Brechin High School Parent Council
Minutes of Parent Council Meeting held on 19th November 2014
Attendees: Patrick Yates (Chair), Mr Mills, Deputy Head Teacher, Alison Reid, Liz Calvert, Kirstin Hoggins, Fiona
Gill, Shona Seaman, Sarah Mathieson, Yvonne Somerville
Apologies: Mr Bathgate (Head teacher), Jim Welsh, Elaine Sim, Lynne Howe
1) Minutes of Meeting held on 19th March 2014 and Matters Arising
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Pat read out the apologies and gave everyone a brief outline of the agenda.
There were no matters arising from the previous minutes.
Pat explained that Claire is no longer able to be secretary and the options available
were for someone on the Parent Council to take on the role or pay someone from
outwith the group to take on the role. The possibility of a pupil taking on the role as
work experience was discussed. Mr Mills agreed to put this in the pupil bulletin once
Pat provided the relevant information.
Approval of the minutes of the last Meeting held on 4th June 2014 was proposed by
Alison Reid and seconded by Liz Calvert.
2) Treasurer’s Report
Alison gave a brief update on the Treasurers report. The current balance is £674.51.
£27.92 has been raised through Easy Fundraising. It was agreed to ensure that Easy
Fundraising information is put on future newsletters and the possibility of additional
information being sent out to parents prior to Christmas.
Pat informed the group that there was an outstanding invoice for the interpreter for
the Parent’s Evening. Mr Mills agreed to pass the invoice to Alison for payment.
3) Head Teachers Report
Mr Mills gave an update in the absence of Mr Bathgate.
He updated the group on the progress with the new building. The work is not
hampering education in any way, although there is some disruption to parking/buses.
Pupils have been visiting the site regularly and work experience opportunities are
being offered. The Management Team had a tour of the site and can see the building
taking shape. The build is 1 week behind at the moment. Pat enquired if the Parent
Council could have the opportunity to visit the site in the spring. Mr Mills agreed to
explore this request.
Mr Mills explained that the changes to Form Classes are working, particularly in the
senior school. There is still some work to do in the junior school. Work is continuing
to address this. The new reporting system, which provides regular information to
parents, has been well received so far and the informal feedback has been positive.
There are some quality assurance issues. The system provides good tracking of where
pupils are in their learning. Fiona commented on the new reporting system
Mr Mills
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Brechin High School Parent Council
3) Head Teachers Report
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positively from a parent’s perspective.
The exam results last year were lower than hoped and lessons have been learned
from this. The target for this year is 30% with 49 pupils sitting confidently at
achieving 5 Nat 5’s.
12% of pupils are on target for 5 Highers, an increase on 8 pupils for last year. With
intensive input the target is 33% of pupils to achieve 5 Highers. Interventions in form
class are being used more smartly to support better results.
The transition for the current P7’s into S1 has started successfully with workshops on
Heartstart, from the Coastguard and on Lifesaving skills in the pool.
4) Maths / Numeracy
Mr Mills reported to the group that a support booklet aimed at S1-S3 parents has
been distributed.
Concerns were raised by a number of parents in the group that the planned use of
form time for extra maths input has not turned out as expected and is only 20 mins
per fortnight. Mr Mills explained the plans to use form time more effectively. The
extra maths teacher has not been possible and the school is conscious that there are
still issues there. More structured time is needed to ensure progress is being made.
Two parents raised concerns as part of this discussion and were informed that
another teacher is going in to support this class and that the school is working hard
to address concerns with the Maths Department. Concerns were raised about if the
pupils would be ready for exams in May if the input is not more structured and that
there could be a knock on effect in sciences. Mr Mills agreed to take the issues
raised back to the Maths Department and find out why the form time input has gone
down to once a fortnight.
It was agreed that the confidence of pupils in their numeracy skills needs to be
boosted as pupils are doubting their skills. Mr Mills agreed to update Pat (prior to
the in-service days) on the actions from this conversation so that he can inform the
Parent Council of progress being made
5) IT System
The planned system update planned for February has been rescheduled for the last
week in June to minimise disruption.
