end of October school news

A few reminders for the busy last 2 weeks of October after school returns on Wednesday 23rd.

Broughton Decides is now live - please vote by Sunday 20th at 9pm

https://broughtonprimary.org/2019/10/09/broughton-decides-round-1/ 

Please let your friends from school know that there is a deadline of the 20th for voting in Round 1.

This deadline is so that we can provide a short list of 8 options for the children to vote on when they are back at school for Round 2.

The children's top 3 choices will provide Round 3 of voting from the 25th to the 29th October and the decision will be announced at the parent council meeting on the 30th October so that spending can be arranged before December.

Parent Council meeting, 30th October 6:30-8pm, with a new free crèche service for the children while you attend the meetings.

The agenda will be shared the weekend before the meeting after I have met with Mrs Gowans > if there is anything you would like me to mention to Mrs Gowans or at the PC meeting please let me know before the 25th October.

If you are having a mid-term clear out, we will accept any donations of old games/activity books for our new crèche service so that children can be kept entertained for the 90 minute meetings.

School Halloween disco tickets

Will be on sale, in person, every morning before school, under the after school club building from the 23rd Oct until they sell out.  

50p for a child and £2 for a ticket <please don't bring £20 notes for tickets, we don't have that much change on hand.

Volunteers are still needed for: 4-5pm set up; Nursery-P2 disco 5-6:15pm; P3-P5 disco 6:15-7:30pm; P6-P7 disco 7:30-9pm.  Volunteers either get a free item of food or drink or a free adult disco ticket for giving up their time during the event to serve food/drinks or supervise the children on the dance floor.  Please reply if you can volunteer or let Lizzie or Rebecca know when buying your tickets next week.

Instead of tuck at the disco we'd appreciate home made spooky donations of food to sell.

Friday 25th October - Halloween Swap Shop

11:30am-1pm under the after school club building.

Instead of throwing out your families old outgrown Halloween costumes, bring them along on the 25th October and see if there's anything you'd like to swap them with. 

Any left over items at 1pm will be taken to a charity shop so that other members of the community can benefit from them.

Thursday 31st Oct - spooky food making

As part of our continuing Growing & Cooking project, Rachel requires some volunteers to help our P6 students make food for our Halloween discos, using the potatoes the children harvested last month & other vegetables.

Times: 9-11.15 am & 1.30-2.50pm

Activities: Washing and chopping vegetables, changing them into spooky Halloween food.

Please reply if you can help.

Preloved uniform for poverty proofing

If you have any outgrown coats, gym gear or school uniforms, including shoes with life left in them, we will be accepting these in the new year. 

Any lost property without names on them are continuing to fill up our boxes of preloved items which usually come out at the Christmas Cafe and Summer Fair. 

More information will be given before the end of the year when it's been agreed with the school and Parent Council.

Broughton Decides - Round 1

There were 41 responses to our feedback survey question: 

We have £3000 in raised funds to spend before June 2020 – how shall we spend these funds?

These results have been collated and any duplicate ideas have been merged together.

The £3000 in funds to spend, as with any fund spend, is to be granted by Broughton Primary School Trust, our registered charity SCO44041.
Fundraising is done regularly on the Trust’s behalf by Friends At Broughton which is a sub-group of our Parent Council.

For Round 1 the spend feedback given by the parent body have been grouped under the 4 categories of our Broughton Primary School Trust fund objectives:
please vote for either: one of each category or your top choice overall.

The official first round of Broughton Decides is now open, for all adults of the school community until – 9pm on the 20th October.

Happy Voting! Please follow the link to vote below.

https://forms.gle/byaxE736DkPmrm8Z7

Support Broughton Primary School Trust

As a registered charity, Broughton Primary School Trust raises funds via our Friends At Broughton group to help provide £4000 a year to the school in the form of our Cultural Fund.  The cultural fund ensures every student in every class goes on free class trips and receives special in-class learning experiences throughout the year matching the following criteria:

• The advancement of the arts, heritage, culture or science
• The advancement of education
• The advancement of environmental protection or improvement
• The advancement of public participation in sport

On top of our Cultural Fund we also fund extra things through the year such as our P7 Lagganlia trip coach and external treats at our Summer Fair such as the Bouncy Castle.

