Role of Parent Council

2007-08 was a year of change for School Boards as they evolved into Parent Councils with greater flexibility and a renewed purpose.  Following a consultation process during autumn 2007 the new Harris Academy Parent Council held its first meeting on 1st November 2007 and agreed to adopt the following role:

• To create a welcoming school  
  

• To promote partnership between the school, its pupils and all parents ^[1]  
  

• To develop and engage in activities which support the education, welfare and personal development of school pupils  
  

• To identify and represent the views of parents

Membership

Following an invitation to all parents for expressions of interest, the membership of the Parent Council was agreed on 1 November as below:

Rebecca Forbes (S6 pupil) acted as Clerk to the Parent Council.  Invitations were also issued to the local Councillors and the local MSP and all four West End Councillors attended Parent Council meetings at some point.

Meetings

Meetings of the Parent Council took place at monthly intervals during term time and seven meetings were held up to the end of the 2007-08 school year.  In order to allow parents to develop a deeper understanding of how the school operates, either Mr Thewliss or another member of the teaching staff gave a detailed presentation at each meeting on a specific aspect of the school.  Issues covered at the meetings included staffing, finance, the House Reward System, school communication, pupil support & tracking, the registration system and the School Development Plan.  Regular general updates were also provided by the Head Teacher, the School Captains and the PTPA representative.

Priorities

A major concern for Harris Academy is the poor condition and outdated configuration of the school buildings and a meeting was held in Summer 2007 to discuss this matter, attended by the Chief Executive of Dundee City Council (Alex Stephen), the Director of Education (Anne Wilson), the outgoing Chair of the School Board (Colin Cartwright) and the new Chair of the Parent Council (Steve Carter), This was a very constructive meeting at which the Chief Executive of the Council agreed to fund a feasibility study into options for the improvement and/or redevelopment of the school buildings.  This study commenced in late 2007 and the findings of the study are due to be reported shortly.  This matter will remain a top priority for the Parent Council and improved communication with parents is also a priority.

Notes from the Chair

It has been a great pleasure to take over as the chair of the Parent Council from Colin Cartwright who chaired the outgoing School Board.  Colin served the school very well for four years as chair of the School Board and, notably, prepared a detailed document on the state of the school buildings which helped to secure the support of senior council officials for the current feasibility study. 

It has been very encouraging to see a good attendance at Parent Council meetings over the last 8 months by parents, pupils, teachers and local Councillors.  All Harris parents are very welcome to attend any meeting of the Parent Council and I would encourage any parent who is interested in the running of the school to come along to a meeting to hear for themselves what is being discussed.  You don’t have to be a member to attend and, more importantly, you won’t be asked to do anything if you decide to come along to a meeting!  So please give it a try with absolutely no obligation.  You can contact the Parent Council at the e-mail address provided at the bottom of this page.

The attendance at the Parent Council of three pupils (the two Captains plus the Clerk) has been most helpful in allowing other members to hear their first-hand experience of the various matters discussed.  All three have now left school and, on behalf of the Parent Council, I send them my very best wishes for the future.

It has also been very helpful to secure attendance from the local Councillors who have made good contributions to meetings and provided supportive follow-up on specific issues.

The detailed presentations at each meeting by the Head Teacher and his staff on various topics have given the members of the Parent Council a fascinating insight into the achievements and challenges at the school.  The topics for discussion are suggested by the Parent Council members and Mr Thewliss has responded positively to all suggestions. 

The Parent Council has maintained links with the Parent Teacher Pupil Association (PTPA) which organises a number of fund-raising events throughout the year. Thanks to Margret for updating the Parent Council on the work of the PTPA and good luck to Claudia and all the PTPA members for the forthcoming year’s events.

A difficult challenge for the Parent Council is fulfilling the aim of identifying and representing the views of parents.  Despite good attendance at Parent Council meetings we are still engaging with only a small proportion of parents.  Following discussion at the last meeting in June we would like to broaden our engagement with parents in two ways.  Firstly we are seeking improvements to the school web site which would allow the Parent Council to communicate more effectively with parents.  Secondly we have proposed an e-mail initiative that would allow the Parent Council to interact with parents directly on the key issues facing the school.  The e-mail initiative would require the support of parents in supplying an e-mail address and I hope that you will respond positively to this request when it is made later this term.  I believe that the school would benefit from wider, better quality engagement with parents and the Parent Council is ready and waiting to provide the means of achieving this.

Finally, the biggest challenge of all is that of improvements to the school buildings.  Modern teaching techniques require better, more flexible facilities than the current buildings allow and the full potential of Harris Academy cannot be realised until improvements to the school buildings are carried out.  The current feasibility study being undertaken by Dundee City Council will provide a clearer picture about the options available and the Parent Council will continue to do whatever it can to secure the required investment for the school.

Steve Carter (on behalf of the members of the Harris Academy Parent Council)

To get in touch with the Parent Council please e-mail harrisacademy.pc@btinternet.com