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KILMARNOCK ACADEMY PARENT COUNCIL

MEETING 6 MAY, 2008

MINUTES

Present : A Donnelly, G Sinclair, C Ford, A Howard, I Fyfe, Councillor Ross.

Apologies: A Brown, I Murdoch, Councillor McIntyre, F McCallum, J Mullen.

1. Welcome
AH welcomed everyone and apologised for missing the last meeting through illness.

2. Minutes
Proposed by C Ford, seconded by F McCallum.

3. Matters arising
Reply received from Bus company – information is that the number 4 bus should stop at Southcraigs at 0810 and 0840, and the company will monitor this to check that it does. Will still pursue this as not convinced that the bus will stop and the 0840 bus may not get pupils to school on time for 0855 bell.

Timetables to be sought for clarification.

4. Correspondence
AH received the HMI survey, completed the form and returned them by due date.

Working in Partnership with Parents, draft strategy.

Next Steering Group meeting will be in June. PC was asked if 3 separate meetings would be better, agreed that all together was preferable as it means more integration and sharing of ideas etc.

SPCA membership, agreed not to join this.

5. Curriculum for Excellence
CF gave update. Meeting of primary and secondary staff was held to look at maths curriculum. Very successful meeting, agreed that all primaries would follow the same curriculum. Also agreed on what extras would be given to more able pupils. This would mean that all pupils coming to secondary would have the same background and secondary would take it from there. A common maths vocabulary was also agreed to keep consistency throughout.

Next target area is Science, hopefully to agree on a similar basis.

6. Pupil Council Report
CF clarified some of the points on the minutes of the PC meeting of 29 th April, copies of minutes given to members.

7. School Report
S1 Health Day

P7 Parents Evening – commenced with an Art Dept fashion show of hats and jewellery.

3 Easter Concerts – Alternative concert in aid of the Year Book, Traditional concert organised by the Music Dept., and EAC Extravaganza concert in the Grand Hall.

Easter Assemblies – theme for these was Malawi , and we had visitors from Malawi later in the month.

S1,2 and 3 Activity afternoons before the Easter holiday, this is part of our reward system.

Some staff had training on “Non Violent Intervention” on the in-service day, all staff have now received this training.

Disco – “Good Bad and Ugly” theme for fancy dress, some great costumes!

S3 exams are now finished and S4 Standard Grade exams have started.

KA is finalist in Scottish Education Awards “Education for All”, delighted to be in the top 3 for this.

8. Financial Report

Budget not yet received.

Received £750 prize money for “Show Racism the Red Card”. English dept. to use this for appropriate books on racism.

9. A.O.C.B
Members of public seem to be using our car park, janitor to monitor this and flyers to be make to put on offending cars.

GS asked about water facilities for pupils. CF explained that when we made water available, this was abused by children. Water is now available in the PE dept, and at lunchtime in the dining hall. Pupils can bring their own water to school and drink it at the discretion of individual teachers.

Next meeting 3 rd June, agreed that this will be a social occasion. LC to book Café DeVinci's, and notify the councillors of the change of plan, and cancel the school let.

KILMARNOCK ACADEMY PARENT COUNCIL

MEETING 16 JANUARY, 2008

MINUTES

Present : G Sinclair, A Donnelly, F McCallum, A Brown, C Ford, I Murdoch, Councillor Cook and Councillor Knapp.

Apologies: I Fyfe, Councillor Ross, J Mullen

 

1. Welcome
AD welcomed everyone and took the chair in A Howard's absence.

2. Minutes – proposed by Gwen Sinclair and seconded by Anna Brown.

3. Matters arising.
Still no reply from E Couperwhite re fire door and transport to playing fields, despite a second letter being sent.

4. Correspondence
Scottish Parent/Teacher Council – insurance offer. CF to take to SMT.

Better Schools, better learning.

School Rationalisation in EAC – only Witchhill affected from our Learning Partnership – proposed that Witchhill and Woodstock merge. The LP has responded to this.

e-mail from G Sinclair asking for details of the Parents' Questionnaire. CF explained what happened last year, and a copy of the summary of the parents' replies was given to Council members.

