Kirknewton Primary School Parent Council Minutes of Meeting on Monday 10 September 2018 at 7.00pm

Present: Carol Allardyce (Chair) Nikki Thomson (P6*) Simon Fuller Angharad Storrie (Vice Chair) Manju Hein Pablo La Porte Nicky Pascoe (Secretary) Pamela Berry Kelly Kellner Pip Sheils (nursery pm*) Lesley Dicker Geraldine Lansley Chris Campbell (P1*) Angela Herkes Cheryl Cameron Fiona Cain (P2* and PSA Chair) Sarah McNee Pamela Langan Karen Davidson (P4*) Geraldine Lucas Jo Hunter Stuart Douglas (P5*) Martyn Blainey Laura Stewart In attendance Mrs Tracey Apologies Angela Hogg (P7*) Joan Mackenzie *denotes class representative for academic year 2017/18. Class representatives for 2018/19 to be appointed at upcoming AGM.

Welcome Carol Allardyce welcomed all to the meeting, especially the many new faces attending. She outlined that the purpose of the Parent Council is to support the school in achieving goals and whilst we do that, we gain greater knowledge of the school and the education our children receive and can be instrumental in enhancing it further. She also noted that should anyone have a particular issue relating to the school or nursery, they should in the first instance always raise this with the school directly.

Actions from last meeting (7 June 2018) Nursery phone line The phone line for the nursery was not yet working and therefore the school were using staff mobile phones for communication. This should be resolved shortly. Music tuition Nothing further had been heard in respect of the outcome of the consultation on music instruction for P5 to P7. Those children already in the brass group had been given the choice to continue with tuition on a paid basis. Current P5s had not yet been asked to participate in music tuition. Mrs Tracey was to try to find out more about this. Mrs Tracey advised that the school had been asked by WLC whether they wanted to move responsibility for maintenance of instruments to the music tutors and the school had agreed to this. Mr Buckley was teaching ukulele to the P5 children. Mrs Tracey advised that if music tuition stopped Mr Buckley may be released to teach music at key stages. Noted that the Dean Park intake into Balerno High School had the opportunity for chanter tuition. A weekend workshop on pipes and drums had unfortunately only been given very late notice leaving most children unable to organise attendance. Mrs Tracey was to follow up on this as it may be possible to bring this into the school. Pip Sheils also advising that Merchiston High School provided chanter lessons for P5 to P7 for free through the Sounds Like Music programme offered by the City of Edinburgh Council, and these were available to KPS pupils. Edinburgh Schools Review The City of Edinburgh Council Education Children and Families Committee which met on 21 June 2018 considered the options generated by the informal consultation in the west and south west schools review

PRIVATE 58821430 1 NFP 2 and had voted in favour of “Option 1”. This will now go out to statutory consultation which is expected to start later in the year. Further information on the west and southwest Edinburgh schools review is available from City of Edinburgh Council website. Appended to these minutes is a note summarising Option 1 from the website. Minutes of meeting on 7 June 2018 Karen Davidson had a query arising from these minutes and it was agreed that she would discuss this with Carol Allardyce separately.

Social Media There had been a flurry of activity on the Facebook page regarding differing opinions of the role of Social Media, the school and the pupils. Carol Allardyce had promised the parents/carers who are unable to attend the Parent Council meeting that she would highlight their points.  Some do not agree with the use of social media and believe that the use of email, groupcall or physical letters should suffice for communication between the school and pupil households.  Some do not have any social media accounts and some have Facebook but not Twitter or vice versa.  Some do not like the idea that the Twitter account is public.  Some believe it is advisable to have school social media as it can help teach pupils safe and appropriate use of social media.  In addition, a particular concern was raised at the meeting that publication of future events on the Twitter page could be a security risk, and it should only refer to past events. It was noted that the Kirknewton Primary Parents’ Facebook page was principally to aid communication between parents/carers (eg lost property, class parties), and to announce events, fundraisers etc. Should anyone have a particular issue regarding the school or nursery, they should approach the school directly. Mrs Tracey was keen to ensure that all parents/carers were aware that the Facebook page was not run by the school or used by them to communicate. All school communication would come via the newsletter, groupcall and email, with the Twitter page also being used. Carol Allardyce undertook to check the “sticky” on the Facebook page to ensure that its use and purpose were very clear. In addition “Kirk Newton”, the school member, would leave the Facebook page. Until the appointment of Mrs Tracey as Acting Head Teacher, the school’s Twitter account was not widely used. It was noted that Mrs Tracey wishes to utilise the Twitter account more, with the main aim being to highlight and celebrate successes of the pupils and school. It is also a good way to stay connected with other schools and to share good practice. Mrs Tracey confirmed that no information regarding events etc would be communicated on the Twitter page which was not also communicated via the newsletter or groupcall. There had been a timing issue last week where the newsletter had been slightly delayed and therefore information had appeared on the Twitter page before the newsletter was issued. Parents should note that whilst emails to the parent body from the school were free of charge, it cost the school to use the groupcall text service. Permissions were being sought by the school in respect of all pupils, for their photos to appear on both the blog page and Twitter page. Noted that the blog page had always had a Twitter link and public. If any parent/carer wished to check that the school had correct details for communication to them, they should check with the school office during school hours.

