting and everyone was enthusiastic and passionate about the topics being discussed. The action points have been collated and will be circulated shortly.

Keith spoke about the Primary 7 transition to Bannockburn High School and the open evening that parents had attended. A copy of the Bannockburn High School newsletter was shown to the group for their information.

Our Parent Council Insurance Policy has been paid for, for another year.

Keith mentioned the survey that is being done of views on a national parent’s body. This survey has been circulated to all Parent Councils, to be completed by the end of the year. I have already e-mailed and gave copies of this to you.

Action: Please can I have your comments/feedback on this survey as soon as possible, for those who have not yet replied.

■ Stuart Hislop from Cowie Community Planning Group (CCPG)

Stuart came to speak to the group about how the CCPG want to engage with the schools in the village to promote Cowie and make it a better place to live. The CCPG wish the children to express through ‘art work’ their aspirations for the village. It is hoped that from their expressions the CCPG can incorporate this into their future planning. This is likely to be a brochure of some type and may allow the CCPG to feature some of the children’s work. As a means of providing some support to the school the CCPG intend to give the school £250.00. This money can be used towards acquiring ‘art’ materials for the project.

Action: Stuart is happy to liase with Mrs Ross direct regarding this project, which is to take place before springtime 2009.

■ A.O.B

1. Keith made a suggestion about taking pictures and making calendars of our lovely village. We agreed this was a good idea and may consider this in future.

2. Bernadette had raised an issue on behalf of a couple of people that had approached her, as there was a perception about prize fixing at the Bingo Tea raffle. Rachel mentioned that there was an order to the raffle prizes, along with extra prizes that were not needed for the Bingo and any additional ones that were handed in on the night.

Action: Mrs Ross made a suggestion that in future the raffle prize is announced/shown before the ticket is drawn. It may also be an idea to break up the raffle during an event like this and have this at the beginning/middle and/or end.

3. Bernadette confirmed that there was approximately £800.00 in the Parent Council Account. This was from the Bingo Tea and the Halloween Disco, which were both a huge success, less the funds used for the buses for the Christmas Pantomime. The devolved budget has a total of £380.00, which has been allocated to the Parent Council this year.

4. Rachel spoke about the Waterstone’s Big Book Project which took place on Friday 24^th October in the school. The children in Primary 4-7 were asked to donate a book they had enjoyed reading at home and bring it into School for others to read too. They were asked to write a brief review of the book in class. Rachel asked was there any reason this project was not open to the whole School. Mrs Ross suggested that the rules for this were stipulated by Waterstone’s and she would double check on this.

5. Julie mentioned the school’s website and asked if this could be made more interesting and exciting, i.e. by adding class pictures and also work that the children had done. This may entice more people to look at the website and leave messages/comments.

Action: Scott and Mrs Ross agreed to get together to look at this. Check out some of the pictures which have already been added, since our meeting took place!!

6. Vicky asked for her name to be put forward for the Fund Raising Group as she wants to be more involved with this. It was discussed that the committees/groups for Fund Raising and Curricular Issues had not been set up for this year, although the groups are ‘open’ and anyone can join and become involved at anytime.

The new groups set up are as follows. If you didn’t make the meeting on 19 November and want to become involved with any of these groups then you can join at any time. Just let the others in the group know you are interested.

Fund Raising Curricular Issues

Vicky Audrey
Rachel Scott
Bernadette Julie
Michelle Fiona
Fiona

7. Fiona asked what was happening with the fenced grassed area within the School playground. Mrs Ross confirmed this is being used for sports and there is a proposal next year for Grounds for Learning. Fiona also mentioned the entrance to the School at the Community Centre access point, as this is very uneven and a few people have already tripped and injured themselves.

Action: Mrs Ross will speak to Colin Whiting about this entrance to the School. Keith agreed to do a letter also.

The issue with litter and broken glass bottles found in the playground was discussed at the meeting. This is the responsibility of the School Janitor, who should inspect and clear the playground before children arrive in the morning.

Action: Mrs Ross agreed to take this issue on board to try and resolve.

8. Mrs Ross spoke about the forthcoming events leading up to Christmas, the Pantomime and Christmas Fun Afternoon (both have now passed), the Candlelit Procession to church on 10 December at 6.00pm, the Christmas Parties (various dates as detailed in the School Newsletter) and Church Service on 19 December at 11am.

■ Date of Next Meeting

The date of the next meeting has been set for Wednesday 25 February 2009 at 7pm in the School. Prior to this date, the Fund Raising and Curricular groups may meet up and discuss issues they can then share at this meeting, i.e. the Fund Raising group will need to meet up and discuss/organise plans for the Valentines Disco in February, prior to the date of our next meeting.

BINGO TEA

2008-10-14T09:18:00.000-07:00

It was a full house at Cowie Miners Welfare on Thursday 2 October. Cowie Primary Parent Council hosted a Bingo Tea, to help raise funds for the children at Cowie Primary School. A massive £800.00 was raised which will go towards the purchase of an interactive whiteboard, an education tool used in the classroom that helps make learning interesting and fun, and to subsidise future school trips.

We would like to thank everyone who helped organise and run this hughly successful event, for their kind donations and the local community for their support.

The star prize, a t-shirt signed by Olympic Cycling Champion Chris Hoy, was framed, raffled and won by Alastair Knox in Primary 5. We were also lucky enough to receive tickets for a museum and stadium tour of Hampden, Scotland's National Stadium. Thank you to Mr John Smith, former president of the SFL, for organising this prize. This was won by Mr & Mrs Byrne who kindly donated this to the school.

Other prizes included a MP3 player, ice rink tickets, meal voucher for King Robert Hotel, Roundabout Executive Travel mini-bus voucher (which was again kindly donated to the school), family cinema ticket, voucher for Pizza Hut, £20.00 Woolworths voucher, Cava, Harrods Chocolate, a bouquet of flowers, food hamper, various children's toys and much much more!!!

