KING'S PARK SECONDARY SCHOOL

PARENT COUNCIL

MINUTES OF MEETING: 10th November 2008

PRESENT: APOLOGIES:

Zoe Kean Simon Bates Colin Towler Greg Kousourou Lynn Samson Louise Kinloch Martin Laycock Niall Kinloch Janie Munro Jane Hunter Margaret Barr Margaret Logan Anne Burke Seonaid MacRae Marjorie Sinclair June Wells (Clerk)

1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The minutes of the previous minute were approved.

2. MATTERS ARISING

Pastoral Care Representative: Wendy Dougan has agreed to attend the meeting on 12.1.09.

Road Safety: The bus stop has now been moved as requested. It was felt that with emailing and correspondence this matter was dealt with quickly once it was brought to the attention of land services. Colin Towler was thanked for his work in achieving the result.

Associated Primaries: Janie attended the first Merrylee Primary School parent/teacher meeting. The second was unfortunately cancelled due to the tragic death of Mr Mallon, the Depute Head. Martin is to attend future meetings. It had been agreed that minutes of parent council meetings would be exchanged amongst the associated primaries but so far only Mount Florida have done so. Margaret Barr confirmed that a letter or email had gone to all relevant schools. This is to be chased and reported back.

Merrylee Catchment: No progress at the moment. There had been some informal chat with parents at the meeting. It was felt the next step would be to talk to individual Parent Councils separately with a view to conducting market research re families affected and decisions re choice of school.

Fire Doors: Councillor Ritchie had contacted Jim Wilson. To date no work had been carried out on the fire doors. Margaret Barr confirmed that some work had been carried out on the entrance doors which have previously been chained at night. She also reported that there had been a recent break-in via these doors and that the chains had been reinstated. This adds to the worry that at present the fire doors can be sprung from outside the building resulting in a security risk for the school. As the doors are not alarmed there is another security issue involved. There is no money in the current budget for replacing the doors but could possibility be upgraded. Janie to follow up by email to Jim Wilson and to comment on recent break-in to support urgency for replacement.

Solar Panel: Colin now member of Co-op. The school has also now been nominated to receive a grant of £20,000 for solar panels. We should hear by the end of February 2009 whether grant has been awarded.

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New Timetable: Re late coming Janie noted that at another Scottish secondary the introduction of a breakfast club has shown to reduce late comings. The school currently offers a breakfast service but for a club to be effective it also needs to provide activities and have an opening time of 7.45 am. Funding would need to be found to finance this.

Consultation on the Next Generation of National Qualifications in : Janie responded to this and filled out form on line but unfortunately was unable to save properly to send to other Council members. The submission is now in and Janie stated she would be happy to answer any questions. Zoe stated that the implementation date had been moved for a year as the timescale had been too tight for the earlier date.

SPTC: Janie and Zoe had agreed to attend however it had been oversubscribed. They were invited to attend for lunch and given a tour of the SPTC building. The tour of the Scottish Parliament is highly recommended. Janie and Zoe buttonholed Lorraine Sanda, Parent Partnership Learning and Teaching Scotland, at lunch to highlight King's Park's profile.

3. CORRESPONDENCE

Janie apologised as she had not had time to go to cubbyhole for current correspondence. She had however received an email from Kathryn Farrow re a working party for parents and carers of children with autism. Anyone interested should contact Pat Nisbet pat.nisbet@education..gov.uk by end of December.

An invitation had been received from John Harkins to attend the Health Summit 2008 to be held on 20.11.08 in , from 9.30 to 1.30. This is a chance to hear the voice of young people in the area and their attitudes to facilities, or lack of, in the SE area. Janie will attend.

It has been arranged that Charlie Gordon will speak to 6th year pupils, Active Citizenship class, on 20.1.09 about why they should use their vote when they are 18. There is also a chance for us to bring up topics for future discussion.

Margaret Barr had written to Sharon Green on 20.10.08 about repeated water damage within the school building. There had been no reply to the letter but Margaret had received a phone call saying reply was en route. It is thought that specialist repairs will be needed. Colin suggested that leaves in gutters or flashings could be the cause. Margaret replied that gutters had already been cleared. There are several sources of ingress. Apparently repairs were carried out on Saturday the 8th, but not sure if complete. These have to be chased.

An email had been received from a Tutor Website providing free service for pupils and tutors to get in touch with each other. As not enough is known about this website or the service offered it was felt the Parent Council could not endorse and therefore no further action to be taken.