Head Teacher Report Mrs Tracey reported a great start to the new academic year and that she was getting to know everyone: staff, pupils and wider stakeholders. At this stage she was spending as much time within the classrooms and the nursery as possible. After the September holiday weekend she and Ms Anderson would be undertaking learning walks within the school, at this time focussing on the learning environment, inclusivity, access to materials and building resilience. From these observations, they would share outcomes and look at the school’s strengths and areas for improvement. 3

Staff Paul Wilson had started as the Early Years Office in nursery, working a 10am to 6pm pattern. Colleen Reap had joined as pupil support worker in P1 and also had a nurture role. Pauline Bird had joined from Simpsons Primary School in Bathgate and was covering staff non pupil contact time alongside Claire Smith. Adele Cowie who had taught P6 last year was now the support for learning teacher. She was undergoing training and would lead on the building resilience programme. She also had 4 nurture sessions each week. Improvement Areas The staff were currently looking at improvement areas, reviewing prior thoughts given the leadership change and developing their three year plan. Key areas were:  Health and wellbeing: this was incorporating the resilience programme and an introduction would be given at the coffee morning on 5 October. A specific query had arisen regarding this being a three-year programme and how the current P6 and P7 pupils would be supported in the whole programme given their move to secondary education. Mrs Tracey undertook to speak to Mr Macallum at Balerno High School regarding carrying on the three year programme for those pupils transitioning to secondary before completing three years at KPS. From her prior experience teaching within City of Edinburgh Council Mrs Tracey expected this to dovetail well with the CES “creating confident kids” programme.  The need to bring the school values to life: how do these underpin the curriculum?  Raising attainment in writing: this had been identified as an improvement area at the whole West Lothian Council level. The cluster schools were developing best practice here. Free writing would also be a focus.  SEAL (Stages of Early Arithmetical Learning) project: this was to be embedded at nursery and P1 level with training of staff. In P3 classes upwards number talks were taking place every day. Pupils had access to the “number dog” tool where they could log in both at school and from home and the school could track progress. The school intended to circulate the improvement plan after the September holiday and would also send out the standards and quality report which had been done by Mrs Brown last term. In Mrs Brown’s evaluation the school had scored “good” against all criteria. The report was done in May each year and the school wanted to involve the parent body and other stakeholders in next year’s report so that there was wider input into improvement planning. Resources Investment in P1 and nursery books was a priority. The Kirknewton Children’s Gala Committee had been donated a large number of books to sell for Gala funds and Nikki Thomson would discuss with the Committee whether they were willing to donate any suitable books to the school. In P3 some children were getting photocopies of reading books which was not acceptable. PSA funding for new books was being considered. There was discussion as to why this should be a PSA investment rather than being met from the school budget. Mrs Tracey was to meet with the school’s business manager shortly and would then have a better overview of the school funding however understood that the budget was very limited in respect of supplies. PEF funding would be much more limited in this academic year as it was based on children entitled to free school meals, the number of whom attending KPS had fallen. Funding would be in the region of £4,000 and in the first place needed to look at meeting the needs of those children who were in receipt of FSM. The school had to be accountable as to how the funds were used to lower the attainment gap for these children, and funds would be individualised for each child (for example used to pay for camp, tuition etc). The school needed to raise awareness that parents should register for free school meals, even in P1 to P3 where all pupils received free meals. There were wider benefits such as clothing grants, and allocation of PEF funding. An email had been sent to parents/carers encouraging registration and the message needed to be repeated so that the school captured all those who were entitled.

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SMSA – Scottish National Standardised Assessments Pupils in P1, P4, P7 and S3 complete online standardised assessments in literacy and numeracy. Primary 1 complete two test a year (literacy & numeracy) and the rest complete three tests a year (reading, writing & numeracy). The aim is to help identify children’s progress. There is no pass or fail. This has been introduced as part of the National Improvement Framework for Scottish Education. West Lothian Council set a timeframe during the school year for when the tests are carried out at each level. The school tell the pupils when they are being tested, but this is done in a non-pressured/non- competitive way. Testing is by a computer based assessment which uses an algorithm to set the test depending on the child’s progress. The tests are not timed. Results are used to inform future planning. Further useful information can be obtained from the upstart.scot website. Parents are reminded that they are entitled to all test results relating to their children and can request these from the school office.

