Minutes of Marr College Parent Council Meeting

Minutes of Marr College Parent Council Meeting Wednesday 1 st May 2013

Present - Ainsley Ness - Chair, Duncan Beckwith - Vice Chair, Margaret Dalziel – Treasurer, Elaine McGregor-Sloman - Head Teacher, Rae Anderson – Deputy Head Teacher, Katy Purdie - Secretary and Katherine Woodhouse - Minutes

Council Members - Angela Malcolm, Colin Bell, Jackie Sim, James Morgan, Jill Scott, Kate Dunn, Mark Fitzpatrick, Moira Welsh, Susan Rhodes, Wendy McKenna, Cllr Peter Convery, Cllr Bill McIntosh & Cllr Nan McFarlane.

Invited Guests – PC Derek Simpson & Paul Sculley

Forum Member – David Rhodes

Apologies – Aileen Craig, Janet Wylie, Jim Cooper, Lindsay Gwynne, Wendy Hunter, Carol Pritchard

Welcome Ainsley welcomed those in attendance. Apologies were noted from those unable to attend.

2. Captains’ Report Courtney and Lewis provided an update on the Student Improvement Plan and highlighted the work that each of the six captains had focused on in the areas of fundraising, transition from Primary to Secondary, re-introduction of ‘Celebrating Success’, extra-curricular activities and communication. Recruitment of new captains is currently underway. As this was their final report to the Parent Council, the captains gave thanks for the support they had received. Ainsley thanked them on behalf of the Parent Council and commented on how much their confidence and presentation skills had improved over the year.

3. School Safety – PC Simpson & Paul Sculley PC Derek Simpson, Campus Police Officer and Paul Sculley, Community Safety Officer gave a presentation on Marr Community Safety Partnership. The objective of this is to work with young people who may be at risk and divert them away from criminal activity as well as providing support when they make a wrong decision. This involves sharing information with the Head Teacher regarding pupils who are having issues in the community or at home, and having a targeted approach to dealing with challenging behaviour.

Paul highlighted one area where there was a problem with youth disorder in Muirhead but through working with the community and linking with the school they were able to put on extra free activities for the young people at the Activity Centre. They also spoke to young people in all the local schools in the area to outline what was expected of them in terms of their behaviour in the community. This has helped to reduce the number of incidents from 35 per month to 3 per month on average.

Paul outlined other joint initiatives that they have worked on, e.g. horse riding, Marr rugby programme, litter picking and new bins, ‘careless driving wrecks lives’,

1 hazard heroes, ‘no knives better lives’. The benefits of these activities include teamwork, building relationships and finding friendship.

Elaine expressed her appreciation for the hard work that Derek and Paul do within the school and pointed out that there are only 4 campus PCs in South Ayrshire and 8 secondary schools, so Marr is fortunate to have its own dedicated PC.

Cllr Convery added that a new piece of equipment would be arriving at the school the next day in the form of a recycling bin. Every time the children use it they get a reward (e.g. cinema tickets) thereby encouraging them to recycle. Marr is the only school in South Ayrshire to have this equipment.

4. Approval of Minutes and Matters Arising The minutes of the meeting of 6th March 2013 were agreed as being correct. Proposed by Jill Scott, seconded by Angela Malcolm.

School Holidays With regard to the options for 2014/15 school holidays issued by SAC, Elaine advised that the school had voted for option 2. Katy advised that from the parents who had responded, 14 had chosen option 1 and 10 had chosen option 2. The final decision rests with the Council.

Buddy Training Days These will now be held on 4th and 5th June. If anyone interested cannot make these dates then additional top up training will be provided.

5. Uniform Update Angela, Jill and Wendy had been researching uniform suppliers and Angela provided an update on their findings.

A list of the cost of blazers from 3 different suppliers was provided as well as a resumé on each.

Gilmour Sports – existing supplier with on-line ordering facility but no local shop. Held 2 pop-up shops in March which were attended mainly by P7 parents. Also visited Dundonald Primary and acquired orders for 30 blazers; this should perhaps be extended to other feeder Primaries in the future. Initially Colin Hill had been quite negative about continued supply of the wool blazer and suggested a polyester alternative (sample provided), however the majority of parents preferred the wool blazer.

Balmoral Knitwear – mill shop based in Galston but willing to hold pop-up shops. Able to source identical blazer but would be looking for a 5 year signed contract to be the sole supplier of the blazer. They currently supply the Wellington blazer (55% polyester, 45% wool) and a sample was passed round.

Kilmarnock Schoolwear Shop – accessible, privately owned shop in Kilmarnock town centre which supplies blazers to many local schools. Currently supply a 90% wool blazer (sample passed round) and a 70% wool blazer – will supply a price for 100% wool. Also going to stock Barassie and Troon Primary blazers and would be able to hold a pop-up shop once a year. A decision by the end of the year would be required with a verbal commitment that they would be sole supplier of the blazer for 5 years.

2 Elaine emphasised that she would like everyone to be wearing a blazer but it was important that they were all the same composition rather than having different types available. To this end it would be worth asking the students which they prefer.

After discussion, the Kilmarnock shop seemed to be the preferred option. Mark offered to do some research on the business and report back to Ainsley before a final decision is made. MF/AN

6. Wider Achievement – Rae Anderson Rae Anderson gave an overview on Wider Achievement in the school which comprises of 3 different areas – awards system, school colours and accreditation.

