Harris Academy Parent Council

Transcription

1 Harris Academy Parent Council Thursday 8 th September at 7pm in Harris Academy Minutes of the Annual General Meeting 2016 Present: Graham McKay Parent Council Chair Barry Millar Head Teacher Richard McCready West End Councillor Vari McDonald West End Councillor Fraser MacPherson West End Councillor Leona Chacko Depute Head Teacher Jan Mackie Business Manager Grant Edwards Teacher Caroline McDonagh Teacher Lisa Mordente Teacher Kirsten Ferrier School Captain Dylan Ackerley School Vice-Captain Neave Stolvoort-Henry School Vice-Captain Karen Campbell Jane Coleman Alison Collins Wendy Croll Stephanie Dorman Vivienne Fairley Nadin Feeney Heidi Fettes Heather Henry Stewart Hood Laura Hunter Clare Huxley Kim Jones Fiona Kelly Glynes Lang Heather Lawson Hayley Mackenzie Blair McKenzie Katja Pradel Heather Rennie Gillian Scott June Sinclair Emma Smith

2 Coral Walker Kathleen Zwart Nicola Bruce Parent Barbara Porteous Parent Fiona Robertson Parent Apologies: Emma Beatt Vice Chair Pat McCallum Clerk Bill Campbell West End Councillor Ramanee Bengough Marnie Finlayson Mandy Trickett Parent Cllr Pover Perth and Kinross Councillor Cllr Roberts Perth and Kinross Councillor Cllr Walker Perth and Kinross Councillor 1) Chair s Report Graham delivered his annual report on behalf of the Parent Council. The report is attached to this minute for reference. 2) AGM business appointing officials and members Chair: Graham McKay was proposed by Heather Henry and seconded by Blair McKenzie. There being no other proposals, Graham accepted the role of Chair. Vice Chair: Emma Beatt was proposed by Graham McKay and seconded by Clare Huxley. There being no other proposals, Emma was confirmed in the role of Vice- Chair. Clerk: Pat McCallum was proposed by Graham McKay and seconded by Clare Huxley. There being no other proposals, Pat was confirmed in the role of Clerk. The following were appointed as Parent Council members: Ramanee Bengough Karen Campbell Jane Coleman Alison Collins Wendy Croll Stephanie Dorman Vivienne Fairley Nadin Feeney Heidi Fettes Marnie Finlayson Heather Henry Stewart Hood Laura Hunter Clare Huxley Kim Jones Fiona Kelly

3 Glynes Lang Heather Lawson Hayley Mackenzie Blair McKenzie Katja Pradel Heather Rennie Gillian Scott June Sinclair Emma Smith Coral Walker Kathleen Zwart 3) Minutes of the last meeting 15 th June 2016 These were accepted with no changes. 4) Matters arising All matters arising were on the agenda. 5) 33 period week proposal Barry intimated that he had not seen any negative impacts educationally from adoption of the 33 period week model. He was also asked to comment on behavioural changes relating to the longer mornings on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. He intends to report back on this at a future date but had not seen any evidence thus far. Parents requested that due to the longer days that water was allowed for pupils within classrooms. Barry confirmed that water is allowed in all classrooms with a few exceptions. In these exception, teachers will make it clear that water is not allowed. These areas are Science and Computing. 6) New School a) Pupil Safety Graham provided and overview of the situation concerning pupils arriving and leaving the school. Following discussion with the Dundee City Councils Transportation depart, they intend to make the following adjustments: Bus bays are adequate, with a current over-provision of bus space on south side of Perth Road. In the afternoon, we would propose that two buses could take up position in the west bus bay which would improve sightlines for pupils crossing at the west School Crossing Patroller (SCP). The third bus would require to line up in the main bus bay to the east of the SCP crossing point. With the current number of taxis contracted to serve the school (currently 11, DCC x 9, 1 x PKC, 1 x Angus Council), there is insufficient space in the PM, which means that some taxis overhang the end of the taxi rank. This can be addressed by reducing the number of taxis (longer term), reallocating some of the main bus bay to taxi rank via TRO change (longer term) or having some of the ASN taxis drop off within the car park below street level (to be discussed with school). Taxis under contract to DCC can be instructed not to perform u- turns outside the school. We will discuss the practicality of all taxis approaching the school from the east.

