Under the new Parental Involvement legislation all parents collectively are to be known as the Parent Forum and at this second meeting we plan to focus on the School’s Values, Vision and Aims which are currently being updated. Parents will be encouraged to give their views on what they see as priorities for the School going forward.

Parents may also take the opportunity to raise any other matters for discussion and where appropriate these can be taken up by the new Parent Council.

All welcome! We look forward to seeing you there.

Target finish 8.30pm - 9pm

Keith Howell, Chairman of Parent Council

'Latest draft of constitution for the
Parent Council (to be discussed at the Parent Forum on 7th March 2007)',

This is the constitution for
Peebles High School Parent Council
(Please note that throughout reference to ¡¥parents¡¦ is to be taken as shorthand for ¡¥parents/carers¡¦)

The objectives of the Parent Council are:
ƒÜ To work in partnership with the school to create a welcoming school which is inclusive for all parents
ƒÜ To promote partnership between the school, its pupils and all its parents
ƒÜ To develop and engage in activities which support the school in relation to the education and welfare of the pupils
ƒÜ To identify and represent the views of parents on the education provided by the school and other matters affecting the education and welfare of the pupils
ƒÜ To raise funds
The Council will aim to be open and inclusive.

The membership of the Council will be:
ƒÜ a minimum of three parents of children attending the school
ƒÜ the target will be to have sufficient regular attending full members of the Council to have a Chair, Vice Chair, the Chair or other representatives of the PTA and at least one, but ideally two, representative parents from each School year, giving a total of between 9 and 15 full members of the Council and so involving a good representative cross section of parents
ƒÜ in addition, to ensure as inclusive a Council as possible, any member of the Parent Forum will be welcome to attend a Council meeting and to participate in the meeting as though they were a full regularly attending member of the Council in all respects other than that they will not be able to vote - without necessarily committing to attend all future meetings
ƒÜ for a meeting of the Parent Council to be valid a quorum of no less than 3 full regularly attending parent members will be required

Appointment of Council members:
The formality of previous School Board elections will be avoided by seeking volunteers at the Parent Council¡¦s inaugural meeting and subsequent Annual General Meetings.

The Parent Council members will be appointed at an inaugural meeting and then appointed/re-appointed each year at the Annual General Meeting, standing for re-election if they wish, with the hope that they will stand for a typical 3 year term, subject to their period on the Council coming to an end when their youngest child at the school leaves the school. All the parents of children at the school can take part in the selection by attending the AGM. Any parents of a child at the school can volunteer to be a member of the Parent Council.

Any shortfalls in the make-up of the Parent Council will be made up by subsequently calling for volunteers ¡V say, from an un-represented year group ¡V and then selecting/approving their membership by the then existing Council members.
In addition, for any particular meeting of the Parent Council any members of the Parent Forum interested in any or all of the pre-notified agenda items will be welcome to attend the Council meeting and participate fully in the meeting.

If there should be too many volunteers for Council membership at an AGM then either this can be resolved informally amongst those involved or a simple method of voting can be agreed at the meeting amongst those present to resolve the representatives for the given year group. There can in any case be 3 extra members beyond two per year group to accommodate subsequent selection of a Chair, Vice Chair and the PTA rep. Experience to date suggests having too many volunteers is unlikely to be a problem and will in all likelihood be resolved informally at the given meeting by those directly involved.

Parent Council sub-groups/committees:
Any member of the Parent Forum may also be a member of any sub-groups formed by the Parent Council.

Recognising the important role that the PTA has fulfilled in the life of the School, it is envisaged that the PTA will be formed as a permanent sub-committee of the Parent Council. Members of the PTA will not necessarily have to attend all Parent Council meetings, although it is intended that the Chair of the PTA or another representative will.

A Communication group, will also be formed as a permanent sub-committee, recognizing the importance of doing all that we can to improve all aspects of communication with parents.

