Minutes of School Council Meeting 12th November 2009

Present: Alison Noble, Margot McAllister, Alison Platts, Melanie Main, Norman Brown, June Underwood, Emma Kelly, Guy Morgan, Derek Mills, Jane Davidson, Bruce Cameron, David Coombes, Rozina Mohammed

Apologies: Angela Christie, Alice Brown, Elke Versmessen, Sean Byrne, David Wigglesworth, Tasneen Irshad


P1 parental involvement/Story Sacks

Margot MacAllister gave a very well received presentation about the P1 Story Sack project. The school aimed to put together around 30 “story sacks” containing a story book, along with a number of related resources (eg, a relevant information book, a game, toy, CD etc), which would be used to enthuse children (and parents) about books and reading. The story sacks would be borrowed by children every few weeks, with the idea that they would be seen as a “treat”. Margot’s experience in a previous school of using story sacks had been very positive, and this was echoed by a number of parents who had come across the initiative at nurseries. The school had held a very successful meeting for parents inviting them to become involved in developing the story sacks (eg, making the bags, collating the contents, maintaining the bags). The following points were noted in discussion:

* It was thought that parent at all stages in the school might be able to contribute to the project, by providing books, or other items for the bags. The school would consider issuing a list of books they were considering using and inviting people to donate copies of the books and other resources. This was agreed to be an appropriate “green” approach, given that families often had good condition/unused items that they would be happy to give to the school.
* The school was working on the basis of around £30 per sack for contents (excluding books), and were hoping for School Council funding to cover the costs (the school planned to use the Book fair proceeds to buy the books themselves). Alison indicated that, given the general support for the initiative, any request would be considered favourably, but it would be considered in the context of any other requests from the school. The School Council/PTA would be guided by the priorities indicated by the school.
* The initiative was highlighted as a good example of parental involvement, with a significant number of parents coming forward to offer help. The school had also used the opportunity to gather notes of interest from parents in getting involved in other school activities. The advantage of getting people “signed up” at the P1 stage by actively involving them in an initiative of this type was noted. It was hoped that by doing so, people would stay involved in some capacity as their child moved up the school.


Head Teacher’s report (paper circulated in advance of the meeting )

P1 intake (2010): Alison wasn’t in a position to provide any update the information in the paper. She was aware of the concerns in the school community on this issue, and would provide more information when she could. However, she emphasised that any planning arrangements would remain tentative until final numbers were confirmed.
Budgets: Alison confirmed that the cumulative effect of the proposed school budget cuts over the next 3 would be 10%. She noted that there was some anxiety amongst head teachers as to how this magnitude of cut would be managed, with staff costs likely to bear the brunt, with a number of schools already planning to cut classroom assistant posts. On the positive side, Alison noted that Sciennes was relatively well resourced: school budget allocations were based on a per capita calculation, and because Sciennes was running at near capacity, costs per head were relatively low, compared to the LA average.


Finance report (paper circulated at the meeting )

Alison gave a brief update, noting the following:

* Recent income: The wine evening had been very successful and had raised approximately £750 (final costs were still to be accounted for), while the school uniform sale had raised £400.
* Recent expenditure: The PTA had given the school a cheque for £*** to cover commitments from the previous year.
* The school uniform sale income would go towards the MacEwan Hall event; parent would also be asked to contribute on the day.


Alison anticipated that there would be limited funds available for one off purchases if the increase in excursion fund/residential trip subsidies was maintained from last year.


Fundraising

* Derek was keen for the school/School Council/PTA to take a more strategic and ambitious approach to fundraising, and he raised a number of options which he felt could be usefully pursued:
* Grant funding: Derek was keen to follow the model pursued by a number of independent schools and investigate the opportunities for grant funding from various bodies (eg, the Lottery Fund). Targeting local businesses: Derek also reported that he had been developing a leaflet aimed at local businesses, inviting them to contribute to school resources (financially or in kind). Derek believed that an initiative like this could bring in £20k+ for the school.
* Sciennes School Trust: Derek believed that there was the potential to make better use of Sciennes School Trust and its charitable status.


