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. Eco-Week is underway with every class contributing in the WoW. Thank you to Mrs Craig and Mrs Mackay for organising this. P5 are undertaking bike-ability. Funding has been secured to run a PEEP group in Aberlady Primary. PEEP supports parents with children 0-5 years. The funding was secured through Support from the Start. The group will be aimed at 2 and 3 year olds to support play, numeracy and literacy early interventions. The group may start as early as mid May 2016. UPDATE: This will not now start until after the summer break. A bid has been submitted to the Scottish Government’s Attainment Fund for around £15,000. This was submitted with unwavering support from Kathy Allan and Adoption UK. If successful, work will start at the end of May and will support pupils in the NBHS cluster for 1 year.
6.0 Parent Forum Queries
6.1 Single school uniform order – A query was raised at the March meeting as to why there is only a single school uniform in the school year. Would it be possible to introduce a second order mid-way through the session?
Currently, a large order is placed at the end of the school year for collection in August. In that order Mrs Mair also includes a small stock of sweatshirts, in all sizes, to be kept in school and made available for sale to new or existing pupils as required. If there is a demand, another order can be placed, but it must be for at least 12 items as this is the minimum run that the supplier will accept.
Charities – Samaritan’s Purse – A query was raised at the March meeting as to how the charities supported by the school are selected. This was prompted by a concern regarding the ethos of the Samaritan’s Purse shoe box appeal after it had appeared in the media.
4 Aberlady Primary School Parent Council Minutes – 4 May 2016 6.1 (cont.) Charities are selected for support by the Charity Committee, with some ‘favourites’, such as the Edinburgh Cat and Dog’s Home and the ‘shoeboxes’, being selected year after year. Others are chosen in response to requests and interests from parents and pupils, e.g., the recent support for refugees.
Mrs Currie shared the concerns raised about Samaritan’s Purse and so contacted the Director of the charity in London. Reassurance was given that while the charity does have a religious base there is no religious obligation associated with the receipt of a shoebox. Even if an online donor elects to sponsor a child to take part in a Christian workshop, there is no obligation on an individual child to attend. Mrs Currie was satisfied with the responses given.
At this time, no decisions have been made as to which charities will be supported by the school next session.
Incident in P4 – An e-mail was received by Parent Council regarding an incident in P4. Incidents relating to individual pupils can not be discussed at Parent Council meetings, however Mrs Currie assured Parent Council that in this case, the appropriate procedures had been followed and that ongoing monitoring is in place.
It was noted that in such situations, the role of Parent Council is not to get involved in the specific incident, but to ensure that robust procedures and protocols are in place to manage the situation, and that these have been followed appropriately by the school. Any parent wishing to discuss this further should contact the school office.
7.0 School Infrastructure Update
7.1 Building Works – All the windows in the older part of the school are to be replaced over the summer holidays. It is expected that it will take the full six weeks to complete the work. This means that the staff cannot come into the school during the holiday and that the cleaning staff will not have their usual allocated time to complete a deep clean. There is concern that the mess caused by the work will take a long time to clean up. Councillor Goodfellow stated that a dedicated cleaning team should be provided by ELC to clean the school after the work is completed. Mrs Currie to follow up on this and to reach out to Councillor Goodfellow if required. PC
Temporary Unit - It is still unclear as to whether the unit will be replaced or repaired. Either way, it is unlikely that the classroom will be available before October 2016. If it is to be replaced, this may be the time to push for an extension to the school based on the issues previously raised with regards to available space. In the meantime, P6 is enjoying being in the main part of the school.
8.0 School Travel Plan Update
8.1 Next week is Walk to School week and the JRSOs are in place.
The newly appointed Community Police officer was in school today. It is hoped that she will be able to make an appearance next week with her speed gun.
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9.0 ELAPCM Meeting Update (23rd March)
9.1 A brief summary of the meeting was provided by Kathy.
Fiona Robertson (newly appointed ELC Head of Education) was not at the meeting as she was not yet in post.
Jude Leslie and Mark Lucas from Gullane PS Parent Council raised their concerns regarding the impact of housing developments on Gullane PS. They have organised a meeting with ELC to put across the concerns of the school and the wider community. Their concerns are very similar to those raised at the Aberlady Parent Council meeting in March. It is hoped that we can learn from their approach. Kathy to request minutes of this KA meeting and provide update to Parent Council.