Non-parent attendees:
The Parent Council may invite non-parents to attend Council meetings. The Rector will attend meetings as of right, but two or three other members of staff will be asked to attend regularly as staff representatives, ensuring SMT, PT level, and unpromoted teachers are represented, and the Head Boy and Head Girl will attend as pupil representatives. Other members of staff might be asked to a given meeting either to introduce them to the Parent Council or to discuss a relevant agenda item. Similarly Scottish Borders Council representatives, other community and business organization representatives might be asked to meetings where there are relevant items being considered.

Co-opted members:
No less than two-thirds of the regularly attending Parent Council will be made up of Parent Forum members, with the balance being the optional appointment of non parent co-opted members to assist the Council with its functions. Any co-opted members will be invited to serve for a period of one year after which time the Parent Council will review and consider requirements for co-opted membership.

Office bearers:
The Parent Council will be chaired by a parent of a child attending Peebles High School.
When their youngest child at the school ceases to be a pupil, a new Chair will be agreed at the next meeting. The Chair, and Vice Chair of the Council will be agreed by the Parent Council members immediately following its formation. The Treasurer will be the Treasurer appointed by the PTA sub-committee, unless funding and financial issues develop to beyond the usual remit of the PTA in which case a separate Council Treasurer may need to be appointed. The Clerk to the Council will not be a member of the Council but will be paid an annual honorariam as agreed with SBC.
Office bearers will be re-selected by the Parent Council on an annual basis at the
AGM.

Parent Council meetings and operation:
The Parent Council will meet once in every school term. Normally this will have been preceded by an open Parent Forum discussion evening meeting, enabling matters raised there to be included in its agenda and progressed further by the Parent Council or one of its permanent sub-groups or occasional working groups

Should a vote be necessary to make a decision at a Parent Council meeting, each parent member at the meeting will have one vote, with the Chair having a casting vote in the event of a tie. Any two members of the Parent Council can request that an additional meeting be held, and all members of the Parent Council will be given at least one week¡¦s notice of date, time and place of the meeting.

Accountability:
The Parent Council is accountable to the Parent Forum for Peebles High School and will
make a formal report to it at least once each year on its activities on behalf of all the
parents. Equally the Parent Council will aim to use all available means of maintaining a regular flow of communication with Parent Forum members, including newsletters, parent evenings, Parent Forum discussion meetings, pieces in the Peeblesshire and a special section on the School website.

The Parent Council will also endeavour to work in close partnership with the School, in terms of the Rector and his staff, and Scottish Borders Council as the main funder of the School as well as the Local Authority with responsibility for implementing Government education policy, and will therefore aim to keep both of these fully informed as to the Parent Council¡¦s activities and priorities.

Special meetings:
If 20 members of the Parent Forum request a special general meeting to discuss issues falling within the Council¡¦s remit, the Parent Council shall arrange this. The Parent Council shall give all members of the Forum at least 2 weeks notice of the meeting and, at the same time, circulate notice of the matter, or matters, to be discussed at the meeting.

Annual General Meeting (AGM):
The Annual General Meeting will be held in April of each year. A notice of the meeting
including date, time, and place will be sent to all members of the Parent Forum at
least 2 weeks in advance. The meeting will include:
ƒÜ a report on the work of the Parent Council and its committee(s)
ƒÜ Rector¡¦s annual report to Parent Forum
ƒÜ selection of the new Parent Council
ƒÜ Annual review of the Parent Council¡¦s constitution
ƒÜ discussion of issues that members of the Parent Forum may wish to raise
ƒÜ approval of the accounts and appointment of the auditor.

Termination of Council membership:
If a Parent Council member acts in a way that is considered by other members to
undermine the objectives of the Parent Council, their membership of the Parent
Council shall be terminated if the majority of parent members agree. Termination of
membership would be confirmed in writing to the member.

Minutes:
Copies of the minutes of all meetings will be available to all parents of children at
Peebles High School and to all teachers at the school through publishing a full copy on the School¡¦s website and by copies being available from the Clerk to the Parent Council and from the school office.

Open meetings:
Meetings of the Parent Council shall be open to the public to attend, and to all members of the Parent Forum who may participate as though regular active members of the Parent Council.
In the exceptional circumstance of a need arising to consider an issue which the Parent Council considers should be dealt with on a confidential basis, others might be asked to step out of the meeting, leaving the Rector, or his representative and the full Parent Council members.

