Minutes of meeting on Wednesday 21 April 2010

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.