Date of Next Meeting: TBA
Meetings are open to all members of the Parent Forum (i.e. all parents and carers of pupils at the High School are invited to attend).
Meeting 9th November 2009
Draft Minutes of the Gairloch High School Parent Council meeting held on 9th November 2009
Present: John Port, Alison Grove, Sandi Urquhart, Jennifer Robertson, Susan MacLean, Andy McSwan, Christine MacLennan, Nevis Hulme, Mary Rogers, Jean Ross, Lynn MacKenzie, Gillian Morrison, Duncan Donald, Kenny MacLean, Fiona Dalgetty – Feis Rois
Apologies: Robin Fox, Yvonne Spence, Tina MacKenzie
Mary thanked everyone for attending. John introduced Fiona Dalgetty, Manager of Feis Rois who had been invited to attend the meeting following the concern that musical tuition and instruments had been withdrawn from the Gairloch area. Fiona explained that only 3 places had been taken on the Poolewe accordion classes and was therefore not financially viable. Feis Rois would be interested in setting up an after school club, possibly on a Thursday with the provision of the school building and local qualified musicians to teach things like tin whistle, fiddle, accordion and Gaelic song in 2 x 45 minute slots. If we applied to Awards for All for funding for instruments, Feis Rois would support our application. The Feis could apply for funding for a musician in residence to work with existing musical groups and develop new groups. A grant has been secured to offer young people from S3 to the age of 25 the opportunity to engage in a whole weekend of master class tuition, one of which will be in Gairloch. Communication between Feis Rois and the school will now be improved. Fiona encouraged anyone to contact her. Mary thanked Fiona for attending.
A request for instruments from the community will be placed in the Gairloch & District Times.
The minutes of the following meetings were accepted:
24th August 2009 – Ordinary Parent Council meeting
7th September 2009 – Open meeting with Charles Kennedy MP in attendance
9th September 2009 – Meeting with Cllr Jean Urquhart
The minutes of the meeting with Hugh Fraser will be available on the website shortly.
Election of Office Bearers
The following were elected as office bearers for 2009 / 2010:
Chairperson: Mary Rogers (proposed: Sandi, seconded: Alison)
Secretary: Sandi Urquhart (proposed: Alison, seconded: John)
Treasurer: Alison Grove (proposed: Jennifer, seconded Jean)
The bank forms and Highland Council forms will be completed. Lynn MacKenzie was elected onto the Parent Council.
Fundraising
The money collected for the bonfire night (£49.03) will be donated to the local Fire Brigade.
The following events are planned:
14th November – baking stall at the Gairloch market
27th November – raffle at the Legowan market
28th November – bottle bingo and raffle
5th & 15th December – main raffle at the Poolewe market
Teas at parents evenings – first is 19th November
School calendars. Lucky squares to Kinlochewe, Chemistore, Strath Stores, Poolewe, Aultbea PO
The following is needed for these events: Baking, raffle prizes, bottles to Sandi please.
Anti Bullying
A small group will meet with Graham Milner and look at issues such as Highland Council Bullying Policy and what Gairloch High School does in response to this. Mary will email around for people interested in being involved in this.
Staff cuts
The community councils continue to be visited. We need to know where the Highland Council are at in their budget cutting process. They are still looking for cuts at any level including auxiliaries and technicians. We need to keep on with our campaign. Other parent councils including those in the local primary schools are to be contacted. Hugh Fraser will be invited back to meet with us.
Leisure Centre
There is concern that the Leisure Centre are no longer advertising in the Gairloch & District Times. It was agreed that the re-introduction of the advert would encourage pupils to attend the after school, evening and weekend activities and it would inform those who live out of Gairloch. Chair to write to Mark Sharples, Leisure Centre Manager.
Date of Next Meeting: Mary will email some dates to the Parent council. The meeting closed at 8.45pm.
