Minutes of Meeting 19 September 2006
Peebles High School PTA
Committee Meeting Tuesday 19th September 2006
Present: Paul Fagan, Lesley McDavid (chair), Rose Parrott, Emily Service (minutes), Sheila MacKay, Jane Smellie, Jamie Scott, Keith Howell, Cathryn Reid, Catriona Taylor Delves.
Apologies: Carol Scobie, Helen Morris.
1. Previous Minutes
No amendments.
2. Matters arising from previous minutes
Pupil Achievement Award
There appears to have been a mix up with Colin Scobie’s award. He has only received £50 and not £100. Paul will chase this up. ACTION PAUL
Parent Involvement Bill
Nothing will be changing this year but meetings will be starting up soon with SBC. Lesley and Keith will keep everyone up to date with developments and the date of the first meeting with SBC. Paul highlighted that he and the Rector share similar views in that they wholeheartedly support the way the School Board, Parents Forums and PTA are currently running in an open and consultative way.
PTA Funding Policy
This has now been ratified. Staff have been made aware of it in the Staff Bulletin and at a meeting and the Student Council have also been briefed. Lesley to circulate copies of the Policy to all Committee members. ACTION LESLEY
3. Student Council Proposals for Funding
Below is summary of applications, decision making process and outcomes by Keith Howell.
“Funding requests to Peebles High School PTA at meeting on Tuesday 19th September
SUMMARY
Nine proposals had been raised with the Student Council earlier in the day, and feedback was provided to the PTA regarding the priorities that pupils would suggest was appropriate. A further application was submitted at the meeting. The requests for funding had come from a variety of students and/or members of staff. Collectively the proposals covered a wide range of different types of activities and needs in the School and offered potential benefits to large numbers of pupils. The PTA was impressed with the quality of all the proposals and agreed to provide a total of £2,935 across 7 of them (see detailed breakdown at end). In relation to the other three, one received an in principle promise of support, another an offer of a joint fund raising event and the third a suggestion that two alternate sources of funding be checked out first before coming back to the PTA if that should prove necessary.
Discussion
The PTA Committee considered the views and feedback from the Student Council regarding priority items etc. These gave a useful insight into the student perspective of what items were the more important and would most benefit a wider group of pupils. This would have also helped if it had proved necessary to ‘ration’ the available funding although in the event most specific requests could be met.
After a full discussion of each proposal and the overall amount to be allocated on this occasion the Committee decided to make a number of grants of funding. In some cases another response was agreed where for example support was being offered over the longer term or a given group were to be encouraged to first check out other available sources of funding.
Outcome
The following summarises the outcome:
1) LRC resources – Mrs Buckham and Mrs Fry – request for £200 to fund purchase of new DVDs/talking book CD’s etc as current selection of videos/cassettes out of date
- the PTA are happy to support this request in full
2) Music department – Fiona Reed - request for funding of a portable stage piano enabling more flexibility in delivery of piano based music
- the PTA agreed to pay £837 to support this request, covering the piano, stand and travel bag.
3) Hockey club – Susan Hunter - request for funding of goal keeping equipment
- PTA pleased to approve £424 to fund this purchase
4) Grenada trip – Mr Huddleston & Mrs McKinnon plus 9-12 pupils - request for support of this educational trip for students intending to do medicine or veterinary courses. The students are already committed to various fund raising projects to help fund the substantial cost for each pupil.
- rather than grant funding to a limited number of pupils directly the PTA are pleased to offer to hold a joint fund raising event with them – such as for example a quiz night.
5) ‘Access for All’ committee – Fraser Cursitor, Treasurer - request for support for building additional ramps for disabled access and for providing modern video/DVD equipment with subtitle features
- the Committee recommended that this group first approach Scottish Borders Council regarding the need for additional ramps as such access should be provided by the Authority as a matter of course (this might be raised through Miss Marshall, the School’s Business Manager?). Regarding equipment suitable for use by the disabled – the ‘Deaf Action’ charity might be approached for support. Nevertheless the PTA were supportive of the needs outlined and the group should feel free to re-apply if necessary once other avenues have been tried
6) Outdoor Social Area project – Alan Stewart & Adrian Moir – request for some support for planned creation of a new outdoor social area for pupils – the project is intended to involve a range of School groups /departments.