There was also discussion as to whether it may be appropriate to request a meeting with Jude and Mark to seek their advice on how best to proceed regarding our concerns for Aberlady. UPDATE: Kathy has received further communication from Jude Leslie and also attended a public meeting in Gullane at which it was apparent that the main focus there is still on opposing two of the three proposed developments, rather than on the impact on Gullane PS. Jude was doubtful that they could be of any help to us at this stage, but has nevertheless been looking into the potential impact. Kathy has requested a copy of the presentation delivered by Jude at the aforementioned meeting. Kathy to provide update on this to Parent Council. It may be appropriate to request a meeting once this KA has been digested, if time allows. (See also item 11.1 below).
As input to the National Strategic Conference in September, Education Scotland are asking Parent Councils and schools to consider and identify a piece of good work, a success story, or example of good practice involving parents and families in their child’s learning. Lesley to find e-mail and LK circulate.
10.0 North Berwick Coastal Area Partnership (NBCAP) Update
10.1 Youth Priorities - The desired break-out session to discuss youth and school priorities has not taken place. It is important that a start is made identifying priorities if we want to take advantage of the available budget. Lesley to email to try to co-ordinate a meeting with Gus and Niall. Anybody else wishing to become involved should contact Lesley. LK / AB / NB
Feasibility Study for All Weather Pitch – The feasibility study has been commissioned and the money to fund it has been received by the school. Mrs Currie has a meeting next week. Niall and Mrs Currie to provide update at next meeting. NB / PC
Ballencrieff- Aberlady Walking and Cycle Path – This has been identified as a ‘short-term priority’ by the ‘On The Move’ NBCAP sub-group. Nick Morgan (ELC Outdoor Access Officer) is involved and working with Niall.
Budget Challenges – As raised at the last meeting, there is a need for Parent Council to contact ELC regarding the difficulties associated with running a school with limited Operational Budget. Gus to meet with Mrs Currie to draft a letter to Fiona Robertson and circulate for review. AB / PC
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11.0 Community Items
11.1 Cruden Planning Application - As discussed at the March meeting, it is critical that adequate funds are secured from ELC and Cruden for the school developments necessary to accommodate an increase in pupil numbers as a result of the planned housing development. Once the planning application is submitted by Cruden to ELC it will be assigned to a planning meeting. If, as expected, the application is submitted in May, it is possible that it will be scheduled for an August planning meeting. Councillor Goodfellow will keep us informed to ensure maximum time JG to create our case.
Mrs Currie has pulled together the school roll for the years after the Cala development was built (starting from 2002). Councillor Goodfellow to provide the predicted school roll from the original planning JG application from Cala.
It will be necessary to pull together a position paper, outlining the history of the school, the current challenges to curriculum delivery, as well as the comparison between predicted and actual school roll from previous years. As discussed in item 9, the work that Gullane PC has been doing will be a good starting point. Gus and Lesley to initiate the formation of a sub- group to pull this information together. AB / LK
12.0 National Improvement Framework
12.1 This was discussed at the request of Fiona Robertson (ELC Head of Education.
The National Improvement Framework is an initiative from the Scottish Government, being rolled out through Education Scotland to local government to schools. It was launched in 2016 and has 4 priorities; Improvement in attainment, particularly in literacy and numeracy Closing the attainment gap between the most and least disadvantaged children Improvement in children and young people’s health and wellbeing Improvement in employability skills and sustained, positive school leaver destinations for all young people.
These priorities are linked to items on all school improvement plans for the coming session and the cluster plan will have the NIF at its heart. The NIHub contains lots of information as to how to act upon the NIF priorities and how to adapt them to the context of individual schools. Aberlady will need to target resources and strategies towards lower attaining children. More information on the NIF can be found at http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Education/Schools/NationalImprovementFrame work.
13.0 Correspondence
13.1 Due to time constraints, no correspondence was discussed.
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14.0 AOB and Date of Next Meeting
14.1 It is time to agree the dates of next session’s Parent Council meetings so that that the Primary School Lets can be submitted. Lesley and Mrs LK / PC Currie to liaise on this.
At the June meeting it is usual to discuss Parent Council membership and Committee Positions, in preparation for the AGM in September. Please could all members of the Parent Council consider whether they are willing to take on / continue in their current roles prior to the June meeting. Lesley to circulate e-mail. ALL / LK
John, as the P5 rep, raised the concern that the older P5 pupils had already had two years with a probationer and had been allocated a student teacher this year. Mrs Currie assured Parent Council that the history of a class was taken into consideration when allocating probationers and that students were spread fairly across the school.
It was agreed that future Parent Council meetings would take place in the school Staff Room.
The next Parent Council Meeting is 7pm on Wednesday 15th June 2016.
Lesley Kennedy Aberlady Parent Council Secretary
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