AGM 5th October 2009
Draft Minutes of the Gairloch High School Parent Council AGM meeting, 5th October 2009
Present: John Port, Mary Rogers, Alison Grove, Sandi Urquhart, Jennifer Robertson, Susan MacLean, Andy McSwan, Christine MacLennan, Robin Fox, Jean Ross, Yvonne Spence, Tina MacKenzie, Elspeth MacDonald, Isobel MacKenzie, Clare Caley, Lynn MacKenzie, Sam Banister, Suzanne Laing, Duncan Donald
Apologies: Nevis Hulme, Gillian Morrison, Richard Greene
Mary thanked everyone for attending the meeting and handed over to Robin as previous chair. Robin explained that he had stood down as chair because of work commitments and he thanked Mary and the rest of the Parent Council for all that had been done in recent months. Mary then presented Robin with a gift and card to thank him for his work as chair of the Parent Council.
Chairperson’s report – Mary explained the objectives of the Parent Council included working in partnership with the school to ensure the school is welcoming and inclusive, supporting the education and welfare of pupils, fundraising, and representing the views of parents/carers. The PC has been active in fundraising, which will be spoken about later.
As well as fundraising, our main focus in the past year has been on the cuts to teaching staff. We first heard about this in March and have since written many letters to MP’s and MSP’s. We have had an immense support from parents past and present, and the wider community. Mary would like to make a special thank you to Charles Kennedy MP for his support. The turnout at the public meeting was spectacular and this was noted by Highland Council. Last week, the PC met with Hugh Fraser, Director of Education. There will be no changes in the current year but Mr Fraser is willing to meet with the PC later this year to discuss the situation for the next school year.
On the school website, there is a section detailing many achievements of past pupils. One email was received prior to the current staffing crisis from Tim Causer, former pupil, who has just completed his PhD and commented on how it was Mr Richardson who had got him so interested in history. This highlights the importance of maintaining all subjects on the curriculum at Gairloch High School.
Malawi Link – Dr Clare Caley gave a presentation on her recent visit to Malawi and the Mlozi School. She said it is good for the children in Malawi and also the children in Gairloch High School to learn the similarities and differences between cultures to enable them to become responsible global citizens.
Last year, the S1 undertook a Malawi project which involved many of the subjects they are involved in, including craft & design, music, art, social sciences and science. They put on a show of their project to other pupils in the school, also to children from the local primary schools.
Clare has also done Primary Activity days with the local primary schools. This has helped the transition between primary and secondary school and also encourages the younger children to think about Malawi.
The Link Schools Programme aids communication with most S1 – S3 pupils and some S4 pupils corresponding with children in Malawi and there is also a joint project on the reasons that children go to school, to understand each other’s culture better.
When Clare went back to Malawi this summer, she took books that had been purchased by last years S1 from money raised at their bring and buy sale. She noticed on this visit that there was more community involvement and more teaching staff, also that the grades achieved by pupils were better than before.
Clare is now applying for a reciprocal visits grant to allow Malawi teachers to come here to work on a joint curriculum project. She would also like to see pupil visits in both directions in the future.
Fundraising – Sandi explained that Jennifer, Yvonne and herself were the fundraising sub group. Over the past year, they had done a bottle bingo and a stall at the Highland Gathering, raising about £1000. The parent council had also been involved in catering at school functions, the bring and buy sale, the prize giving and the Primary school Christmas event. Sponsors for the calendar were also obtained.
The PC are hoping to do a bonfire and firework display on the 7th November, a bottle bingo on the 28th November and a mega raffle at the Poolewe market on the 5th December. Jean Ross is going to advise re a beetle drive in the term after Christmas and it is also hoped to get a supply of re-saleable items to sell.
French Trip – Andy McSwan showed a video of the French trip by pupil Gemma MacLean and another video by a pupil in 6th year who had not gone on the French trip, showing the pupils enjoying a mountain biking activity. There are also a wide selection of photos on the school website which show the extent of activities enjoyed by the pupils who had gone to France and the pupils who had stayed for the activity week here.
Head teachers report – Staff cuts – 2 years ago, the school roll dropped below 200, which had an effect on the staff ratio according to the formula. Fortunately, staff already in the school were qualified to take on the guidance and managerial roles, which meant that some of the over staffing was absorbed naturally. Due to the budget squeeze, the Highland Council wanted further reductions immediately. It has been a difficult time and the support from parents and the wider community is appreciated.
