Download AGM Annual Report Sept 2016

Joint PTA and Parent Council AGM
Date
7th September, 2016
Venue
School Conference Room
Attendees
Ramsay Shields (PC Chair)
David Kick (Deputy
Headteacher)
Mary Lou Graham (PTA
Chair)
Barry Smedley
Stefan Waclawski (PTA
treasurer)
Susan Ballantyne
Lisa Cameron
Jill Campbell
Kenny Gray (PTA Staff
Rep.)
John Clark
Neil Miller
Welcome Ramsay Shields
Parents, teachers and new member
1. Apologies
None
2. Minutes of Previous Meeting
Adopted
3. Matters Arising
None
Heidi Volpe
Sarah Allan
4. Treasurer’s report
Opening Balance 01/09/2015 - £3974
Closing Balance 01/09/2016 - £4061 (+£87)
2015/16 major movements of funds
IN
Quiz Night - £836
Ladies Night - £1097
S1 New intake uniform sales - £1576
OUT
Border Embroideries - £1882
Funding Requests - £1135 (see below)
Douglas Academy funding requests 2015/16
£500 – Prize Giving Sponsorship
£100 – Fruity Friday Sponsorship
£150 – Strasbourg Trip Sponsorship
£160 – Display Board Sponsorship
£175 – Storytelling Workshop Sponsorship
£50 – Drama Club Sponsorship
Expenditure since 01/09/2016
£107 – Senior School Sports Council T shirts
£100 – Fruity Friday
£600 – Douglas Academy Prize Giving
Total - £807
5. PTA Chair’s report
We set out 2 years ago to create a larger profile for the PTA within the school community
and I feel that in this session we have gone a long way to achieving this goal.
The PTA has had possibly its most successful year ever both financially and socially.
We ran 2 hugely successful events during the session. Firstly the Quiz Night held at St
Joseph’s Church Hall in November and then in March the first ever Douglas Academy
“Ladies Night” held at Cyan Restaurant was a triumph – raising several of the mums to
international stardom in the modelling world!
We were pleased that many mums came who had not been to one of our events before and
enjoyed themselves enormously.
From these two evenings we raised £1,933- a record for us.
We would like to thank all those who contributed to these events whether in person or by
donations to the raffles.
Contrarily, last session saw fewer requests for funding from the school but we are looking
forward to a flood of applications now the teachers know we have some funds!
We have noticed a fall in uniform sales this year and we will take stock of what we have in
the store. Due to a mis-communication, the school ordered ties as well as the usual order
from the PTA which has led to a surplus of 6th year ties. This is unfortunate as it is a waste of
resources to have stock sitting in a cupboard for a year. We would request that in future al
tie orders come through the PTA who can provide the school with stock as needed. This way
we can also buy stock at a better discount which will be better for everyone.
This year we are planning a Family Ceilidh in November and our ever-popular Quiz Night in
the Spring. Details will be available shortly and posted on our facebook page and on the
school website. I am hopeful that they will be well supported by the Douglas Academy
community to help us raise funds to support the students’ activities.
I would like to thank all the committee who have worked so hard but with such good humour
this year and look forward to another successful year this academic session.
6. Election of new members – PTA
The following office bearers will remain in place
Mary Lou Graham, Chair
Stefan Waclawski, treasurer
Secretary, Sarah Allan
PTA committee 2015/16
Mary Lou Graham, Stefan Waclawski, Sarah Allan, Kenny Gray, Heidi Volpe
(Uniforms), Caroline Peffers, Ann Marie Young, Andisheh Bakhshi
7. Report from Parent Council (Ramsay Shields)
Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that I bring you the report of the Parent
Council for the Session 2015/16. Indeed, these have been interesting times for the school.
Last session, we presented the case for the installation of a defibrillator in the school. This
was presented to the Council, and the Council have now agreed. This life saving equipment
has now been installed in the school entrance foyer and staff have been trained in its use.
The Parent Council has been briefed about, and involved in discussions on various things
that have concerned the school, such as the Rights Respecting the Schools’ Charter, and
the National Improvement Plan. We have continued to engage with the East Dunbartonshire
Parent Council and discussed important issues such as road safety around schools.