Minutes of AGM Meeting on 3 September 2008

2008-09-12T13:02:00.000-07:00

Minutes of Parent Council Meeting on 3 September 2008

Attendees: Scott Ferguson, Keith MacAskill, Audrey Ross, Rachel Byrne, Julie Moran, Bernadette Wheatley, Fiona Ferguson

Apologies: Vicky Carr, Avrix Knox, Christine Fairbairn, Debbie Innes,
Anne Williamson, Amanda Arkell, Michelle McArthur

■ Introduction/Welcome

Keith welcomed and thanked everyone for coming to the AGM (Annual General Meeting) and the first meeting of the new school year.

■ Income & Expenditure for 2007 -08

A copy of the Income & Expenditure report was presented to the group. This shows that our balance is in credit by £27.69. Keith commented that a credit balance is what we are aiming for each year. The budget allocation we get from Stirling Council is still unknown, but we are hoping this will again be in the region of £380.00.

Keith said that we should have a target in mind for this year’s fund raising and suggested an amount of £2,000.00. Anything in excess of this is a bonus and we aim to make as much money as possible for the benefit of the children at the school.

■ Office Bearers for the new school year

The new office bearers appointed are as follows:

Keith MacAskill - Chair
Rachel Byrne - Vice-Chair
Julie Moran - Secretary
Bernadette Wheatley - Treasurer

■ Headteacher’s Comments/Report

Mrs Ross spoke briefly about the last school year and her priorities for this year, which is handwriting/presentation, consistency of teaching and development of listening/talking. She also mentioned the school is looking at literacy circles, highlighted by the HMIe report. The eco-committee is working towards their green flag. Diversity and Literacy weeks have been planned for later in the year.

The school is still looking at targeting more communications by e-mail, as the cost of photocopying is expensive and the budget is very tight. Please supply your details to Mrs Ross if you would like future communications to be e-mailed to you.

The school has a huge wish list, like most schools, and is looking for help to purchase more interactive whiteboards, which cost approximately £3,000 each, as they are a tremendous learning resource. The ICT equipment is also in need of being updated.

The Primary 7 trip to Dulguise has been booked for next year, at a cost of approximately £110.00 per child. The school is looking to do a fundraiser to help raise funds for this trip.

Keith thanked Mrs Ross for her commitment over the last year and we all agreed she has done a great job and has worked very hard.

■ A.O.B.

1. The Annual Parent Conference at Viewforth, Council Chambers, will be held shortly. Details of the exact date will follow soon, for anyone who is interested in attending.

2. A Parent Forum is to be held on Saturday 20 September at the Raploch Campus, from 9.00am – 1.30pm. Supervised play services and lunch will be provided. If you are interested in attending please let Julie Moran know and your details will be passed on to Elaine Murray.

3. Parent Council logos were shown to the group and Scott Ferguson agreed to update this so it is displayed on joint communications being sent by the School and Parent Council.

4. The Eco-group will be doing the mobile phone re-cycling again this year. If you have any old mobile phones, don’t dispose of them in the meantime!

5. Keith had received information and a DVD for the Curriculum for Excellence. This was passed to the school and will be explained to parents/carers at the Curriculum evening on Wednesday 17 September 2008.

6. Rachel spoke about the Bingo Tea fundraiser which has been organised by the Fund Raising Group, for 2 October 2008 in Cowie Miners Welfare. Rachel confirmed that letters will be issued to all parents/carers about this event and tickets will be on sale in the school, (costing £1.50 for adults and £1.00 for children, for entrance and refreshments). All staff at the school will be invited. A letter has also been issued to local businesses asking for donations for prizes, to be handed direct into the school.

Rachel had asked Mrs Ross what the school would like to purchase with the monies raised. The priority for the school is interactive whiteboards and ICT equipment.

Details of this fundraiser will be posted in the Eastside News, Stirling Observer and shops in the village.

Rachel mentioned that we need helpers to sell the tickets. We will also be asking for helpers on the night to collect entrance tickets, sell bingo tickets, hand out prizes and serve refreshments.

We spoke about a raffle at the Bingo Tea and Rachel said that the Fund Raising Group will consider this further before the event.

7. Rachel spoke about the Community Council as she had heard they have funds amounting to £10,000.00 to spend on the local community. Keith will follow this up and try to attend their next meeting.

8. Rachel has made up Certificates for the children that helped out at the Community Litter Picks in July. Mrs Ross agreed that these will be handed out at an assembly by the Chair of the CCPG (Cowie Community Parent Group).

9. Fraser at Active Stirling has confirmed to Mrs Ross that there is no resource at present to carry out the Cycling Proficiency training.

10. Agreed date for the Halloween disco is Thursday 30 October 2008. Further arrangements and details about this are to follow.

■ Date of Next Meeting

The next meeting to be held in the school at 7pm is on Wednesday 19 November 2008.

Of course the sub-groups previously set up for fundraising and education issues can meet up as and when required. Details should then be fed back to the main group at the next available meeting.

Parent Council Annual General Meeting

2008-08-22T12:32:00.000-07:00

Please note the Annual General Meeting of The Cowie Primary School Parent Council will take place on Wednesday 3rd September 2008 at the school, starting 7pm.

All Parents, Carers, Teachers and everyone with an interest in the future of the School are invited to attend.

Business will include the nomination of Office Bearers and planning the Parent Council duties and plans for the forthcoming school year.

Minutes of Parent Council Meeting on 25 June 2008

2008-08-16T04:57:00.000-07:00

Minutes of Parent Council Meeting on 25 June 2008

Attendees: Scott Ferguson, Keith MacAskill, Audrey Ross, Rachel Byrne, Julie Moran,

Apologies: Vicky Carr, Avrix Knox, Christine Fairbairn, Debbie Innes,

Bernadette Wheatley, Anne Williamson, Amanda Arkell, Michelle McArthur

■ Introduction/Welcome

Keith welcomed and thanked everyone for coming to the final Parent Council meeting this session. It was an opportunity to discuss our success over the last school year and to decide if any action points from previous minutes needed to be carried forward to the new school year.

Keith confirmed that the AGM (Annual General Meeting) would take place as our first meeting in the new school year. We will look at electing various roles at this meeting.

■ Our Successes

The newly formed Parent Council was set up in 2007 and considering this was our first year, we all agreed we have done very well.

