Chairperson's Annual Report - 24th June 2009 - 7.30pm

Good evening and welcome to Dalry Primary School Parent Council 2nd AGM

This is the second annual report by DPS Parent Council. This report aims to provide the Parent Forum with an update on the work that DPS Parent Council has carried out for session 2008/09. (The PTA is separate from the PC and has its own AGM and Report).

Taking over where someone else had started is always a challenge and I would like to thank the previous chairs and members of the parent council from which we took over from. Our first tasks were to find out what was happening to the school with regards to the completion of the building and landscaping, get parental involvement and publicise ourselves to you to parent forum.

Mr J Leckie, Head of Service at North Ayrshire Council who, along with Mr Kirk, Cllr Robert Barr, Cllr John Reid and Kenneth Gibson MSP attended our meeting in November, they informed us that funding had become available to complete the music room, garden room, curtains, wallpaper, door canopy and amendments to the door entry system. It was intimated that all work should be completed by October 2009.

Our next task was to gauge parental involvement; this took the form of a questionnaire. Unfortunately we had a very poor return rate with only 16% being returned. What we did find out was that parents wanted to understand the parent council function was. From there we decided to publish a newsletter that would be sent out after each meeting, this would inform the parent forum who the parent council was, what our functions are, what was discussed at the meeting and a list of important dates for your calendar. This appears to have gone down well and most parents seem to like it. We also have a page on s1dalry.com.

Parking has been a major issue this session, with it making an appearance at all of our meetings, all we can ask is that parents/carers take care while driving and parking around the school and adhere to highway code rules. All safety measures that North Ayrshire Traffic Safety Management Group has suggested have been implemented.

In March during parents' night we held a very successful Anti-Bullying stand with leaflets containing advice for parents on bullying including cyberbullying; we do hope to have similar stands in the future. Also in March 4 members of the Parent Council and one member of the Parent Forum attended a Parental Involvement Conference at St Matthews Academy in Ardrossan. We all came away with lots of ideas on how to take the Parent Council forward; we are also attending another on 13th June at Hampden Park in Glasgow. Please keep your eyes open for updates in the newsletter and s1dalry.com. We have helped Garnock Academy with their petition for seat belts on all school transport which affects the safety of our children here at Dalry, hope you have all been able to sign it.

Finally I would like to thank the other members of the Parent Council for their contributions throughout the year especially to Nanette Blyth our secretary who is unfortunately standing down this year. Mrs Denningberg and Mr Hopkins for their help and support throughout the year. My biggest thank you goes to the office staff who has done all our printing, photocopying and distributing all our newsletters and mail. I am looking forward to next session which I hope will be as exciting and challenging as this session has.

REMEMBER THIS IS YOUR COUNCIL - LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD