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
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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.