- Everyone agreed the findings of the HMIe report were very encouraging and show that the school is definitely moving in the right direction.

- The set up of the school web-site is an excellent way of communicating what is happening at the school and hopefully this will continue to evolve through time, with the involvement of the children at the school. Your suggestions on how to improve or develop this are welcome!

- The Halloween and Valentine discos were a great way for the children to get together and enjoy themselves. It also helped raise funds for the Parent Council.

- It was good to see that the School and the Parent Council can be a team and work closely together, i.e. at Parent Consultations, the Christmas Concert and the Fun Days.

- We shown that we can network with others. We helped the Communities Team distribute questionnaires to every household in Cowie. We raised concerns with the Police and local Councilors over pedestrian safety. We spoke to the Community Council and Focus Group about ideas for a Community Clean-up in the village.

- The trip to Dulguise for P7’s was very rewarding and a good memory for them to take away from their time at Cowie Primary School.

- The P7’s decided on their own Graduation Party this year and they thoroughly enjoyed it. They even wrote letters to the Parent Council to thank us for organising this for them.

From the total funds raised over the last year, together with the amount we received from Stirling Council and the monies passed to us from the previous Parents Association, we used this to subsidise the summer school trips by £5.00 per child and pay for the P7’s Graduation Party. With the small amount of money left over, we are looking to purchase water bottles for all the children at the school.

■ Minutes from the last meeting being carried forward

We will continue to pursue the £10,000 grant with Grounds for Learning, to improve the school playground.

Slogon for Parent Council communications still to be discussed and ideas put forward.

■ A.O.B

1. We agreed that we need to be more organised for fundraising events next session. The Fund Raising Group plan to do a bingo tea, shortly after the start of the new term. The school discos will more than likely be as before, Halloween and Valentine, along with a further fundraiser after Christmas time. A copy of the forward plan will be available from Mrs Ross, so that fundraising can be organised in advance.

2. A communication was given to parents/carers of the new P1’s to welcome them to the Parent Council and to give them further information about the group.

3. The school’s newsletters will continue to jointly communicate the activities of the School and the Parent Council. The school will continue to look at other ways of communicating this information to parents/carers, i.e. via e-mail.

4. The school plan to have a ‘meet the teacher’ event shortly after the children return in August. A ‘Literacy Week’ has also been planned for later in the school year.

5. The temporary classrooms were removed in July and the area was fenced and turfed.

6. The monies raised by the sponsored skip, more than £2,000 in 2007 to improve the school playground, has now been spent. This was used to pay for the football, basketball, noughts & crosses and draughts markings, as well as other playground equipment. This will also be used to pay for the school staged area, which should be ready for the new term.

7. The ‘Eastside News’ is a new newspaper being distributed to local villages. The school is aware of this publication and it can be used as another way of publicising the achievements and celebrating the success of the school.

■ Date of Next Meetings

AGM - Wednesday 3 September 2008 at 7pm in the school. We hope to see you all there.

The next meetings to follow this are in the school at 7pm on:

19/11/2008

25/02/2009

27/05/2009

Of course the sub-groups previously set up for fundraising and education issues can meet up as and when required. Details should then be fed back to the main group at the next available meeting.

Mrs Ross, can you organise the lets for these meetings.

Date of Next Parent Council Meeting

2008-06-23T14:59:00.001-07:00

Our final Parent Council Meeting for this session has been set for Wednesday 25 June 2008. If you are interested in attending please contact Julie Moran, via the School, before this date for further details. Any agenda points you have should also be passed to Julie Moran.

Minutes of Parent Council Meeting on 7 May 2008

2008-05-29T05:22:00.000-07:00

Attendees: Keith MacAskill, Audrey Ross, Vicky Carr, Rachel Byrne,
Bernadette Wheatley, Anne Williamson, Amanda Arkell

Apologies: Avril Knox, Christine Fairbairn, Debbie Innes, Scott Ferguson,
Julie Moran, Michelle McArthur

Introduction/Welcome

Keith welcomed and thanked everyone for coming to the meeting.

Amend and approve minutes from last meeting on 12 March 2008

1. It was confirmed that Scott had up-dated the School web-site http://www.cowieprimary.ik.org/ and now had a feedback/comments facility.

2. The Community Centre access point is now open.

3. Mrs Ross agreed that the Eco-Group would be happy to liaise with the Parent Council with regards to a Community Clean-up. It was agreed that combining the two schools would work well.

Action: No update from Debbie who agreed to speak to her Dad who is part of the Community Council, to see how they can help.

Action: Rachel will continue to follow up the previous action point and speak to Bob Wylie about the £10,000 grant mentioned during an earlier Pupil Council Meeting.

Action: Julie will contact Margaret Brisley again for a response to her previous communication, about the concerns over pedestrian safety at Mount Oliphant.

4. We spoke again about using some of the Parent Council funds to buy water bottles for children to use during school time. Before taking any further action with this, we will speak to Debbie to get an update as she was going to ask her employer about the availability of free water bottles. Mrs Ross also agreed to speak to Mrs Young who may have contacts at Highland Spring. Rachel confirmed this company kindly donated water for ‘Fun Fit Friday’. We would also need to confirm numbers to include the new Primary 1’s. It was suggested that we sell the water bottles on the Fun Day but it was agreed after some discussion that some children might not bring them back to school after the holidays.
Action: Debbie to update the group on the availability of free water bottles from her employer. Mrs Ross to speak to Mrs Young.

5. Mrs Ross confirmed that she had some logos and would show them at the next meeting.

6. Mrs Ross confirmed the School Uniform Order for this year included homework satchels.

7. Mrs Ross confirmed she had spoken to Mrs Young regarding the Primary 7 Graduation Party and the school would like help from the Parent Council with this event. Mrs Ross confirmed that there would be 15 children graduating.

Action: Rachel agreed to speak to the P7’s to find out what kind of party they would like.

8. Mrs Ross confirmed that she had still not received the HMI Report.

Agenda

1. The Fund Raising Group confirmed that they had decided not to organise a fundraising event as there was alot going on in the school during the last two months of term i.e. Fun Day, Sports Day, School Trips and P7 Graduation etc.