In the past we have funded the Pupil Council Craze of the Week toys; Health week activities; new bins for the playground; the picnic tables and chairs found under the After School Club; school branded clothing for our competing school sports teams & Team BPS at the Edinburgh Marathon Festival.

Below are how we raise the funds to be able to provide this money on an annual basis.

A list of all of our in school events for 2019-2020.

We also have a range of online, 365 days a year, fundraising options too

The above video is for our Giving Machine.

We have a weekly school lottery run by Your School Lottery, guaranteed prizes of £8+ are higher than the other lotteries around.

To try and save our lost property ending up on our Preloved uniform rail, we recommend you buy labels from Easy2name, by selecting 'Broughton Primary School EH7' in the fundraising option at the checkout we get cashback on your purchase.

Our Broughton Primary School Trust has a general Virgin Giving sponsorship page which is there all year around and we also have one for our Edinburgh Marathon Festival sponsorship.

To join our Team BPS, Edinburgh Marathon Festival, all you do is register for your EMF race then forward your confirmation to bpsrunners@gmail.com.  Our children have been rewarded for the last 3 years for being the most active school to take part in the EMF and our parent/staff team are growing year on year for the adult races too.

Process feedback on spending funds

Thank you to those who have provided feedback on how we should spend our £3000 ASAP https://forms.gle/i1WuRQnE6X1W6pUi6.  I will close this form to responses on Monday 7th Oct at 9pm. 

Before I send the list of spend ideas out for all children/families/staff to vote on (there are 13 options so far), I am asking for feedback on how our first Broughton Decides process should be fine tuned for fairness.

Broughton Decides: 

Round 1 - send list to all families/staff for voting until the 20th October via email link and school website.  Results shared on the school website.

Round 2 - Pupil Council will help children vote during school, 23rd-24th October on the top 5 options from Round 1.  Results shared on the school website.

Round 3 - everyone votes on the top 3 of the options until the 29th October via email link and school website. 

Fund choice announced at the next Parent Council meeting on the 30th October.

Funds arranged to be spent by end of November.

Attached for reference when considering what we spend the funds on are the draft proposals from January of this year on our: 

• spending criteria; 
• Financial Procedures (point 10 for spending requests); 
• fund allocation graph
• Broughton Decides 
• These all need to be updated to our new Friends At Broughton name and any feedback on them is welcome and can be discussed/amended in our Parent Council meetings.

Free Creche at PC meetings

• Our Parent Council meetings will now come with a free creche service so that you don't have to worry about childcare to come along and get your voice heard on school related issues.  
• This service is being provided by staff from Broughton After School Club and paid for by the Parent Council.
• Lucy P will do Wednesday 30th October; 
• Zaira L will do Wednesday 29th January; 
• Lulu will do Wednesday 25th March; 
• Maria will do Wednesday 27th May.
• If anyone has old games/activities that they would like to donate to our new creche (that we can also use at our FAB events) please bring them into school after the mid term holidays.

Halloween Swap Shop

• Friday 25th October, 11:30am-1pm we will host a swap shop of Halloween costumes under the After School Club.  
• Bring along outfits that no longer fit / are no longer liked and see if you can find anything to take away from the donations brought along.  
• Left over donations will be given to a charity shop for other families to benefit from.

Halloween Disco tickets

• Will only be sold in person from the 23rd October, every morning at the picnic tables under the After School Club, until they sell out. 
• If you cannot make the sale in the mornings please email me and I will forward to our Disco coordinators, Lizzie & Rebecca, who will decide if you can order and pay another way.
• Every child must be accompanied by an adult to the discos on the 1st November - you can bring up to 4 children per adult.
• 50p for a child ticket (including babies and toddlers) and £2 for an adult ticket.
• Volunteers still needed for set up and the 3 discos or they will not be able to go ahead due to insurance/safety reasons.

PC & FAB Constitution 2019

Parent Council & Friends At Broughton Primary School Constitution

Definitions
School: Broughton Primary School, including Broughton Primary School nursery classes
Parent: parents, guardians & carers of pupils at the school
Children: children at the school & nursery
Parent Forum: all parents, guardians & carers of pupils at the school
Parent Council or PC: a committee chosen to represent the Parent Forum
Friends At Broughton Primary School or FAB: a sub-committee of the Parent Council that organises fundraising & social events
Broughton Primary School Trust: the Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation of that name, charity number SCO44041.