Finance:
The PTA Treasurer will open a bank or building society account in the name of the
Parent Council/PTA for all Parent Council/PTA funds. Withdrawals will require the signature of the PTA Treasurer and one other Parent Council member.
The PTA Treasurer will keep an accurate record of all income and expenditure, and will
provide a summary of this for each Parent Council meeting and a full account for
the Annual Meeting. The Parent Council/PTA accounts will be audited by the auditor
appointed at the previous Annual Meeting.
The Parent Council shall be responsible for ensuring that all monies are used in
accordance with the objectives of the Parent Council.
Should the Parent Council cease to exist, any remaining funds will be passed to the
education authority to be used for the benefit of the school, where this
continues.

Changes of Constitution:
The Parent Council may change its constitution after obtaining consent from
members of the Parent Forum. Members of the Parent Forum will be sent a copy of
any proposed amendment and given reasonable time to respond to the proposal.

Peebles High School Parent Forum
26th October 2006

A number of parents and pupils were welcomed by Keith Howell Chair of the School Board to the first Parent Forum of the 2006/07 academic year.

In brief the matters discussed, and actions agreed were:

1. Initiatives to address concerns about drugs in schools
Jackie Swanston, SBC Secondary Schools Manager and Kenny Simpson Community Police Inspector for Lothian & Borders police, explained how following the success of local and national programmes addressing drugs misuse, it was proposed to build further on this with occasional visits to Schools by police with passive drugs dogs. This would occur when it was felt that incidents or information coming to the attention of the police suggested this would be justified and proportionate.

Reassurance was given that this would be less intrusive than might be imagined ¡V the dogs would not approach pupils but rather would detect any drugs simply by walking around the school. The proposal was based on the positive experience of other authorities using this measure. At this stage SBC and the police had come to the parent forum at Peebles High School ¡V and would be approaching another parent forum too ¡V to gauge parent and pupil reaction.

Further reactions from parents who attended the meeting or any other parents would be welcomed and forwarded on to SBC. In the first instance please forward any comments to Keith Howell (contact details below).

2. SQA results for 2006
The Rector, John Brown, gave further insight into the recently reported SQA results for Standard Grades and Highers. Details had been circulated to all parents with the last newsletter. The raw figures demonstrated that the School¡¦s pupils had once again produced commendable results. However comparisons from one year to the next could be overly influenced by a particularly strong set of pupils. Hence the trend over 5 years using cumulative three year results was a more reliable indicator of progress and the analysis on this basis demonstrated an improving picture across both Standard Grades and Highers.

3. Group call
The Rector went on to explain that the School would be carrying out a trial of a new GroupCall communication software package which would enable messages to go out to parents¡¦ mobiles or landline telephones about a range of matters from reminders of events for parents, to flagging up a concern of possible truancy in relation to a particular pupil.
Parents completed questionnaires to indicate the type of matters that they would appreciate being notified about using this method.

4. Parental Involvement Legislation
Keith Howell explained that SBC were now moving on to the next stage of the introduction of the new structures envisaged by the recently passed Parental Involvement legislation. See separate note on the SBC launch event on the 30th October, and the proposed next steps.

5. Safer Routes to School/School Travel plan
Peebles High School is to be the next High School to be brought into this initiative, in which SBC Roads Engineers and Road safety specialists get involved with pupils, parents and others in the community to highlight where changes could be made to improve the safety of routes to and from school.

6. School Buses
The School Board were delighted to report that parent pressure has led to the recent new SBC contracts for school buses to be let on the basis of seatbelts being fitted. This is a significant step forward in safety of daily school transport. Meanwhile the School Board is also working with bus monitors to ensure SBC get a regular update on any continuing deficiencies with the bus services whether this be lateness, breakdowns, dirtiness or whatever.