Action: To obtain school forward plan from Mrs Ross so fundraising can be organised in advance for the following year.

2. Keith suggested to the group that we wait until the AGM Meeting to elect a Treasurer/second signatory for the Parent Council Account. The funds raised so far are kept in the school funds account. Rachel informed the group that including the devolved budget of £380.00 there was £1233.57 altogether. As mentioned in the last meeting the Parent Council are donating £5.00 per child to help towards the cost of their end of term excursions.

Action: Treasurer to be elected at AGM.

3. Sports Day will be organised by Primary 5 and Mrs Fleming as part of their Citizenship topic. Mrs Ross informed the group that the ‘huts’ should be moved in time for Sports Day on 6 June 2008. She confirmed however in the event of the grassed area not being available Mrs Devlin at St Margaret’s agreed for the school to use their playing field. The group voiced their concerns over the organisation of last years Sports Day confusion over time, potted sports in morning and races in afternoon resulting in parents coming to school twice etc. Mrs Ross also advised the group that there is a possibility of the grassed area being covered with astro turf. Claire Stevenson Chairperson of St Margaret’s Parent Council may be obtaining the turf from Forthbank, Stirling – this is still to be confirmed.

Action: Mrs Ross will investigate further into the running of Sports Day and discuss with Primary 5/Mrs Fleming.

4. Unfortunately the playground has been left in disarray after the building works. Mrs Ross confirmed that after numerous communications with contractors the various potholes left as a result of the refurbishment have now been repaired. The litter in the playground is still a concern. Mrs Ross also confirmed that the Pupil Council was now eager to spend some of the money they raised on equipment and staged area as planned before the refurbishment. There was some confusion over whether or not children could play football. Mrs Wheatley confirmed that a new football rota had been started for the P4-P7’s and that it was only stopped due to the lack of space during the building works. There is a possibility that football markings may be laid for the P4-P7’s as previously mentioned by the Pupil Council and that the P1 - P3’s could play football on the grassed/astro turf area.

Action: Mrs Ross will speak to School Janitor regarding litter.

5. Some members of the group voiced their concern with regards to dogs being allowed in the playground during school hours. Bannockburn Primary School has ‘No dogs allowed’ signs however Mrs Ross said they didn’t make that much difference.

Action: Mrs Ross will look into Stirling Council’s policy on this matter and may obtain signs in due course.

6. It was confirmed that the Community Centre is not being used for gym as the classes are now going outside.

A.O.B.

1. The group asked Mrs Ross if the school would like any help from the Parent Council during the Fun Day or whether we should have our own stall. It was decided that the Parent Council would choose to run two stalls. Mrs Ross showed the group a list of activities/stalls and ‘Guess the combination of the safe’ and ‘How many sweets in the jar’ were chosen. We would run the two stalls together with an area showing other parents an overview of what we have all achieved to date i.e. events, money raised and future plans etc.

Date of Next Meeting: To be confirmed.

UPDATE ON FUNDS RAISED FROM THE FEBRUARY 2008 DISCO

2008-04-29T12:11:00.001-07:00

A total of 125.77 was raised from the last school disco in February 2008, which was
organised by the Parent Council. Thanks to everyone who helped and contributed to this event. It was a success and the children had fun!!

CHANGE OF DATE FOR NEXT PARENT COUNCIL MEETING

2008-04-22T12:25:00.000-07:00

Please note - the date of the next Parent Council Meeting has been changed from Wednesday 30/04/2008 to Wednesday 07/05/2008 at 7pm in the school. All parents who have children at Cowie Primary School are welcome to attend. See you there!

March Meeting Minutes

2008-03-17T05:47:00.000-07:00

Minutes of Parent Council Meeting on 12 March 2008

Attendees: Scott Ferguson, Keith MacAskill, Michelle McArthur, Audrey Ross,
Rachel Byrne, Julie Moran, Bernadette Wheatley, Anne Williamson, Amanda Arkell

Apologies: Vicky Carr, Avril Knox, Christine Fairbairn, Debbie Innes

■ Introduction/Welcome

Keith welcomed and thanked everyone for coming to the meeting.

■ Amend and approve minutes from last meeting on 16 January 2008

1. Keith confirmed that he has received a cheque for £612.00 from the previous Parents Association which will now be banked into the Parent Council Account.

2. The feedback we received from parents at the Parent Consultations on 6 February 2008 was very positive. We asked parents for fund raising ideas, their ideas on how to improve the school, if parents would support a Race Night and feedback about the Cowie Primary School website.

3. Action: Rachel will continue to follow up the previous action point and speak to Bob Wylie about the £10,000 grant mentioned during an earlier Pupil Council Meeting.

4. Keith has had no response from Iain Binning about the School Travel Plan. Mrs Ross confirmed this was because he was no longer in his post as School Travel Co-ordinator. The Cycling Proficiency Courses will be considered by the group at a later date, run by
Recyke-a –bike in Fallin and the Police.

5. Amanda asked if visitors to the school website http://www.cowieprimary.ik.org/ could add their own comments/feedback.

Action: Scott will update the site to include a comments/guestbook facility.

6. It is hoped the Community Centre access point to the school will re-open soon.

Action: Julie will contact Margaret Brisley again for a response to her previous communication, about the concerns over pedestrian safety at Mount Oliphant.

7. Rachel asked at our previous meeting if the school would consider being involved in a community clean up, due to the amount of rubbish lying within and outside the school playground.

Action: No update on this as yet. Mrs Ross agreed to liase with the Eco-group to see how the school can support this. Debbie agreed to speak to her dad who is part of the Community Council, to see how they can help.

8. The school disco in February 2008 was well attended and the children really enjoyed themselves. A huge thanks to Gavin McArthur who was our D.J for the night. We agreed that the infants would have benefited from playing more games to keep them occupied. An update on the funds raised at this event will be detailed in the next school newsletter, to be issued to parents/carers in April 2008.

9. We spoke about using some of the Parent Council funds to help with the cost of replacing the curtains in the Gym Hall with black-out blinds. This would benefit all children in the school. We agreed to re-visit this at a later date.

