Parent Council Minutes – 26.9.19

Hanover Street School Parent Council Meeting Minutes 26.9.19

Hanover Street School Parent Council Meeting Minutes 26.9.19

 

 

 

Hanover Street School

Parent Council Meeting Minutes

 

Date: Thursday 12 September 2019

 

  1. Minutes/Discussion
Action(s)
  1. Welcome and Introduction
  2. Present – Alan Markey (HT), Zoe, Jodie, Hannah, Justyna & Michaela

 

 
2     Head Teacher’s Updates

Mr Markey wanting to take some time going over the recent Inspection Report, mainly areas that are planned for improvement starting with:

 

Quality Indicator 2.2 – Curriculum

-Plans to involve parents and partners more in self-evaluation and improvement activities

– literacy and numeracy in a good place and has grown over the last few years

– hitting areas of the curriculum more wholly and comprehensively, flipping the traditional topics on their head for example “the rainforest” would now come under “our natural world”, thinking locally first then nationally then the wider world. Encouraging teachers and children to get out and about more locally.

– this area does not get graded – but formative feedback is received

 

Quality Indicator 2.7 – Parents & Partners

Encouraging parents to challenge Mr Markey and Miss Forbes at PC meetings, and to not be afraid to come with ideas for improvement within the school and their child’s learning.

-Parents potentially coming into school during school hours for a walk round

 

Quality Indicator 1.3 – Leadership of Change

– was graded “good” in inspection

– to offer children more independence with their learning and offer them to be more vocal with their learning.

– expansion on current pupil groups looking to be expanded on

– Currently going into our 2nd year of visible learning. Looking into more verbal feedback as it seems to be more effective.

– Next stage of that is impact coaches Miss Shivas & Mrs Gray will be going around classes and speaking to the children to get a baseline of where we are. Speaking directly to the children to see if A) they can describe where they currently are with their learning B) Know why they’re learning it & C) what their next steps are.

– Staff will also be going to training on one of the November in-service days on effect feedback in action, with a 2nd training day in February.

 

Quality Indicator 2.3 – Learning, Teaching and Assessment

–               Was graded “satisfactory” in inspection

–               Noting that staff are always prepared for lessons and to support children in the purpose of their learning some suggestions on ways to add to this which has already been started.  However too many lessons have been directed at the whole class and too teacher led and to encourage children to be more active and independent in their learning. It was noted this may have been due to teachers being prepared for the inspection as students are usually more about within the classroom.

–               It was stated in the report that some lessons are too worksheet focused. Mr Markey stating that we were currently looking into obtaining more IT resources and had applied for funding in the hope that we can offer more IT resources, and can move away from the worksheet tasks.

 

Reflection of use of the school day

–               Mr Markey had asked teachers to average the time it took from taking children upstairs in the morning, doing the register and getting settled into class in the morning and after lunch. Senior classes came out with good timing. The younger classes were taking a bit longer and it is being looked at to try and cut this down by 5 mins for all classes P2-P7. P1’s will be looked at in term 3 when they are more settled into school life.

– Everyone discussing how late arrivals may be attributing to the timescales and discussing ideas on how to improve those who are late on a frequent basis.

–               Briefly discussing Nurture Groups and how the classroom is a safe space. No suggested improvements were given but the school continues to work on these areas and know what they need to do and where they’re going. In short, to build on what we have and make it stronger.

 

Quality Indicator 3.2 – Raising Attainment and Achievement

–  Currently satisfactory based on results for reading, writing, literacy, talking

–  Levels to usually be reached in P1, P4 & P7

–  The school aspire to improve and enter into the “Good” bracket. Looking at more manageable and regular assessments for more accurate results.

 

Mr Markey letting us all know that the full report is available to view on the school website:

https://hanover.aberdeen.sch.uk/our-school/school-policies/

and Education Scotland website:

https://education.gov.scot/inspection-reports/aberdeen-city/5239729

 

Overall, he was pleased with the report and himself and the staff are fully committed to making improvements and continuing on the improvements that were already in place.

 

 
3.    Treasurer Update – No update from Zoe however asking Hannah to co sign cheque re DJ payment for Halloween disco.

 

 
4. PTA Update

–       Jodie, Hannah, Justyna & Michaela discussing the go ahead for the Bingo night on Monday 30th September.

–       Confirming that everything was in place for Halloween disco

–       Provisional date for Christmas Fair being hopefully 16th November. Plans also discussed for stalls and children to be more involved. Mr Markey to talk to Dell Henrickson (councillor) about the Festive Fund as we may miss it by 2 days. Jodie to look into materials for the children to make stall items after Mr Markey provides an estimate of each class.

Jodie, Hannah, Zoe, Michaela & Justyna to have a PTA meeting to go through things more in depth and hopefully get more parents involved for helping.

 

5. Date and time of next meeting

 

To be confirmed