Minutes of Parent Forum Meeting – Thursday 21 st November 2013
Present: Deb Pridmore, Emma Rowlands, Becky Collier, Jacqui Lethaby, Kathy Joyce, Sarah Blair,
Michael Hawkins, Oli May (later), Karen Hopkins, Joanne Stephens, Sandra Pao, Sara House
Apologies: Liz Ramsey, Leesa Sheppey, Kathryn Williams, Christian Hilton, Natasha Jones, Rachel
Sherman, Gemma Phelps.
Minutes of last meeting – agreed as correct by those present.
Matters arising:
Hazel class reps – there is a parent interested from Hazel. Action – MH and DP
Governor role – DP advised that she is now a governor, everyone happy for her to continue as chair and felt it was good to have a foot in each camp.
Curriculum and Governors Evening – MH advised that this was a good evening and excellent to see a uniformed message from the teachers. MH acknowledged how difficult a challenge it was for the teachers to wipe the slate clean and to start afresh with the curriculum. The teacher’s enthusiasm and passion was commented on. Also, it was expressed that it was sad that there was such a low turnout. DP said she would like to see it happen again and that she was sure we could drum up more interest. Jacqui asked could it be filmed but MH said this could be difficult as the film would date quickly and he felt the physical interaction with the teachers was important. JS suggested that it should be held at the start of the academic term and then potential parents of the school could be invited just before they pick their child’s school. It was also commented on how it was nice to meet all the teachers of the school.
ICT update – JS advised the forum that there was now a scaled down version of the ipad project being introduced at the school. 41 ipads were coming into school shortly. Also as an experiment three apple tvs being are being introduced. Apple tvs could replace the whiteboard/projector and be a cheaper alternative. Apple tv allows anything on an ipad to be sent straight to tv/whiteboard. MH advised that the ict curriculum still requires programming so still need PCs in school. Also the school will retain the netbooks and they will have a variety of platforms and ability to pick and choose dependent upon application.
Parents Evening Questionnaires – MH advised that there would be a newsletter out in the next couple of days which will include the very positive results of the parent questionnaire. One particular response which was of interest was 30% of parents ‘didn’t know’ regarding the bullying questions.
Road parking update – DP advised that she has chased John Osman twice and has not yet heard back from him. Forum agreed that a good idea to take up Jacqui’s idea of a standardised letter from as many parents as possible regarding the issue if we hadn’t heard in two weeks. Action
Jacqui and DP
Homework policy – MH advised that again the new homework policy would be in the newsletter but phase leaders decided that every child would be given at least a couple of week nights and a weekend to complete homework. This will be implemented after Christmas. SB raised

the point that perhaps more homeworks could be of a more practical/outdoor nature e.g. go for a walk and collect items/treasure hunt etc. Action MH. A general debate took place about the maths calculation policy used at school. MH advised that this policy is on the website and parents can access this to help children with this. ER suggested that it would be good to run parental sessions on this subject and has spoken to Mr Ramsey who is happy to run them. It was suggested this should take place after Christmas. Action DP – to put on parent forum newsletter. A debate also took place about too little/too much homework and MH said that parents won’t agree on this and it is about trying to keep the majority happy.
Fundraising – MH gave a big thank you for the parents support for Children in Need and the
Philippines disaster. Approx £268 raised for children in need and £305 for the Philippines.
Superstars – MH advised that Hullaballoos is no longer considered suitable for the older children and also the venue is no longer offering a good deal. They are looking at putting on a film with popcorn for the winning house. JS suggested that there should be a house cup and MH advised that there are shelves in the hall for a cup and/or house mascot for the winning house.
Circle of Friends – ER the chair of Circle of Friends joined us for this meeting. She advised that the play equipment in KS1 is coming to the end of its life in a few years and it is a major expense to replace it. As a school we will need to look at grant funding. She was interested to hear people’s views on why there was low parental support for CoF. It was suggested that difficult for single parents to give up the time as childcare a problem. Also people are looking to take a break after being involved in Stepping Stones . It was suggested that people would also be reluctant to sign up as a supporter as there was a perception that they would be pulled in further to CoF. Perhaps stress to parents that they wouldn’t be pressurised to be more involved. DP raised the point that there was a lot of grant funding available out there and a group should focus on that. MH advised that there may be someone at county who can specifically assist with grant funding. ER then advised that there was a very low take up of ‘easy fundraising’ which was an easy way to raise money for school.
There is even an app for ipads. BC and Kathy agreed to trial both pc and ipad options of easy fundraising and feedback to forum and that the forum should then encourage other parents to sign up in their respective classes. Jacqui also made the point that parents should be reassured that school do not know what people are buying. ER advised that approx £260 was raised from Christmas cards and was given some feedback on how to improve for next year and these were taken on board as this was the first year and plenty of ways to improve and increase take up. BC commented that it would be nice to observe the singing and MH confirmed that something was going to take place
Action MH.
Communication – MH advised that the QR code scan will bring up the weekly planner for users. BC felt that the A boards were still an excellent last minute reminder for events etc.. DP asked if we could find out which areas of the website are used most so that the website could be tailored accordingly. She felt that a lot of people used the weekly planner and perhaps this should become the home page. A general debate took place about paper communication with parents and the forum were in agreement that we need to really look at email communication again as very few parents today do not have an email address. SB suggested that all emails should be sent to everyone so no one is missed but in the title you could advise who the email alert was for eg: Re: KS1 newsletter then a parent would know if relevant for them or not. DP raised an ‘opt out’ scheme. It

was decided to see what response we get from the Stoberry Times request for parents emails. The forum decided it was sensible to push this with parents too. Perhaps the forum should push the message ‘ Use of emails means more ipads for school’.
Parent Fines re: holidays – Jacqui asked if the parent fine system was in place. MH confirmed that the fixed penalty fine system was in place if parents take children out of school during term time.
Apparently it is not an immediate fine but for repeat offenders. MH advised that parents look at
DoE for further information regarding this.
Chess – DP asked MH to update the forum regarding the offer of free chess resources for school.
MH confirmed that he had received an offer but this offer required the school to commit to 1 hour per week of the school week for years 3/4, and that this was difficult to do when the school ‘needs improvement’ and couldn’t do at the moment. Sandra felt that it was a very good idea to introduce
Chess. MH pointed out that not all parents would be behind it. SB suggested that we look at ways to get the children who are on the waiting list in playing chess. DP was hopeful that we hadn’t missed the chance.
KS1 to KS2 – It was suggested that we look at a buddy system to help with the transition from KS1 to
KS2.
Focus on Sport – the meeting ran out of time and this issue was scheduled for the next meeting.
Next meeting – Jan 29 th Jan at 2pm