Aims
The aims of the Parent Council are:
1. to promote co-operation & communication between parents & teachers
2. to identify & represent the views of the Parent Forum & children on the education & welfare of the children to the staff of Broughton Primary School & the City of Edinburgh Education department
3. to engage in activities that support the education & welfare of the children
4. to support & complement the Friends At Broughton Primary School
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 Friends At Broughton Primary School are:
1. to organise events for parents & children
2. to raise funds, to be used in furtherance of the aims of the Parent Council

Office bearers
The chair, vice-chair, secretary & treasurer of the PC/FAB will be elected at the PC’s annual general meeting.
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 would need to be called

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

Staff Representation
The headteacher has a right & a duty to attend PC meetings.  She or he will have an advisory role & 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/FAB meeting without invitation or notice.
Apart from office bearers & staff, membership of the PC/FAB will be fluid, and will consist of those parents who choose to attend PC/FAB meetings.
If meetings become too large to be manageable or productive, the PC will decide upon 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/FAB 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 for the benefit of
the children.

September 2019

AGM 2019 minutes

Welcome & apologies for absence

In attendance: Maria Gowans (head teacher), Samantha Rushforth (deputy head), David Borthwick
(principal teacher), Katie Blair (P3 teacher), Jennifer Longstaff (chair), Naomi Sandilands, Bence Solymar (treasurer), Sandra Rathjen, Laxman Raman, Tommy George, Suzanne Gibson, Ross Gibson, Rachel Blythe, Chris Knowles, Pauline Oh, Rebecca Winterstein, Anitha Bakyalakshmi, Lizzie Nicholson, Sandra Bagnall
Apologies: Anne Hay, Matthew Boyles, Rohema Khatun

Minutes & matters arising of the 2018 AGM

ACTION: Evening Meetings, 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); no response
during 2018-2019.
Connect insurance covers children at PC and other parent run events
ACTION: Broughton Decides, Mrs Rushforth will inform parents prior to parent drop in about the
Broughton Decides tables in each classroom; never launched during 2018-2019.
Agreed action: Create suggestion boxes for all FAB events and parent evenings re Broughton
Decides:  It was agreed that we would try to engage the school community to make decisions
about ideas to spend the parent council budget, a proforma will be issued prior to Christmas
break and parents will be informed of the process through the Facebook page.
Agreed Action: BPS staff identified that a sound system is top of the schools purchasing wish
list.  This was agreed during last school year.
ACTION: Playground Tidyup, Mrs Vacher to discuss with Rachel Blythe and Corylus Horticulture to set list in motion; while we did tidy up in May/June, will something more thorough happen after contractors leave the site.
Agreed Action: Will be looked at again once building works have been cleared
ACTION: Football teams, volunteers needed for P5 and P6 school football teams; still require a
volunteer coach, a few mums happy to help coordinate training sessions.
Agreed Action: Tommy will liaise with Sandra B and Don (previous coach) to discuss options
for the long term continuation of Broughton Football teams for P5-P7

Chair Report: PC & PSA – Jennifer Longstaff

2018-2019 review
Powderhall: was discussed at Council Committee 29th August.  Still awaiting confirmation of next steps but sounds like 250 homes once decontamination is complete, stables let to one of 3 companies who have expressed an interest and bowling green to become the integrated nursery and sheltered housing
Recruitment of 2018-2019: After last years major recruitment crisis the council have implemented PVG changes meaning recruitment is quicker; Mrs Gowans is now here

PSA Review
Parent survey: since June 9 responses for Parent Forum survey, 8 responses for PSA events. Feedback that spending needs to be more transparent, desire for a whole school cultural outing, more healthy options at events
PSA events: last year saw a dip in volunteers & funds raised at PSA events, though the children
all had fun at every one.
Sold out/most popular events - still the Halloween Disco and Christmas Cafe.  Summer Fair was a busy day but short of volunteers to adequately include other items.  The International, Health and Spring disco’s all had good turnout but low profits.
September cafe has been rebranded the Lagganlia cafe as it is always held the day the P7’s come back from Lagganlia and will help focus funding for the following years trip.
This year has a slimmer agenda open to a fresh direction with the spring Family Night.
PSA Events for 2019-2020:
1. Lagganlia Cafe Friday 27th September
2. Halloween Disco Friday 1st November
3. Christmas Cafe Friday 13th December
4. Family Night Friday 6th March International night?
5. Summer Fair Friday 30th May

