PARENT COUNCIL NEWS  

    Meeting Agenda

 Thursday 1st October 2009 @6.30

• Apologies
• Matters Arising
• Secretary’s Report
• Curriculum Matters
• School Improvement Plan
• Fundraising
• Date of the next meeting

Minutes of Cromarty Primary School Parent Council Meeting

Thursday September 10th 2009

Present:  Anne Rose (Head Teacher), Veronica Elrick, Rachel Mill,( student teacher) Gillian McNaught, Rev.  John Tallach, Torquil Macleod, Andrew Lintern (minutes)

Apologies:  Ian Donald, Fiona Fraser, Marion Graham, Witek Maslyk, Maurice Elliot, Laura Kelly

Minutes

The minutes of the last meeting were accepted. Proposed by Anne Rose and seconded by John Tallach.

Matters arising

The Baxter’s Loch Ness 10K run will take place on Sunday October 4th, and a few parents are taking part to raise funds for future school activities. Torquil Macleod posted a message in the most recent school newsletter with a last call for more runners, and Miss Rose said that this had already led to two new recruits. The Rev. Tallach thought he would be busy that day though. The final list of participants will be confirmed on Monday September 14th.

Torquil commented that the Homecoming Hogmanay celebrations in Cromarty present a fund raising opportunity for the school, to provide hot soup and tea to those attending on New Year’s Eve and Day. There was concern that it might be difficult to get volunteers to do this though, since it is a special time for families. It was agreed to discuss this again at the next meeting.

Head Teacher’s Report

Miss Rose and the staff continue to work on the School Improvement Plan. Guidance and help will be given by the Quality Improvement officer from the Skye and Lochaber region, and the aim is to get the Plan complete by the October holidays and submitted to the education authority. The follow-up inspection by HMIE would then most likely be in June 2010.

Part of the School Improvement Plan are two education initiatives, Peer Mediation and Confident Kids. Two days of intensive training would be provided for Peer Mediation, which would involve all the staff and children. Mrs. Munro will take charge of this. Mrs. Simpson will lead Confident Kids. Miss Rose also reported that Abacus Evolve,  a new maths programme for P1 to P4 is underway, which makes important use of ICT. This is expensive and would require help from the Parent Council.

Miss Rose suggested that the Parents’ Day after the half-term break could be run more like a workshop, to show just how the children are learning in the school. Parents would get to see the new maths programme in action, how language is taught, and could ask questions about the new education initiatives. The Rev. Tallach and Torquil Macleod added that this could also be an opportunity to show parents how the school deals with behavior issues, and the discipline process. All present recognized this is a delicate subject, and agreed to open the can of worms again at the next meeting.

On a different note, Miss Rose said that the swimming lessons were proving a success. The children swim in small groups and receive good coaching, and by going day after day, they make noticeable improvements. Well done!

Doors Open Day, September 19th

This event in Cromarty sees many of the historic buildings open to the public, and the school will have a display in the hall. Some of the older pupils have already agreed to be on hand to show visitors around, and there have been offers of soup and puddings from some parents. Veronica Elrick said that the call for old-school photographs, certificates and other education-related artifacts had not come to anything yet. However, the feeling was that the main attraction is simply our historic school welcoming visitors.

Treasurer’s  Report

There is a balance of £5351.80. Gillian McNaught expressed the need for a third signatory for the account, and Andrew Lintern agreed to do this. Gillian would get the process going.

Gillian received a quote of £399 for 250 copies of the forthcoming School Cookbook, and she gave some good news with this - the Cromarty Common Good Fund have agreed to pay 50% of this cost. Many thanks from the school and parents. It was suggested that the Cookbook be launched at the Christmas Fayre on Wednesday 16 December by someone from community. The Rev. Tallach was happy to do this, and would even open with a few jokes.

Date of Next Meeting:  Thursday October 1st at 6.30pm