29th June 2017
School Survey 2017
A big thank you to all those who took the time to complete the school survey back in March. The report has now been finalised and can be found on the “Surveys” page, along with the updated Satisfaction graphs.
When is a Parent Council not a Parent Council?
Doctor Who like, the Parent Council is in the process of regenerating itself into a more effective parent body. We think terms like “Parent Council”, “PTA”, “Parent Forum” don’t express who we are, or what we’re about.
Consequently, what we’d like to do is reconstitute ourselves as a “Parent Community”. Working from the basis that it does indeed take a village to raise a child, we want every parent to feel they have a say, that their say is welcome, and that their contribution, however big or small, is essential to educational outcomes - for their children and for all children.
So, what we’re proposing - as a first step - is to rename the “Parent Forum” the “Parent Community”, the “Parent Council” the “Parent Community Council”, and the “PTA” - “Parent Community Fundrasing and Events”. All other sub-groups would be embraced as part of the Parent Community.
Practically - we need the agreement of parents to make this happen. I’ve drafted a constitution for this entity and would appreciate hearing of any thoughts, concerns or aspirations about this change. The draft constitution can be found here. We will discuss its adoption at the AGM in September - please let us know what you think.
Positive Behaviours
In any given year there are a number of parents who express concerns about bullying and anti-social behaviour within the school. Within the school survey, for example, a number of parents voiced their concerns strongly. That being said, when the school invited parents in to discuss how the Positive Behaviour policy could be improved, only three parents turned up - two of whom were from the one family.
The school is in the process of rolling out new Positive Behaviour initiatives but the current Positive Behaviour policy can be found on the links page, along with Governmental guidelines and some additional support material.
Like any other school, Oxgangs is a society in miniature - it is the formative training ground where the adults of tomorrow first learn how to behave in a group of people who can be quite different from themselves in a number of respects. This can lead to challenging, even distressing, behaviour at times - for both children and their parents. The school seeks to resolve problems as laid out in government guidelines and its own Positive Behaviours policy: with parent support, ninety-nine times out of a hundred this approach is effective.
Parental Engagement
The Parent Council has a new sub-group - “Parental Engagement”. What we want to try and do is to find ways we can help parents to support their children’s learning. This could be at the scale of how we could make homework more fun for both parents and children - all the way up to asking companies to come in to talk about their work, or give a talk on some life skill that would be useful. If you’d like to get involved, or if you have any good ideas, then please let us know via the contact info.
Road Safety
To the best of our knowledge some of the road markings around the school will be changed over the summer to incorporate loading restrictions - this is a measure to ticket anyone who parks illegally. The existing road markings are generally ignored by some parents, and so, inevitably, in the name of child safety, stronger sanctions are being introduced.
Also, we have again been invited to take part in the City’s School Streets scheme, which would effectively close Oxgangs Road North to traffic at the start and end of the School day. So far we have declined, though it is maybe only a matter of time before congestion and ever stringent City measures make this inevitable for us.
Please drive with consideration for other road users, especially pedestrians, and doubly so for the lollipop lady who was recently bumped by an inattentive driver.
The Cole Inquiry into the Construction of Edinburgh Schools.
One of the recommendations of the Cole report was that the Council meet with those affected by the Schools closures to discuss better contingency planning. Accordingly, the Council held this meeting in May. Oxgangs PC was the only primary school to attend this meeting along with PC reps from three high schools. Given the level of upset, it is surprising so few parent bodies were represented.
Oxgangs again re-iterated that it believed it’s children were returned too early on the basis of an inadequate inspection, as well as indicating the damaging effects of short-notice announcements, and the general lack of any substantial information during the period Oxgangs was affected by closure.
Finally…
Phew - it’s been a busy year, not without its challenges for most - but there have been many positive and uplifting events to look back on - the May Fair had a good feel to it this year and raised money to support children’s activities next year. The School inspection was a bit out-of-the-blue and despite initially feeling the findings were a little unfair on Oxgangs, compared to other schools that have since been tested, Oxgangs is doing comparatively well. More importantly, the school is responding positively to the findings. For me, it’s seeing the difference between what my kids know now compared to what they knew at the start of the year, and the fun they seem to have demonstrating it.
We wish you a fun, enjoyable, relaxing, hopefully warm but definitely safe holiday!