10. Keith confirmed that the Race Night would go ahead in April/May 2008 and a date is still to be confirmed. He suggested that a steering group be set up to organise this event. After further discussion we set up two steering groups as follows;

Fund Raising

Rachel Byrne
Amanda Arkell
Michelle McArthur
Bernadette Wheatley
Julie Moran

Education Matters

Audrey Ross
Anne Williamson
Scott Ferguson
Keith MacAskill

These groups can meet at any time, as and when it’s appropriate, and would feedback to the main group on their progress at the next available Parent Council meeting. Keith mentioned that these groups are not exhaustive and other parents can join them at anytime.

11. We agreed to re-visit the role of Treasurer next session. A separate account exists within the school for Parent Council Funds. Irene Gower is the main signatory for this account.

12. We spoke about using some of the Parent Council funds to buy water bottles for children to use during school time. Before taking any further action with this, we will speak to Debbie to get an update as she was going to ask her employer about the availability of free water bottles.

Action: Debbie to update the group on the availability of free water bottles from her employer.

13. We agreed that Parent Council Communications should have a ‘slogan’. Mrs Ross mentioned that in future she would like to see communications being issued with Cowie Primary School, Stirling Council and Parent Council ‘slogans’.

Action: Please bring along your ideas for a Parent Council ‘slogan’ to our next meeting.

■ A.O.B

1. Amanda asked if the school could include homework satchels on the school uniform order form this year.

Action: Mrs Ross said she would arrange for this to be done.

2. Rachel asked what arrangements have been made for the Primary 7 graduation and leavers party, as the Parent Council are happy to help with this.

Action: Mrs Ross will speak to Mrs Young about this.

3. The Parent Council agreed to subsidise a school trip for each class by £5.00 per child next term, from Parent Council funds.

4. Keith and Mrs Ross spoke about the HMIe inspection the week commencing 17 March 2008. The inspectors will be in the school for three days and will meet with different groups of people, i.e. parents, teachers and the Parent Council. The last inspection carried out at the school was in 1998, but this will not form any part of this inspection. A copy of the final report is normally available approximately six weeks after the inspection takes place and the school will then implement the action points.

■ Date of Next Meeting

The date of the next meeting has been set for Wednesday 30 April 2008 at 7.00pm in the school. All parents are welcome to attend this meeting.

Action: Mrs Ross agreed to organise the let for this meeting.

Date of the next meeting

2008-02-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

The next meeting will be on Wednesday 12 March 2008 at 7pm in the school.

January Meeting Minutes

2008-01-23T23:41:00.000-08:00

Minutes of Parent Council Meeting on 16 January 2008

Attendees: Michelle McArthur, Audrey Ross, Debbie Innes, Rachel Byrne, Julie Moran, Bernadette Wheatley, Christine Fairbairn, Anne Williamson, Keith MacAskill
Apologies: Vicky Carr, Scott Ferguson, Avrix Knox, Amanda Arkell
■ Introduction/Welcome
Keith welcomed and thanked everyone for coming to the meeting.
■ Amend and approve minutes from last meeting on 28 November 2007
1. Keith confirmed that the funds from the previous Parents Association will be passed onto the Parent Council.
Action: He will update the group with more information when this happens, with details of the amount.
2. We agreed to look at ordering a notice board for the school at a later date. Mrs Ross confirmed that the mobile notice boards being used at the infant and junior entrances are being put to good use. We will continue to use these to advertise events as and when required.
3. We agreed to canvass for more parent opinions about what we do well at the school and what can be improved, during the next Parent Consultations on 6 February 2008.
Action: Julie will organise the set up of a flipchart and coffee/teas for this.
Mrs Ross will look at sourcing cup holders from the school’s catering supplier.
Debbie agreed to speak to the ’Book People’ about setting up a stall at the Parent Consultations and will inform Mrs Ross about this.
4. The group discussed the closure of all gates at the school and not just the one at Mount Oliphant, for security and vandalism reasons. Mrs Ross confirmed that all parents/carers who have children at the school would need to be consulted before any action is considered about this. We will pick this up at a later date.
5. Action: Rachel will continue to follow up the previous action point and speak to Bob Wylie about the £ 10,000 grant mentioned during an earlier Pupil Council Meeting.
6. Action: Keith to update the group after speaking to Iain Binning about the School Travel Plan and Cycling Proficiency Courses. Children at St Margarets School have already started their Cycling Proficiency Courses, which are free of charge, and the plan is that all children will be put through this training.
7. The school website www.cowieprimary.ik.org is now up and running and will continue to develop through time. This was communicated in the December 2007 newsletter issued by the school. Mrs Ross plans to get children from each class involved with updating the web site pages for their class. Scott Ferguson will visit the school on a monthly basis to offer his help and support. A huge thanks to Scott for all his help with this.
8. Community Traffic Wardens appear to be patrolling the road at Mount Oliphant following the concerns the group raised about pedestrian safety. The concerns, with the increase of vehicles picking up and dropping off children, were mentioned in the December 2007 newsletter. Regaining the Community Centre access point should help ease the traffic congestion, as more parents may then use the Community Centre car park. Mrs Ross confirmed that the school refurbishment appears to be running slightly over time. This is the reason why the Community Centre access and some of the playground has not yet been opened up.
Action: Julie will continue to chase Margaret Brisley for a response from the Head of Roads and Transport Services, regarding the concerns over pedestrian safety.
■ A.O.B
1. Playground – Rachel mentioned the concerns she has with the amount of glass and rubbish lying within and outside the school playground. This is also a wider community problem. Rachel asked if the school would consider being involved in a community clean up. To report broken glass found within the village you can call Craig Gardner, StreetScape Team Leader on 0845 277 7000 - ext: 3824 or e-mail gardnerc@stirling.gov.uk
Action: Mrs Ross agreed to speak to the Eco-group to see how the school can support and become involved with this clean up. Debbie agreed to speak to her dad, who is part of the Community Council, to see how they can take this issue forward.
2. Fund Raising – The group discussed future fund raising events to raise funds for the benefit of the children at the school. It was decided that we would have a Valentine’s Disco for P1-P3 & P4-P7 on Thursday 14 February 2008. We also agreed to organise a Race Night for parents/carers/friends and relatives at the end of March 2008.
Action: Debbie and Anne agreed to organise the Valentine’s Disco, communicate this event and issue tickets. They will call on other parent helpers as and when required.
Mrs Ross will arrange the let for the disco from 6pm – 9pm and will inform the teachers of this event.