7. Future meetings
This academic year the School Board plan to have 5 Board meetings interspersed with 4 parent forums ¡V in October, January, March, and May.
A School Board Newsletter will go out shortly to cover all the rest of parents who were unable to attend the Parent Forum. There will also be a presence along with the PTA at the parent evenings on Thursday 2nd November for S4 and for 5th and 6th years on Monday 4th December

8. Contact details:
Any parents wanting to comment on the SBC/Lothian & Borders police proposed drugs dogs initiative or any other matters covered at the Forum should feel free to contact Keith Howell, Chair, Peebles High School Board by e-mail to kmhwl@hotmail.com or by post to Keith Howell, White Moss, West Linton, Peeblesshire EH46 7BS

Parental Involvement Act

A supper event organised by Scottish Borders Council involving parents from five local Primary Schools and Peebles High School, was held at the High School on the evening of Monday 30th October. Director of Education, Glenn Rodger and Communications Manager, Leona Bendall, gave a presentation and answered parents¡¦ questions on the main elements of the Act and how each school should now take the proposals forward and develop its own Parent Council.
The Rector John Brown will now need to set up a work group to agree a proposal for how a new Parent Council will be formed and operated. We are keen to ensure as many parents as possible have an opportunity to influence the direction we take on this so plan to have a first discussion session at 6.30pm in the LRC on Wednesday 6th December. This will involve all the parents who attended the SBC launch event at the school plus any other parents who indicate an interest. Please complete the tear off slip below and pass it to the School Office.
We are aware that numbers of parents did not receive details of the launch event, perhaps due to problems with SBC¡¦s address database, so involvement in the discussion session will be another opportunity to ask any questions and have your views heard.
At this first discussion session, the intention is to outline some of the options and proposals regarding forming the Parent Council and the key elements of its constitution. Based on the views expressed in the meeting, a smaller work group will then be formed from those present to finalise the details before a proposal for the Peebles High School Parent Council is in due course put to the whole parent body for approval before being formally adopted.
The target dates we are working to are to have a proposed Constitution to SBC by the end of March 2007, following which SBC will write to parents to see if they are happy with the proposals and all being well the new Parent Council will be set up from August 2007.
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Please cut off and send to the school office
I will attend the Parental Involvement discussion session in the LRC at 6.30pm on Wednesday 6th December
Name¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K.
E-mail address¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K(optional)

PARENT FORUM MEETINGS
The dates of Parent Forum meetings for next session are as follows:
Tues 16th Jan
Tues 13th March
Wed 23rd May
Meetings start at 7.30pm and are normally held in the LRC.
ALL PARENTS WELCOME!

The Notice Board -The Newsletter of Peebles High School Parent Council

SCHOOL PARENT COUNCIL NEWS UPDATE

Dates of Council Meetings

Student Council

Up and coming events and productions

PTA FUNDRAISING EVENTS

Peebles High School Business Partnership

PEEBLES HIGH SCHOOL BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP

The Business Partnership continues to build on the successes of previous years and members are in the process of creating a brochure and a three year business plan. Last year’s projects involved pupils working on a variety of projects from tourism, the arts, management and marketing to construction and computer technology.

Funding bids are still underway for the new Technology Academy which will provide an exciting opportunity for students to work with businesses on real life creative and enterprising technology projects. In addition, e-learning programmes available to pupils, companies and the wider community will ensure students are equipped with the necessary tools for today’s hi-tech society.

The e-mentoring project is underway with senior pupils being mentored individually by members of the Business Partnership from a range of specialisations from law, health, the arts and accountancy. The idea is to improve youngsters’ understanding of specific careers and skills for success after school.

The Business Partnership continues to be grateful to the local business community for the fantastic support they offer our pupils.

Cummunication with parents

COMMUNICATION WITH PARENTS

The school is always keen to explore ways of improving channels of communication with parents. The Peeblesshire News welcomes articles and news from the school and we are planning to develop this link giving senior pupils the opportunity to gain experience in working with the press.

"Spotlight on success", the school publication recording and celebrating pupils' achievements across a wide spectrum, has been warmly welcomed and thanks are due to Stephanie Whitehead, Fiona Dunlop and the other staff who worked so hard to produce it.

We welcome feedback on our website - Email: enquiries.peebleshs@scotborders.gov.uk | Tel: 01721 720 291 | Fax: 01721 722 563