Updates

What did the Parent Council do in 2014/15? Here is a rundown of our achievements, of which there are many, as you can see! We’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone on the council, the many sub-group volunteers as well as the wider parent body. It has been a brilliant year.

Here’s to 2015/16!

• Consulted on the school day changes
• Campaigned for a crossing on Braid Road to support the Cluny Annex, with deputations made to the council
• Installed lights in the shed
• Provided play equipment at the Annex
• Attended Morningside Community Council and feeding into their Craighouse comments
• Extended the transport Group
• Funded bike and scooter shelters
• Revamped the SMPC website
• Found a new secretary
• Looked at improving how the school disposes of old IT equipment
• Canvassed the parent body to identify priorities for spending. The view was:
  Sports workshops/equipment 2) Drama & Music workshops 3) Projectors 4) iPads
• Found a new clubs coordinator
• Organised the winter fair (which raised 21% more than last year)
• Consulted on the options for Rising rolls (more huts in the playground / something else)
• Offered and financed clubs places to children who haven’t used them previously
• Started our first new club for many years (Spanish. A great club – they bought us chocolates)
• Campaigned on the 20mph consultation
• Sorted out PVG for all our clubs
• Funded our standard yearly commitments (about £10,000)
• Science Week, teacher’s allocation, library books, drama workshop, Scottish opera and more
• Supported the Deanbank consultation through;
  parent survey, public consolation evening, working group meetings, parent communications,
• Found a new treasurer
• Listened to parents views on Deanbank and the Annex and looked for solutions (Deanbank travel survey, communication with ward councillors)
• Funded sports sweatshirts for children representing the school
• Obtained a project design for phase 1 of the playground improvements
• Consulted on amended nursery hours
• Started knitting club
• Funded an interactive white board which can benefit the whole school
• Funded maths robots and music, drama and dance workshops
• Looked into healthier lunches for our children
• Sorted out a way to allow teacher allocations to continue to be funded
• Started to “retain our knowledge” to ensure the Parent Council is more effective going forward
• Supported 13 clubs which provide over 22hrs per week of after school activities

This event is taking place on Saturday 20th June 2015 at Preston Street Primary School in Dalkeith and is welcome to all. You can register your attendance on the Eventbrite site.

If the benefits of play based learning don’t end when children start school, what can school playgrounds and break times offer our children? Parents, designers and educators across Scotland are invited to come and hear internationally renowned play expert Michael Follett at a workshop in Edinburgh on ‘Making School Playgrounds Better Places to Play’. Even the bleakest strip of tarmac or most windswept field has potential. Michael will provide an introduction to delivering playground projects using examples of projects of all scales to show how designing spaces creating play culture in schools can transform schools.

We have just received £118 from Easy Fundraising, the affiliate programme that generates money for good causes from your normal day-to-day online shopping! This money lets us fund things like playground equipment at the annexe, interactive white boards, music workshops and spots sweatshirts for children attending sporting events on behalf of the school.

It’s really easy to get started with Easy Fundraising. Take a look at our guide on our Fundraising page. If you have any questions please just get in touch.

We have some vacancies that we’re looking to fill. You don’t need to be a current member of the parent council. If you’re interested, or if you know someone who is, please get in touch with Craig at chair@sm-pc.org.

Clubs Co-ordinator

Key responsibility is to act as the central contact point for clubs at the school. Some seasonal activity (e.g. doing the room bookings “lets” in the summer term, ensuring all clubs have completed their start-up forms in August/September.

PVG Signatory

A small number of people act as PVG administrators for SMPC. They check the forms, review proof of ID and submit information to Disclosure Scotland. It’s an administrative task, which is time consuming. As such, it would be good if we could spread the load. No specific skills required, but one aspect of the role is meeting parents to review their ID documents, so someone who was around in the day/playground would be helpful.

Stage Club Convenor

The current team of in the following roles director, assistant director, costume, admin and production manager (currently one role but could be 2) will be stepping down after the show in March 2016

If there is interest in the club continuing a team of parents to take on assistant director, admin and production manager would be needed. These roles are voluntary.

Currently the director role is done by a non-parent with drama qualifications.

Any interested parents should email stage-club@sm-pc.org.

Fundraising Co-ordinator

Our fundraising is extremely successful and runs very smoothly. One of the key reasons is because we rely upon a small number of individuals who help organise and co-ordinate our fundraising events. We would really benefit for some other people to help out.

Being a good organiser is the key school – this isn’t about running individual stalls, it’s about setting the fundraising calendar, ensuring every activity has an owner, bookings have been made, etc.

http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/historic-high-school-to-be-turned-into-14-5m-flats-1-3772655

From August 2015, all Primary 1 and Primary 2 classes will be located in the new Deanbank annexe on Canaan Lane.  The Parent Council wants to understand what parents and guardians of children due to attend Deanbank think about access to, from and between Deanbank and the other school sites.  If your child(ren) will be attending Deanbank from August then we would appreciate if you could complete a short survey.  It should take no more than five minutes to complete.
You can access the survey by clicking on the link below:
http://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/Deanbanktransport/

The survey will be open for responses until 22 May 2015.

There are plenty of helper slots still free for our Summer Fair on the 30th May. We’re especially looking for raffle ticket sellers, helpers for the cafe and the BBQ. Can you help?

You can sign up easily online using this Signup Genius link.

 The Viewforth school buildings are being sold and the council are deciding this Wednesday 13 May on who the buyer will be. The Boroughmuir Parent Council are supporting the bid from Out of the Blue, whose proposal would see the building used as an arts and business space for small enterprises and the local community.

You read more about the sale, and how to write directly to the councillors, on the Boroughmuir website. You can find the petition itself on 38 Degrees.