Hello! November is here already with its short days, long nights and cold, cold weather. It’s not long now until the Christmas holidays and there’s lots of exciting things to be planning and thinking about! Here’s the news for parents this month.

For daily updates on what is going on in Scottish education and the latest news for parents and families, make sure you’re connected with us on Facebook and Twitter

This short questionnaire is for all members – it will take no more than ten minutes to complete. It includes questions taken from the Scottish Government’s Governance Review which looks at how education is run in Scotland. We will use your answers to give the Government feedback on their proposals, making sure that parents’ opinions are represented in this important review. There are also some questions about the work we do at SPTC. Filling this out will help us improve our services.

There are three ways to complete the survey:
You can complete it online here – www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/sptcgovrev
Get in touch with us and we can send you a copy via e-mail which you can either e-mail back to us or;
Print it off then return a hard copy to us by post.

As you know, we’re an organisation for parents, run by parents. If you are passionate about improving parental engagement in schools, why not consider becoming a director on the SPTC Board? We’re especially looking for people with business skill such as HR, accountancy or legal but we welcome applications from any parent or teacher who is passionate about our cause. If this sounds like you, contact us for a nomination form.
Deadline for submissions: 31 December

That’s the title of our new continuous professional development course for teachers, which we launched in Shetland last month. We’ve already had some fantastic feedback, so we’re really excited to be delivering the course in both Glasgow and Aberdeen at the beginning of 2017. Places are filling up quickly, so if you’re an educator who is interested in improving parental engagement in your school, get in touch with us!

http://www.sptc.info/engaging-families-in-childrens-education-glasgow-and-aberdeen-sessions/

It’s the time of year for planning Christmas fairs and discos. If you need inspiration, have questions about how to run an event or have questions about your membership-linked insurance cover, you can find all of this and more on the SPTC website.

• Social / Fundraising ideas for winter
• Running a disco
• All about your insurance cover

If you can’t find the answer to your question on our website, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us!

Things to look out for 

Is a new Xbox or Playstation top of the Christmas list this year? Are there old games consoles in your house that are heading for the bin in the Christmas clear out? Get Well Gamers UK is a fantastic charity that accepts donations of old consoles and games to give to sick children in hospitals across the UK. If you’d like to donate please send a quick email to hello@getwellgamers.org.uk

This is a date for your diaries: 23^rd of March 2017. That’s when SPTC will be holding our annual AGM and Lecture in Glasgow [venue tbc] and we’d love to have you along. We’re excited to be welcoming Dr Janet Goodall from Bath University as our keynote speaker. Janet has done lots of excellent work on meaningful parental engagement in children’s learning, especially as a means of school improvement. Get in touch to reserve your place. Stay tuned for more information!

Did you see our guest post from Child Poverty Action Group about the true cost of a school day? There are some great ideas for PCs and PTAs on how to make school activities inclusive for low-income families. Take a look – http://scottishptc.blogspot.co.uk/

Thanks to everyone who took part in the latest Parent’s Voice survey which focused on the Upstart Scotland campaign. We had a great response, we’ll publish the results soon. The next Parent’s Voice survey won’t be until January 2017 as we focus on the members and governance review survey on the run up to Christmas.

November is the busiest month of the year for retail. Black Friday falls on the 25^th of November this year. If you’re like us and will be doing your Christmas shopping from the comfort and warmth of your own home, why not raise money for your group through easyfundraising. Find out more about this here – http://www.sptc.info/sptc-partnership-easyfundraising/