Accreditation  Saltire Awards - launched this year and aim to give young people accreditation for activities they are already doing in school, e.g. peer tutoring, buddying, prefect duties etc, which will be recognised by universities/apprenticeship schemes. Rae will provide further details on the website about the different levels of this award. RA  Dynamic Youth Award - this is for the junior school and will be rolled out with more of the first years.  Duke of Edinburgh - provided as a skills option in S3 and is very successful with the highest uptake rate in South Ayrshire.  Heart Start – trainers come into the school for this.

Awards  Going for Gold - previously a points based system but in line with new ‘behaviour for learning’ it is being tied into a merit system. This is currently being piloted with groups of classes in Maths and English.  Celebrating Success - assembly was held for first years at Christmas and house assemblies will be introduced where Celebrating Success can be discussed.

School Colours Staff and some of the student body had been surveyed through focus groups with the result that the current school colours system should continue. The next step is to publish the survey on the website to find out what parents think. In recent RA years the school has bowed to parent pressure to reward pupils for achievements outside school, but the system needs to be streamlined and should only recognise outstanding achievements within school or when representing the school externally. There should be set criteria for achieving colours rather than being awarded for simply being part of a team. A ‘colours committee’ needs to be established consisting of staff members as well as some representation from the Parent Council. RA/AN

7. Head Teacher’s Report – Elaine McGregor-Sloman Elaine provided an update on school activities in her report and raised the following issues:

Building update  Works on the new building will commence in April 2014 and two staff members will be visiting other schools re design (Argyle, Campbeltown and Eastwood Academy, Pollok). The Sports Hub committee is also keen to be involved and Elaine has e-mailed David Strang to ask about parental involvement. He would like to visit to roll this out to parents and the Parent Council. 3  The current building works were due to finish last Friday but have been hindered by severe difficulties including issues with birds and the discovery of asbestos in the boiler room. Despite best efforts, the timeframe for completion will be extended considerably due to these issues.

Curriculum for Excellence National 4 & 5 timetable starts next week on 7th May. There are 17 teaching weeks until mid November before any decisions are made about which exam children are entered for. This is a major priority for the School Improvement Plan. Highers are starting 14th/15th May followed by Advanced Highers. Elaine has interviewed every head of department and Principal Teacher about their preparedness for National 4s/5s. She would like to have a session with the Parent Council to provide an update on the Curriculum. EMS

Learning and Teaching  Training and development is ongoing with regard to changes in methodology for delivering CfE.  Elaine had submitted a request for tablets and/or Kindles for students but this was rejected by SAC. The Council’s library services have all the e-reader books on file which could easily be transferred – Cllr Convery agreed to look into this further as he sits on a panel regarding e-books. Kindles would be aimed at Cllr PC reluctant readers and for others whose methods of communication are changing, allowing them to be more engaged in their learning. Eventually Elaine would like everyone to have their own resource.

Primary Cluster/Transition  The science lessons held by 6th years at the primary schools worked well and Elaine has been inundated with requests for similar sessions from the Primaries.  An RBS team building exercise will take place for P7s in the school on 3 rd May followed by Q&A sessions with the Head Teacher, nurse and Campus PC starting on 21st May.

Self Evaluation Elaine asked if anyone would be interested in meeting with her at the end of May to go through the School Improvement Plan with a couple of other senior staff members. She felt it important that the Parent Council was involved. ALL Elaine believes the school will be inspected within a year as the last inspection was in 2006. The Parent Council should start thinking about this as they would be involved.

Staffing Staffing has been problematic, however Elaine advised she will be getting some staff due to retirement and possible redeployments from other areas. The Authority are struggling to provide supply staff as their rate of pay is poor and this creates difficulties as the school management team have to try and re-structure staff within the school. Sourcing specialised teachers is a major problem. There are currently 8/9 retirements in the school, possibly linked to the changes brought about by the introduction of CfE, however this provides a good opportunity for Elaine to recruit new staff. Interviews for a PT of Business are taking place next week.

Students  The senior rugby team beat Galashiels to win the Brewin Dolphin Plate on 23rd

4 April.  Megan McAllister - did really well to secure an apprenticeship with EDF Energy in Portsmouth from 300 applicants, starting in August.  Elaine was proud of the departing captains and congratulated them on doing a good job. Applications are being received for new captains (deadline today) with interviews and presentations taking place on 7th June. There will be 6 captains and a further 2 prefects attached directly to each house. The new captains will continue to work on the Student Development Plan.  6th form final day – Elaine mentioned that the 6th year Prank Day resulted in some Health and Safety concerns, including a pupil requiring medical attention (fortunately with a favourable outcome). She expressed her desire that future Prank Days be more controlled and accepts suggestions from Parents, Pupils and Staff as to how to manage this. ALL

8. Date of Next Meeting The next meeting will take place on Wednesday 5th June 2013.

9. A.O.C.B Elaine had received a letter asking if anyone from the Parent Council or fundraising group would like to take a stall at the Craft Fair.

Jackie expressed thanks to all the staff who had come in for supported study over the Easter holidays.

Due to time constraints it was decided to hold over discussions on Fundraising and School Estate to the next meeting.