For the full minutes of the December parent council meeting please follow the attached link but here is a summary of the main points:
Head Teachers update:
The school app appears to be working well, parents will continue to be encouraged to download the app and this will be the main form of communication between the school and families. The nursery will continue to use Learning Journal as well and an app for this is now available on android and apple.
Literacy: The school carried out a recent audit of novels within the school. Two years ago all novels for the P3 to P7 groups were replaced meaning that there were 30/40 novels available to pupils with 30 copies of each purchased. The recent audit identified that on average only 11/12 copies of each book remains. The school have had to reorder books to ensure children have the resources they need, the cost of replacing these books will amount to £4500 out of the school budget. The recent book amnesty resulted in only 3 books being returned. A current audit of P1 to P3 books is ongoing but the school are already aware that a number of these books are also missing.
As a result of the additional inservice day this year the nursery will have a full day outing on the 9th Dec to ensure that all children receive their full funded hours for the year. The nursery children will attend Craigend Nursery where they will also be provided with lunch and will meet Santa. This means that Santa will not attend the nursery party however the children will have a full Christmas lunch on this day instead.
Extended Nursery hours for 2020.
Nicola advised that there is no current update on what the 2020 nursery provision will be once the extended hours are introduced. Claire (parent council member) noted that local childminders who are applying to provide funded hours have met with North Lanarkshire Council and have been advised that there will be one nursery in each area in North Lanarkshire which will provide an AM/PM split provision however it is likely that all other nurseries will be providing a 9am to 3pm service. Which nursery will be providing what placements has not been confirmed by North Lanarkshire council and is unlikely to be confirmed for another couple of months. Parents wishing to use other childcare providers such as childminders alongside nursery should be aware that on the days that the nursery is closed for inservice etc childminders will not be able to claim funded hours if they are caring for the children instead and that this will mean parents have to pay for those hours.
The parent council raised concern that while Woodlands has not been confirmed as a 9 to 3 nursery it appears highly likely that this will be the case. If a 9 to 3 provision is provided to all children this will significantly reduce the capacity of the nursery and will limit how many children are able to benefit from creating local links with the school prior to staring. A number of parents on the parent council noted that they would not wish to place their children for full days and that the current 3 hour sessions were more beneficial. It was also noted that the proposed 9 to 3 placement does not provide suitable childcare for most working parents and is therefore not particularly helpful in terms of childcare. Given the concerns raised it was suggested that a canvassing of current parents needs and wishes for nursery placements may be beneficial. Nicola noted that as the proposed hours for the nursery haven’t been confirmed yet the school could not be involved in any such canvassing however recognised that the parent council were able to engage in this without involvement from the school. It was agreed that consideration would be given to this suggestion.
Events:
Christmas outfit swap shop. This was deemed to be a success by all involved and further opportunity for parents to pick up Christmas clothes for their children will be provided at the school show on the 13th Dec. It was also agreed that further events such as this will be considered for later in the year.
Book tokens: There are two weeks left to hand in Sun book tokens, there has not been a great response to this however, given the current level of need within the school, parents are encouraged to hand these in as soon as possible. Post boxes remain available at the school entrance and the nursery.
Christmas show raffle:
A number of raffle prizes have already been secured and parent council members are continuing to seek out prizes. Parents will be encouraged to offer any possible raffle prizes. A list of prizes will be collated on Monday the 9th Dec and the school will notify parents via the app.
It was agreed that the following will be set up at the school show for parents: Christmas swap shop, raffle, guess the teacher game, bottled water stand. It was agreed no other drinks will be provided due to the difficulty of cleaning the hall between shows and the short turn around time for the school to provide lunch etc.
Next meeting: Monday 6th January 2.45pm
