Craigrothie Primary School Parent Council
Minutes - Craigrothie Parent Council Meeting – 5th Sept 2013.
Present: Mark Richardson, Sharon Carson, Natalie Motion, Sheona Finlay, Hilary
Lumsden, Ben Seal, Lisa Hall, Donald Gillespie.
Minutes and matters arising. Mr Gillespie confirmed that Morag Robertson will
consider disabled access to the garden as part of the refurbishing of the school to
make it disabled accessible. Minutes approved.
Mrs Wright. She will be absent until at least the 21st of September. Mr Gillespie
confirmed that he has no further information regarding this. Flowers were sent on
behalf of children, teachers and parents. More flowers will be sent.
Head teacher replacement. There have been no applicants after the deadline of the
28th August. Mr McCloughlan (Area Education Officer) will be discussing the
situation with Mr Gillespie soon, asking when the position will be re-advertised, and
the details amended since at present they are not (they state that there is no Parent
Council). Mr Gillespie will invite him to the Parent Council meeting. A subcommittee of the parent council has been set to raise the profile of the school
(Hillary, Mark, Paloma).
Good news stories. Mr Gillespie has requested volunteers to write up good news
stories for the school website. Parent Council webmaster will start up a Parent
Council website and make a link to the school website.
Parent Feedback Forms. These are now ready and will be distributed to parents to
ask for help and ideas shortly.
Bank account. We have attempted to open an account with RBS but are now
shifting Lloyds TSB.
Secretary funding. We have attempted to get information from Fife Council
regarding the amount that we are eligible to claim, but so far have had no luck. We
will continue to try to get through to the relevant person.
Public relations. Hillary will publicise school activities through the local press,
ideally once a month. If you have any ideas for press articles, please talk to either
Mark or Hilary.
Consultation Scotland 2010 Act. The Parent Council was asked to participate in
this consultation and we have done so. In particular, we have responded that we
want a 5 year protection for schools after a threat of closure, enshrined in legislation.
Craigrothie Primary School Parent Council
Religious education versus religious observance. We discussed the different
between the two, and Mr Gillespie explained how religious observance takes place
in the school. Given the high turnover of head teachers, we discussed the
desirability of drafting a policy on religious observance that would be agreed by all
parents, and Mr Gillespie requests volunteers to help him do this.
Payment for lunches. Mr Gillespie confirmed that parents can pay for lunches and
milk in advance for a whole month or term, so long as it is by cheque, payable to Fife
Council. Parents will have to understand that, if their child subsequently misses a
school day, it will be very difficult to retrieve the lunch money from Fife Council and
return it to the parents.
Fundraising committee. This committee has met and agreed there will be a
Vintage Café on a regular basis in the Village Hall, and additional activities (for
example the Christmas Fair) can be added to that.
Carbon efficiency. Rehema White unfortunately could not make the meeting. Mr
Gillespie and Rehema will liaise. An update on the projects in hand at the moment
will be published soon.
The next meeting will take place on Tuesday
29th of October, at 7pm in the school.