Last Monday, as the chair, I was involved with Jacqui MacDonald, Councillor Maureen
Henry, and Douglas Brown, the Head Teacher at Boclair Academy, in the interviews for the
post of Acting Head Teacher of Douglas Academy to cover for Mr Black during his absence.
I am pleased to report that the appointment of Mr Barry Smedley, who will take up his
appointment on the 27th September. We wish Mr Black well at this time and pledge our
continued support for him and for the school at this time.
I would take this opportunity to thank John Clark and Gary Marshall, who are now stepping
down from the Council. Thank you both for your years of faithful service. I would also take
this opportunity to thank all of the members of the Parent Council for their diligence over this
last year - thanks to Gary Marshall for his faithful attendance and reporting on the Parent
Council Forum, to the many people who have agreed to take minutes of our meetings;
thanks to Mr. Black and all of the staff who serve us and our children so well, and to the
members of the PTA who work so hard behind the scenes in doing all of the practical work
that they do.
I shall be stepping down as the chair of the Parent Council; my children are now in
S6 and I would prefer to step down before they leave school. I plan to continue to
serve on the Council for another year and continue to give my support, but I would
take this opportunity to pay my own personal tribute to the members of the Council
for their help and support over these last 5 years. I am delighted to report that Neil
Miller will be taking the reins for this coming session, and thank him for his
willingness to take over as chair. I will not be able to attend the Senior Prize giving
tomorrow, and thank Neil for his willingness to step in and give the report on behalf of
the Parent Council.
8. Election of new member – Parent Council
Office bearers:
Stepping down as Chair – Ramsay Shields
Neil Miller elected as new Chair
Stepping down from PC– Gary Marshall and John Clark
Scott Taylor (absent from meeting) plans to join PC
There is capacity for more Parent Council members and we discussed ways to publicise
this and grow the Parent Council, e.g. school website, facebook page, Twitter.
9. Head Teacher’s Report
Ladies and Gentlemen it is with great pleasure that I deliver to you the Head Teachers
Report for Session 2015-2016. I’m sure you will join me in wishing Mr Black a speedy
recovery and return to Douglas Academy but in the meantime business will carry on as
normal.
Session 2015 – 2016 has been another very successful session for Douglas Academy. Our
Staff have continued to deliver high quality learning and teaching experiences and our young
people have continued to thrive, achieving highly across a wide range of measures. We
continue to build on the strong performance in SQA exams achieved over the last couple of
sessions with particular note given to the increase in pupils achieving 5+ Highers. This is
testament not only to the efforts of all our young people but also to the commitment and
efforts of all the staff in the school during a time of unprecedented change in education.
During this time our staff have continued to participate in professional development activities
that further develop and enhance their capacity to deliver high quality learning and teaching
experiences and this is a key driver in the attainment and achievement of all our young
people. These professional development activities continue to be a key focus of our school
improvement plan and will continue this session.
The school roll at census last session was 994 pupils, an increase on the previous session’s
figure, and with an S1 intake this session of 179 we expect the roll to continue to grow this
session. Our roll related staffing allocation for last session was 71.32 FTE.
We all know , however, that Douglas Academy delivers far more than just an academic
experience to our young people, staff also deliver a wide range of wider opportunities that
help further develop skills for learning , life and work.
We continue to run over 50 lunchtime and after school clubs, from the many musical
opportunities offered through our music department and our specialised music school, the
many sporting clubs run by staff from across the school to debating and public speaking to
name but a few.
I would like to highlight just a few of these opportunities and achievements from last
session……………
We had many musical highlights......We continued our very successful annual round of
concerts in and around our community. Our Chamber Orchestra and Choir performed in
London for the state visit of the Chinese President in October. At the Glasgow Music
Festival in March our Chamber Choir won the Anne Wiseman Trophy for the best school
choir. Our First Orchestra won the A.M.Ross Memorial Trophy for the best overall School
Orchestra. We also had numerous individual prizewinners at the festival.