4 The positioning of the bus stop pole at the bus stop at the east of the school (served by local service buses) will be changed with the bus bay moving eastwards by around 10m. This will give a greater area for the east SCP to cross the road. Noted that there is no dropped kerb at this SCP crossing point - on either side of the road. Additional SCP hazard signs have been requested at Blackness Road. These could be illuminated (flashing). Barry also noted that the school are continuing to work within the building itself to ensure pupils are as safe as possible. This includes using different routes to exit the building at the end of the day and restrictions in using some of the narrower staircases. b) Transport Graham again gave an overview of the issues faced and the responses received: Dundee City Council Transport department: School buses have operated reasonably well, albeit with some timetabling issues. The change to the school hours has caused one or two communication issues at depot level with drivers arriving at the wrong time (late) on early finish days. Loadings have been relatively evenly spread with isolated reports of overcrowding. Drivers have been instructed not to load more passengers that they are legally allowed to carry. If pupils are left behind (AM) there should be alternative services. It is expected that within a matter of days, pupils will work out for themselves where they should wait for the bus that best suits their needs. Dundee pupils without entitlement to travel, must pay a fare when boarding the bus - or have pre-paid for a season ticket etc. Pupils with entitlement from DCC (including those pupils that transferred from Menzieshill HS) should have their NEC loaded with travel rights at the Xplore Dundee travel shop for the whole school year. Only pupils with a travel pass issued by PKC may travel on Contract XCS/028. Other Carse of Gowrie pupils must use a service bus (Service 16/X53) as appropriate. This will be the case even when there appears to be space (spare capacity) on the contract bus due to pupils who have been allocated a space not travelling on any given day. Noted that during one afternoon site visit a van tried to exit the staff car park just as the pupils were exiting the school and traffic was being held by the SCPs. Consideration may be given to prohibiting/discouraging vehicles exiting the school for 10 minutes around school finish times. Cllr Pover from Perth and Kinross Council responded to my request to attend the parent council to address concerns of Perth and Kinross residents as follows: Thank you for your e mail

5 I have checked with our transport unit on buses serving Harris Academy. The closed contract bus for entitled pupils is full and has had no problems reported. The service bus which is not provided by the council and is used by non entitled pupils has had some issues which have been passed on to Stagecoach. It is hope these problems have now been resolved. Sorry I am unable to attend the meeting but if any further complaints are received I can pass them to our transport unit for attention. I have dealt with a number of complaints on the allocation of bus passes but the council has set criteria and every case reported has been investigated. Regards Douglas Pover A number of parents were exasperated by this response and Graham suggested that they take their concerns up with one of the Perth and Kinross Councillors or the transport department directly using the following contacts: Cllr Pover dpover@pkc.gov.uk Cllr Roberts mroberts@pkc.gov.uk Cllr Walker gordonwalker@pkc.gov.uk Public Transport Officer Moray Fraser mjfraser@pkc.gov.uk A number of parents also expressed concerns relating to the service bus service. For issues and complaints concerning Xplore Dundee services, parents are urged to contact Elsie Turbyne, Managing Director Xplore Dundee Neil Gellatly, Head of Roads & Transportation, Dundee City Council or neil.gellatly@dundeecity.gov.uk You can also log complaints at Barry explained the process for children using the service buses and how they are gathered in the atrium before boarding the buses when they are ready. c) Heating/cooling Graham outlined the heating issues within certain areas and classrooms within the school. He has had meetings with Barry, Paul Clancy (Head of Service (Secondary, Support for Learners and Inclusion)) and Stewart Hunter (Convenor of Children and Families Services Committee) to ensure the council are addressing the issue. The council have recognised there is an issue and have commissioned Robertsons to review the situation and develop a plan to resolve the issues. To date, the air system has undergone a complete purge but this has not significantly reduced the temperature. Contractors have also been in to the school to review if the air system is working properly. The council have agreed in principle to put temporary air conditioners in to relieve the heat at present and a company was I school this week to survey for this equipment. I have made it clear that the school budget should not be

6 negatively impacted from any additional works or equipment required to resolve this issue and have been given an undertaking from Paul Clancy in this regard. A parent noted that their children had been complaining of a foul smell in certain areas of the building. Barry said he was aware of this and plumbing contractor have been into the school to try to identify the source of this. Where a class such as science operates over a double period, Barry is to speak to the teachers to allow children to have water at an appropriate time within this class. d) Lunches Barry provided an update as to the situation with lunches and the capacity issues that have been raised by parents. At present a number of additional tables and chairs have been ordered through the council and these will be distributed in areas around the school when they arrive. Through discussion with the council, all top up machines for Young Scot cards now take notes as well as coins. Other suggestions such as vending machines have been suggested as a method of shortening the lunch queues although all pupils are currently being served within 25 minutes. It is expected that as lunch clubs (to be published on the website) get up and running pupils will find their own space at lunchtimes. Barry was asked to report back to the November meeting as to how the situation was progressing as parents expect as the autumn and winter weather arrives, more pupils will stay on site for lunch. Other considerations raised included split lunched and covered external areas. 7) Head Teacher s Report Staffing update: Barry responded to parental concerns that certain classes did not have the correct subject teacher by outlining the staffing situation. Presently there are 6 maternity leaves which the school has to fill from their budget Science are one teacher down but this is now covered by supply staff from the science disciplines. Modern languages are currently advertising to fill a post which is being covered by a supply linguist at present. Also a Business vacancy which will be filled by V Muir, ex-pt Business Studies from Menzieshill High School. Vicki starts after the October break. The school also has two ASNA vacancies which are filled from a central council pool but there are no staff available to fill these posts at present. The formal opening of the school will take place on 7 th December 2016 by John Swinney MSP. A further public open day will take place on Saturday 1 st October from 10am to 2pm.