EMF - Sandra Bagnall
2019 was a successful year for our award winning BPS runners team.
For the EMF 2020, 34 runners are signed up so far, including the Senior Leadership Team, and we are keen to get more families signed up before Christmas if possible.
Congratulations and thanks were offered from the Parent Council to Sandra and Catriona for all the hard work they have put in to making BPS runners a success.
Agreed Action: 2 free child places per class will be picked before Christmas 19.
Agreed Action: Bence and Sandra agreed to catch up outside of the meeting to review the Justgiving page with a view to further fundraising in future.
Agreed Action: at future school events a stall could be hosted to collect used running kit and trainers to give to those who want to take part but don’t have kit of their own.

Head Teachers Report – Maria Gowans

House captain and vice house captain elections have been held- results will be announced soon.
Events for this term include the Junior road safety officers event, P5 breakfast at Drummond HS, Harvesting Events, P7s Camp.
It is a key priority for this school year to develop the pupil voice group across the school and to continue involving children in decision making processes.
BPS is advertising for a breakfast club position 8-9am daily and will be recruiting PSAs once the budget has been fully determined for the year.
Refurbishment: The early years classes are still to be done and the carpets in the corridors are being
replaced.  Playgrounds will be tidied up and back to normal after the work has been completed mid - late November.

Treasurer’s Report – Bence Solymar <see own post for full report

BOS unrestricted £400
Virgin Money £8,897.90
£337.50 raised by the BPS runners fundraising for EMF 2019
The accounts of the Parent Council are to be submitted once signed (deadline Dec 2019).  Thanks to Shona Campbell for her assistance in auditing the accounts.

Review of the Parent Council constitution

Proposed amendment: Parent Staff Association can be confused with Pupil Support Assistants, proposal to change the name to Friends of Broughton (FOB) or Friends At Broughton (FAB).
After discussion it was agreed to change the name of the Parent Staff Association to Friends At Broughton (FAB)
A competition will be held for children at the school to design a new logo for the Friends At Broughton (FAB) events

Appointment of Committee members 2019-2020

Chair - Jennifer Longstaff (Sandra Rathjen Proposed, Sandra Bagnall Seconded)
Treasurer - Bence Solymar (David Borthwick Proposed / Jenny Longstaff Seconded)
Secretary/Clerk - Naomi Sandliands (Jenny Longstaff Proposed, Sandra Rathjen Seconded)
○ suggestion her fees from council could fund a creche during meetings. Connect insurance will
cover the liability of this happening
Cafe coordinator (Lagganlia & Christmas) - Rachel Blythe (Jenny Longstaff Proposed, Sandra Rathjen
Seconded)
Disco coordinator - Rebecca Winterstein and Lizzie Nicholson (Jenny Longstaff Proposed, Sandra
Rathjen Seconded)
Family night coordinator - vacant!
○ Agreed Action: this would be discussed at the next meeting
Summer Fair coordinator - Tommy George & Laxman Raman (Jenny Longstaff Proposed, Sandra
Rathjen Seconded)

Any Other Business

Leith Chooses next events – Rachel Blythe
○ shared an update regarding the progress of the Growing and Cooking project. A consortium of partners including Broughton PS, Saheliya, Leith Walk PS and Drummond HS were successful in applying for funding from Leith Chooses.
○ There is a phone application called Seek that helps children to identify the species of plants and
creatures https://www.wwf.org.uk/discover-nature-seek-apppc=GLK002005utm_source=Supporters&amp;utm_medium=Email&amp;utm_content=DownloadSeek&amp;utm_campaign=GLK002005_Adopters_FY20_N
○ A Friday or Saturday family tidy up before end of September? Rachel to distribute news and ask for ideas.
○ The growing project will ask that parents and pupils help with weeding the planters on an ongoing basis.
○ The first harvest will be held on Friday 20th September.
○ Soup making with P6 and nursery children will then follow on Thursday 26th September.  We need another 2 or 3 parents to help make soup.  Includes teaching the preparation of the vegetables to cooking soup with the children.
○ Rachel and Bence agreed to meet separately to discuss the best way to reimburse project partners for their expenditure.

