Angus Black (Chair) Pamela Currie
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Aberlady Primary School Parent Council Minutes – 4 May 2016 Present: Angus Black (Chair) Pamela Currie (Head Teacher) Carn Peaston (Principal Teacher) Mo de Mowbray (Co Vice-Chair) Kathy Allan (Co Vice-Chair) Lesley Kennedy (Secretary) John Smart Hilary Matthews Maureen Verrall Councillor Jim Goodfellow Apologies: Jen MacPherson Jane Hendry Niall Bradley Kirsty Usher Councillor Tim Day Councillor Dave Berry Meeting Minutes Approved by: (APC Chair) Item Action 1.0 Welcome and Apologies 1.1 Gus welcomed everyone to the meeting and apologies were noted. 2.0 Minutes of the Previous Meeting 2.1 The minutes of the previous meeting, held on 16th March 2016, were approved and later signed by Gus. The amended minutes from 20th January were also signed. 3.0 Matters Arising 3.1 Action items from previous meetings not covered elsewhere: Recruitment and Selection training – Thanks to Kathy for attending training on 18th April. Gus, John and Mo have volunteered to attend the next session. Creation of Tenants and Residents Association - This topic has disappeared from the ACA meeting minutes. Lesley to follow up with LK Donald Hay and provide update. Parent Council Health Check – Lesley to send out email regarding LK update of Parent Council constitution. 4.0 Pupil Council Minutes 4.1 Mrs Currie reported to Parent Council on behalf of Pupil Council. Pupil Council to ask classes for suggestions for next ‘house point treat’. Sounds like it may be ice lollies. Agreement that Marvellous Mondays will continue for the rest of this session. The Play Pod is not finished so is still closed to pupils. UPDATE: Training has now taken place outlining use of play equipment, guidelines and rules. The Play Pod is now in use. 1 Aberlady Primary School Parent Council Minutes – 4 May 2016 4.1 (cont.) Woods of Wonder are still out of bounds. UPDATE: WoW are now open for play on a class rota system for the time being. During eco- week all classes have contributed to the WoW, increasing ownership of the space. Pupil Council have requested that the school newsletter be provided to teachers to read out in class and that it should be read out during achievements assembly. Pupils are agreed that there should be an achievements assembly once a term. Mrs Currie to outline what constitutes an ‘achievement’ during assembly. Pupil Council agrees that of the 6 new netbooks, the P4 and P5 classes should each have one for accelerated reader (AR) testing. 5.0 Head Teacher’s Report 5.1 Mrs Currie reported to Parent Council. Staffing Update One PE supply teacher leaves this week. All pupils will receive 2 hours of PE per week, taught by class teachers. Next session the school will have a PE specialist for one full day a week. This allows for 5 sessions, split over 6 classes. This may be managed using rotational blocks. All children will continue to receive 2 hours of PE per week. Mrs Sargent has informed us of her wish to retire in June. All at Parent Council wish to thank Mrs Sargent for all her hard work and support over the years. The school is currently recruiting for a Learning Support Teacher to cover 0.5 days per week, starting August 2016. Miss Wood will reduce her working hours from August 2016 to 3 days a week. Staffing arrangements and class designation planning is underway and will be confirmed in June. There will be an NQT and MA year 3 student involved in teaching next session. The MA student will be assigned to a class for the full year and teach alongside the class teacher. This is part of a pilot being undertaken by Gullane, Aberlady and Law PS. The school’s newly qualified teacher (NQT) has taken on full time teaching so Mrs Logan is now available to work flexibly 1 day a week. This allows for staff development, peer observation and school plans to be progressed. The school has 2 PGDE students currently in P5 and P6. They are proving to be effective students and are an asset to their classes. Mrs Jarron will remain in school as full-time ASN. The budget allows retention of another ASN member of staff on reduced hours with another member having the choice to be redeployed. School Improvement Plan Update Outdoor – Mrs Currie has met with a small group of parents to start writing an outdoor policy. There will be one more session of this group. All staff have been trained in ‘risky play’. A grant has been obtained from Support from the Start to develop risk taking in play. All staff have have received training and pupils will receive guidance in using the Play Pod in May. There will be a parents’ session towards the end of May. It is felt that this area of the curriculum has been firmly embedded in the school. Numeracy – “Speed Skills” have been introduced to support focus on mental agility. Literacy – The non-fiction library is being overhauled to make it more appealing and easier for pupils to use. Thank you to Cat Selby for her support in this area. All group fiction is being ‘levelled’ which will help pupils when choosing books. P4-P7 class libraries are also being levelled and tidied up to create more inviting areas. 