Head Teacher Recruitment The advert is on myjobscotland.com with closing date of 16 September 2018. Phyllis Wood (the WLC Education Officer allocated to KPS) along with colleagues, will assess the applicants and form the long leet the following day. The long leet assessment will be held at the school on the morning of 24 September 2018. Later that week or the following week, the Parent Council will be advised of the short leet recommendations and a short leet date will be arranged thereafter. Members of the Parent Council will be involved in the recruitment process. Between 4-6 parent/carers can attend the long leet assessment. No specific Head Teacher recruitment training is necessary. Pupils are also involved in this stage of the assessment. Two parent/carers attend the short leet interview, on a panel which will also include the Education Officer, Councillors and the local minister. Both parent council members of the panel require to have had the relevant Head Teacher recruitment training from WLC. Both Carol Allardyce and Karen Davidson had undertaken training. Angharad Storrie was trying to find out from WLC if a further training date would occur before the interview date. Immediately prior to the short leet interviews, the panel will meet to familiarise themselves with candidate information, job description and person specification, and will agree the questions to be asked to ensure no duplication of questions and to help cover all areas. Following completion of all the interviews, the panel discuss the candidates’ performances and a vote is taken to decide the successful candidate. Any parent/carer who wants to be part of the recruitment process should contact Carol Allardyce. An email will be issued to all inviting involvement. In addition, if there are any particular questions to be raised during the interviews these should be given to Carol as well.

Possible additional pupil activities A parent has raised a query around the school’s policy on after school clubs and particularly whether this has changed, in light of the fact that no clubs are currently running. Mrs Tracey confirmed that she was meeting with the active schools coordinator this week and would then be able to provide further feedback. Noting that a commitment to run an after school club from the teaching staff needs to be put into their working time agreement (if the teacher agrees to it). Lunchtime clubs could be run with pupil support workers. Mrs Tracey was keen to offer after school activities: running these relied on staff goodwill, which she encouraged. Mr Wilson was keen to offer a football club/team as he had a football coaching qualification. There was also a basketball league run amongst WLC schools but this would require a parent volunteer to run it. At the moment the only activities on offer were Friday afternoon judo and the gardening club run through the PSA (once a month on a Wednesday after school) which was restarting shortly.

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PSA Update Fiona Cain reported that following the last school inspection the need for the school to have an outdoor multi use gym area had been identified. Councillor King had championed this and WLC had approved funding for this in 2019/20.

Any Other Competent Business Meet the teacher Mrs Tracey confirming that Meet the Teacher evenings would not run this year. There had been an inconsistent approach to these from staff (some did a presentation, others Q&A etc) and they were not well attended. Before deciding whether to run these again a standardised approach needed to be agreed amongst the staff and the school needed to evaluate what was done to ensure the evening was purposeful. The science drop in event had proved much more popular and therefore the school were running a maths drop in which would give parents/carers the opportunity to meet teachers. Staff details Mrs Tracey confirmed that the school website would be updated to provide details of class teachers/other staff. Behaviour policy It was again noted that the “good to be green” policy did not appear to be working. In some classrooms it was being applied with a negative approach rather than a positive message. Mrs Tracey was keen to change the behaviour policies to focus on restorative approaches, but not all staff had yet been trained in this.

Parent Council Meetings for 2018/19 Note the following meeting dates have been previously confirmed for this academic year: Tuesday 9 October 2018 (joint AGM with PSA) Wednesday 21 November 2018 Thursday 17 January 2019 Monday 18 March 2019 Tuesday 4 June 2019

Next meeting The next meeting would be the AGM on Tuesday 9 October 2018, starting at 7pm. There being no other business, the meeting closed at 8.30 pm.

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Appendix Edinburgh Schools Review – Option 1 This option includes

 No school relocations or closures.

 Establishing a catchment area for a new Maybury Primary School.

 In the south west of the city: minor changes to the catchment areas of Currie High School and Balerno High School and to the catchment areas of Currie, Nether Currie, Dean Park and Ratho primary schools.

 In the north west of the city: minor changes to the catchment areas of The Royal High School and Craigmount High School and to the catchment areas of Corstorphine, Hillwood and Cramond primary schools.

 No changes to the catchment area of Wester Hailes Education Centre or its feeder primary schools: Canal View, Clovenstone or Sighthill primary schools.

 No changes affecting Forrester High School, Woodlands School or Kirknewton Primary School.

 Development of a west Edinburgh spatial strategy as part of the new Local Development Plan to consider where any new secondary school(s) should go.

Councillors also agreed to set up a working group to develop a long-term plan to maximise the educational and other opportunities for young people in the Wester Hailes area.