Request from Yearbook committee asking if the Parent Council would like an advert in this year's yearbook. See Financial Report.

5. Curriculum for Excellence
Council agreed to put this to the end of the meeting when all other business was done.

6. Pupil Council Report
Minutes of meeting of 27 th November were given to members, and CF explained some of the points. Councillor Cook asked about the problem with some classroom temperatures and CF explained the situation to date.

7. School Report
Christmas festivities, concert, assemblies, disco etc all went very well, as did the first Parent Council night out.

School Handbook – copies given to members, and have been given out to the P7 pupils in our Learning Partnership. Copies for pupils making placing requests will be made available.

S4 prelims have finished.

8. Financial Report
There will be a small deficit in both the Clerk's fees and travel/subsistence budget lines. There will be some money left in the Admin budget line after the cost of the lets and catering have been taken off. Some lets this year have cost £42.35 and others £15.40, no free lets so far this year, and that has affected the budget. Agreed to defer the decision re the Yearbook Advert until next meeting.

Curriculum for Excellence

CF explained that consultation has been going on with staff as there is now some flexibility on the curriculum and changes could be made now that we are not tied rigidly to 5 – 14.. There could be more choice for pupils, perhaps even making some choices at the end of S1 for example.

Trying to use our Scottish culture to tie curriculum together, then to work outwards. Giving S1 more cultural experiences, Art Galleries , transport museum visits etc, to try and broaden their experiences/outlook.

Working closely with the primaries in our Learning Partnership to ensure continuity – particularly in literacy.

From S3 pupils will still be working towards SQA qualifications, so not much room for change there, at least for now.

Members discussed ideas for quite some time, and CF thanked members for their input and will take it to the SMT meeting where all ideas will be pulled together.

9. A.O.C.B.
GS asked if e-mail addresses could be exchanged for ease of communication.

FMcC to e-mail LC to give her address, LC will check with JM. LC will pass on addresses asap.

Date of next meeting Tuesday, 5 th February, at 7.30pm.

KILMARNOCK ACADEMY PARENT COUNCIL

MEETING 13 NOVEMBER, 2007

MINUTES

Present : A Howard, G Sinclair, A Donnelly, J Gemmell, A Brown, C Ford, I Fyfe, Councillor H Ross.

Apologies: F McCallum, I Murdoch, Councillors Cook, Linton and Reid.

Provost Young also sent her apologies and invited the Council get in touch with her at any time if she could help in any way.

1. Welcome
AH welcomed everyone to the meeting.

2. Minutes – proposed by A Brown and Seconded by Janice Gemmell.

3. Matters arising.
No reply from R Gourlay re the fire exit in the Games Hall.

No reply from E Couperwhite re transport to the playing fields. Councillor Ross will speak to E Couperwhite at his next meeting.

No reply from the bus co. SMT re buses from Southcraigs to town centre in the morning for pupils coming from that area.

Pupil Council decided not to go forward with the memorial for Mark Blackwood.

4. Correspondence
Letter from Maureen Watt, Minister for Schools and Skills re Parental Involvement. Copies given to members.

Note of clarification re insurance. Now that Parent Councils have mostly combined with PTA any events run will be covered with insurance as long as members of staff are in overall charge.

Councillor Ross explained the new “Cabinet” set up in the Council. Minutes of the Cabinet Meetings will be posted on the East Ayrshire website.

Sport now to become a high priority, members hoped that would mean more money for transport to the fields.

GS and AH attended the Parent Council Forum in Kilmarnock Academy last week, and gave feedback from that meeting to the members.

Discussion on the pilot scheme to have more police involvement, 3 schools have a policeman based on their campus, but they will be involved with all schools and will be available to help in any way they can. Possible plan to introduce them within the PSE classes.