Action: Michelle will speak to Gavin to check he is available to supply the disco.
Keith, Julie, Christine and Rachel agreed to start sourcing information for the race night and will update the group at the next meeting.
3. Mrs Ross asked the group for their opinions regarding the school parties, church service, Christmas Concert, Calendars and CD’s. We all agreed that they were a huge success.
4. Rachel made a suggestion about the whole school being involved in a staged production. We agreed that it was nice to see the P1-P3 Nativity but inquired if it was possible for the P4 – P7’s to do a production jointly instead of singing Christmas songs. It was agreed that an enormous amount of organisation would be required to hold this kind of event. Mrs Ross confirmed she would take this comment on board in future. School concerts may not necessarily be an annual event as other things may be considered instead, i.e. candle-lit church service.
5. Keith asked if there was any reason why alcohol was not allowed as raffle prizes at the Christmas Concert. Mrs Ross confirmed that she felt it was not appropriate. We agreed that the Parent Council and School would work closely together with events like the Christmas Concert, i.e. the Christmas Raffle - although the Parent Council organised the raffle etc, the amount raised was given to the school.
6. Mrs Ross spoke about the ‘After School Clubs’ and confirmed that the school is now trying to offer a variety of clubs every day of the week. These were communicated in the January 2008 newsletter.
7. Monday 17 March 2008 is the start of ‘Health Week’ at Cowie Primary and St Margaret’s Primary. Children, Parents and carers will be invited to take part in a variety of healthy activities. More information will be sent nearer the time.
8. New furniture for P4-P6 classrooms is due to arrive at the end of January 2008.
9. Mrs Ross confirmed that the money raised to help improve the school playground would be used for this purpose. More than £2000.00 was raised and it is hoped some of this money can be spent shortly when parts of the playground are re-opened.
10. It was agreed that the role of Treasurer within the group was not required this session. We agreed to use a separate account set up within the school for Parent Council funds.
Action: Mrs Ross will look into this and update the group at the next meeting, as well as trying to find out the signatories for this account apart from Irene Gower.
11. Debbie will speak to her employer about the availability of free water bottles the children could use during school time. Action: She will update the group on this.
12. If you have any ideas for a ‘slogan’ for Parent Council Communications, then please bring them along to our next meeting.
■ Date of Next Meeting
The date of the next meeting has been set for Wednesday 13 February 2008 at 7.00pm in the school.
Action: Mrs Ross can you please organise the let for this meeting.

Next Meeting

2008-01-15T05:08:00.000-08:00

Next meeting date is Wednesday 16th January 2008 at 7pm. All welcome.

2007-12-05T13:16:00.001-08:00

Minutes of Parent Council Meeting on 28 November 2007
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Attendees: Michelle McArthur, Audrey Ross, Debbie Innes, Amanda Arkell, Rachel Byrne, Julie Moran, Bernadette Wheatley

Apologies: Vicky Carr, Keith MacAskill, Avrix Knox, Anne Williamson, Christine Fairbairn
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Introduction/Welcome

Michelle welcomed and thanked everyone for coming to the meeting.

Amend and approve minutes from last meeting on 17 October 2007

1. Action: Keith to update the group about the funds left over from the Parents Association.

2. Mrs Ross suggested that the Parent Council look at the brochures available in the school before ordering a notice board. This is something we agreed to re-visit at a later date.

3. In total 26 completed questionnaires were returned to the school. The winner was Robbie McArthur in P4 and both he and his parents received a prize for returning the questionnaire within the agreed time. The top five results showing what we do well at Cowie Primary School and what we could do better were communicated to the group in graph format.

Action: We agreed to look at the results in more detail at our next meeting in January 2008 and possibly canvass opinions at the next Parent Consultations in February 2008, due to the poor response.

4. The group discussed the Halloween Disco and Mrs Ross commented this was very well organised. It was well attended by both children and teachers. We agreed that we could make some small improvements next time, but on the whole it was a huge success.

5. Debbie mentioned about the school gates which are not locked. The decision to lock the gates was made by Stirling Council as both the locks and gates were being vandalised.

6. Action: Rachel will follow up the previous action point and speak to Bob Wylie about the £10,000 grant mentioned during an earlier Pupil Council Meeting.

7. Action: Keith to update the group after speaking to Iain Binning about the School Travel Plan and Cycling Proficiency Courses. Children at St Margarets School have already started their Cycling Proficiency Courses, which are free of charge, and the plan is that all children will be put through this training. Claire Stevenson, parent at St Margarets, confirmed that the waiting times for these courses was quick, but this depends on P.C O’May’s commitments.

8. Action: Mrs Ross and Scott Ferguson will continue to progress the set up of the school
web-site and update the group on its progress.

9. A letter was sent to Central Scotland Police, P.C O’May the Community Police Officer, Iain Binning the School Travel Co-ordinator, and Margaret Brisley the Provost, about the concerns over pedestrian safety on Mount Oliphant. Elaine Smith of the Police Road Safety Unit has since been to the school to observe the problems. A response was received from P.C O’May who agreed with the issues we raised. He has requested more patrols by the Community Traffic Wardens and has agreed to monitor the situation. Margaret Brisley has confirmed that our concerns have been passed onto the Head of Roads and Transport Services. She will contact Julie again once she has received a response.

Action: P.C O’May suggested that some members of the Council address the concerns over pedestrian safety at a Community Council meeting.

10. Action: Debbie agreed to speak to the ’Book People’ about setting up a stall at the next Parent Consultations in February 2008.

A.O.B

1. The Parent Council asked the school how they could help with the Christmas Concerts and parties. Mrs Ross asked if we could co-ordinate and organise the raffle. Rachel mentioned that some costumes may need ironed after speaking to Miss MacDougall.

