Treasurers Report, 5 Sep 2018

Treasurer’s Report
AGM Wednesday 5 September 2018

This report covers the academic year 2017-18. 
Figures are up to date as we currently have them – there are a handful of outstanding figures we need to access, including an Easy2name payment and the Bank of Scotland account balance. 
We also do not have final figures for Culture Fund spend.
Audited accounts are produced for the financial year (6 April – 5 April) as part of our annual submission to the charity regulator and will be shared as soon as they are ready (the submission deadline is the end of the year).

Income and expenditure

Income for the school year 2017-18 is £13,272. Spend is £14,564, although this includes a £4000 Culture Fund, which current invoices show spend of less than £300.
Expenses were £1826.
Income and spend figures are broken down below:

INCOME
ACTIVITY TOTAL (rounded to £)
£1113 Lunchtime cafes
£3462 Edinburgh marathon
£3046 School lottery
£957 Halloween disco
£1444 Christmas café
£785 Pyjama disco
£2313 Summer Fair
£151 Misc

SPEND
ITEM COST (rounded to £)
£6746 Playground quiet space
£589 Edventure playground games
£4000 Annual Culture Fund grant (of which less than £300 is currently accounted for)
£678 Imaginate Festival
£1100 Lagganlia coach hire
£1293 Theme bins
£158 Marathon t-shirts

Bank balances

The bank balance for the Trust account at the end of the school year is £12,555.76.
We also hold £411 in cash.
The process of getting access to the other Parent Council account is still ongoing.  Forms are with Bank of Scotland to add Kate Seymour (Moir) and Richard Smith as signatories and I am expecting (hoping for) a resolution very soon.
Gift aid goes into this account as does the annual Council grant for the Parent Council, so I am expecting it to have a reasonable balance.

The Giving Machine

Due to an error, Giving Machine payments have been going into the school fund throughout this period.  This has now been rectified and these payments will revert to the Trust account from now on.
Payments for the school year totalled £178.89.

Culture Fund

The Parent Council/PSA provides a £4000 grant each academic year through a Cultural Fund to support school trips and groups coming into school for cultural activities.
According to invoices received to date, Culture Fund spend for the last academic year was less than £300 (breakdown of costs below – I don’t have details of which classes did which activities).  I am presuming that there are more invoices to come.  It seems that the Culture Fund is topping up the cost of trips with the majority of funding still coming from the children.  If, once I have all the invoices in, the Culture Fund is still showing a considerable underspend, I would suggest that the full cost of
trips is put against the fund.
Question – Previous meetings have agreed to make additional Culture Fund monies available for trips.  It would be good to understand why this hasn’t happened other than the Imaginate Festival and what the barriers would be to doing more trips this year.

CULTURE FUND BREAKDOWN

• RSNO 360 Live: Heroes and Villains at Usher Hall. Full Cost £430.50. PC/PSA Contribution £178.50
• (outstanding amount after each pupil paid £4)
• The Yard – 3 sessions in January. Full cost £90. PC/PSA Contribution £45 (50%)
• The Yard – 2 sessions in February. Full cost £60. PC/PSA Contribution £30 (50%)
• Din Eidyn Regia Anglorum – Viking reenactors. Full cost £200. PC/PSA Contribution £28.50 (outstanding amount after each pupil paid £3.50)
• TOTAL SPEND £282

Charity reporting

I am currently preparing the financial accounts for 2017-18 as part of our OSCR submission.  These will be shared as soon as they are ready.

WE NEED MORE SPEND!

At risk of sounding like a broken record, we have too much money sitting in the bank account which should be being spent for the benefit of the children.
There is an urgent need to agree some ideas for spend.

I know that parents have shared spend ideas. Previous ideas agreed at meetings but not progressed are:
1. Drama expertise (2 parents are able to offer this directly)
2. Basketball hoop
3. New set of sports tops for Mrs Ramm (at the cross country event last year, our children had to share tops).  I’ve advised Mrs Ramm to order as many tops as she needs but not sure if this has happened.

Kate Moir
September 2018

Constitution of Parent Council and Parent Staff Association

Broughton Primary School Parent Council and Parent-Staff Association Constitution.  5 Sep 2018

Definitions:

‘School’ means Broughton Primary School, and includes Broughton Primary School nursery classes.
‘Parent’ means parents, guardians and carers of pupils at the school.
‘Children’ means children at the school.
‘Parent Forum’ means all parents.
‘Parent Council’ (PC) means a committee chosen to represent the Parent Forum.
‘Parent-Staff Association’ (PSA) means a sub-committee of the Parent Council that organises fundraising and social events.
‘Broughton Primary School Trust’ means the Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation of that name, charity number SCO44041.