5. Pupil Council
Minutes of last meeting distributed to members, CF clarified some entries.

Room Temperature, although situation is easing with the colder weather, need to keep this on the agenda as spring and summer will bring the problems to the fore again. Problems mainly in HE and Science, as windows do not give enough ventilation. AD will write to EAC H & S again to try to solve this before warmer weather. If windows opened at the top, the situation would not be as bad.

6. School Report
Parents' Open Day at Grand Hall last Saturday, Kilmarnock Academy Learning Partnership had a joint display, very busy day, best so far.

S6 Question Time “How to be successful” with a panel of 5 former Kilmarnock Academy successful people for the pupils to question. Very successful.

Art dept visited Edinburgh to the SQA Art Exhibition; one of our pupils had work exhibited there. Visited a total of 4 exhibitions.

Took part in the Enterprise Event in East Ayrshire.

Wear Pink Day for Cancer, £1200 raised.

Remembrance Assemblies held during Remembrance week. Also have a “Roll of Honour” on our website and we featured with this in TES. Neil McIlvanney and Neil Dickson set this up and British Legion now has a link to our website.

ASDAN Awards, Princes Trust pupils ran their own ceremony on Monday evening.

Mr Kerr and Mrs Ford are visiting Primary 7 pupils in their schools.

Hallowe'en disco, very successful.

Success in the Ayrshire Cross Country Runners – Girls' gold individual medal and team bronze.

S1 reports are going out and parents' evening is coming up.

S4 prelims start in December.

CF asked the members for their input to the Curriculum for Excellence programme. At the moment consulting with staff asking for their ideas now that we have more freedom with the curriculum and are not necessarily tied to eg 5 – 14. Senior school curriculum will not change much as this is dictated by SQA examinations, which probably won't change, but others may be more flexible. Aim is to give more breadth of education to pupils, and to this end all classes have maps of Europe , and teachers are asked to draw this to pupils' attention every time something comes up with a European touch, to point out on the map exactly where the topic is located. Also are going to have a “Time Line” and again teachers are asked to put events on this give pupils some idea of the chronological order. All departments have also been asked to emphasise our “Scottishness” whenever possible.

Members asked to give their thoughts on this at the January meeting.

7. Financial Report
Report given to members, expenditure up to date.

8. A.O.C.B.
Night out – Wednesday 5 December, 7.00 for 7.30 at Merchants. Members asked for a £5.00 deposit.

Dates for 2008 meetings.

Wednesday 16 January (S5/6 parents' evening on Tuesday 15 th )

Tuesday 5 th February

Tuesday 4 March

Tuesday 6 May

Tuesday 3 June.

LC to put in Let Applications.

 

Meeting closed 9.00pm.

KILMARNOCK ACADEMY PARENT COUNCIL

MEETING 2 OCTOBER, 2007

MINUTES

Present : A Howard, G Sinclair, A Donnelly, J Gemmell, A Brown, C Ford, I Fyfe, I Murdoch.

Apologies: F McCallum

1. Welcome
AH welcomed everyone to the meeting.

2. Minutes – proposed by J Gemmell and Seconded by Anna Brown.

3. Matters arising.
Copy of minutes has been e-mailed to Marilyn Miller. All minutes to be sent to her and she will forward to appropriate EAC officers.

LC to ask about Councillors.

Letter sent to R Gourlay re PE fire exit. No reply as yet.

Letter sent to E Couperwhite re cost of transport to fields. No reply as yet.

AH to telephone enquiring about letters.

Letter sent to SMT Bus Co re buses for children to come to school in the morning from Glasgow Road area. No reply as yet. AH took an opportunity to talk to Provost S Young, who will add her support to this.

4. Correspondence
EAC Schools Estate Management Strategy.

Briefing note on Public Liability Insurance.

Notification of the Parent Rep to the Education Cabinet – David Fraser from Greenmill PS.

Prior notice of welcome to Parent Council event to be held on Wed 7 November at 7.00pm in St. Joseph 's Academy.

Local Attendance Council looking for Parent Council members to volunteer to join – A Donnelly agreed to put her name forward.

Scottish Parent Council Association Newsletter. Members agreed not to join this association at this time.

