January Meeting Minutes

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.