Holyrood Secondary Parent Council Meeting 2/12/2014

Present: P Toland, P Mefford, L Byrne, A Dastey, J Gavigan, B Farren, D Mackenzie, A Quinn, S O’Donnell, D Scullion, G Gallagher, M Hannah, J Miller, Z Faiz, A Faiz, P Whyte, F Sheridan, J Murphy, C Deans, M McNulty

Apologies: B McMahon, S Rodgers, T Okey-Adibe, L Farrell

Agenda:

1. Opening prayer and welcome

2. Head Teacher update

3. SNAG update

4. Building works

5. Lockers

6. Roads/ traffic around the school

7. Cordia – food policy update

8. SCES – supporting parents in Catholic Schools

9. NPFS – minutes of meeting held 8th Nov

10. Class of 1977 reunion

11. Approval of minutes (Sept & Oct)

12. AOCB

13. Meeting closed

Minutes:

1. The meeting opened with the school prayer and then two of the S6 Vice Captains (Amy and Lauren) gave an update on what S6 are involved in including

 Buddying programme

 Malawi trip

 Prefect duties  Year Book

 Subject mentoring

 Paired reading programme

 Mark Scott Leadership for Life Award

 Soup Run

 Parents evening

 Glasgow University Top up Programme

 Prom Committee 2. Head Teacher gave an update on the following areas:

 Asbestos: work is currently being carried out in the basement of the school. The work is taking place overnight and all workers have left before pupils arrive. There is no disruption for pupils and there is no risk to pupils.

 Unrest in local community: LB gave an update on events, most of which have happened out with the school. Action has been taken against any pupils engaging in unrest within the school.

 P7 Information Evening: Was well attended by parents and feedback on the night (from parents and staff) was very positive. JM expressed concern that the letters had not been issued (from Primaries) giving enough advanced notice to some parents.

 Award Ceremony: AD has published evaluations of the evening and everyone thought that it was a great event with very smooth running and fantastic music performances. It was suggested that it may be a good idea to invite pupils from the lower school (possibly to help out with teas etc) so that they can see what to aspire to in the future.

 Christmas Concert: takes place tomorrow 3rd Dec –still some tickets available but appears to be selling out fast. Good mix of music from a variety of groups.

 Lunch Activities: there are many events taking place with in school for pupils and also many extra-curricular clubs after school.

 Sport: Lots of good success

o Girls football won South side competition

o Boys Jnr Rugby have made it to the Glasgow Cup Finals

o Snr Boys Rugby (joined with Shawlands) have qualified for the next round of the Trophy

o 3 football teams are making good progress in the Scottish Shield competition

o Success for Cricket team

o Success for the Netball team

 Retreats: Retreats have taken place for S4,5,6 and these were well received by pupils and have been followed up with S3 getting talks from Net Team and again pupil response to this was very good

 Fr Bathgates Unitas group is up and running which is a multi-faith prayer group

 Anthony Nolan Trust: Came in and presented to the S5&6 pupils and there was a very good response. Many pupils signed up to be on the register and many more, after discussion with parents, have decided to wait until they are a little older.  Dalmally: the annual trip to Dalmally as preparation for the Malawi trip took place and was very successful. Father Carroll also came along and was a great support.

 Christmas Festival: Took place last Thursday and raised apporx £900 for the Dixon Community lunch which will take place on Wednesday 17th December, there will be a top-up bucket collection this week.

 Advent: Assemblies this week are including preparation for Advent and these will continue next week. School closes on 19th Dec at 2.30pm and that day will include a service (including an advent play and music) 3. SNAG: Adele Dastey gave a presentation on SNAG (Health and Wellbeing Group)

 Glasgow City Council are looking at all schools having a SNAG group and Holyrood is ahead of the game as we are in our 3rd year of this.

 The group includes pupils, parents, senior improvement officers from GCC, Cordia representative (Barbra Kerr) and staff

 The pupils involved with the group regularly make up a presentation on a particular health focus and then deliver that at year group assemblies. This topic is then also carried forward in to PSHE lessons for all year groups. Some of Holyrood’s presentations have been used City Wide by the Health Improvement Team and we are very proud of the work that our young people are doing.