It was agreed that Derek and Jane would investigate these ideas further, working in collaboration with the school (Angela Christie). It was noted that Elke had previously indicated an interest in activity of this type and she would be invited to join the Working Group.


Parental Involvement

There was some discussion about parental involvement in the school. It was noted that a significant number of parents were involved in the school in a “hands on” capacity (eg, via the PTA, volunteering in classes, assisting with particular activities such as the story sacks or cycle training, helping on school trips, joining the Friday fruit group etc) and that this was to be commended. However, it was agreed it would be desirable to get more people involved in school policy/school management activities. The School Council was the formal vehicle for such involvement and it was agreed that the barriers to involvement needed to be identified and addressed. Communication was seen as key, along with the need for the Council/PTA to be properly accountable to the Parent/Carer Forum, and the following points were made:There was nothing to suggest that parents didn’t wish to have a say, and the School Council had a responsibility to facilitate involvement.

* The profile of the School Council needed to be raised
* Meetings should be better advertised
* Agendas and minutes should be properly disseminated to parents/carers
* The different ways of getting involved should be promoted. The fact that meetings were open to all should be made clear, along with the option to contribute to a one-off meeting/on a particular issue as well as becoming a formal Council member
* It was important that the issues dealt with by the School Council were seen as relevant to parents/carers – there should be a mechanism for identifying the concerns of parents/allowing parents to suggest issues for consideration
* The School Council should revisit the issue of employing a clerk if this would assist with effective communication; an alternative suggestion was to rotate the task of minute taking.


In relation to school communication systems, the following points were noted:

* The fact that the School website was not currently operating was seen as a hindrance to improving communication (school and School Council).
* It was noted that the Sciennes Flyer was currently being issued on paper only because of delay in updating pupil information and the email distribution lists. Alison would investigate how this process might be speeded up.
* The need for the school to communicate more effectively with non-resident parents was noted. Alison would look at how this might be done.


Sick Kids Feasibility Study

Guy reported progress on this issue. Following advice from Paul Scott (a Sciennes parent and experienced planning consultant), new outline plans had been drawn up based on a more ambitious vision for the school and the Sick Kids site. Paul’s advice, based on informal soundings at the Council planning Department, was that the Council would be receptive to a more ambitious project, and the new proposals reflected that. Two options were presented, one based on a 3 stream school, the other based on a 4 stream school. Both options included redevelopment of the main Sick Kids building to incorporate new school facilities, as well as additional community and health and well-being facilities. Guy believed that such a project would be attractive to the community, and the council, and that using at least part of the building for health and wellbeing purposes would create an appropriate legacy for the Children’s Hospital.
Melanie believed that the provision of non-ecumenical community space for the Sciennes/ Marchmont area would be welcomed but thought that planning consent for the old Napier building at the top of Marchmont Crescent incorporated the inclusion of community space. She indicated that it may be necessary to take account of that in building the case for the proposed development.
There was some concern expressed about the principle of developing a 4 stream primary school, larger than the current school which some already saw as too big. However, the following points were raised:

* An enlarged site would allow the school to be designed to operate very much as upper and lower schools, giving the opportunity for older and younger children to have separate playing areas, and teaching areas more suited to their needs.
* Sciennes was currently oversubscribed, and the 4 stream option recognised this and allowed the school to be properly designed to cope with the numbers that wished to attend, thus mitigating some of the disadvantages associated with the current school.
* While it was felt that there may be some resistance to the idea amongst parents/the community, it was suggested that the potential facilities on offer as part of the 4 stream option could provide an effective argument in its favour.
* Ruling out the 4 stream option could prove to be a missed opportunity if the development of a 3 stream option resulted in a school that was operating at maximum capacity with little flexibility regarding accommodation, not that dissimilar to the present situation.
* The views of the City Council were not yet known; however, it was possible that the 4 stream option may prove more attractive to the Council and make it more likely that a development of any type got the go ahead.


It was noted that there was a long way to go in the negotiations with the Council; Melanie also noted that several recently elected members of the Community Council had a strong interest in the future of the Sick Kids site, and that there would be many people with a stake in how the site was used.
School Council members endorsed the work done by Guy and his colleagues to date and were happy for him to continue discussions with Paul and the School with all options still on the table.