Bucksburn School Parent Council

To All Parent Council Members
Minute of the Bucksburn Parent Council Meeting 19th May 2008 - 19:15
In Attendance: Mr Robertson, Lynn Swinton, Billy Fagan, Anne Stewart, Katrina Henderson, Rev. Parker, Angela Joss, Steve Joss, Jean Henretty

Apologies: Frances Reid, Nick Simpson, Ronnie Wright, Laura Arnott, Clair Burbridge, Dan Ruane, Mrs Deacon.

1. Welcome/Introductions — Lynn welcomed the new faces and brought the meeting to order

2. Parental Involvement Strategy, consultation period. — The PC had been issued with the ACC consultation copy of this document prior to the meeting. Angela brought up the case for accessibility of information with specific regards to Non-Resident Parents (NRPs) as well as other groups where barriers seem to be in place for this, such as those where English is not the first or home language. She explained to the council how it can sometimes be difficult for a NRP to gain information, especially if it is against the wishes of the resident parent. The Scottish government themselves have placed emphasis on greater parental involvement being beneficial to the development of the child, specifically the simple reduction of the effect of the parental break up on the child. Angela had a copy of the full Scottish Government proposal for parental involvement which was far more extensive than that being offered by Aberdeen City Council.

She requested that Bucksburn School specifically address this in the returned forms for the consultation period. Angela also put forward the case for the requirement of a city wide policy covering NRP’s access to information from school to remove it from the hands of the school themselves. If there were council policies covering the cases for and against the issuing of information then the head teachers would be able to direct the parents to this policy and be ensured they were acting with the education authority’s backing. Angela mentioned the stigma felt by NRPs, specifically non resident mothers, when requesting information from the school. Bucksburn School does have procedures in place for many of these issues already due to the work done previously between Angela, in highlighting areas requiring attention, and the management in implementing measures to combat the issues. The PC felt the structure already in place in Bucksburn was sufficient but were happy to put some form of support in general to Angela’s proposals in their returned consultation documents.

3. Playground Shelter - Lynn told the council that Milltimber School has one of these shelters and has tried to obtain information about it. She will be contacting the school in this regard. Jean Henretty mentioned the possibility of National Lottery funding for the project.

4. Jean Henretty, Parental support. — Community Learning (Adult Learning) ties in very well with the current parental involvement strategy as one of the focuses of their work is increasing parental involvement. She told us how teachers need to be there to educate our children, not to support the parents. However this doesn’t mean that no support is available to parents and this is where Community Learning steps in. They provide courses in IT skills, cookery, literacy etc with a focus on “Family Learning”. They arte keen on helping broken families in particular, although everyone is welcome to attend. She told us how Northfield have pilot schemes in place in these areas which she is hoping can be rolled out to other areas (Bucksburn). Jean explained how there’s a stigma of adults who are suffering from various levels of illiteracy so identifying and accessing these parents is difficult. Children’s behaviour and parental responsibility are key targets in these courses with the ‘I’m a Parent, Get Me Out Of Here’ course particularly popular. Health and Dietary courses are also being run. The PC decided to call 2 parent forum meetings, one at 14:00 - 15:00 and one from 19:00 - 20:00 on 8th September 2008 where Jean and her team can inform parents of just what’s on offer to them and hopefully sign up some parents interested in becoming more involved with their children to participate in some of these events.

5. Any Other Business - This (19th May) was the final day for the acceptance of applications for the upcoming Bucksburn Head Teacher post. Leeting and interviews to follow.

6. Dates and times for future meetings - The next meeting will be held in the school on the 23rd June 2008 at 19:15