Scottish Parent Teacher Council

Backchat Newsletter - Issue 72 - March 2003

In this issue

Parents in Schools
Trouble at the school gate
Real social inclusion
New look record of needs
Regional Meetings
Free Advice Leaflets
Mobile Adventure Courses
This and That
Your questions answered

At present parents can be involved in schools either on PTAs/PAs or on school boards. For many, neither option is very attractive. School boards are weighed down by mounds of official documentation and consultations whilst PTAs often get pigeon-holed as fundraising-only bodies.

Indeed, the recent review of school boards, the Banks report, found that, whilst individual school boards had done a lot of good work, in general they had not been very good at involving parents in the life of the school. Meanwhile, here in the office we regularly get calls from PTAs asking if they are "allowed" to do more than fundraising. Now the Executive is hoping to move this forward and one of the proposals, coming from the National Debate, was to "Involve parents more in their children's education by providing new national guidelines giving parents access and by reviewing and reforming the role of School Boards and Parent Teacher Associations".

We are pleased to say that the Executive is keen to move forward on this. We recently had a meeting with the two Ministers with responsibility for Education - Cathy Jamieson and Nicol Stephen - along with representatives from the Scottish School Board Association and two directors of education to consider what steps were needed.

Our starting point is that, whatever arrangements are made, they have to be flexible and recognise that, quite rightly, parents' number one interest is the education of their own children. There was a lot of agreement on this, on how off-putting the very formal election process to boards is and that parents don't want to be restricted to a "fundraising only" role.

Agreeing what is wrong is the easy bit. The real trick is to put in place something better that people want. We are going to meet with SSBA and ADES again for a brain-storming session and any feedback from you in advance of that would be much appreciated.

Trouble at the school gate - problem Parking

For many schools, one of the biggest problems is the parents who drive up to drop off or collect their own children, selfishly park right outside the school, ignore parking restrictions and are totally inconsiderate of all the other children. We have heard of many attempts to solve this problem from getting the police to patrol the area in the morning and evening - effective but not something that can be done permanently - to videoing offending parents and showing the video on a continuous loop at parents evenings - a kind of name and shame process.

The latest example of good practice comes from the West of Scotland Road Safety Forum. They have produced a series of leaflets and posters which make it quite clear that "Parking at the school gates is dangerous and selfish" - there's no ambiguity there! Schools could produce their own leaflets and posters - what are photocopiers for - to be sent home and handed out at the school gates to offending motorist-parents.

Real social inclusion Count us in

Like most advertising tags, social inclusion is used so often these days it's losing any real meaning. When people do try to explain it, it comes across as being focused only on those who are disadvantaged in some way.

However, the leaflet Count Us In, published by the school inspectors, makes it clear that real inclusion is for everyone. It's about including the bright "swat", the artistic dreamer as well as youngsters who are disadvantaged.

It is not about pretending that people are not different, but it is about valuing a broad range of talents, abilities and achievements. After all, we'd be a seriously boring society if everyone were identical and there were no George Clooneys to admire!

New look record of needs

Miranda Harvey reports on the draft Additional Support for Learning Bill which will change the system of support for children with special educational needs

Several reports and legislative developments have indicated that the current system of Records of Needs is out of date and inadequate. The Scottish Executive are now consulting on a new draft Additional Support for Learning Bill which, it is intended, will be more inclusive, strengthen the rights of parents, involve children and young people in decisions about their education and promote better integration of services.

The new legislation will recognise a broad group of children as having additional support needs (ASN), including those with English as an additional language, gypsy and traveller children, looked-after children and children in hospital – in fact any child or young person who is “unable to benefit from school education …without the provision of extra support”. These needs may be long or short-term. Other agencies (eg Health and Social Work) will have a duty to help identify and meet all types of ASN and promote integrated provision of services.

Education authorities will have a duty to identify and address the additional support needs of those pupils with ASN for whose school education they are responsible (i.e. NOT children whose parents have chosen to educate them at home, or pay to send them to independent schools). They will have to make adequate and efficient provision, subject to what is “practicable at reasonable cost”. All parents of children with ASN will have the right to make placing requests to independent schools. Education authorities will have to provide independent mediation services.