2 Aberlady Primary School Parent Council Minutes – 4 May 2016 5.2 Staff Development Data Protection Training Building ambition in the early years Student placement training via Moray House Risky outdoor play Shadowing opportunities WRAP – Stands for ‘Workshop to Raise Awareness of Prevent’. Prevent is about safeguarding people and communities from the threat of terrorism. Prevent is one strand of CONTEST, the UK Government’s counter-terrorism strategy. It aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. Prevent training is being delivered to all council employees across the UK and is now being rolled out to schools. School staff will be trained in August and Mrs Peaston is the cluster trainer. GIRFEC – Mrs Peaston sits on the steering group covering how to manage the ‘Named Person Scheme’ when it launches in August. A computer system is being developed to support the scheme with a go- live date of 30th August 2016. It will be a hub allowing collation of information from different authorities; health visitors, schools, Police Scotland, social workers etc. In most cases, the named person will be a child’s midwife, health visitor, head teacher or guidance teacher depending on the age of the child. Mrs Currie will be the named person for all pupils at Aberlady Primary School. There is currently a discrepancy between the funding required to roll out the scheme and that being provided. Information is to be distributed to parents mid-May. More information can be found here: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Young- People/gettingitright/about-named-person. 5.3 Aberlady Archaeology Project – The school is in the midst of the dig. All classes have taken part. The school has secured extra resources from Historic Scotland to bring the project alive in class. All are looking forward to our follow up sessions in class over the next few weeks. There will be a whole school trip to Traprain Law in June. The archaeologists will carry out a further session and there will be a picnic and other outdoor activities. Thank you to all the parents that supported the trips to the Glebe field. School Budget considerations and Implications Thanks to the PTA the school has taken part in a cyber bullying workshop and secured a further 6 notebooks. Due to school needs, it has been possible to secure funding to allow retention of a full time ASN member of staff. The finance meeting for the budget for 2016/2017 takes place next week. NFER 2015-2016 – All P1-P7 pupils are assessed in Maths and English using NFER tests. These have been carried out in Aberlady over the past 7 years and continue this year. Results help to show the impact of teaching strategies and reinforce professional judgements. Any parent wishing further information regarding their child(ren)’ss assessments is welcome to get in touch. 3 Aberlady Primary School Parent Council Minutes – 4 May 2016 5.3 (cont.) Health and Safety / Building Management P6 are now comfortable in their classroom (previously the GP room). Music now takes place in the PE hall and PE outside on a Wednesday. If the weather is bad, PE is in the hall and music in the classrooms. Learning support is housed in the teachers’ base. Most of the items from the GP room are being stored at St. Josephs in Prestonpans. We have a few items we need placed in the Owl’s Nest. The situation is manageable short-term but the school is in desperate need of storage space and an additional room to house meetings, visiting specialists and outside agencies. Staff have been under pressure, but this is being treated as an adventure and we all have smiles on our faces! See agenda item 7 for further information. What is happening in School? A team represented the school at the East Lothian Schools Cross Country event in Dunbar on 22nd March and came 3rd! P4 and P5 shared their John Muir project and unveiled the Wood of Wonder (WoW). Reverend Hilsley has been sharing at assembly Transition from Nursery to P1 and P7 to S1 is well underway. P7 pupils with enhanced transition needs and supported transition needs are being catered for. P7s have opted for a school sleepover as their leaving trip. Youth Music Initiative (YMI) – P4 and P5 have had the opportunity to take part in a classical music workshop.