INVITE YOU TO THE VERY FIRST COFFEE MORNING IN THE NEW SCHOOL!

Please come along and support us on FRIDAY 30^TH MARCH 2012

9:30 – 11:30 AM

Entry is £1 for Adults, 50p for children and this includes Tea/Coffee/Juice and yummy cakes. There will also be a scrummy hamper to be raffled, so make sure you bring your pennies! If you cannot make it along, children will be permitted to purchase tickets on your behalf.

Please enter the school via the MAIN DOORS. Some of our amazing P7s will be there to greet you and show you the way to the dining hall.

WE ARE ALSO APPEALING FOR DONATIONS OF HOME BAKING WHICH CAN BE HANDED IN ON THURSDAY 29^TH MARCH OR FIRST THING ON FRIDAY 30^TH MARCH!!

Thank you in advance for your support and we hope to see you there! These events can’t happen without all of you!

NB Note from Secretary

This was the last Parent Council meeting held in the original Canberra Primary School. The current Parent Council look forward to the new beginning and welcome the opportunity to support the whole of Canberra Primary School.

The meeting started at 7:00 p.m.

In attendance

HEAD TEACHER Linda Gardner, CHAIR Steve Nally, SECRETARY Margaret Gilbertson, TREASURER Janette Priest, TEACHER Derek Miller, SLC QM Annemarie Knowles, Fiona McGeachan, Shona Kinloch, Alison Perrie, Maggie Di Maio, Julie Bolesworth, Dianne Smith, John Reid and Aileen Newton.

Apologies Mark Tracey

Approval of Minutes

Minutes from November meeting are unavailable at present.

Quality Manager Annemarie Knowles Update Report

Quality Manager for Canberra presented a follow up information report on the schools progress following HMIe Report.  A Knowles continues to support and visit the school and Head Teacher. Canberra is maintaining good attendance and has no exclusions. This is a good reflection on all the hard work put in by staff. Attendance is higher than other schools within the area. Progress continues to be made with reference to curriculum For Excellence and all reports from school continue to be submitted on time. The current Improvement Plan is on schedule and is focused. PLPs are being worked on by the children. ‘I Can’ books, journals and learning logs which were a focus of HMIe are continuing, with A Knowles scheduled to look at this area after the school move. Profiling for P7s is under way, as in the rest of the learning community. Schools within Duncanrig Learning Community work together on this to get consistency. Mrs Gardner noted that the website Education Scotland and its Parentzone section show good examples of how a ‘profile’ looks. Work on next year’s School Improvement Plan will begin after spring break, all being well.  There is the possibility of Parent Council getting to see this document at pre-submission level or at the beginning of 2012/13.

Parent Council Finance

Bank balance on the account is sitting at £1538. There are no outstanding outgoings.

Recatex

The recycling bin is continuing to bring money in. Current funds received stands at £364.50 since June 2011. There have been some issues with the bin. It was jammed with a duvet and more recently, the opening mechanism jammed. Signage will be arranged in the near future and J Priest is keeping tabs on outstanding funds to be received. Possibility of an indoor bin for the school was discussed but not agreed on at this time. S Nally raised point of info about Christmas card recycling as seen in Castlefield Primary School. More info to be collected on this initiative.

Allocation of Funds

Discussion about allocation of funds took place with ideas from Linda Gardner and council members. L Gardner expressed interest in the purchase of some Flipcams and Coombers for classrooms. Discussion about filming the forthcoming farewell concert resulted in an immediate decision to purchase an HD Video Camera for the school. Julie Bolesworth agreed to source this item and will notify Treasurer of cost. L Gardner also presented a very exciting proposal of a Mosaic for the new school. M Gilbertson will approach South Lanarkshire Arts Council about available funding. Initial proposal agreed on and discussion will follow. M Gilbertson and S Kinloch will work on the possibility of them executing the work. Finally, new socks and indoor footballs will be purchased as soon as possible for the school teams.

Head Teacher Report

L Gardner presented Head Teacher report. Feedback was sought about the Christmas Concert held in December 2011. This replaced the traditional nativity. Time is a major issue when planning nativity and it was replaced with the concert as we no longer have Mr Alan Mitchell, who was heavily involved in this production. Various opinions voiced. It was agreed that the concert was great and could continue but also that nativity was still of interest. More discussion will follow.  Student teachers have been working with Canberra this term, with a BED 2 starting with P3 on 6^th February and a BED 3 starting soon in P7. Teacher Mrs Sweenie is on a long term absence. P1 has a cover teacher who has settled well with the children. P1 enrolment has been completed and we should have a class of 20 pupils in August 2012.

New Build Update

Everything is on schedule as 1^st March approaches. Staff and pupil council have been over. L Gardner showed all the pupils photographs of the interior and excitement is building!  WANLAN system has been purchased and will provide the facility of linking up rolling images/film/info on the school foyer television screen. Floor plans have been sent out to all families, indicating new ‘line up’ positions. Mr Alistair Lawrie, piper, will attend on 1^st March and pipe the weans in!  Parking and congestion was discussed. Plans are in place for staggered start times between Canberra and Mossneuk, with Mossneuk bussing children over with escorts. Canberra will continue with a 9am start and Mossneuk at 9:15 am. Point raised by S Nally and M Gilbertson with regard indoor shoe proposal. It will be put in place from first day. Various members of the Parent Forum had expressed different concerns, all of which were discussed at length.  S Nally raised the request that Canberra adopt a policy of allowing children into school before 9am in bad weather. This is done at other schools in the learning community and it was met with agreement by L Gardner.

Press Coverage

Alison Perrie has continued to help build Canberra’s press presence! It was noted, however that we could get more. Previous discussions have included teachers passing on ‘achievements and news’ to Alison. To assist in this, M Gilbertson has drawn up a form for teachers to use. It is hope it will make it easier for news to get sent. Shona Mitchell at EK News has also expressed intention of contacting Canberra to cover the new school and perhaps assist with getting ‘memories’ sent in.

Spring Coffee Morning

A provisional date of Friday 30^th March has been agreed, with further discussion required. A Summer Fare was briefly discussed for 2013.

AOB

Westwood Community Council is planning a local festival this year and has written to all schools, inviting them to take part. It is something to discuss at future meetings, with the festival planned for June 2012.

Date of next meeting

Monday 26^th March 2012 at 7pm.