5. Pupil Council
Minutes of the last Pupil Council meeting were distributed, CF clarified the following items.

Room temperature – H & S Rep from EAC visited to see the situation.

Adv Higher pupils attending Kilmarnock College , Pupil council raised concerns about this. Should be monitored over the year and judged by results.

Pupil Council would like to make a dedication to the memory of Mark Blackwood who was tragically killed in an accident earlier in the year. Possibly a programme for one of the Christmas shows. Pupil Council to write to Mark's parents before deciding anything.

Yorkhill Children's Hospital to be the nominated charity for this term.

6. School Report
S4 pupils were out on Work Experience these last 2 weeks. Getting more and more difficult to find placements, in future to concentrate on pupils who are in their final year of school.

European Day of Languages enjoyed by all.

S1 trips to Kelvingrove and Transport Museum – more trips planned to give pupils a taste of culture.

MacMillan coffee morning raised £160.

Pink Day next Friday.

PT's had an in-service course on how to read and get information from exam results statistics.

Literary pilot programme started, funding to pay for Acting PT Literacy who will also work with Primary school staff – concentrating on “ Reading for Information” at the moment.

Staff Reading Group had a trip to see the film “Atonement” after reading and discussing the book.

Staff weekend trip organised – Warsaw in January.

7. Financial Report
No change from last meeting. Salary for clerk and any expenses to be claimed. No bids have been received for grants. Usually the Yearbook Committee request assistance.

8. A.O.C.B.
School has achieved the Bronze Award for Eco school, what is required to go to the Silver Award. CF to investigate the criteria, but it may be too difficult to attain.

Next Meeting – 13 October, 7.30pm.

December meeting planned on 4 December clashes with the S3 parents evening. Agreed to change it to Wednesday 5 December. Night out to be booked at Merchants, LC to organise.

Meeting closed 8.35pm.

MINUTES

Present : A Howard, G Sinclair, F McCallum, A Donnelly, J Gemmell, A Brown,

C Ford, I Fyfe, I Murdoch.

Apologies: None

1. Welcome and introductions
C Ford welcomed everyone to the first meeting of the Kilmarnock Academy Parent Council, and introductions were made.

2. Office Bearers
All present agreed that Adrienne Howard would take up the post of Chairperson and Annette Donnelly, Vice Chairperson. The appointment of a treasurer would be made when it became necessary.

3. Council Membership
It was agreed that the council would be made up of the Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, 4 parent members, Gwen Sinclair, Anna Brown, Fiona McCallum, Janice Gemmell, 2 staff members, Ian Fyfe and Ian Murdoch, and Lois Cairney as Secretary (continuing on from School Board).

Parents will be informed of this in the next newsletter, due out this month, and in the newsletter will be an invitation to any parent interested to join us at the next meeting.

4. Correspondence
Letter from EAC asking that amendments be made to our constitution. After discussion the following amendments were agreed –

Change quorate to Four.

Delete “unless the matters under discussion are confidential” from paragraphs 15 and 16.

Letter asking for nominations from Parent Councils to serve on the EAC Education Cabinet. No-one wished to be nominated.

5. Pupil Council Update
Pupil Council not yet up and running this session, Mr Mackay taking over from Mr Howie and meetings will be arranged shortly when S1 pupil reps have been elected. Copies of the minutes of the Pupil Council meetings will be made available to Parent Council members.

Kilmarnock Academy has been awarded the Bronze Award in the Eco Schools Project which comes with a cheque for £250. Pupil Council will decide on how this money is to be spent.

6. School Report
Newsletter coming out shortly for all parents.

Staffing – 5 NQT staff, 1 Technical, 1 Geography, 2 Biology, 1 Mod Languages.

New PT Technical Mr Kirkland who replaces Mr Monachan,

Mr Ramsay is Acting DHT, replacing Mr Stewart, and Mr Robertson is Acting PT Music, replacing Mr Ramsay. DHT post to be advertised as soon as the necessary procedures are done.

One extra classroom assistant has joined us, funded from outwith EAC.