Action: Rachel agreed to purchase raffle tickets and £5.00 strips will be issued to all pupils to try and sell. We also agreed to issue a reminder to parents to hand in raffle prizes to the school as soon as possible. Julie agreed to contact all the local shops in the village to ask for a prize to be donated for the raffle. Parent Council to sell remainder of the raffle tickets at the Concerts.

2. Mrs Ross confirmed that a £250.00 donation was received from Cowie Enterprise to be used for Christmas activities. Mrs Ross confirmed that the individual class parties will probably be held in the Gym Hall. Rachel and Bernadette will speak to teachers and co-ordinate any help that is needed for the parties on the agreed dates. The school will communicate to parents nearer the time the dress code to be worn on party days.

Action: Mrs Ross agreed to organise Christmas tree, decorations and anything else needed for class parties using this donation.

3. The church service will take place at 11.00am on Friday 21 December 2007. Mrs Ross mentioned that the local vicar/reverend will not be able to take this service and as a result the P7 class may lead the service.

4. After speaking to Bob Wylie, Julie raised the poor response from P2 & P3 classes for the after school Top Sports club, which is running on a Tuesday from 3-4pm. Only four children and their parents attended the last session. Bob mentioned he will send out a further communication.

Action: Rachel suggested a mobile notice board which could be set up at the school to advertise these types of events and to try and get parents attention. Rachel and Julie to organise this and pilot to see how this works.

5. Mrs Ross confirmed that new furniture has been ordered for P4 - P6 classrooms.

6. Mrs Ross mentioned that more than £2000.00 was in the Pupil Council account which was raised earlier this year to help improve the school playground. Due to the refurbishment work which is underway the money cannot be used for the playground at the present time. She asked the group how we felt about using this money to purchase an interactive whiteboard, and replace the funds later next year with money raised from further fund raising events. The school currently have five interactive whiteboards and aim to get a total of eight.

Action: Mrs Ross asked that we informally ask parents how they would feel about this and discuss at our next meeting.

7. Rachel suggested using the Community Centre as a Gym Hall in the summer months, as the current Gym Hall is too small for playing bigger games.

Action: Mrs Ross agreed to think about this suggestion.

8. Julie spoke about the position of Treasurer in the group, as one has not been appointed. The money raised for the Halloween Disco was banked by the school for security reasons. Parent Councils can either set up a separate bank account altogether, or use an account within the school set up specifically for Parent Council funds. The advantage of keeping it within the school is you don’t need to get the accounts audited, you only need to keep a record of income and expenditure and update the group regularly on this. The group agreed keeping the account within the school would be the easiest option. Both Bernadette and Debbie agreed to be signatories for this account.

Action: We agreed to discuss possibly appointing a treasurer for the sole purpose of keeping a record of income and expenditure, at out next meeting.

9. Dining/Seating arrangements at lunchtime for packed lunches was raised. Mrs Ross confirmed that some children had to sit on benches due to the lack of space for tables and chairs in the Gym Hall and the situation is not ideal. She also mentioned that SLA’s, Support for Learning Assistants, were trying to encourage children to sit at tables, but some preferred to sit on the benches. This situation may improve once new tables are installed in the dining room. Mrs Ross also mentioned it may be considered in the summer months for children to take their packed lunches outside.

10. Julie raised the cost of the Christmas CD which is £8.00 (£6.99 for the school to buy this and only £1.01 raised for school funds). Mrs Ross confirmed that the CD was very professionally made and value for money. This was not intended to be used for fund raising. Mrs Ross mentioned that the making of the CD would be advertised in the Stirling Observer.

11. We discussed that class photographs be taken, with parents permission, of the children in their Christmas Concert costumes. These could be sold separately or made into calendars. We suggested that these be on view to parents/carers and orders taken and paid for at the Christmas Concerts.

Action: Mrs Ross to look into this further and update the group at our next meeting.

12. Debbie mentioned if the Parent Council members should be updated on information before this is communicated to other parents, i.e amount collected for fund raising events. If this coincides with a meeting then this will more than likely be discussed by the group. If not the communication will be sent to all parents at the same time.

13. Mrs Ross suggested we think about a ‘slogan’ for Parent Council Communications.

Date of Next Meeting

The date of the next meeting has been set for 10 December 2007 to discuss last minute arrangements for the Christmas Concerts. This will be held in the school dining area at 3.30pm.

2007-12-05T12:31:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Cowie Primary Parent Council Blog

Minutes of Parent Council Meeting on 17 October 2007:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Attendees: Michelle McArthur, Audrey Ross, Keith MacAskill, Avril Knox,
Anne Williamson, Bernadette Wheatley, Christine Fairbairn, Rachel Byrne, Julie Moran, Debbie Innes, Brenda McPhee, Amanda Arkell, Isobel Munro

Apologies: Vicky Carr, Scott Ferguson
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Introduction/Welcome

Keith thanked everyone for coming to the meeting and introduced Ishobel Munro, from Stirling Council, to the group.

Re-Visit Community Plan

Isobel came to talk about the Community Planning process which has been drawn up. Isobel spoke about communities of regeneration areas and what they have done, i.e. Braehead looked at the National Health Service and access to services, and Fallin focused on the negativity in the village and what could be done to improve this. Community Council meetings have already taken place in Cowie. Isobel mentioned that the next step is to issue a survey/questionnaire to every household in the village. She was looking for volunteers to help distribute and collect these questionnaires. She was also looking for volunteers to take part in future focus groups.

Action: Isobel thanked the parents at the meeting and will contact members of the Parent Council who volunteered their services to help with this initiative.

Amend and Approve minutes of the last meeting on 12 September 2007

Keith went over the minutes of the last meeting as follows;

1. Keith has not had a response from Rosemary Nairns about the funds left over from the Parents Association.

Action: He will continue to chase this.

2. Information about the Parent Council was detailed in the recent newsletter issued by the school to all pupils in P1-P7 and the nursery.

3. After consulting Clare Stevenson, who is a member of St Margarets Parent Council, she confirmed that their notice board cost £284.00 including delivery and a further £20.00 to erect. This was supplied by Wilson & Garden and ordered through Charlie Wilson at Stirling Council, Viewforth.