6) School Policies
Concern was raised by Pat that policies could not be accessed via the school website,
particularly as this is likely to be the first point of contact for new pupils. Mr Mills
informed the group that the school handbook can be accessed via the Angus Council
website.
Brechin High School Parent Council
6) School Policies
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Kirstin asked if there was any parental input to new policies and those being
reviewed. Mr Mills agreed that in future polices should be brought to this group for
comment prior to publication. Kirstin also asked if there was input from pupils to
policies. Mr Mills explained that the Pupil Voice group is the forum where views
would be sought and fed back to Houses.
A discussion followed about the opportunity to have pupil involvement to Parent
Council meetings. There were mixed feelings about pupils being present at meeting
but it was agreed that this would be discussed as a future agenda item. It was
suggested that it could be possible to structure the agenda to enable pupil input to
part of the meeting.
7) Website
Mr Mills explained that the website is not progressing as the school needs it to. It is
currently hosted by Angus Council which means that it cannot be updated in real
time. An alternative is being explored as Mr Flood and the pupils he is working with
are ready to launch the new site. Pat suggested writing to Angus Council to raise the
concerns of the Parent Council. Mr Mills agreed to feedback about the meeting with
Mr Hill and advise Pat if a letter should be actioned if the council are not able to
support the alternative proposal.
8) Letters
New Campus / SQA: Pat reported that he had taken the opportunity to talk to
Pauline Stephen about these letters but has, as yet, had no response. The group
agreed that they were happy with the content. Pat agreed to circulate responses
when received.
9) Angus Council Questionnaire
This questionnaire had previously been copied to the group. Concerns were raised
over the questions and it was felt that it was tokenistic and not going to provide
quality information. It was suggested that an e-survey would be much more valuable
and productive to gather this kind of information as it would provide the opportunity
for respondents to add additional information to questions.
10) Holiday Dates Consultation
Following some discussion everyone agreed that they found the proposed holiday
dates acceptable. Pat agreed to respond on behalf of the group.
Brechin High School Parent Council
11) Fundraising
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Easy Fundraising
As per the previous discussion it was agreed to send out promotional material via
newsletter and email. Alison agreed to check the contact detail for the cheques and
Mr Mills agreed to follow up on communications from the school to support this.
Kirstin asked if the pupils could be involved in this as an enterprise / cross-curricular
initiative.
The discussion moved onto the need for the Parent Council to have a new
fundraising goal, possible for new equipment. The possibility of discussing this
further with the Technical and Science Departments, to see if there was any
equipment needed to support learning, was raised by parents. Mr Mills suggested
funding the merit awards. This led to a query being raised about the merit system
and whether one or two merits were collected for a double period. Mr Mills
explained that a group were looking at the system to address any anomalies. He
explained that the system was primarily aimed at Junior School. Parents also fed
back that their children were saying that they don’t get told if they don’t get merits
in a class. Mr Mills agreed to feed this back to staff. He explained that merits are
built up and rewarded. Every period that is registered attracts merits for punctuality,
behaviour, uniform and effort. It is a new system that needs time to embed and the
opportunity for feedback will be included. Parents raised concerns over the amount
of time the system takes up for teachers but Mr Mills reassured the group that it
does not impact on teaching time.
12) AOCB
Buses
Fiona raised concerns over the B16 bus route which is consistently late. This is
impacting on the start of the day for children. Mr Mills thanked her for making the
school aware and advised that concerns about buses are better coming from parents
and should be raised with Angus Council directly.
Paths
Kirstin raised concerns over the state of the paths that the children are using to
access the school during the building work as these are muddy and dangerous. Mr
Mills agreed to raise this with the contractors.
Movement between classes
Pat queried if what he had heard about children only having 2 minutes to get
between classes was accurate. Mr Mills explained that Mr Funai was looking at the
issue of punctuality to maximise teaching time and that expectations and
consequences had been raised at assembly. Kirstin raised a concern about children
being locked out when doors closed automatically before the bell had rung and the
possible consequences of this for being recorded as late. She was reassured that one
off instances would not be a problem. Mr Mills also agreed to have the timers on the
doors checked.
13) Date of Next Meeting
21st January at 6.45pm