Ashton Park PTA
Minutes of Annual General Meeting
18 Nov 2015
Present: Teresa Bridge, Sara Frears, Sarah Jones, Helen Rayner, Anne Badger,
Ngaio Harding-Hill, Kate Scott, Melanie Ridout, Ben Samsum, Tessa Thomas,
Sheila Hill, Roger White and Debbie Scroggs.
1. Apologies: Sarah Mott, Becci Glew, Elaine Beckett, Mary Takahama, Mary
Nottage, Jackie Tuck, Tracey Hill.
2. Minutes of the last meeting 8 Sept 2015
Minutes approved will be sent for uploading to website.
3. AGM business:
Chair’s report:
The PTA is required to make an annual report to parents/carers to explain their
activities and report on funds raised and how these have been spent.
The PTA is registered as a charity and has submitted its annual return to the
Charities Commission. The PTA bank account is held with HSBC and cheques
are signed by two signatories.
Activities of the PTA include:
Liasing between parents and the school, discussing current issues with the Head
and Deputy Head. To raise funds for a variety of school related uses. To provide
refreshments at some school social events. To provide ‘friendly faces’ to other
parents at open evenings etc.
The PTA is not a committee and is open to all parents, carers and staff at the
school. Meetings are held termly and are attended by a regular group of parents,
Tessa Thomas and Sheila Hill. There are three elected officers in accordance with
the Charities Commission regulations, currently:
Teresa Bridge (Chair)
Sara Frears (Secretary)
Sarah Jones (Treasurer)
Summary of Year 2014 - 15
Funds have been raised through running cafes at the Gym and Dance Show the
school production and the Summer fayre. Also used raffles, entrance fees and a
second hand uniform stall. PTA pays the school TV licence and funded an
outdoor table tennis table.
Discussion at meetings has covered a wide variety of issues such as work
experience, exploring possibilities for increasing parental involvement, future
expeditions, Ofsted report, catering in school, ParentPay, Duke of Edinburgh
Awards. Mark Williams, new Chair of Governors came to introduce himself.
We have attended New Parents evenings and Open evenings to let parents know
about the PTA and inform them generally about the school.
Thank you to all parents and carers who have helped at events and attended
meetings and to Tessa and Sheila and other staff who have come to meetings
and been willing to listen and discuss issues.
Financial report: (See Appendix 1)
4. PTA elections:
No new candidates came forward to replace the current Chair, Secretary and
Treasurer. Secretary and Treasurer were re-elected unopposed:
Sara Frears (proposed Ngaio Harding-Hill, seconded Sarah Jones)
Sarah Jones (proposed Teresa Bridge, seconded Sara Frears)
Kate Scott said she might take on being Chair as a joint post with someone else.
At the next meeting in January Teresa Bridge will resign and we will be without a
Chair if nobody comes forward to replace her. Legally we cannot continue without
a Chair so the PTA will fold. Please if you or anyone you know would be willing to
take this on, let us know.
5. The Co-operative Trust now and into the future (Roger White: Chair of the Cooperative Trust and Debbie Scroggs: staff member with responsibility for
increasing awareness of Co-operative values).
Roger White spoke about our current situation as a Co-operative Trust School
and the national climate in which the Government has expressed its intention that
all schools should be academies by the end of this Parliament (although this is a
costly process and it is unlikely that there is actually sufficient funding available).
We are in a position where it may be best to decide for ourselves what kind of
academy we want to be rather than having something imposed on us.
The Multi Academy Trust model would not differ greatly from the existing model
and could still retain its co-operative status and could potentially involve more
primary schools (Southville and Ashton Gate?). A MAT would be completely
independent of the Local Authority and would be overseen by an Executive Head
or Principal. All schools involved would have representatives on the governing
trust body. The MAT provides a single employer and owns all the property.
Schools within the MAT can pool resources and access economies of scale. The
schools involved are mutually responsible for the success of all the schools within
the Trust. Being part of a MAT could potentially allow the development of coherent
teaching, learning and assessment from age 3 to 19 in South Bristol.
There will be a consultation process involving SLT and Governors and including
all the primary schools. Parents and staff will be consulted sometime before
Easter. This is a period of investigation, nothing has been decided yet. The
confidence of parents in any decision is extremely important.
Debbie Scroggs spoke about her work to increase awareness and to embed the
core co-operative values into the day to day life of the school. She is employed as
Co-operative Learning Coordinator 1 day per week.
She has visited other schools as part of a peer review process to see how they
are working to make the co-operative values part of every aspect of school life.
Schools involved in this scheme mutually assess each other.
Debbie is currently working with a variety of groups of pupils to gather ideas about
how to make the values meaningful and alive in school.
Values: Democracy, Equality, Equity, Solidarity, Self help and Self responsibility.
She would like to involve parents in this process and would like to hear from
anyone who is interested. We also suggested that if there are specific aspects of
the project which she would like feedback on we could discuss them at future PTA
meetings.
Thank you to Roger and Debbie for attending our meeting.
6. AOB
Lower Lodge Project. Pupils will be collecting oral history of the local area. If you
know anyone who has lived locally for a long time and would be willing to come
into school please contact
Paul Miller will be invited to the next meeting to up date on Work Experience.
Dates for next year:
7 Jan 2016
1 March
20 April
9 June
All parents are very welcome to attend these informal and informative meetings.
Just turn up at the Learning Resource Centre at 7.15pm, there might even be tea
and biscuits! If you have any queries, or would like to add your name to the e-mail
list to receive these minutes, please leave a message for Teresa via the School
reception on 0117 377 2777 or at mail@ashtonpark.net
Appendix1