Action: The Parent Council will need to make a decision about this and its location at a later date. It’s not an ideal time just now due to the refurbishment work which is taking place.

4. The questionnaire was issued along with the October 2007 newsletter to all pupils in P1-P7 and the nursery. This is to be completed and returned by Friday 26 October 2007, to be entered into a prize draw.

5. Anne, Rachel and Michelle updated the group on the progress for the Halloween Disco on
1 November 2007. Keith mentioned that the Liability Insurance should be in place by this date.

Action: Keith will arrange for the Liability Insurance to be finalised before the disco. He will also supply apples for the Halloween Disco and to the nursery children, as it was decided apples would be donated to the nursery after consulting Mrs McClure and Mrs Love. Michelle agreed to get juice and crisps for this event. Rachel will issue a note to P1-P7 pupils nearer the time about a prize for the best dressed, asking for volunteers to help on the night and to ensure pick up of children promptly after the event. The Parent Council will consult with Mrs Ross and decorate the hall a couple of days before the disco and discuss last minute arrangements at that time. Mrs Ross was asked to do a briefing to parents about ‘best practice’ before the disco takes place.

6. Mrs Ross asked for an amendment to be made to the minutes of the last meeting about the School Refurbishment. She confirmed that if there are extra funds available these ‘might’ be used to refurbish the gym hall, instead of these ‘will’ be used. The refurbishment has now started. There was some confusion about access points to the school, as the workmen arrived earlier than expected. Mrs Ross would like to thank all parents/carers for their continued support in using the new access points, while the refurbishment work is underway.

7. Parents have concerns about the security and vandalism to the school and its grounds. In the past, the school gates were locked. However, a decision was made by Stirling Council to keep the gates open as the locks kept getting vandalised.

Action: Rachel will follow up the action point from the last meeting and contact Bob Wylie to see who is eligible for the £10,000 grant mentioned during an earlier Pupil Council Meeting. This would go towards improving the grounds of the school.

8. Mrs Ross confirmed that the school playground should be swept every morning. Mrs Young who runs the Eco-Committee has now received the new ’pencil shaped bins’ for the playground. These will be put out and brought back into the school on a daily basis. The school hope to get larger bins from the Community Council after the refurbishment work is completed.

Mrs Ross mentioned that Iain Binning, School Travel Co-ordinator from Stirling Council, would like the Parent Council to take on the work of preparing a School Travel Plan and combine this with St Margarets School.

The bike racks offered to the school by Iain Binning were free of charge. Mrs Ross confirmed the school are not liable for accidents, damage to bikes in the school playground and can’t enforce children to wear helmets. The Parent Council will need to consult with parents at a later date to gauge their views on this. It was mentioned that Recyke-a-Bike in Fallin do Cycling Proficiency Courses in conjunction with the Police.

Action: Keith agreed to contact Iain Binning about the School Travel Plan and the Cycling Proficiency Courses. Isobel Munro later confirmed that the Community Policeman, Malcolm O'May, and a representative from Recyke-a-Bike in Fallin will be attending St Margarets School at the beginning of November, about Cycling Proficiency. Julie will speak to Clare Stevenson for further information about this.

9. No action taken forward from the previous meeting about School Uniform.

10. The school are once again collecting Tesco vouchers and also tokens from Nestle cereal boxes. Posters are in the school to advertise this. Mrs Fleming who collates the Tesco and Sainsburys vouchers, will inform parents when the resources purchased last session arrive in the school to let them know what these were used to buy.

11. No action taken forward about joining the school and the community together.

12. Mrs Ross confirmed that the outward bound course in Perth for P7 pupils has been booked for 16 May 2008. Approximately 11 pupils are taking part in this and deposits have been paid. It is unlikely that funding for this course is now needed from the Parent Council, as teachers/parents may be asked to take their own cars as opposed to hiring a mini-bus.

Actions: The set up of the school web-site is progressing. Mrs Ross will pursue the progress of this with Scott Ferguson.

13. Some Parent Packs were returned so that these could be shared with other parents.

Homework Policy

The current homework policy was written in 2004 and does not appear to have been shared with parents. Mrs Ross has decided to re-visit this policy. She has already had discussions with teachers and the new homework policy, called Independent Homework Selection, is being piloted in P5. It is hoped it will be rolled out to the rest of the school through time. The teacher decides on a variety of homework tasks set in meaningful situations for the children, and in P5 this makes up a 16 square grid. The teacher selects the tasks he/she wants the children to attempt and the children get to select tasks alongside this (a minimum amount of tasks are chosen, and the children can complete as many tasks as they want). The completed work has to be handed back to the teacher over a 4 week period.

Mrs Ross asked parents at the meeting to brainstorm the purpose and expectations of this new homework concept. The outcome was very encouraging. Mrs Bairner, the P6 teacher, plans to run a homework club on a Tuesday for P4-P7 pupils. This will help support children if they have problems doing homework and gives the children who attend the club the chance to use the computers and other resources for research and presentation purposes. There are plans to extend this club, depending on the interest of the children.

Debbie mentioned homework satchels which some children already use to carry their homework in, instead of the plastic folders which are provided by the school and tear easily. They can be bought from Logo-Xpres for £3.99.

Action: The homework satchels are something the Parent Council can consider at a later date, if they felt it was a priority for the children.

Traffic Problems

Avril and other parents at the meeting had serious concerns about the safety of their children, due to the traffic congestion on Mount Oliphant. There has always been congestion on this road and the refurbishment work at the school is only adding to this problem. Avril has already reported a recent incident to Bannockburn Police Station.

Action: Julie agreed to write to the Community Policeman and Bannockburn Police Station about the concerns parents at Cowie Primary School have.

A.O.B & Close

Debbie mentioned the ’Book People’, a book supplier, who are very competitive and the quality of their books are excellent. They work on a commission basis where the school receive 10% of the sales. The school already have a book supplier called Scholastic.

Amanda asked if the school were participating in a Harvest Festival. Mrs Ross confirmed not this year.

Action: Debbie will provide more information to Julie about the Book People, who will pass this onto Miss MacDougall to consider.

Date of the next meeting

This will be decided shortly and communicated to all parents who have children at the school.