Minutes from Old Community Council had been received. Two complaints had been made about pupils from King's Park and Margaret Barr has dealt with these. It was noted however that complaints about pupils had dropped considerably since Margaret came into post. Rumours had also emerged about Simshill Primary to be demolished, but there was also talk of this being used as an emergency school if needed in the SE area.

Minutes from Mount Florida Parent Partnership had been received. Mount Florida Primary School had asked Janie to pass on notice about their forthcoming Christmas Fare on 22.11.08. She also asked everyone to spread the word to get as many people to attend as possible.

4. SUBGROUPS

Culture Club: Zoe reported that the Prefects Panto trip had been arranged for 4.12.08 to see Cinderella at the Kings Theatre. 57 tickets had been obtained for £12 each with five free

2 tickets. There had only been one week to collect the money and Zoe thanked Margaret and the school captains for getting the money in so quickly.

Sports: Colin attended the Sportscotland meeting at Hampden on 7.10.08. He spoke with Chris McLean, GCC and Kevin McGuicken, Sports Scotland. There is very little funding available at present and projects ongoing at the moment began 5 or 6 years ago. Overall it will cost around £800,000 for King's Park to build multi-purpose gym facilities. The maximum grant that Sports Scotland can allocate is £450,000. It was suggested that GCC should be brought onboard as the main funding provider but that it could take up to 7 years for the project to be successful.

Advice given was to get the whole of the P.E. department involved in the proposal to give a critical analysis of what facilities they provide currently. Is the school unique in what it offers? What would the benefits of a multi-purpose gym be? There is more chance of success if it can be seen as a provision for excellence for one particular indoor sport and will also have to be opened up to the community and used outwith school hours. Glasgow Council provides many sports facilities but it is still felt there is a gap in the King's Park School area. The sports department is to be consulted and a meeting to be arranged with other subgroups to progress proposal.

Funding is also available from Sport Scotland for gym equipment for already established sport facilities.

The Olympic Games are draining resources from Scottish sports and Sports Scotland is funding the Commonwealth Games also. We should definitely approach GCC with proposal. The forthcoming Health Forum should be used to get quotes to combine healthy lifestyle with sports and fitness.

A geotechnical survey would be needed for ground conditions before any work could be started as there are regulations in place for any site planned as a sports facility. This could cost up to £14,000 for planning permission. GCC would need to be on board before we could progress any bids.

Lynn Samson offered to help with proposal and would be willing to join the subgroup to progress.

Social and Fundraising: The selling of raffle tickets was flagged up. This to be chased.

Website: Martin, Colin and Janie met with Sinclair Houston from Gateway. Sinclair is happy to help with website and discussion took place about menus, visual lists and separate Parent Council page. It was agreed to would be a good idea for the menu to run along the top of web page. A meeting is to be arranged with Margaret Barr to discuss positioning of Parent Council menu, rules of what the Parent Council can and cannot do, password needed and agreed protocol.

Sinclair asked Margaret Barr for pilot of video clips of school eg transition between primary and secondary to use on website. This could be useful for future videos, like concerts etc.

Enterprise: Lynn Samson reported there had been no progress to date as Clare had been on sick leave with a broken ankle.

5. SCHOOL REPORT

M Logan reported:

• S6 committees getting on very well, eg Charities Group organising Children in Need this Friday 14 November (aiming to beat last year’s total), Social Committee organised a Halloween disco for S1 pupils.

3 • Senior Council are very enthusiastic. Their mission for this year is to make the Council more effective in representing pupils’ views. Pupil Council issues will be a standing item on the agenda of SMT meetings. There are sub-committees for dealing with various issued, eg litter, a Drama club etc. Councils will be consultative groups, using HMIe’s ‘How Good Is Our School?’

M Barr reported:

PUPIL NEWS • Art Galleries Competition. Congratulations to Rachel Docherty, S4 silver medal winner and Monica Wilson S4 gold medal winner, at the annual Art Competition for Young People 2008. The award ceremony was held in the People's Palace and Winter Gardens on Thursday 9 October. The exhibition is open from Friday 10th October till 16th November. • Sixty pupils visited the Anne Frank Exhibition at the Celtic Learning Centre. Very moving. • Football - Congratulations to Ryan Moore of 3L2 and Robert Whelan of 3L1 on being chosen to play for Glasgow Schools this year - great achievement! • Two pupils Chloe Kinloch and Amy O’Brien represented King’s Park in the Glasgow Youth Music Theatre project, culminating in a performance in the Old Fruitmarket on 3 November. A wonderful performance – well done to both girls. • Hayley McSporran in S6 has won a competition to select pupils’ art work for the 2009 Calendar. Well done. • Ashley Sweeney, 2M2 has won the Ladies’ Level 2 Scottish Championships in Dumfries, organised by the National Ice Skating Competition •

