School Council Meeting - 31st March 2010

Unfortunately the meeting of 31st March was poorly attended and, according to the Constitution, there were insufficient parents present for this to be deemed a properly constituted meeting of the School Council. Despite this, an interesting discussion took place on a number of subjects which is summarised below.

Sick Kids

Guy Morgan and Paul Scott provided the meeting with an update on what is likely to happen to the Sick Kids site and where Lothian Health Board currently are in the process of selling it off. From their professional opinion, it was important that, if the school sought to gain anything from the planned move of the Sick Kids the first step would be to get the Children on Families on-board with any proposals. If this was achieved then it would be possible to begin a lobbying process across Council officials, Councillors and Lothian Health Board explaining how the school might benefit. The next stage would be for Alison Noble to brief both the Director and the Convener as to how the schools sees this as an opportunity.

Headteacher's Report

Alison presented an update of activity in Sciennes. The key points were:

• a planned visit to Sciennes from the Comenius project schools in May where there are plans to host a ceilidh to which parents will be invited.
• Sciennes has been highlighted for its good practice with GLOW
• Enrolment for next year's P1 currently exceed the nominal capacity (90 children in 3 classes). More guidance on class sizes is likely to be available at the next meeting.

Finance Report

Currently the School Council (PTA) has a bank balance of £4965 of which £4100 has been committed to school projects. An auditor has been appointed for last year's accounts.

Budget Cut Rally - Tuesday 9th February

Schools across the city are planning to stage a rally against the proposed budget cuts on Tuesday 9th February at 1615 at the City Chambers. We'd like as many parents and children to join in.

We plan to meet after school on Tuesday and walk as a group up to the City Chambers where we'll meet up with other schools. If children have a musical instrument bring that along or if they are in a sports team wear their outfit - we want to show the best of our schools.