Superlogo: complaints of not enough stock to complete orders by 14th August. Specifically P7's yellow hoodies.
○ One off incident this year, never had complaints before, no school benefits from having Superlogo as principal supplier

School photographs can anyone recommend a photographer other than Tempest to take photos this
year
○ Ivon Bartholemew will discuss with Maria what options are available
○ Discussion that Tempest could do individual/families but Ivon do class photos?

Christmas cards/class items for the Christmas cafe.  In-school creation of children’s designed cards,
created in class and sent to company to produce in large numbers in time for Xmas cafe.
○ Pauline Oh and Tommy George have contacts in this area.

Future PC meetings, 6:30-8pm

 Wednesday 30th October: Drummond Heads of School Faye Fulton & Sara Tosh will start meeting
 Wednesday 29th January
 Wednesday 25th March
 Wednesday 27th May

AGM Treasurer's Report 2019

Academic Year 2018/19. Bence Solymar. 4th September 2019

Changes in 2018/19
I took over the role of PSA Treasurer in January 2019
A number of changes have been made:
○ Admin procedures have been adjusted for greater transparency in the movements of funds
○ Spending decisions are now made faster so that the funds can be put to use quicker, eg to help pupil council’s “craze of the week” breaktime activities etc.
○ There is a plan to spend the amounts that are historically on the PSA accounts (eg. overspend on the Health Week 2019 spending was authorised)
○ We now have an organisation account with Bestway Wholesale, so that parents active on the PSA no longer have to provide the cash flow for bulk purchases for school events.
Gift Aid for EMF 2018 is still to be claimed on £140 of donations, ie £35. For EMF 2019, we did not
organise a separate cash collection, families could donate via Virgin Money Giving, and any Gift Aid
would have been processed through this.

Bank balances
Cash held is £70.37.
BoS is at £3,749.45 (of which £3,349.28 belongs to the Leith Chooses Project, where we have 2 more partners, and so does not form part of the PSA funds).
Virgin Money is at £8,897.90, after the grant for the 2019/20 Culture Fund has also been paid to the
school. This balance is after Cultural Fund donations for 2018/19 and 2019/20 which were gifted in the
same financial year.

Culture Fund 2018/19
Grant was fully spent by the school on class trips.
Income/Expenditure over the academic year:
● Events raised £3,273.92 of net funds.
● School lottery, donations and interest on account raised £1,216.70, making net income £4,490.62
against the expenditure of £4K Culture Fund, and the PSA covering the cost of Health Week 2019, which came to £1,697.89 (a rich whole school programme of Food Showdown, KidzFit, Barrow Band
and Pat Tweedie’s cooking class).
● The PSA spent on other items directly: £1,250.08 was spent on EMF t-shirts and prizes, swimming
caps, and piloting free fruit at the International Cafe 2018.
● Donations over EMF 2019 were not so actively called for and therefore were significantly less than in previous years. This might be something to be encouraged more again from EMF 2020 onwards.
Agreed action that 2020 EMF will promote the fundraising aspect

Charity reporting for year 2018/19
● Shona Campbell has independently examined the Broughton Primary School Trust accounts for 2018/19, and the accounts will be ready imminently for submission to OSCR well before the December
2019 deadline.

Parent Council AGM 2019

Our Parent Council (PC) Annual General Meeting (AGM) is coming up on Wednesday 4th September, 6:30pm-8pm in the school link building (in the lower playground).

Any parent/guardian can be a member of the Parent Council/Parent Staff Association Committee & put themselves forward for the roles of: Parent Council Chair; Secretary; Treasurer at the AGM. 

This year, rather than having a PSA Chair, we're going for coordinators for our streamlined PSA events (details below and in picture).

If you cannot make the meeting but would like to do one of the roles, please contact broughtonparents@gmail.com by the 3rd September & your name will be noted for voting on the night. 

For information on the roles, the below guidelines are very handy to read through.

Connect Guidelines for PC/PSA Committee Members https://bit.ly/2HncQoC

Connect Guidelines for PC/PSA Secretary https://bit.ly/2ZlRq1d - The role of Secretary/clerk is the only paid role offered on any Parent Council/PSA committee.

