Hillhead High School

Hillhead High School Parent Council Meeting Monday 28th November 2016 @ 6:30pm

Welcome Sylvia Warnecke (Chair). Willie Wight was thanked by the Parent Council for all his years of dedication to Hillhead High School, parents had supplied cake, juice, tea and coffee as a surprise for Willie. A presentation will be given to Willie at the school show. We wish Willie a very happy retirement.

In Attendance: Parent Council Members; Sylvia Warnecke (chair) Chiara Cipollari (Treasurer) Senga, Tariq Ishaq, Donna MacLean, Gordana Nesterovic, Catriona Futter, Chirsty Hamilton, Loredana Prezioso Teaching Staff; Willie Wight (Head Teacher), Mrs Douglas, Miss Kerr Parent Forum; 12 members of the parent forum

Apologies: Parent Council member, John Quinn

Minutes of the previous meeting  Minutes of the last meeting were approved

Agenda Items 1. Parent forum meeting regarding exam structure. The Parent Council hosted a meeting on Monday 7th November @ 7pm in Hillhead High School to discuss the current exam structure. There was approx. 40 parents present, along with several teaching staff, Larry Flanagan from EIS and members of Glasgow City Councils Education Dept. A few members of the Parent Council had assisted in drawing up a list of questions. Mr Wight and Larry Flanagan help to explain the new exam approach that Hillhead High School has adopted. Mr Wight kindly offered to help with writing up answers to the questions that were asked. Chirsty Hamilton noted that it was very difficult to minute the meeting due to the volume of questions and answers. When the minutes have been completed the Parent Council will work with the school to publish all relevant information on the school website. It was explained that teachers often struggle with 1 year highers, teachers can give more time and support to greater numbers of pupils over a longer 2 year period. Mr Wight suggested that they would increase the amount of exam information given to pupils in P7 &S3. Mr Wight explained that Hillhead High School has continued to improved exam results, the results get better each year – indicating that this new exam approach may be directly having a positive impact on results.

2. Update on New Head Teacher Six Parent Council Members had completed Glasgow City Council’s ‘Recruitment and Selection’ training course (Sylvia, Chiara, Tariq, Bernie Gordana & Chirsty.) The aforementioned parents felt that the recruitment process was very badly managed by Glasgow City Councils Education Dept. Three parents were selected to attend the leeting and interview process. The interviews were held on Wednesday 30th Nov 2016. Mr Wight confirmed that 3 candidates had visited the school for a school walkabout.

3. Communications Plan GCC have taken a yearly subscription for TES Global, a link to Hillhead High is on the TES website. The school will be working to improve their website, though the school has been selected as a pilot school for good website design. All teaching posts are advertised on the TES website and they have a very good education portal. There was a discussion regarding the Parent Council setting up their own website, a domain can be purchased for £12 a year. No formal decision was agreed as some felt that having pages on the school website would suffice. Ideas for an email contact was suggested by Robina – [email protected] again no agreement was reached. Robina has kindly setup a Facebook and twitter accounts:

Twitter - ParentCouncil@HillheadParents Facebook - www.facebook.com/HillheadHighSchoolParentCouncil

A subgroup has been established to assist with the Parent Council communications strategy, Tariq, Ally, Robina & Chirsty will form this subgroup.

4. Traffic Safety Initiative Senga has been coordinating with Hillhead Primary School regarding ongoing traffic safety initiatives in and around Hillhead Primary and Hillhead High. GCC are reluctant to improve road signage on Great Western Road. The 20 miles signs around the school are not very big, more could be done to improve signage around Hillhead. Miss Kerr reported that GCC Road Safety Team came into Hillhead High and gave a very informative presentation to S1 & S2, they had lots of photos of problem roads and of High School children crossing roads without due care and attention. The school will organise for the Road Safety Team to visit once a year. It is hoped that this will help to make more children road safety aware.

5. Mr Wight had been participating in a local Hillhead community initiative to keep the streets litter free. Mr Wight advised that the majority of pupils take great care to dispose of litter in the bins provided. An issue has arisen that the bins on the main streets around Hillhead High School are only being emptied by the City Council every 4 days. The bins are overflowing and this in turn causes a problem for residents. Hillhead High School will continue to engage with the local community and address any issues that arise.

5. Headteacher's Report - Mr Wight – report attached.

9. AOB / Date of next meetings:

 Next meeting: - Monday 16th January 2017 @ 6:30pm