Smithycroft Secondary Parent Council Meeting
Minute of Meeting held on Monday 18th March 2024
In Attendance: James How (Teacher Rep), Lorraine McConway (Vice Chair), Patrick Oberg (Head Teacher), Libby Young, Neil Young (Chair) and Julie Thompson (Clerk)
Apologies: Lewis Agnew, Sam Gillies, Mark McClintock (Treasurer, Co-opted member) and
Erin MacDonald
- Previous Minute
Previous minute was accepted.
- HT Report
PO gave a staffing update - Our Maths PT, Claire Thomson, has started her Maternity Leave. Her replacement, Jamie Wilson, will hopefully be joining us following the Spring Break holiday.
PO explained that we have a number of staff on Long Term Absence, which is very unusual for us. We are having to backfill these posts with staff in school, but are struggling to bring staff in to backfill their posts.
GCC are currently undertaking their staffing exercise and it appears this will impact all schools in a negative way. We will need to ensure out timetable across all year groups is as efficient as it can be.
On a positive note we are being allowed to appoint a fourth DHT on a 23-month secondment. Our school role warrants this, but we are absolutely delighted.
Attendance continues to improve. So much so that a representative from GCC met with Stephen Brown today to discuss our good practice.
A targeted group of 46 young people enjoyed an extremely productive and successful Study Camp. We hope to be able to continue to offer this type of support next year, but will need to see what our budget looks like.
- Curriculum Rationale
At our last meeting we spoke about what we would like the curriculum to look like. Until the staffing exercise is complete we are unable to make proper decisions.
At our Extended Leadership Team meeting recently this was discussed and feedback collated and discussed by our Senior Leadership Team. This will be discussed at our next meeting.
- Magic Breakfast Funding Proposal
In EMacD’s absence this item will be carried over.
It was noted that we are still running the Breakfast Club every morning. Our Introductory free period is over now, but we have agreed to we will pay to be able to continue with it as it is proving very popular.
- Stakeholder Survey
The questionnaire Education Scotland issue to staff, pupils and parents prior to an inspection has been issued to every school by GCC. They intend to do this every year going forward. We were impressed to learn that over 70 staff and over 600 pupils made a return. This gives us meaningful data to work with.
GCC haven’t yet given us a parent version, but we are very keen to gather this type of feedback from parents too.
- Parent Council Funding Application
NY was thrilled to report the Parent Council have been granted £10,000.00 following their grant application to employ a Family Liaison Support worker 2 days a week. The successful candidate will work with a group of parents on a termly basis with the goal being to reengage their young person with education. NY has prepared a Job Description and Job Specification. NY and PO will interview suitable candidates.
- AOCB
S6 Choices
LY shared her concern over the fact that S6 pupils are being encouraged to study 5 subjects in S6 regardless of the level of the subjects they were studying or the qualifications they have already achieved. She feels this is unnecessary. PO will remind our Year Group teams that decisions need to be on an individual basis and for some young people, allowing Study Periods, is the most supportive thing for them.
Parent Council Meeting
A proposal to move our next meeting from 13 May until 10 June was made. This was agreed.
Primary Transition
A representative from the Parent Council will attend our Primary Transition meeting in an effort to attract more support.
Meeting started at 6.00pm
Meeting finished at 7.00pm
Schedule of Meetings:
Monday 4th September 2023
Monday 23rd October 2023
Monday 20th November 2023
Monday 15th January 2024
Monday 18th March 2024
Monday 23th May 2024
Parent Forum Meetings:
Monday 11th December 2023
Monday 26th February 2024
Monday 10th June 2024