Smithycroft Secondary Parent Council Meeting
Minute of Meeting held on Monday 20th November 2023
In Attendance: Lewis Agnew, James How (Teacher Rep), Erin MacDonald, Mark McClintock (Treasurer, Co-opted member), Lorraine McConway (Vice Chair), Patrick Oberg (Head Teacher),
Libby Young, Neil Young (Chair) and Julie Thompson (Clerk)
Apologies: Sam Gillies
Previous Minute
Previous minute was accepted.
HT Report
PO gave a staffing update. Interviews for our Maths vacancy are scheduled for Friday with teaching a class being part of the interview. Applications for our vacant PT English post must be received by this coming Sunday.
We are continuing to focus on attendance and are delighted to see our attendance percentage improving.
Nationally 10% of appeals made to the SQA were successful. Keeping in line with this, as a school we were successful in 10% of cases. EMacD explained that a Head Student in another school was carrying out a petition to revert back to the old Appeals system as they feel the current system is unfair.
As ever, our Study Weekend was very well received. Almost every subject was represented. Although our Study Weekends are resource heavy in terms of staff cover and funding we believe our young people really benefit from them.
On Friday 10th November we were part of a Remembrance Service at the Cenotaph organised by the Chaplain from Barlinnie Prison. Our Music department made us proud as usual by performing and reading out the names of the fallen Prison Guards and their sons.
For the second year we held our STEM Fair. This was a huge success with us receiving very positive feedback from all involved.
Our Attendance Reward Trip takes place on Wednesday 20 December with a trip to the Tron Theatre.
On Thursday 21st December our S5/S6 pupils will enjoy their first ever Snow Ball.
Magic Breakfast Funding Proposal
EMacD has made enquiries about extra funding to purchase industrial style toasters for the Magic Breakfast. She believes we could apply to the National Lottery Fund, but thinks this application would need to be submitted by the Parent Council. We meet the required criteria. Although the PC agreed to apply NY stated that this can be a lengthy process and feels there are other charities we could apply to which would mean receiving the funding much sooner. He suggested the Celtic Foundation or the Area Partnership, we could even reach out to local hotels etc. He will discuss this further with EMacD.
NY confirmed we have cleared the first phase with our Mental Health Funding application.
Neighbourly Update
Neighbourly have replied to EMacD to say we can link with Aldi in Robroyston. This would mean we could collect food donations on certain days. PO will discuss this with Natalie Miller, Fare, and Chelsea Milliken, MCR, as we need to be certain we would be able to pass this food to the correct people quickly. PO suggested he and EMacD meeting with Aldi to ascertain their expectations.
AOCB
Tracking Reports
We have been trying to make our reports more meaningful to pupils and parents. PO issued a sample. NY was delighted to see that we have incorporated our Vision, We Belong, We Learn, We Achieve. He also thinks the traffic light system works well. LY says, although it can take a minute to understand, the reports are very clear.
It was agreed that ‘levels’ can cause confusion. Suggestion we provide a link (QR code) to a Report User Guide was made. PO will investigate this. We could also have this information available in different languages for our EAL parents.
NY did mention he often forgets what the last report looked like so can’t make a comparison. PO explained that we now have this information available in school, but it isn’t in a ‘parent friendly’ format. Any parent who wanted this information would be welcome to contact the school and we could tell them what it was previously.
BLIP
We felt our TOR (Time Out Room) was no longing working as we would have liked so it has been re-invented as BLIP. This is like a walking TOR which is manned by 2 staff members each period. The staff members have volunteered to be part of it. During their assigned period they walk round school and speak to every young person they see. Those who have been asked to stand outside will be part of a discussion in the hope that they can return to class. If not, they will be asked to sit in a senior class for that period. A log is kept to allow us to see which young people have been involved in BLIP. This is reviewed by SLT on a regular basis.
PO was keen to ascertain if parents would want to know every time their child had been involved in BLIP. Discussion ensued with it being agreed that there should be a threshold and if a young person reaches that a generic text should be sent. The parent can then phone the school for further information.
It would also be good to acknowledge those who are reducing their time in BLIP.
Meeting started at 6.00pm
Meeting finished at 6.55pm
Schedule of Meetings:
Monday 4th September 2023
Monday 23rd October 2023
Monday 20th November 2023
Monday 15th January 2024
Monday 28th March 2024
Monday 23th May 2024
Parent Forum Meetings:
Monday 11th December 2023
Monday 26th February 2024
Monday 10th June 2024