Many of our students have been a part of the National Youth Orchestra and Choir of
Scotland. We have also been represented at the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.
There have also been many individual Musical highlights across the year. I’m afraid too
many to mention.
As with our musical achievements I can only show you the tip of the iceberg when telling you
about our debating and public speaking successes....
Debating and public speaking has grown significantly in recent years with pupils gaining
national and international recognition. Last session pupils took part in:
The World schools debating competition in Stuttgart, Oxford Union UK schools Debating
finals, Debating Matters British Final and the Scotland and Northern Ireland final.
Debating happens weekly with all year groups and their successes against many of the top
state and private schools are simply amazing.
Our Rights respecting School group continued this year and achieved the level 1 UNICEF
award in March and are now working towards the next level.
The Youth Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) run through our Social Subjects department was
again an excellent experience for all S2 pupils and resulted in £3000 being donated to a
local Charity following the group presentations which I had the pleasure of judging in June.
We continued to support East Dunbartonshire’s Food bank with 6 collections across the year
and we also supported the homeless hostel in the East end of Glasgow at Christmas
bringing comfort to many people who are less fortunate.
We continued support through the Mary’s Meals charity for the valley Centre School in
Liberia
Our Computing department continue to support the local community to access the digital
world through the Silver Surfers Group in Milngavie library.
A team of S5 pupils won the Royal Society of Chemistry Young Analyst Award against some
of the best schools in Scotland including many top private schools.
Our young enterprise group were awarded the best company report in the Dunbartonshire
final at Strathclyde University and donated their profits of over £600 to the Beatson Cancer
charity.
We had many sporting achievements across the year including our S1/2 Netball team who
won the East Dunbartonshire League.
Our Boys Hockey team reached the final of the Scottish Plate and our Girls hockey team
reached the final of the Aspire Cup and again there were many individual successes in sport.
But as you know none of these achievements could have happened without the fullest
engagement of our young people, the commitment of all our staff and of course the full
support of our parents and carers. We value the role that parents and carers play in working
in partnership with the school to maximise the potential of our young people.
On top of all this our staff continue to go above and beyond to offer many trips and
excursions both at home and abroad. These opportunities deliver many experiences to
young people, that many of our young people would not have the chance to experience
without this commitment.
Over 60 excursions across all year groups have been organised since the beginning of
January 2016 including the annual S2 Ski Trip to Alpe d’Huez in January which I had the
pleasure to lead.
Pupils also headed off to the Ardech for the annual PE Watersports trip in June.
The Geography department organised a trip to Iceland to witness the unique geology of this
volcanic island and a Cultural trip to Italy was organised, both also in June.
We also delivered our annual Activities day at the end of June just before the summer break
– As well as numerous in-school activities there were trips to Lightwater Valley, Trampolining
& Bouldering, Paintballing and the Edinburgh Dungeons. These activities were organised
and offered as a thank you to all young people who have excelled in their commitment and
efforts across the year.
We continued last session to develop as a listening school. Pupil voice remains a standing
item at Policy and Development meetings. Last session following a review we piloted a new
model that allowed a greater number of young people a say in the strategic direction the
school takes. We also asked departments to engage with pupils on the quality of learning
and teaching they experience and departments used this information to inform
improvements in the learning experience provided.
The views of all stakeholders continue to be sought throughout the session. Regular
evaluations of parental views surveyed during parents’ evenings demonstrate that a very
strong majority of parents and carers are happy with the educational provision that we make,
citing, for example, that the school is helping their daughter /son to be more confident, that
their daughter/son’s learning is progressing well, that staff know their daughter/son as an
individual and support them well and that they benefit from school clubs and activities
provided outside the classroom. Feedback from pupil council meetings indicates that pupils
are happy with the school in general and feel that they are well treated by staff at Douglas
Academy.
I conclude tonight by saying last session was another very successful year in the life of
Douglas Academy and I believe we have reason to look forward with great optimism.
10. AOCB
6th Year end of year celebrations (Leavers day and Prom) were discussed – no
decision has been made to date about any changes to the format.
11. Next meeting
Wednesday 6th September 2017 at 7pm