Aims of the Parent Council

1. to promote co-operation and communication between parents and teachers.
2. to identify and represent the views of the Parent Forum and children on the education and welfare of the children to the staff of Broughton Primary School and the City of Edinburgh Council Education Department.
3. to engage in activities that support the education and welfare of the children.
4. to support and complement the Parent-Staff Association.
5. to help with the appointment of school staff in accordance with recruitment legislation of the City of
Edinburgh Council.
6. to manage the Broughton Primary School Trust for the benefit of the children at Broughton Primary School.

The aims of the Parent Staff Association are:

1. to organise events for parents and children.
2. to raise funds, to be used in furtherance of the aims of the Parent Council.

Office bearers

The Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary and Treasurer of both the PC and the PSA will be elected at the PC’s Annual General Meeting (AGM).
The same role in both bodies can be held by a single person or by two people.
If a person leaves office during the course of the year, a replacement can be selected at a PC meeting, except for the Chair of the PC where an Extraordinary General Meeting should be called.

Duties

The chair will provide general leadership, and will chair all meetings.
The secretary will take minutes of meetings and will circulate them to the PC or PSA after each meeting, and make them available on request to any parent.
The treasurer is responsible for financial transactions as approved by the PC and/or the PSA and for keeping accurate records of all finances.  Annual accounts will be reviewed and approved by an individual appointed by the PC and will be presented at the annual general meeting.  Summaries of the financial position of the PC and PSA will be given at meetings as necessary or as requested.
The chair and the treasurer of the PC will normally be responsible for administrating the Broughton Primary School Trust, although other members of the PC or PSA can be elected to carry out this role.

Staff representation

The headteacher has a right and a duty to attend PC meetings.  She or he will have an advisory role and will not take part in PC decision-making, unless invited to do so.
Other teachers are welcome to attend meetings, as deemed appropriate by the headteacher, and at least one teacher will be a member of the PC, as selected by whatever method the school chooses.  Parents should form the majority of the PC.

Membership and attendance

Any member of the Parent Forum may attend a PC or PSA meeting without invitation or notice.
Apart from office bearers and staff, membership of the PC and PSA will be fluid, and will consist of those parents who choose to attend PC and PSA meetings.  If meetings become too large to be manageable or productive, the PC will decide a method to limit the size of the membership, and will formalise a selection process if necessary.
Non-parent members of the community can attend PC or PSA meetings by invitation or agreement, and they may also address meetings by invitation or agreement.

Changes to the constitution

Changes to the constitution can be made at the AGM or an Extraordinary General Meeting.

Dissolution

If the PC ceases to exist, any funds should be distributed by the senior leadership team of Broughton Primary School for the benefit of the children.

Annual General Meeting 2018

Broughton Primary School Parent Council AGM 18:30-20:00 5/9/18

1. Welcome and apologies for absence
Catherine Evans, Sandra Rathjen (Chair), Matthew Boyles, Ross Gibson, Suzanne Gibson, Jo Harfield, Anna Hatton, Chris Knowles, Ailsa McMullan, Fiona Vacher (acting Deputy Head), David Borthwick (principal teacher), Samantha Rushforth (acting Headteacher), Jennifer Longstaff (vice-Chair), Richard Smith, Rachel Blythe, Naomi Sandilands, Sandra Bagnall, Oscar Mesalles-Maranjo, Rob Noronha, Lorraine Sibisi
Apologies: Kate Moir (Treasurer), Anne Hay (PSA Chair), Vassiliki Fotaki

2. Minutes & matters arising of the previous AGM
● Matthew Boyles and Richard Smith proposed the 2017 AGM minutes were accurate
● Update requested on a soap dispenser height issue in the toilets
○ Action: Mrs Rushforth to follow up

3. Chair of PC Report – Sandra Rathjen
● 2017-18 was a very busy year
● 154 McDonald Road - community meeting well attended. Now has short term residents.
● Proposal for Gaelic Medium Education to move to Drummond Community High School. We supported DCHS Parent Council with their campaign to remain open to local children as a community high school which was successful.
● Leith Chooses - we applied for a grant to improve our green spaces, unfortunately unsuccessful, but lots of ideas generated.
● Powderhall consultations - these are ongoing.
● Regular meetings with the head teacher and North East Locality meetings.
● Sandra thanked all Parents and school staff for their support, guidance, ongoing enthusiasm and ideas over the last 3.5 years as Chair.
● Mrs Rushforth presented Sandra with a bouquet of flowers and a card from all of the staff, parents and children of the school to say thank you.

4. Treasurer’s Report – see attached from Kate Moir.
Report handed out for all to read.
 Clarification asked for cultural fund spend “of which less than £300 is currently accounted for” – Mrs Rushforth explained every class has spent their share of the Cultural Fund. No Business Manager in school since January, so office are still to update Treasurer on receipts/what money was spent on.
○ Action – school to update Treasurer regarding spend on Cultural Fund.
● Question regarding if there had been resolution with the locked bank account – there still isn’t access, but Kate continues to pursue this. Difficulties started due to quick succession of handovers for the Treasurer role.
○ Action - Kate to continue to pursue; accounts to be audited. Promote the need for an accountant
● Sandra advised that Kate is keen to stand down and provide a hand over once the accounts have been
audited.

