Parent Council meeting 1st May 2019

Parent Council Meeting Agenda Wednesday 24th April 2019, postponed to Wednesday 1st May 18:30-20:00 Link Building

Attendance and Apologies

Jennifer Longstaff (Chair), Maria Gowans (HT), Samantha Rushforth (DHT), David Borthwick, Rob Noronha (Secretary), Rachel Blythe (Vice-Chair), Naomi Sandilands, Sam Vickery, Chris Knowles, Suzanne Gibson, Ross Gibson, Katie Blair (teacher representative), Sandra Bagnall, Sandra Rathjen.

Apologies: Matthew Boyles, Bence Solymar (Treasurer) 

Senior Leadership Team report

Maria Gowans, our new Head teacher, has worked at Broughton before and is very fond of the school and is happy to be back.

Her priority is to get to know as many of children and get a sense of the school. Maria is attending the classes and has spent time in the early years and is working her way up to the top. 

Maria thinks the children are lovely, very kind and polite.

Learning and teaching There have been a number of excursions. 

Launching next the block of building resilience. 

The class newsletters are imminent and snapshot jotters are coming out 10th May.

Health week starts 27th May and sports day is on the Tuesday, hopefully in the bowling green. 

There is a parent class drop-in on the 31st May. 

2019-2020 class and recruitment 

Melanie Burton is back part-time after maternity leave. 

Vacancies: likely to be 2 probationers in addition to 2 additional vacancies. 

Jennifer Williamson is back mid-June after a career break as is Laura Murray. 

Renovation update Started work on the art store then moving onto the book store room. 

Primary 5 have moved back into their room. 

The final move will be to the ground floor.

Corridors and communal spaces will be done when schools is off.

Should be finished by October.

Clubs within the main building still have to be out by 4:00 until the building work is complete.

School sport update Hairy Haggis was at this weeks assembly to recognise the schools high number of entrants in the junior races for 3rd year in the row. The swimming team won the gold medal in the backstroke & made the final in the breaststroke in the inter-schools swimming meet.

Minutes and Matters arising from last meeting Wed 16th January

Minutes were distributed to all parents, consensus that they were accurate. 

Powderhall: Robbie\Elaine will clarify if loss of amenity or loss of green space was set out by planning committee.Amenity = practical usable green space. Green Space = may not be practical. 

PC Chair requested feedback prior to the 24th April, still outstanding as of time of this meeting. 

E-mail system:Mr Crabbe will check with council if there’s any update on this issue of only having one email per child. PC Chair obtained answer from Locality Meeting: Council is doing a system upgrade over the summer that may allow more than one email to be allocated per student. Other schools use ParentPay for school communications or standard spreadsheets every term per class.

Chair report

Powderhall: See above outstanding minute action. Last consultation in the gym for the bowling green was very well attended.

ACTION: Sandra B to check that there is no loss of amenity green space.

Locality and Committee news:

Unable to attend latest meeting which was held at same time as this meeting.

From the last meeting - Poverty proofing: Lots of schools getting rid of book fairs and doing book swaps; also scrapping expensive photograph companies with staff or parents taking annual photos. Maria said there is a whole city wide programme for this that will start to be implemented from August.

Treasurers report Wednesday 24 April 2019

Income and expenditure For school year 2018-2019

Income to date is £4,220.84.

(Lunchtime café, Halloween disco, Christmas Café, Lottery, Giving Machine, International Cafe, Spring Disco).

Spend is £975.08.

(swimming caps, sports tops, Rubik's cubes for Pupil Council Craze of the Week, fruit for International Cafe).

Expenses for the school year are £1,364.81.

Bank balances

The bank balance for the Trust Virgin Money account is £15,973.73.

The Bank of Scotland account is at £2,034.47.

Bence now has access to both bank accounts.

Culture Fund

The financial year of 2018/19 is now closed.

Awaiting clarification of what spend is to be allocated against the 4K Culture Fund.

Awaiting clarification of what was additional spending.

Financial Processes

Opening of a Bestway (Cash and Carry) account is at the final stages. 

This will prevent the PSA from relying too heavily on organisers for cash flow.

RECOMMENDATION:

As we do not have a bank card suitable for online payments. 

BPST should operate a PayPal account to allow for payment to supplier accounts.