Connect Guidelines for PC Treasurer https://bit.ly/2NqZM5q

Connect Guidelines for PC Chair https://bit.ly/2Nr0csw

This year, due to work commitments, myself & former PSA chair, Anne, cannot be as hands on with PSA events as we have in past years, so the combined knowledge of myself & Anne will be given to anyone wanting to step in to coordinate the:

*Lagganlia Cafe 27th September > this cafe is to welcome back our current P7's from Lagganlia. The raised funds will go to the Lagganlia coach & activities for those who choose not to attend Lagganlia in 2020.

*Halloween Discos 1st November

*Christmas Cafe 13th December

*Family night 6th March > this is a new event with nothing planned, ideas for the night are welcome

*Summer Fair 30th May

Please also remember that if you want to be part of Team BPS for next years Edinburgh Marathon Festival, 23rd & 24th May 2020, you sign up at https://www.edinburghmarathon.com/ & forward your registration details to bpsrunners@gmail.com so that Sandra can add your details to her list of team members.

The agenda for the meeting

Welcome & apologies for absenceMinutes & matters arising of the previous AGM Chair Report PC & PSA – Jennifer Longstaff

• 2018-2019 review
• PSA Review
• PSA Events for 2019-2020: Lagganlia Cafe; Halloween Disco; Christmas Cafe; Family Night; Summer Fair

Head Teacher Report 2019-2020 - Maria Gowans
Treasurer’s Report – Bence SolymarReview of the Parent Council constitution

• Proposed amendment: Parent Staff Association changed to Friends of Broughton (FOB) or Friends At Broughton (FAB).
• Proposed ad-in: Committee members ideally not elected when their youngest child is in P6 or P7. 

Appointment of Committee members 2019-2020

• Chair
• Treasurer
• Secretary/Clerk
• Cafe coordinator (Lagganlia & Christmas)
• Disco coordinator
• Family night coordinator
• Summer Fair coordinator

Any Other BusinessFuture PC meetings, 6:30-8pm

• Wednesday 30th October: 
• Wednesday 29th January
• Wednesday 25th March
• Wednesday 27th May

New school year reminders

Only a week left of summer holidays, here are some 'back to school' reminders for all Broughton families

School returns next Wednesday 14th August. 

The day starts with everyone lined up when the bell rings at 8:50am
P1's check your guide for your first 3 days ease in timings, as of Monday 26th the school day starts at 8:45am for P1's soft start. School website blog has the class letters if you've misplaced them over the summer https://broughtonprimary.org/2019/06/28/transition-to-primary-1/
Monday - Thursday school finishes at 2:45pm (2:50pm by the time they're out of class) for P1-P2 and 3:15pm for P3-P7.
On Fridays school finishes at 11:50am for P1-P2 and 12:25pm for P3-P7. 

For the first week chalk is used to show where to line up in the playgrounds, as last year it is P1-P3 on the top playground and P4-P7 on the bottom playground

Health and Safety

Ensure that the school phone number is in your phone, all absences need to be called in before 9am on school days - 0131 556 7028.  

An important reminder that we are a nut free school - please do not send your child to school with nut items for lunch or playtime. 

Any sickness means the child can not be back at school until 48 hours after they have been ill.

It is up to us to regularly check our children's heads for signs of head-lice.  The first few weeks of term usually see a surge in reported cases, school can do nothing about this.  

Lunch orders

You need to order these via ParentPay by every Wednesday evening for the following week - however, for week beginning 19th August the order deadline is the tonight at 10pm.  

If the council still hasn't updated your free lunch entitlement onto ParentPay please email your orders to the office, admin@broughton-pri.edin.sch.uk, and they will make a special order when they're back in on the 12th.  

It is possible for you to order all the way up to the October mid-term holidays.

Uniform

Time to make sure all uniform, gym gear, lunch boxes and water bottles are named so they don't end up for sale at the Christmas cafe.  

We are partnered with www.easy2name.com for name labels, they have a 10% offer just now BTS19.  Easy2name also provide our Parent Staff Association with cashback if you select "Broughton Primary School EH7" at the checkout in the Fundraising option

Every child is encouraged to wear uniform and Broughton is very flexible with red and blue being main jumper colours with white tops and grey/black trousers/shorts/skirts.  