One teacher appointed 2 days per week to run the “Reading Recovery” pilot project to work with children with difficulties and also to train members of staff in new strategies.

Successful in bid to have a foreign assistant via the Comenius Scotland Project from 1 st November to 29 th February. The assistant is from Czech Republic , and she will work mainly in the Modern Languages dept, as her speciality is Spanish. Also will introduce her own cultural knowledge in other subject areas, and promote links with schools in the Czech Republic .

Concerns raised about ventilation in HE department, particularly bad when cookers are in use. New windows don't allow adequate ventilation. Windows in some departments have been covered with a film which cuts out glare, this has been successful, but ventilation still a problem.

PE facilities discussed, lack of funding for outdoor activities, budget for this has stayed the same for approx 10 years, going up slightly this year.

Chairperson will write to EAC to ask if this can be looked at. LC to give information to AH.

Fire escape in games hall not yet completed, waiting for stairs/ramp to be installed. Chairperson will write to EAC to ask that this work be done as a matter of priority.

7. Financial Report
LC gave a report on the money remaining in what was the School Board budget line.

8. Dates for future meetings
Agreed the following dates – venue Kilmarnock Academy Conference Room.

Tuesday 2 nd October, Tuesday 13 th November and Tuesday 4 th December.

LC to organise lets for the October and November dates.

9. A.O.C.B.
Yellow lines painted on Elmbank Road , which hopefully will alleviate problems with bus access and parking outside the two schools.

A member brought up that there were no suitable buses for pupils who live in the Glasgow Road/South Craigs area to get to the school in the morning. Although buses do go that route, they are “express” buses and only drop of passengers. Chairperson to write to bus companies to see if anything could be done about this. There are suitable buses for the homeward journey.

Meeting closed 9.00pm.

KILMARNOCK ACADEMY PARENT COUNCIL - MEETING 2 OCTOBER, 2007

AGENDA

1. Welcome and apologies.

2. Minutes

3. Matters Arising

4. Correspondence

5. Pupil Council Report

6. School Report

7. Financial Report

8. A.O.C.B.

The photograph on the right shows current membership : Front row, left to right: Mrs Lois Cairney, Clerk; Mrs Annette Donnelly, Parent member; Mrs Mary Grant, Chair; Mrs Adrienne Howard, Parent member. Back row, left to right: Mrs Elizabeth Bryson, Parent member; Mr Ian Fyfe, Teacher member; Mrs Carole Ford, Head Teacher and advisor to the board. Mr Ian Murdoch, Teacher member, was unavailable for the photograph.

Present:

M. Grant, C. Ford, L. Bryson, A.Donnelly, I Fyfe.

Apologies : I Murdoch

.1. Welcome

2 Minutes.
Proposed MG, Seconded LB.

3. Matters Arising
Fire exit from Games Hall – making a new exit at other side of the building. Concern re closeness of new building to games hall.

Constitution – New Parent Council constitution was checked, discussed, amended and agreed. 1 st Draft now to go on to website.

4. Correspondence – none.

5. Pupil Council
No report at this time, next meeting will be held soon.

Concern re toilets – boys pulling pipes from the wall, janitor has requested that pipes be boxed in to prevent this.

Comments have been made re new TV system,. This was funded by on-site services to encourage pupils to use the dining facilities.

6. School Report
HT discussed with SB members 4 issues on next year's improvement plan, and asked for their views.

•  School uniform – at the moment states shoes not trainers. Propose to change to dark coloured shoes/trainers, other colours will lose pupil points in the “Triple P” awards system, and dangerous shoes eg Flipflops, stilettos will be banned for safety reasons.

•  To reinforce the mobile phone situation, propose to rule that mobile phones/ipods etc mustn't be seen or heard, if they are they will be confiscated until the end of the day. Persistent offender's phones will be kept for a longer period, perhaps a few days.

•  Recent ski trip was very successful but 17 out of the 38 pupils involved were absent the next day which affects our absence statistics. Propose to draw up a contract for pupils going on trips which is signed by both pupils and parents to guarantee they obey the rules set down, which will include attending school the next day as well as other behavioural issues.

