DRAFT PCC Meeting Minutes – 14th November 2012

Attending:

Mark Lucas – Chair

Jude Leslie – Vice Chair

Mrs Tremmel – Head Teacher

Nina Thain

Iain Armstrong

Geoff Burns

Kirsty White

Sherrie Carolan

Fran Simon

Fiona Boswell

Nic Wilson

Tom Heaphy

Jim Goodfellow – Councillor

Arran Waldman – Clerk

Apologies: Laura Sievwright, Russell Pinkerton, Tim Day, David Berry

Review of previous draft minutes – accepted

Mrs Tremmel Update:

Staff Update:

No changes at present. Will update on Mrs MacIver’s return from Maternity Leave at the next meeting.

Thanks to the staff team for running the school so well during Mrs Tremmel’s absence. Thanks to the

parents who have been in touch – the support has been appreciated.

Parent Consultations:

New trial offering a different structure for appointments was well received. Will offer this again at next

Parent Consultations. Any feedback appreciated.

Staged Assessment:

Mrs Tremmel again gave information on Staged Assessment – often pupils in the School require additional support at some point in their time there. This support varies depending on the child’s needs and can be long or short term. It was agreed that information on this does not need to go in a newsletter as the families who it is relevant for will already have the information. No further action required. Edubuzz:

Edubuzz is now up and running again however, it will take some time to get information updated by

teachers etc.

Building Works:

New bike / scooter shelter. Concerns raised about kids hitting their heads on the covering of the

shelter. Mrs T will look into this and see if anything can be done to remedy this problem. Mrs Tremmel

is going to enquire about adjoining additional cover to make the shelter coverage better on to the

lowest side and will update at the next meeting.

Mrs T will also make enquiries about the overhang on the classroom roof to see if adding any end

piece to provide better shelter- this would be more complicated due to planning and costs.

Gullane Primary School Handbook:

Mrs Tremmel consulted PCC on the handbook and all had the opportunity to comment. Further

comments should be emailed to Mrs Tremmel or notes written on the handbook should be handed in

to the school office asap.

Sherrie Carolan - PTA:

Monster Mash Halloween disco went very well and the kids all loved it! The PTA has lots of ideas for

other fundraising events but is also happy to hear of any ideas from PCC and other parents.

Order forms for school calendar’s and raffle tickets have been sent home in children’s school bags.

Support from families with this is, as always, appreciated.

ELAPCM (East Lothian Association of Parent Council Members): Tom Heaphy attended the last ELAPCM meeting on behalf of Gullane PCC. He felt that this was a

good meeting and was very useful for liaising with people from other PCC’s.

Tom gave an overview of the meeting:

Presentation on Curriculum for Excellence in high school’s

Presentation on the transition from primary to secondary school

Cost of travel for excursion – Gullane PCC profile raised for other school’s to copy the travel

arrangements in place by parents. Gullane PCC members were the only ones to take East Lothian

Council up on the offer to pay for PVG certification

School meals

Loretto – representative from Loretto said because they have charitable status they loan out their

minibus – useful to know!

Useful information on Place 2 Be (http://www.place2be.org.uk)

Next ELAPCM meeting is 17th January 2013 at Preston Lodge – Kirsty White is going to attend

Next Asset Management meeting is 22nd November – Iain Armstrong is hoping to attend this.

AOB

Homework:

Further discussion on homework. At the Meet the Teacher evening she was surprised to learn that a

recent study has shown the homework contributes only 0.2% to a child’s learning however, can take

up to 20% of a Teacher’s time to organise and mark etc.

The question was raised “What value is homework?”

PCC members all agreed that reading and spelling homework are very beneficial and feel homework

is good for engaging parents with their child and enabling them to have an indication of their child’s

learning abilities.

Any thoughts on homework should be brought up directly with the teacher and can also be brought up

at next PCC meeting. In general however, children will still be given homework particularly as it is a

requirement of Education Scotland.

Fran Simon is going to put together a couple of paragraph’s summarising the discussions and will be

sent to parents.

Active Schools:

Fran Simon has been approached by a number of parents asking why there are no Active School’s activities held in Gullane. Fran is going to liaise with Mrs Tremmel and Sarah Campbell (Active School’s Co-ordinator) to try to organise activities when the school hall is available. Walking to School: Jude Leslie asked the question “at what age are children allowed to walk to school unaccompanied”. Mrs Tremmel (supported by Gullane PCC) said that parents are strongly encouraged to walk all P1 and P2 children to and from school. From P3, if a child will be walking home from school unaccompanied by a parent then the child’s teacher should be informed and where possible it should be arranged that the child walks with other children. PCC Meeting Dates: Dates for PCC meetings for 2013 will be in the School Calendar which everyone should now have order forms for: Wednesday 6th February 2013 Wednesday 17th April 2013 Wednesday 5th June 2013 Wednesday 11th September 2013 Wednesday 13th November 2013 Next PCC Meeting: Wednesday 6th February 2012, 7pm-9pm at Gullane Golf Inn Hotel