7 The school calendar will be published in two formats. A month to month calendar and a year specific calendar for each year. This is expected to be uploaded to the website soon. The school website needs to be updated and reworked and this will be done at a point in the future when the school believes they have alternative communications with parents. Barry explained that the School Handbook is now available on the school s website ( This went missing when submitted to the council in March and will be reviewed in December when the next version is due. Barry focussed on the behaviour currently being exhibited at school. He identified this as an issue that the school are tackling and to date there have been four fights, two on Perth Road and two within the school. Whilst these have been dealt with, Barry reiterated that the school will take a strong stance on dealing with this behaviour and he believes there is core group which are an issue. A working party has been setup to build relationships within the school comprising teachers and pupils. Parent members were also invited to contribute to this group and two volunteers have come forward. Barry also identified that the staff approach to behaviour needs to be consistent and he is working with staff to achieve this. A parent asked about the reduction in offsite provision at Dundee City Council. Barry responded by stating that he had met with the head of offsite provision and provision has been offered to the school as normal. Barry explained the rationale behind the toilets designation cross the school and this had been driven by teachers as well as pupils through the pupil council. The issues around the timetables in the early weeks were due to system issues with the school system (SEEMIS). Once these are resolved timetables will be reissued and he took on board the differentiation between PE, HE and SE. Assemblies held next week will serve to clarify and reinforce the rules and behaviour expectations. A communications group is also to be formed and two parents volunteered to be part of this group. Barry agreed to provide an overview of Insight at a future meeting. This is the tool used to assess the school s performance. Barry has written out to all parents of pupils who had excellent results and will also be writing to parents where their young people have shone.

8 In response to parental comments that teachers had not returned calls, Barry assure that the usual point of contact for both children and parents was to the child s guidance teacher, then the year head and finally to the head teacher. The School was represented by a number of pupils at the recent Dundee Schools Music Theatre. Barry attended these and commented on fantastic productions. Lastly, Barry addressed the concern around class makeup. He assured parents that all Harris or Menzieshill classes were limited for purely educational reasons. All other classes are mixed. 8) School Captain s Report Kirsten provided a short report to the meeting. Prefect rotas have been developed and issued today to help the pupils around the school. House officials interviews are ongoing and expected to be completed within two weeks. The sixth year are currently identifying option for their sixth year dance. 9) PTPA Graham and Barry are to speak to the existing PTPA members to identify the best way forward for this group. 10) Social Media presence for Parent Council Graham outlined the concerns of parents and the school of some content within the parent council Facebook page. Two options were considered: A closed group where new members were approved although this was likely to be unachievable as there is no way to determine is someone wanting to join the page was genuine. Providing acceptable terms of use of the page and removing content which breached these terms. By a unanimous show of hands the terms of use approach was agreed. The terms of use have been attached to these minutes and will be placed on the Facebook page. 11) AOB City wide Parent Forum - 27th September 7pm Downfield Primary School - Growth Mindset will be the main theme of this meeting. Jobs, Skills and Apprenticeships Fair which is taking place on the 29th September at the Caird Hall, there will be a session between 5pm-6pm aimed at parents to help demystify the apprenticeship programmes. A parent raised the lack of lockers available at the school. Barry explained that lockers were not part of the build specification and the school had no current budget for lockers which was expected to runs to tens of thousands of pounds. The school fund committee is yet to be established and this may look to identify potential funding sources.

9 The lack of mobile phone reception coverage in the building was raised. Whilst there is nothing the school can do about this, it was suggested that use of the BYOD Wi-Fi may allow some communication to pupils mobile devices. It was also noted that not having a signal could be perceived as a positive attribute as pupils were communicating more rather than being stuck to their screens. 12) Date of Next meeting: Tuesday 4 th October 7pm