HEAD TEACHER'S REPORT

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

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

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.