Our Lady of the Missions Primary School Parent Council

Minutes of Parent Council Meeting

11th December 2014

Present

1. Boyle, A. Forsyth, C. Jamieson, M-C. Darroch, M. O’Reilly, J. Heraghty, L. Garety, P. Hessett, J. Taggart, C. James, S. Morrison, R. Spooner, E. Holland, G. Devenney, Cllr Robertson, Cllr Montague

Apologies

Cllr Waters, Cllr Fletcher, Cllr Wallace, J. Harkins, C. McCudden, C. Bowes, J. McLachlan, M. Hynes, F. McKean

Approval of the Minutes for the October 2014 Meeting

Proposed- G. Boyle

Seconded- M-C. Darroch

Parental Involvement

1. Jamieson spoke about the National Parent Forum which involves representatives from schools within and outwith East Renfrewshire. Our Lady of the Missions is keen to find new ways to engage parents to create a real partnership with them. A questionnaire had been sent out earlier in the year to learn how satisfied parents are with their children’s education. This survey is carried out every four years within the authority and the council feeds back the results to the school. 130 of 200 questionnaires were returned to the school, which was a good return. C. Jamieson showed a table with the results of the questionnaire.

The lower percentages came in questions about asking parents’ views and taking the views of parents into account. The same dip occurs in these questions in schools throughout the authority. A lower percentage also occurred in questions about the transition of pupils from nursery to primary, from primary to secondary and from one year to another.

1. Spooner asked whether, when a child moves from one teacher to another, the new teacher has read a report on each child or whether it’s a blank slate. C. Jamieson said that information is transferred about every pupil and that work is carried out during In Service days to transfer information about pupils.

M-C. Darroch said that sometimes teachers have not known information about a child at a Parents Evening that should have been known. C. Jamieson replied that it would be valuable to generate ideas as to how to improve the teachers’ knowledge about the children. He said that the new teacher spends an afternoon with the class before the new school year to make sure the children are comfortable and has a written file which they will be expected to have read.

1. James suggested putting the school’s policy document regarding the handover of information between teachers onto the website.
2. Boyle asked whether the information passed on to teachers is a summarised report or a fuller account and she suggested that it might be helpful for parents to have the opportunity to bullet-point some information that they think the teacher should know about their child. She also said that producing an overview of the main events of each year group at the start of the year could prove useful. This is done in St Joseph’s primary school.
3. Hessett suggested each child writing a letter about themselves for the new teacher could be helpful. C. Jamieson replied that the upper school pupils maintain an e-portfolio with personal information that the teacher can access. S. Morrison said that perhaps the pupils could write a transition memo for the pupils in the year below, describing the year ahead.
4. Jamieson said that the recent Support and Protection Review looked at how well the P7 teachers knew their pupils and looked at how teachers build a relationship with the pupils.
5. Spooner said that the transition programme for the P7s progressing to St Ninian’s was great. C. Jamieson gave credit to G. O’Neil in St Ninian’s who also works on this programme.
6. Garety referred to the interaction between OLM and Glenwood and asked about the level of contact with other nurseries in the area. C. Jamieson said that there was a close liasion with Glenwood, Glen Family Centre, Netherlee and Thornliebank. There is also contact with nurseries in other areas and information about children is acquired from them. The school now requires to liaise with [22?] nurseries feeding children into the school. A baseline assessment is carried out early in Primary 1.
7. Holland noted that in some schools the children write self-reports on their report cards. C. Jamieson said that this was done in P6 and 7 and that feedback is received from the children after their report cards have been issued.
8. Holland asked whether there were any special arrangements for the transition of children with additional needs into St Ninian’s, such as a settling-in course during the summer break. C. Jamieson replied that there is a course that takes place during the last week of the summer term but that some children do not wish to make use of it.
9. Taggart suggested that part of the difficulty of children moving from nursery to primary school was that parents lose the face-to-face contact with teachers that they are used to in nursery. She said that some of the Glasgow schools involve parents in paired reading in the classroom. C. Jamieson said that the school had run something similar before and that it would be worth looking at that again.
10. Boyle said that it might be useful if class teachers were to bring children out at the end of the day at the beginning of term to allow parents to see teachers as sometimes parents know nothing about the teachers until the Meet the Teacher evening later in the first term. C. Jamieson said that all staff are used in different capacities at the end of the school day. E. Holland said that the Meet the Teacher evening was a good idea as many working parents are not at the school during the day.
11. Spooner raised the issue of phoning the school to speak to a classroom teacher and those calls being answered by deputes. C. Jamieson said it was not the usual practice for parents to be able to speak to classroom teachers in the first instance but that an appointment for a phone call could be made. R. Spooner said that this might be a factor in parents feeling that their views are not taken into account.
12. Hessett said that it is sometimes possible to speak to teachers after school but that there might be privacy issues surrounding that type of discussion.
13. Boyle proposed that an openness to arranging parent-teacher phone calls could be welcomed by working parents who are not at the school. C. James suggested that if parents were encouraged to phone with any concerns at all rather than simply with a more serious concern, this might encourage parents to feel more involved. She also said that other teachers could be present at the Headteacher’s Drop-In meetings. C. Jamieson said that perhaps principal teachers or depute heads could have similar drop in meetings on a semi-regular basis. A. Forsyth noted that one of the pastoral care staff from St Ninian’s phones parents to discuss how children are settling in.
14. Spooner suggested e-mail contact with teachers. E. Holland said that in some schools parents can contact staff via an enquiries e-mail address which is then passed on to the relevant member of staff.
15. O’Reilly said that perhaps some form of interim report could be sent out to parents earlier in the first term to flag up any potential concerns.
16. Taggart drew attention to the National Parent Forum document where it is indicated that interaction between staff and parents is as important as between staff and children.
17. Spooner said that the extra-curricular clubs run by P. McCann were a big contribution to the school.
18. Boyle suggested that perhaps parents could be issued with a form in advance of Parents Evenings asking about anything they would like to discuss with teachers so that discussions can be more focussed.

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