 After Christmas Ms Dastey will produce a brochure with insight into the SNAG group for all parents and carers.

4. Building works

This was covered as part of the HT’s update

5. Lockers

 Most year groups have now had lockers issued to those who requested one. There was a delay due to the handover from one DHT to another and trying to have pupils return keys from previous year.

 A concern was raised over the time that this has taken and Miss Dastey said that the way in which the lockers are allocated will be reviewed for next year and it should not take as long in future.

6. Roads/ traffic around the school – D McKenzie

 Brearton Street - traffic issue on this street – there has been 2 crashes recently. Counsellor Soddiqui has said that she will take this up with the Road Dept at the council on our behalf.

 At the time when we were informed of the closure of the entrance to the Sport Centre it was originally suggested that Brearton Street became part of a 1 way system – although the Roads Dept. are denying this

 There are pros and cons of this new proposal (including the views of the residents)

 An alternative would be to use double yellow lines but this may also cause more issues

 School concerns regarding changes to the road system include where staff would park in the local area

 Karen McQuade (from the Roads Dep) has said that there should be an increased police presence outside of the school to stop cars from double parking and that she would ensure the presence of traffic wardens.  Zig Zag lines are to be re-installed outside the front door but not all the way to the car park)

 Counsellor Siddiqui has said that she is happy to attend the next PC meeting with someone from the roads dept. to look at ways to keep our young people safer

 PC concerns are about the safety of pupils at the end of the day at the sport centre and at the entrance to the car park

7. Cordia – food policy update

 The new food policy was included in the information given out along with a copy of the survey

 There is a question on keeping S2 pupils in school during lunch time in the same way that we do with S1 pupils (The Big Eat In)

o Concern was raised about accommodating pupils – school has no concerns as all pupils are safely and comfortably accommodated during intervals

o Discussion as follows:

. Promotion of healthy eating and safety of pupils

. Adv - nutrition at a critical time in a developing pupil

. Adv – helps to develop good eating habit

. Dis adv – packed lunches can be more unhealthy and school feels that educating the pupils may be a better option – possibly link in with primaries

. Pupils like the freedom of going out

. S2 pupils would need more activities to keep them busy at lunch

. Each year group having a designated space

 Parent Council feel that keeping S2 pupils in is a good idea maybe with a compromise on the number of days

 Paul Toland will complete the questionnaire on behalf of the PC

8. SCES – supporting parents in Catholic Schools

 Letter was received from SCES and a copy was included in the handout

 Paul Tolland to speak to Head Teacher about ways that the Parent Council can support the school

 Carried forward to January for a full discussion – please read the letter

9. NPFS – minutes of meeting held 8th Nov  Minutes of the last meeting were included in the pack – any issues should be addressed to J Murphy to be raised on our behalf

 Some representatives from Holyrood attended the GCC meeting

o Kingspark Secondary and Smithycroft gave examples of what they are doing with regards t integrating their timetable with local college to allow young people to attend – GCC resourced this as part of a pilot but there are concerns about funding in the future

o HT will report in January on supports that are available to other schools in Glasgow that are currently not available to Holyrood

o J Murphy asked for more parents to attend the NPFS meetings if possible in future

10. Class of 1977 reunion

This event was discussed 11. Approval of minutes (Sept & Oct)

 September minutes were approved

 October minutes – minor adjustment to be made

 Both will be put on Website ASAP

12. AOCB

 Parents Night

o There was a discussion about Parents night

. Most parents were happy with the way that parents night went

. Some parents asked about the location of the teachers – general feeling was that it works better when teachers are in a central location e.g. Fuel Zone so that parents can see if they are free. School feels that this is not appropriate during winter as there is no heating in the FZ and would be very cold for teachers and parents.

. Concerns also raised that some teachers did not have lists displayed

. S5 DHT will look at the evaluations and this will be shared with PC.

Next Meeting – January 20th 7pm in the Library