5. Chair of PSA report and proposed dates of future events - Jennifer Longstaff reported on Anne Hay’s behalf:
● PSA Parent survey - small response rate (30), comments and suggestions will be used for planning the events this year.
● Mrs Rushforth explained following janitorial review janitor cover reduced to 32 hours/year for out of hour lets such as events and meetings (eg. discos + PC meetings). More than this would require paying for a let – there is an hourly rate. PC to contact council if this is required – would need further discussion and agreement if funds should be used for this purpose.
● Proposed change to meetings - Parent Council meetings will continue to be held in the evenings from 6.30-8pm with a short PSA report at the PC meeting. PSA meetings will take place as Planning meetings during school hours on a Friday morning. Meeting with Chairs prior to the evening or day meetings will continue.
This ensures that there is no additional charge for meetings and events.
● Agreed dates for all events and planning meetings:
○ 7th September 11am - Planning meeting for lunchtime cafe
○ 28th September 11.30-1.30 Lunchtime Cafe (in the lunch hall)
○ 5th October 11am - Planning meeting for Halloween Disco
○ Thursday 25th October 6pm-8.30pm - Halloween Discos (in Drummond High School – to be confirmed)
○ 9th November 11am - Planning meeting for Christmas Cafe
○ 7th December 11.30am - Christmas Cafe
○ 18th January 11am - Planning meeting for International Cafe
○ 8th February - Planning meeting for Spring Disco, International Café – to be confirmed
○ Friday 8th March 6pm-8.30pm - Spring Disco
○ 22nd March 11am - Planning meeting for Health Cafe and Summer Fair
○ 26th April - Health Cafe (to raise funds for Health week in May)
○ 1st June - Summer Fair
● Promoted the need for helpers at events to all.

6. Appointment of Independent Examiner
● Sandra Rathjen proposed Bence Solomon to be this year’s independent examiner. Rob seconded this
motion.
○ Action - ask Bence if he can audit the accounts this year

7. Appointment of Committee members
a. PC Chair – Jennifer Longstaff. Proposed by Sandra Rathjen, seconded Chris Knowles. Elected unopposed.
b. PSA Chair - Anne Hay. Proposed by Sandra Rathjen, seconded by Ailsa McMullan. Elected unopposed.
c. Treasurer PC & PSA – Kate Moir to remain as treasurer until accounts audited. Proposed Sandra Rathjen, seconded Sam Rushforth. Agreed unanimously.
d. Vice Chair PC & PSA – vacancy as no proposals
e. Secretary PC & PSA – Rob Noronha. Proposed by Ailsa, seconded David Borthwick. Elected unopposed.
● Our paid clerk, Lesley, has resigned. This is a paid role at either £40 per meeting or £240 for a whole year - there are to be 5 meetings this year.
○ Action: anyone willing to be our Clerk to contact PC Chair.
● Mrs Rushforth confirmed that Ms Katie Blair will be the staff representative on the Parent Council for this school year

8. Review of the Parent Council constitution
● Discussion by those present. Agreed amendments of the Constitution – see attached document.

9. Future PC meeting dates:
● Wednesdays, in the Link from 6.30-8pm on the following dates:
○ 7th November
○ 16th January
○ 24th April
○ 19th June
● Discussion regarding night of the week for meetings; vote by all - Wednesday night agreed.
● Clarification asked for how are issues taken forward that are raised at PC meetings? Suggestion regarding minutes with clear action points. Previous minutes and actions should be reviewed at subsequent meetings.
○ Action - Mrs Rushforth to check insurance to see if children are allowed on site during the meetings (so children could come with Parents if they don’t have childcare)