Reminder of house system, https://broughtonprimary.org/school-house-system/.  As well as sports day, once a term there is a house day where children are encouraged to wear their house colours.  MacDonald is red, Pilrig is yellow, Trinity is green, Drummond is blue.

Sports

PE will be twice a week from the 19th August with Mrs Ramm.

Swimming kits won't be needed until at least September.  Class teachers will send out letters with a few weeks notice.  P1s won't get swimming until after Easter.

Gym kits are needed for PE and the kits can live in the classroom all term from first day back.  Standard gym uniform are: plimsolls/trainers, shorts and a t-shirt.  Also pack socks if your daughter wears tights on gym day.

Book Festival trips

Reminder to check your emails for last terms letter about your child's visit to the Book Festival which will be taking place during the week of the 19th August.  I recall that it is only P2-P7 classes going up to the Festival this year so that the P1's can settle into school.

If you've updated your email over the summer do let the office know by email.  A full calendar of school event dates are scheduled to be sent out on Friday the 16th.

Dates for 2019-2020 events

We can now share our agreed dates with the school for our Parent Council meetings and Parent Staff Association events 2019-2020.

The first of which will be our Parent Council Annual General Meeting.

After our AGM there will be 4 more Parent Council meetings of the year.

Dotted throughout the 2019-2020 school year there will be six Parent Staff Association fundraising events held.

Gardening Project update

A Gardening project update of news and requests from our PSA Vice-Chair Rachel

News:

1) The visit to Saheliya with 8 primary 6 girls was successful - the girls got to plant ginger root in pots, saw round the planned outside growing area for Saheliya, took part briefly in an end of year celebration and discussed the project with Saheliya's project leader - Pamela Couper.

2) The transplanting of peas with the 2 primary 5 classes went well on Friday 24 June.  Thanks to everyone who took part!

3) Two of us and one small child went to see Leith Walk Primary's Growing Area and discussed gardening in playgrounds, while some Leith Walk Primary School adults and children planted potatoes.  This also went well and we were lucky with the weather, on an otherwise very wet day!  Thanks for coming along Naomi.

Requests:

4) I should be generally around on the last 3 days of term and I would love some advice about some of the stray pots of growing things in the playground - some even need to be identified and also we should decide if they will / should last over the summer or should they be harvested / transplanted?

5) If anyone wants to do a little last minute gardening in the last few days of term they are welcome - we have a little more soil now (I bought some more on Monday, after we finished the last soil transplanting the peas on Friday).  I also tidied up a low planter in the top playground yesterday and its now got a couple of sunflowers and some mint in it.

6) It would be good to start thinking about the ideal harvest time for the crops, which will last over the summer, so that if it is august, we can get this into the school's diary quickly.

7) REMINDER: Don't forget the seed and soil event in the playground this afternoon, 2.45pm and 3.15pm, if you would like your child / children to pick up a seed to look after over the summer holidays.

8) Any other ideas or questions, please just let me know

Parent Council minutes 24th June 2019

Attendees

Maria Gowans (HT), Jenny Longstaff (Chair), Sandra Bagnall, Rob Noronha, Samantha Rushforth (DHT), David Borthwick (PT), Sandra Rathjen, Anne Hay, Alan McIntosh (Spurtle), Richard Price (NTBCC), Naomi Sandilands, Rachel Blythe, Chris Knowles, Elaine Watson (CEC), Robbie Crockatt (CEC), Ruth Duck (Class Teacher), Matt Boyles, Pauline Oh.

Apologies: Bence Solymar (Treasurer) 

Powderhall update

From the City of Edinburgh Council: Elaine Watson and Robbie Crockatt (not representing wider Powderhall development. Just the Nursery)

Next public consultation: end of Aug or early Sept

Planning process has changed:

A proposal of application notice will be issued in July.  It must be issued 12 weeks before planning application.

A statutory notification (1 public meeting) must be held as part of the proposal process.  This will be held in Aug\Sept.

Looking to start work around April 2020 with a view to finishing the nursery 1 year later.

Therefore, the new nursery will not be ready for the 2020 intake.

There will Master plan for the whole site and 1 planning application for the nursery.

Mrs Rushford informed that from August next year there will be an all-year round nursery provision (including the holidays) and they will be recruiting staff.

Open space is a given. May have intergenerational living.

The issue of net loss of amenable (usable) open space was not debated by the planning committee.  They have stated that it will be governed by the general planning policy.