- in principle the PTA is happy to provide support to this initiative. It was expected that it may take some time for the scheme to get the required consents/approvals and then to be implemented so this group can return to the PTA with specific requests as they are required in the knowledge that the PTA will subject to funds being available provide at least some of the necessary funding.
7) School football kit & equipment – Miss Monaghan & Mr Forsyth – to support development of boys and girls football in the School
- the PTS are happy to provide funding of £794 to cover all of the application on the understanding that all kit would be retained by the School for re-use by others in future years
8) Girls ‘support’ group – Clare Krabbe – request for financial help for weekly sessions of group giving support to girls improving self esteem etc
- PTA happy to provide £200 to cover healthy snacks at weekly meetings and to cover cost of minibus and other costs of an outing
9) Bid for Rugby jerseys – Mr Changleng - request for £400 to buy jerseys to enable the S1 squad to be kitted out in addition to the numbers of teams that already regularly meet for training and matches
- PTA happy to provide support of £400 on understanding that jerseys will be retained in the School for use of future years
10) ‘Katie’s group’ – Eleanor Simpson - request for £80 to support hire of mini bus for use on an outing for a group of less able (ASN) and other pupils
- PTA happy to provide support of £80
In summary the specific amounts for funding to be provided now are:
LRC resources (DVDs etc) £200
Music Department portable stage piano £837
Hockey goalkeeper kit £424
Football kit & equipment £794
Girls ‘support’ group £200
Rugby jerseys £400
‘Katie’s’ group support for outing £80
£2,935 ".
Sheila will write one cheque for the full amount to the school and attach this summary to enable the funds to be distributed as agreed. ACTION SHEILA
Keith agreed to draft a form for future applications to make the process easier. ACTION KEITH
Lesley agreed to speak to Martin Kubie about putting a piece in the Peeblesshire’ about the funding. ACTION LESLEY
Keith to summarise applications and outcomes and circulate. Emily to draft letters to all applicants with outcomes. ACTIONS KEITH AND EMILY
4. Feedback on Coffee Morning and Quiz
Very poor turnout at coffee morning. Agreed to try again this year and try to improve advertising (e.g. Group Call’, school website, ‘Peeblesshire’, flyers through doors) and maybe try a different venue.
Quiz cancelled last session due to lack of support.
5. Future Events
Ceilidh
Need to sell tickets! 200 available in total. Need numbers attending for Tuesday 26th for catering.
Ceilidh will be taking place in the school canteen (easy to set up) on Friday 29th September 7.30 – 11.30p.m. A coach has been booked to bring people from West Linton. The Ceilidh is open to adults and fifth and sixth year pupils.
Lesley will contact parents of band members to see if they will be attending. ACTION LESLEY
Ceilidh has been advertised in the School Bulletin. It was agreed that each ticket would enable the holder to enter a prize draw – prize of £30 suggested.
Cost of David Nisbet Band is £100.
Food will be self serve – all Committee members present agreed to supply a bowl of salad and a dessert each. Bring food from 7p.m. on the night onwards. Remember to label all bowls / dishes. ACTION ALL
Paul agreed to ask school staff to contribute to buffet too if they were unable to come along to the Ceilidh and let Lesley know of any willing volunteers. ACTION PAUL
Will have access to canteen from 2.45p.m. onwards.
Bands Night
Keith has looked into this and for a number of reasons, including pupils being unwilling to do this in school, has decided it is not a good idea.
October Event
All agreed to cancel holding an event in October as too much on.
Christmas Shopping Evening
Agreed to roast chestnuts again, run the Christmas Raffle and also the Turkey shoot this year with help from 6th year pupils. Lesley to confirm date for Christmas Stall, arrange for raffle tickets to be printed and co-ordinate raffle prizes. ACTION LESLEY
Quiz
Now scheduled for Friday 8th December at 7.30p.m. Still have stuff from cancelled quiz. Paul agreed to have tickets printed and Lesley agreed to distribute them to everyone before the next meeting. Publicity needs to be in lace by mid-November. ACTION PAUL AND LESLEY
Parents Evenings
Next ones are:
4th Years – 2nd November
5th and 6th Years – 4th December
Need volunteers for teas and coffees. Emily, Catriona and Rose volunteered for the November one. Lesley volunteered for the December one. Emily to e-mail for additional helpers. ACTION EMILY
Next Meeting: Tuesday 28th November 2006 at 6.30p.m. in the Staff Room.
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