10. School Update - Mrs Rushforth
● Building work is ongoing with complete school refurbishment - Mrs Rushforth keen for Parents to see the completed work during the Meet the Teacher events. Already completed during the summer - whole building re-wired and roof glass replaced. Refurbishing 1 classroom at a time - new lighting, fire alarms, re-painted and new sink units. 1 st classroom completed. Outside pointing work should be finished by October.
The pool is still closed - new drainage and ventilation fitted, will hopefully reopen on Monday. Lunch hall is included in the work. Nursery will have new lighting during October half term week. Scaffolding is planned to be down by November, but the compound of contractor huts will be here for 18 months. There are currently 3-6 different contractors on site at present working 5-7 days a week from 4pm until 2am. All lets have been cancelled for the duration of the building works as the whole school technically becomes a building site from 4pm. Both the Council and contractors have expressed that no children should be on site at all for H&S reasons. No-one should be in the bottom playground for the duration of the building works.
● Recruitment has been challenging, and 1 temporary vacancy remains, with 2 other temporary staff still awaiting PVG clearance (they are contacting Disclosure Scotland weekly). As soon as vacancies weren’t filled through the Council’s central recruitment the vacancies were advertised. Mrs Rushforth and Ms Vacher have spent considerable time on recruitment, and will continue to do so until posts are filled. They are striving to maintain a continued consistency for the children even though half of the staff members are now new. Discussion on how we can support the school and feedback to the CEC?
o Action: PC Chair to raise these concerns at the NE Locality meeting.
● Janitor moved to another school, interviews completed on Monday for replacement. Agency janitor in place until permanent replacement starts.
● Business Manager on long term sick leave has also increased workload of Mrs Rushforth as she is covering that post as temporary staff can’t be supplied. There is occasional help.
● Ailsa asked Mrs R about her acting posistion. Mrs R explained that Gillian is due back in May but there are lots of unknowns about whether her secondment post will be made permanent.
● Weekly head teachers blogs will summarise the progress on building works, as well as things that have happened in school during the week. Classroom pages on the website should be updated soon. The school also uses Twitter to share news with families.
● Mrs Rushforth reassured everyone that even with everything going on disruption is kept to a minimum for the children, and there are great things happening within school. She will text when her blogs are on the website. This is a positive step in communication with the parents, children and staff. The Parents present gave her and the school their continued support.

11. Any Other Business
● Suggestion regarding how to decide on what funds should be spent on. Mrs Rushforth has already
discussed with Anne Hay regarding “Broughton Decides”. Plan at the Meet the Teacher event on 14th
September each classroom will have a table asking for ideas on how they would like funds to be spent. All ideas to be voted on by pupils and Parents once a shortlist has been created.
○ Action - Mrs Rushforth will inform parents prior to parent drop in about the Broughton Decides tables in each classroom
● Suggestion regarding a playground tidy up between 3.15-4pm one afternoon – agreed by Mrs Rushforth and Mrs Vacher. Mrs Vacher has already planned to meet with Corylus Horticulture, who have recently helped Stockbridge Primary School with their playground. She has a list to start with the planters, create play areas, tidy the nursery garden. A full school grounds clear up can be discussed and planned.
○ Action - Mrs Vacher to discuss with Rachel Blythe and Corylus Horticulture to set list in motion.
● Football teams – only 1 team running at present (P7) due to lack of volunteer coaches. Practice would have to be at Drummond which will cost for the let unless a free location can be sourced, PVG is required for those volunteering. Mr Borthwick reported that the P7 coach is happy to be contacted for support and advice. Some Parents expressed willingness to volunteer.
○ Action – volunteers needed for P5 and P6 school football teams

How to support our PSA

Broughton Primary School's Parent Staff Association are a registered charity, Broughton Primary Trust, run by parent volunteers. Our charity number is SCO44041.

Through in-school events and online options we raise funds which primarily are gifted to the school in the form of The Cultural Fund. The Cultural Fund is £250 per class towards school trips and activities throughout the school year so that no student misses out on fun learning.

As well as The Cultural Fund, our PSA funds have also been spent in the past on:

• the Playground Craze's which are brought out every Friday lunchtime; 
• playground loose parts; 
• Health Week activities within school; 
• school wide Christmas events; 
• every year we fund our P7 coach to Lagganlia; 
• we upgraded playground picnic tables and bins; 
• during summer 2018 we helped upgrade the space under the After School Club.

Our online forms of support:

• EMF: For three years running our #TeamBPS have been awarded the most active school to take part in the competition. Our training sessions leading up to EMF weekend are run by parent members of our Parent Council/PSA. https://twitter.com/bpsrunners
• Virginmoney Giving: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/charity-web/charity/finalCharityHomepage.action?uniqueVmgCharityUrl=BroughtonPrimarySchoolTrust
• The Giving Machine: If you do a lot of online shopping, installing the add-in from The Giving Machine gives us cashback from your online shopping https://www.thegivingmachine.co.uk/causes/broughton-primary-school-62185/
• Your School Lottery: Every Saturday evening a winner who supports our school is drawn as the weekly winner, prizes vary depending on the number of active supporters https://www.yourschoollottery.co.uk/lottery/school/broughton-primary-school
• Easy2name: As in every school, lost property is a huge problem. To try and combat this we have teamed up with Easy2name, if you select "Broughton Primary School EH7" at the checkout they will give us cashback from your purchase. The sticker labels survive over a years washing and means items will never be lost https://www.easy2name.com 

 

Our in-school ways of support:

• Once a term lunchtime cafes
• Christmas cafe
• Discos at Halloween and Spring
• Edinburgh Marathon Festival
• Summer Fair