VARIOUS • Thanks to Colin Towler for nominating the school for £20,000 worth of solar panels. In the UK, 100 schools will receive this resource. Watch this space! • The school had been invited to take part in a pilot programme giving P7 pupils and their parents information about the secondary school, through a film of the school. It will be put on the school website. • Tuesday 11 November – P7 Challenge Day. P7 pupils and staff from all the partner primary schools will work in mixed teams, taking part in this Challenge in King’s Park Secondary. • Open Evening for P6 and P7 pupils and their parents will now take place on Monday 24 November. • The University of Strathclyde chose King’s Park Secondary to host a group of 20 teachers from the Netherlands on 8 October, to learn how we embed Enterprise into the curriculum. • Visits to primary school parents’ evenings are underway, and parents have responded well. • Mrs Maura Thomson and Miss Lilian Marshal, DHTs, are taking a 5-week course for parents called ‘What Can the Parents of a Teenager Do?’. Feedback from participants has been very positive. • Pupils from our school are designing a sensory garden for King’s Park. It will be the first one in a Glasgow park. • Water damage to the main block – M Barr has written to Amey regarding serious concerns about the impact of this unresolved issue. A repair was effected on Saturday 8 November, but it is not clear if it solved the problem. • Supported Study and Mentoring plans are underway, and the school is trying to make the most of a very limited budget. Because of the success of the mentoring programme last March to May, a mentoring programme will again be offered • At last – a date has been set for fitting the new seating in the Social Area. It will be fitted during the Christmas holidays • A PLEA TO PARENTS (will be in next newsletter) King’s Park Secondary and partner primary schools are taking delivery of 30 trees and hedges from the Woodlands Trust. Pupils from the Eco Group have kindly volunteered to assist with

4 planting, and they need tools. Parents are asked if they have any spare gardening tools which they could donate to the school. Please contact Miss Marshall, Mrs Harker or Mr Lonie. • The school will once again enter the Bridgeton Burns Competition. There will be entries in the Duet class, and in the Newsdesk class.

EVENTS • Social Events – the Eid Party and S1 Hallowe’en Party had been very successful. • A sparkling performance of ‘Songs from the Shows’ took place on the evening of Thursday 6 November. A huge number of pupils entertained the appreciated audience with extracts from all the latest musicals. Thanks to all pupils and staff who took part, but especially to Miss Waddell, Music department. Pupils will be able to perform the songs again, because King’s Park has been invited to take part in the opening day of Winterfest in George Square on Sunday 23 November.

INVITATION • On Thursday 13 November, a panel of invited guests will join S3 pupils in King’s Park’s first ever Question Time Event. Pupils will ask questions which have a moral/ethical theme. The guests represent Glasgow City Council, the Humanist Society Scotland and various faiths – Church of Scotland, Roman Catholic Church, Glasgow Buddhist Centre, Glasgow Central Mosque etc. Members of the Parent Council are warmly invited to attend.

STAFF NEWS • Staffing news – Miss Isabel McCluskey, Chemistry, left at the October holiday, and will emigrate to South Africa. Miss Lyndsay Cox has taken over her timetable in the meantime.

SQA RESULTS • M Barr distributed a summary of the SQA results, including an extract from the Standards and Quality Report. Copy attached.

6. ANY OTHER BUSINESS GPF: Janie reported there had been a fantastic turnout for the 2nd year of the Parent Council Forum, which is led and supported by parents. Janie asked if someone could attend next forum in February. There are new members of the committee from areas not previously represented who are becoming aware of issues involved. There was talk of child protection issues which are not as crucial in secondary school as Parent Councils are less likely to hold events without staff or parents in attendance. They may however still be an issue if anyone had unsupervised contact with children or at parent run discos etc.

Curriculum for Excellence DVD: Janie asked if Margaret Barr would like to talk about this at the next meeting. Margaret would be happy to do so.

Dutch Teachers: Janie was asked to give a presentation to Dutch teachers about parent councils. Kathryn presented Glasgow Council’s policy and practise and Janie spoke of King's Park and the city wide forum. A very interesting Q &A session followed and as a new issue for the Dutch teachers it was flattering to be recognised as a source of advice and information.

Treasurer's Report: As Bob Cochrane was no longer a signatory it was agreed that Janie should become new signatory.

7. DATE OF NEXT MEETING

Monday, 8th December 2008

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