•  The Art dept have been using materials and expertise for their higher course, including tutors in hat making, jewellery making etc, and the materials for these things are very expensive. The school supports this by using Supported Study money for the tutors, but wonder if it would be reasonable to ask the pupils concerned to contribute to the cost of the materials.

Board members agreed to all of the above, for No 4, it was agreed that a donation would be requested .

7. Financial Report
Report given to the members, some expenses still to be claimed. Any excess funds to be donated to school activities.

8. A.O.C.B.
Mr Mackay, Mod Studies, in Prague at the moment setting up a “link” school.

School has applied for a foreign language assistant, from “ Eastern Europe ”, first choice is Czech, second Romanian, and third Polish. If successful the assistant would work with the whole Learning Partnership.

Next meeting 2nd May in Kilmarnock Academy Conference Room at 7.30pm.

Final meeting of the Kilmarnock Academy School Board will be on Wednesday 6 June, venue to be decided (possibly DaVinci's)

Present:

M Grant, C Ford, A Donnelly, L Bryson, I Murdoch, I Fyfe.

1. Welcome .

2 Minutes.
Proposed IM, Seconded IF.

3. Matters Arising
Radio Station – staff trained on in-service day and launch will follow. Bid to Homework Diary Co. unfortunately unsuccessful. May use enterprise money instead.

Reply received from Land Registry – sent to wrong department, letter will now be sent to Brunton Miller, Herbert House, Glasgow.

SB members to ask for a meeting with the Executive Director of Education for an update on the situation.

SB report has been sent out to parents. CF informed members that the Executive Director of Education was concerned about the part of the report concerning “Sports & PE Facilities”, however board members were satisfied that it was an accurate reflection of the spirit of the meeting they had with him.

IM queried the cost of pupil transport for travelling between schools; no answer available yet.

4. Correspondence
EAC Questions for Carers and Parents – SB members asked to complete.

EAC Authority Strategy Group – 25 October, 5.00pm at London Road . Looking for nominations to join the strategy group for the Parents' Forum.

Essential Newsletter

“Parents Matter” – an EAC letter for parents.

5. Pupils' School Council Update
Minutes of meeting of 29 September given to board members.

Fair Trade Tuckshop starting in conjunction with the ECO club.

Teachers were reminded to read out the weekly bulletin to pupils and to put on classroom notice boards to be available for reference. This was done via the staff bulletin.

6. School Report
Posters for Yorkhill hospital, the sponsor walk in aid of Schehallion Ward in Yorkhill Hospital was very successful in spite of the inclement weather over £4000 raised so far, final total to be announced as soon as possible.

Eco Club has applied for the Bronze Award in the Eco School System.

Assembly week – Rev D Lacey has rejoined us as Chaplain. Henderson Church celebrates its centenary this year, and the Higher Graphic Communication class is involved in designing the banner.

MacMillan Coffee Morning for staff raised over £200.

PT Art has organised a Hat maker to help the Higher Art pupils – this is part of their course. They are also involved with jewellery making same as last year.

S5 were involved in the “Who wants to be an Entrepreneur?” workshop.

S4 were involved in a Strathclyde Police Presentation.

S1 and S2 pupils won the East Ayrshire Enterprise Maths competition, yet again !

Under 14 footballers doing well defending their title. New strips to be ordered for the team, boys will be involved in fundraising for half the cost.

Roll down to 770 – fall due to less S1 pupils and less S6 pupils staying on. Plan to use carry-forward to cushion us this year, next year will be much tighter.

CF asked if the school board minute could be put on the school website, and possibly photographs of school board members. This was agreed starting with the minutes from this meeting. CF to bring camera to next meeting to take photographs.

7. Financial Report
Copy of budget given to members. Cost of lets, catering etc have been deducted.

8. A.O.C.B.
Night out to be arranged on Wed 6 December at Merchants. £5 deposit collected from participating members. LC to book.

Next meeting Wednesday 1 November, 7.30pm Conference Room, Kilmarnock Academy .