Parent Council

24th September 2020

Chairpersons Report from recent Parent Council meeting

Chairpersons Report

I would firstly like to welcome everyone to our very first virtual parent council meeting. We have had a very unsettled year, and as a result, we have adapted to the world around us and gone digital!

Although this is obviously due to the Covid restrictions, it is a fantastic opportunity to appeal to many parents who cannot normally attend our meetings in person, and from the success of the virtual catch up we had in the lockdown, is something we can hopefully incorporate more into the parent council when and if the world goes back to normal.

With lockdown, we all as parents had to take on a new and often challenging role, learning new digital and teaching skills, at a time of great anxiousness in all our lives, so having the support and sounding board of the parent council is more important than ever.

I would like to thank everyone for continuing to support and give up your precious time to help the parent council. We each have skills and contributions that we have given to the group, and as a team, have all worked very hard to make the parent council a great success.

Going forward, we will all have to adapt together to support both our children and the school, to take each day at a time and work as a team to make the most of the challenges ahead.

With that has come some new relationships that will hopefully only strengthen our team. The increased interest in what our schools look like has meant we have attended region wide meetings by participating in the Highland Parent Council Partnership. We can hear what is working well and not so well in other schools, and transfer this knowledge to our own parent council. Also, if we have any concerns, we can take these to the group where we may find answers within the collective, or advice on where to take our concerns.

This year we have also worked with our local councillors, been involved in ward meetings and attended events in the wider community. We have also continued to make sure we are keeping the relationship with the parent council and the wider parent forum by offering our help and facilities at parents evenings and events, and the continued success of the WhatsApp group, which, when used in the way it was intended, is a fantastic tool for keeping everyone informed and up to date with achievements and oh so important reminders!

Karen will let you know of our financial achievements in the treasurers report, but going forward, we will have to all do our best to adapt to the situation as best we can and work together to think of new and exciting ways we can help not only raise money for the school, but make sure we can all have fun doing it!

24th September

Parent Council Meeting – Head Teachers Report

17th September 2020

Good evening everyone and thank you for joining us virtually tonight.

These past few months have forced us all into a new way of life and this has obviously had implications on how we function as a school community.

School During Lockdown

Firstly, I would like to thank you all for your support throughout this difficult time.

I am extremely proud of how our staff team have worked together to support each other and our children throughout lockdown and now, as we have returned to school.

Throughout the lockdown period, we generally had high levels of engagement, particularly from the middle stages of the school which was excellent.

We were able to provide all our families with some form of device to make use of throughout the lockdown period and were able to provide support for issues such as connectivity and technical difficulties, as well as help in accessing food banks and other benefits.

Levels of parental engagement with school were high and we were delighted with how parents were able to encourage their children to share wider achievements with us via google forms.

We are continuing to use a google form to prompt children to share their achievements with us and are sharing these at our live virtual assemblies via google meets.

We did our best to keep important parts of the life and ethos of our school going throughout the lockdown period with events such as Muirtowns Got Talent, assemblies, virtual sports day, class parties and our easter egg challenge which were lots of fun and enjoyed by all who took part.

Back To School

Our return to school has obviously involved a lot of planning and risk assessing. These risk assessments are live documents which are constantly updated in line with changing guidance and circumstances.

Despite the changes that we have had to make, our children have all settled in well to the new routines and organisation of school.

Each class now has their own zone in the playground to help reduce opportunities for children from different classes to mix. This is working really well.

Most classes are eating their lunch in their classrooms. Again, this change, although temporary, has been positive, with children eating their lunch and getting out to play quicker.

PE lessons are still taking place outdoors, with children coming to school in their PE kit or with it under their clothes.

We are avoiding cloakroom areas where children from different classes would be mixing. Coats and bags are being taken into classrooms. The result of this, plus our new playground zones, has resulted in lost property being much less of an issue.

Assemblies are taking place live over google meets between my offices and our different classes. These assemblies are giving us all the opportunity to celebrate individual childrens achievements, stars of the week  and house points.  We are give everyone the opportunity to receive updates from our pupil leadership groups on rights respecting schools and emotion works. We are also spending time discussing our three school rules of ready, respect and safe, as well as exploring our newly elected school values of Respect, Kindness, Resilience, Teamwork and Pride.

Due to the fact that the majority of classes are eating lunch in classrooms, we are operating a reduced lunch menu which offers a choice of packed lunch options.

I appreciate many of you may be keen for the hot lunch option to start up again, but at the moment we are not in a position to do this due to limitations regarding space and staffing. We will continue to revisit this issue and will move back to our usual lunch setup as soon as it is safe and manageable to facilitate.

We are still waiting for a number of devices which were leant to families for use at home to be returned and would be grateful if these could be taken back to school asap.

We were delighted to receive 41 new chromebooks which have been purchased with money granted by the Scottish Government to help ensure that all children can have access to a device.

If any families are struggling with their connectivity or access to a device for use at home I would urge them to get in touch with me asap as I may be able to offer them some further support with this from both the council and also Barnardos.

Our Recovery Curriculum

There is a real focus in all classes this term on literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing.

We are all very aware of the importance to maintain and develop the fantastic IT skills which we have all developed through our time working at home. All classes are continuing to make use of google classrooms to support, extend and showcase learning and achievements.

The focus of school developments for this session will be on our recovery curriculum and continuing to promote our vision for Mentally Healthy Muirtown.

Car Park/Flats

We continue to monitor the situation regarding parking at drop off and pick up times. Our neighbours are being advised to contact the police if people are parking irresponsibly on front of their properties.

Building Work

Our proposed building work remains postponed and we have been given no indication as to when this may happen.

Moving Forward

School Grounds

We hope to have a school grounds working day where we can have classes all out helping to tidy and enhance our school grounds before winter sets in.

Halloween

We cant have our usual Halloween disco so will aim to have some fun activities going on at school for the children.

Christmas

It looks like Christmas could be quite different this year. Can we work together as a school community to make sure it is still a special time for our children. Light up Muirtown, decorate windows…

Fundraising

We cant hold fundraising events like normal but what can we do…

Dress down days, virtual quiz, virtual xmas fair?

Raffle Prizes – we still have raffle prizes from our summer fete. What can we do to make use of them?

Wish List

Emotion Works

Celebration for Last years P7

Incas

Display Boards

Playground Boxes