The nursery will be smaller than initial consultation:

128 children as opposed to 192 children with 2 playrooms as opposed to 3.

For reference, there are currently 50 children in the nursery.

The downscaling is driven by market conditions driving costs up and putting pressure on the allocated budget.

The Local authority funding comes from the Children & Families budget and is a Scottish Government Grant.

Robbie and Elaine will be invited to the community councils to provide an update

Head Teacher’s report

There’s a great deal covered in the newsletter that is handed out to the children so this report will cover the main priorities but please also refer to the newsletter.

The school are interviewing for part-time teacher.  This will be a job-share with David B (1 day) for P6. 2 teachers on probation will be arriving.

There are no other vacancies to fill however can’t rule out unforeseen attrition

Calendar of events for next session will be shared next session.

School priorities for next year:

Improvement plan for this year nearly complete

Next year there is a drive to raise attainment in writing across the region.  Will be looking at other schools and our current practices

Health and wellbeing initiative continuing.  The pupil equity funding is in place and being used for a variety of initiatives e.g. Den in bursary and maths development – small numeracy support for specific pupils

Den open Tue – Fri which is an expansion

Nurture room will be open every day.  This is an expansion also

Staff training being undertaken:

Confident children training

ASD training – an autism initiative

Updating emotions talk programme – training all staff

1 in 5 poverty training.  Rolled out across city.  1 member of staff trained.  A Parent/Staff group to look at poverty proofing the school.

Reviewing how the school reports on pupil process.  Have received feedback generally and via snapshot feedback.  Taking this into account, there will be 3 parents’ evenings instead of 2 as well as meet the teacher.  The additional time staff time for the parents’ evening will be offset by the time reporting progress time.  The progress report will be slightly different and different timing.

The school cluster has prioritised 2 areas for development:

Numeracy and maths – develop positive attitude as this is seen as an issue with this across the city,

1+2 language training Scottish Government initiative – Spanish staff training across cluster.  Spanish will be taught across P6&7.  French is already in place from P1.

Chair Report

Key points from the locality meeting:

New council PVG (protecting vulnerable groups) process is in place so should make recruitment smoother.

There is a new council working group into devolved school management which should give the schools more autonomy.

It was noted that when Abbeyhill had their playground upgraded, the PSA bore the cost of the upgrade and ongoing maintenance

Treasures Report

See previous blog entry for Treasurer’s Report.  Any questions can be answered at broughtonparents@gmail.com

SLT agreed that they could use the 2019-2020 Cultural Fund money before August.

Agreed Bence can meet with Shona Campbell. She will audit the books.

Parent Staff Association

EMF update – great run.  30 children already signed up for 2020.  Catriona’s last year doing helping to train the children, Sandra will still doing it.  Have other volunteers to help.  Wasn’t a fundraiser this year but fundraising page received donations.  Thank you!  There are two 2k raise and two 1.5 races next year.

Action – need someone to coach the P6 & P7 school football teams. Deadline for competitions has gone so will be a year of training.

Summer fair review – thanks for all who helped on the day.  Volunteers were on the short side but had local girl guides and staff from Smart Cookies who came and helped.  Really good event.  £745.80 made after expenses of bouncy castle and popcorn and candyfloss machines.

Stronger PSA committee is required for next year.  Need a new chair for the PSA.  Jenny and Anne will help you get up to speed.  Could break the job down into smaller parts with multiple volunteers if easier e.g. have coordinators for specific events (Halloween disco, school fair etc).

It was noted that it would be good to get more parents involved and a parents’ social event would be great so that parents got to know each other.

Gardening Project update - There was a gardening area at summer fair.  Group of P6 girls will go to see Saheliya where they will have a corner promoting the project.  Friday transplanting of peas – involving P5s.  Would like volunteers.  Going over to Leith Walk primary Mon 24^th at 3:30 to see what they’ve been doing and interchange ideas and planting potatoes.  Be good to get some more people.

OPAL (Outdoor play and learning refresh): Mrs Rushforth is meeting Michael after the summer to look into starting something once the building work is complete.

Jennifer gifted Rob a thank you present on behalf of the Broughton families for his work as Secretary over the years.  Included was a gift for Catriona Scott for her contribution to the Parent Staff Association and Team BPS.