Parent Council Annual General Meeting

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

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.