This would also allow us to have a card reader and move away from cash takings at school events. 

ACTION: consensus that Bence should investigate the charges for & cost of ownership for contactless payments.

Fund Allocation: Approval of normal/smaller spend is now overseen by a group of parents & staff who are consulted by e-mail.The

Treasurer only administers the finances of the fund on this small scale. 

Handout of new procedure, below, given & consensus that it is a positive step forward.

If you would like to be part of this group email your request to join to broughtonparents@gmail.com

RECOMMENDATION:

Broughton Primary School Trust does not hold reserves.

The bank balance is quite high, rolling from one year to the next.It is now recommended that the spend these funds were waiting on should be reconsidered. For example, BPST could pay for, in full, chairs and tables which are relied on at BPST events held in the gym hall. These should become an asset of the BPST, and not the school/CEC.

Charity reporting for year 2018/19

Gift Aid has not been claimed on EMF 2018 donations due to administrative issues, which are being resolved. When Gift Aid is claimed, it will be a receipt in the financial year it is claimed, and not 2018/19.

ACTION: An external examiner will be identified in due course.

PSA Report

Gardening project update from Rachel Blythe Kick-off event on Friday 24th May. The idea for activity is for a simple tidy up, plant crops for food, plant other things, can paint. Things should have food aspect to them for the project. Liaising with Leith Walk Primary and Drummond CHS. Want a simple first-off event. Activities could include: citing a compost bin; growing potatoes in bags; planting seeds & developing into a seedling. School staff starting to plan activities for launch day as part of in-service day. Leith Walk Primary are about a year ahead of us. We can learn a lot from them. L ooking for a date for Broughton Primary to go over to Saheliya at drop-in event. May\June can think of harvesting crops.

ACTION: What plants grow quickly?

EMF update from Sandra Bagnall 10:30 each Sunday training, getting about 30 kids. Brilliant! Visit to Holyrood Park for a practice run two weeks before race weekend. 100 kids are signed up to team BPS and there are 2 parent relay teams. There are also parents and teachers (Claire, David, Sam, Maria HT) running. Asked permission for 10 new T-shirts in each of the 3 sizes (30 in total), £160, this was approved at PSA. T-shirts handed out on 17th May @ 12:00. Chance to pick up T-Shirts and ask any questions. Race day guide will be produced and emailed before EMF weekend. Using generic Parent Trust Justgiving account for any donations but participation is the main thing. Funds will go to new PA system for school which can use for PSA discos and assemblies.  

Summer Fair, Saturday 1st June Urgent call for volunteers for set up, stalls and tidy up.  Supervisors needed for Candy Floss and Popcorn Machines.  Bouncy Castle may not be allowed in the gym, Maria will investigate this.  Car needed for Cash and Carry run Friday 24th or 31st May. Sandra R offered to help with the cash & carry run.  Smoothie Bike: someone to collect on 31st May, get supplies, supervise on the 1st and return on 2nd or 3rd June. >Ross G offered to take this on.  Wine raffle: someone to source 12-15 bottles of wine and wrap all bottles in newspaper.  There will be parkour and Edinburgh Dance Academy demonstrations.  There’s a lot of uniform and this will be on a free table.  Pupils will help on stalls.  Sandra R offered to teach balloon modelling.

ACTION: Could have a free stall at the Summer Fair and potentially put on some couple of free activities. > School chalk, playground toys & pluck a duck will be out for free activities as will colouring books within the quiet area.

AOB

ACTION: P7 football team is the only football team in the school. However Dom who organises the team is leaving this year. He is happy to handover. Need volunteers

Sandra B asked re P7 party:  is there an appropriate date for bake sale as a fundraiser? SLT agreed this is doable and will arrange a date.

Playground upgrade? SLT confirmed this links in with the outdoor play and learning project. Can’t really get going until building work completes. Sam has re-engaged with Opal. Michael and Sam will get some staff input and will put together a parent\staff\pupil\Council group to help. Info may come out before end of this term. 

Jennifer showed some Vegware compostable samples received with suggestion of investing in them for future events. Consensus to invest in Vegware products for future PSA events.

Final Parent Council meeting of the year Wednesday 19th June, 18:30-20:00, Link Building.

Guests: Elaine Watson and Robbie Crockatt from City of Edinburgh Council for a Powderhall update.