Minutes of the School Board/Parental Partnership Group Meeting

Wednesday 15th February, 2006 at 7 p.m.



     Present:
     Kay Cox (Interim School Board Chair)	Mary Paterson
     Rev Janice Cameron				Michaela Pinamonti
Paul Holmes (arrived 8 p.m.)			Lizanne Richards
	Fiona Gornal (left early)			Lorraine Sanda, Stirling Council (left early)
John I’Anson					Jane Smith
Jenny Kinvig					Jill Wisher
Caroline Paterson						 

1.	Apologies
   Martin Bell					Mary Scott Watson
   Morven Reid Kay				Chris Whitehead

2.	Parental Involvement Bill
Lorraine Sanda explained to everyone present the latest developments on Parent 
Councils  and how they would be set up.  She said that is was very likely that the 
Parental Involvement Bill will be passed as law in the summer.  There will then be a 
legal requirement to change from School Boards to Parent Councils by August 2007 at 
the latest.  Stirling Council will be required to help schools during the transition.  
Lorraine offered to help the school take forward their plans for consultation and 
representation.  She suggested that as the transition period progressed, with 70 + 
schools in Stirling, she would be unable to provide us with as much of her time.   David 
Cameron has already given an assurance that he will continue to support and 
recognise the efforts of  parents and schools as they develop new methods and forms 
of parental involvement.   Financial support, along the lines of that allocated to school 
boards, could therefore still be available if St Mary’s no longer has a School Board.  


3.	Co-opting/Set Up Working Group
The majority present felt that in view of the fact that the School Board is several 
members short it would be a good idea to look into the possibility of setting up a Parent 
Council as soon as possible.  This must be a consultative process with all parents.  It 
was decided that a working group should be set up consisting of the current Board 
Members including Jane Smith, who was co-opted on at the meeting as a community  
representative, and the other parents present.

It was agreed that a multi-approach should be adopted in order to reach all parents, 
teachers and children. The first approach of the consultation process will be to send 
out a copy of the leaflet ‘School Boards and Parent Councils: a Comparison’ and a 
covering letter to go out with the school news letter on Friday 24th February (Action: 
KC).   The second approach is to arrange an Open Forum for all parents and staff to 
be held in St Mary’s Church Hall on Tuesday 21st March, 2006 at 7.00 p.m.  Kay Cox, 
John I’Anson, Jenny Kinvig, Mary Paterson and Jane Smith agreed to organise this 
and they will have a meeting on Tuesday 14th March, 2006 at 7.30 p.m. in the school 
to arrange the details (Action: KC JI’A JK MP JS).

4.	Correspondence
Information had been received about the new Additional Support Needs Legislation.  
Possible information evening to be arranged for parents (Action MP).
		
5.	School Development Plan
Mary reported that in language there had been good progress in reading, on going 
progress with writing, Jolly Phonics were going well and Jolly Grammar was soon to be 
introduced in P2 & 3.  There was excellent progress with the school grounds with both 
parents and children involved.  A quote is awaited from a contractor.  Funds of £1600 
from Grounds for Learning were available.  The new Curriculum for Excellence will 
affect the school development plan.  The school is looking to being involved in a pilot 
project.  Nursery Care Commission Inspection went well, with a report to follow.  As a 
follow up to the HMIe Inspection, Peter McNaughton visited the school.  He had had a 
report from Stirling Council and could see for himself all that had been taken on board.  
A report will be out later.

6.	Organisation of the School Day
Mary reported that the new arrangements for lunches were going well with the lunch 
hour now being 12.15 – 1.15.  She was hoping to change morning break from 10.40-
10.55 to 10.30-10.45 so as to give more a more even distribution of class time in the 
morning.   This has to go to consultation.

7.	Positive Discipline Policy
There were three policies, Monitoring Teaching & Learning, School Aims and Positive 
Discipline, which have been updated and need to be approved.  It was agreed that 
copies of these will be circulated for approval to the Board Members, plus those who 
had shown an interest in joining the Board (Action: KC/MP). 

8.	AOCB
The making of the new notice board is still in hand.  A meeting of the Scottish School 
Board Association is taking place on 18th March.  No-one was available to attend but 
Kay is to contact Lorraine Sanda to see if she is attending (Action: KC).

9.	Date of Next Meeting
The next joint Board/PPG meeting will be on Wednesday 10th May at 7 p.m. in the 
school.










KC/JMW
24/02/06