Curriculum for Excellence is coming into place. This is where the curriculum is reinvented around individual pupils. The choice of subjects gives greater problems if there are less teaching staff. There is possibly to be a curriculum for S1 to S3 pupils offering general subjects and another curriculum for S4, S5 and S6 pupils with specialised subjects and specialised teachers. Highers and advanced highers will be kept. In S1 to S3, there will be fewer contacts so they may see the same teacher for different subjects or not study as many subjects at the same time. eg. 1 teacher will teach a broad social subjects course. These changes will gradually come into effect when the current P7 come to High School.
The school once again achieved good exam results with a good overall achievement in many areas including Duke of Edinburgh awards. Regarding school improvement, there is collaborative learning with cross-curricular work and staff working together across the subjects, looking at the different ways of engaging children. In numeracy transition, the maths teachers are working with P7 teachers so that all children are learning similarly and this helps with a smooth transition into High school.
The homework policy has been addressed, reinforcing that homework should build on what was learnt in the class room. John stated that the school is still one of the best in Scotland and it will remain so.
The school has been 15 years in the new school building. A video link to the You Tube site will be put on the school website.
Parent Council members 2009 / 2010
The existing PC stood down and the following were selected for 2009 / 2010: Mary Rogers, Robin Fox, Sandi Urquhart, Jennifer Robertson, Christine MacLennan, Jean Ross, Alison Grove, Tina MacKenzie, Gillian Morrison. More parents are needed, and it is not necessary to be on the Parent Council in order to help. Please come to our next meeting to see what goes on. If you live some distance away, it is possible to do a great deal by email. Parents and carers are very welcome to come to our meetings to see what goes on.
Susan MacLean was co-opted on – proposed by Sandi Urquhart and seconded by Yvonne Spence.
Teacher representative – Andy McSwan
Issues raised by Parent Forum – Adult learning – utilising the school facilities and encouraging the community back to school. John said that adults were also able to join school classes if they wished to take Standard or Higher courses.
HE department – to put back on the curriculum
Housing for new staff – it is not clear whether local professionals will be able to buy houses in the new development
Ensuring the school building is a resource for the whole community.
Duncan Donald asked about the school eco group. The level had not been maintained since Abiy Orr left but the school is looking at re-instating the eco group to work towards obtaining green flag status. This will be part of the school improvement project.
Duncan also asked about vocational certificated courses offered to pupils. The school offers skills for work at Int 1 and Int 2 levels.
Accounts – Alison handed out a spreadsheet detailing the income and expenditure for the past year. Money raised from the PC went towards transport to activities for those not on the French trip and entrance to Monet’s garden and the Eiffel Tower for the other pupils. The PC also part funded the 6th year’s year book.
Date of Next Meeting: Monday 9th November, 7.30pm, Gairloch High School. Meetings are open to all members of the Parent Forum (i.e. all parents and carers of pupils at the High School who are invited to attend).
The meeting closed at 9.30pm
Meeting 1st October 2009
Notes of Gairloch High School Parent Council Meeting with Hugh Fraser, The Highland Council Director of Education held on 1st October 2009
Click here to see the agreed notes from the meeting (PDF format)
Minute posted after November meeting.
Date of posting changed to put the details in chronological order.
AGM Invitation Monday 5th October
A warm welcome is extended to all parents and carers to come along and join us to hear what we have been up to over the last year and also for parents of 1st year pupils to meet us and learn about how you can get involved in helping the school and have a positive input to your children’s education.
The Parent Council’s mission is ‘to serve as a forum for parents, educators, and school officials to share ideas and exchange information in order to further advance the quality of the education system offered within the community’.
Communication with parents is a key area of the Parent Council’s work so that we are able to speak to the school about your views on issues which affect both the children and the school. When parents are involved children and young people do better and achieve more; we want to ensure you all have a say and are able to express your views and wishes. Please tell us about any items you would like put on the agenda.
Presentations on the agenda…
We look forward to welcoming Dr Caley who has kindly agreed to come back and tell us all about the Malawi Project and update us with the latest information and Andy McSwan who will be giving us a pupils’ eye view of the French trip!
Come along and join us on 5th October in the Multi-purpose hall in the High School at 7.30 pm.
We look forward to seeing you.
Letters have been sent home with pupils including nomination forms for office bearers and helpers.
Please return the tear-off slip to school by 1st October 2009 (in a sealed envelope addressed to the Chairperson, Gairloch High School Parent Council).