The Bill also defines a group of children with more complex needs who will have a Co-ordinated Support Plan (CSP). The draft legislation sets out who will be able to have a CSP, what it will contain and how it will be backed by a new tribunal. The focus is on making sure that different agencies, such as Health, Social Work and Education work together and involve the child or young person and their family.

Several issues have been raised on the impact this legislation will have on youngsters who currently have Records of Needs and whose parents are most sensitive to change. There are also questions about children who are not educated in the public sector (including those under three and not in nursery, as well as older children in independent schools). In several areas the draft legislation makes reference to guidance (eg on how best to involve children and young people, publication of information on local policies, minimum requirements for planning transitions from school to school, best practice on how to identify and support children and young people with ASN). Some parties have questioned whether guidance is enough to ensure consistent practice across Scotland.

You can get the draft Bill on the Executive website at www.scotland.gov.uk or by ringing Elaine Lane on 0131 244 7139/1622. After the May elections a re-drafted Bill will go through several Parliamentary stages when parents will be able to make representations either directly or via their MSPs.

Regional Meetings

We're pleased to tell you we have a series of regional meetings set up.

27th March: Stonelaw High School, Calderwood Road, Rutherglen at 7.30 p.m.

2nd April: Kings Park Secondary, Fetlar Drive
Glasgow G44 at 7.30 p.m.

Looking ahead to next term - 4th June: Winton Primary, Anderson Terrace, Ardrossan at 7.30 p.m.

Free Advice Leaflets

Last time when we asked for ideas to update our fundraising leaflet, we ended up having a number of requests for the existing leaflet. We realised that many members were probably unaware that we offer a range of free advice leaflets which we are happy to send out on request, so here's a list of what's on offer

1. What is the Scottish Parent Teacher Council
2. Insurance leaflet - detailing what the public liability policy covers
3. Setting up a PTA - four easy stages
4. So what is a PTA/PA? - some helpful hints
5. A simple guide to money matters
6. Good Practice for Committee Meetings
7. Good Practice for Annual General Meetings
8. Constitutions Made Easy
9. A Model Constitution
10. Charities Constitutions and Confusion
11. So tell me, what exactly does a school board do?
12. Fundraising Ideas for PTAs and PAs
13. National Qualifications - a simple guide for parents
14. Talk about bullying - some helpful information for parents
15. A Simple outline of Devolved School Management

The leaflets can also be found in our Leaflets section and can be printed and photocopied, if you want several copies.

Suggestions for new leaflet topics are always welcome.

Mobile adventure Course

The Mobile Adventure Course (MAC) is an obstacle course with 12 different challenges and is a great way to raise funds and involve pupils, parents and teachers. The Course can also be used as a treat for the pupils or as an alternative to sports day.

MAC equipment has been chosen for its sturdiness, flexibility and to ensure maximum safety. It's suitable for indoor or outdoor events and can be adjusted in height to suit all ages from nursery children to adults.

Obstacles include:-

height adjustable wall
scramble net
combined rope and bridge walkway
low walkway
ground net
rope swing
hanging & ground tyres

For more information, contact Lee Denholm on Tel: 01555 759291 or email mobileadventure@aol.com
See our Infoshop for more information

This and That.

A special plea for help

It's March and that means that we are busy chasing up the last few PTAs who have still to renew membership and insurance. One problem, as always, is that the contact person has moved on and no one has told us. Please help us to keep in touch by telling us when such changes happen.

Backchat mailing - why 5 copies?

Most often the mail that we send out is this newsletter Backchat. What we try to do with it is give you information on current education issues - see the item on the opposite page about changes to the Record of Needs - provide advice and help as well as tell you about interesting ways to raise or spend money! We send five copies each time - one big one printed in blue and 4 smaller ones printed in black. The idea is that gives you some to hand round but that if more are wanted, the small black printed ones are easy to photocopy. We will shortly be sending out a questionnaire asking you what you think of Backchat. However you don't have to wait for that - feedback is always welcome.

The town goes to the countryside

Many rural colleagues would probably be amazed at how little children living in towns and cities know about the countryside and how food is grown. For example, for many city children potatoes equal chips and they have no idea that they start life underground, as an earth-covered root. However, the Royal Highland Education Trust would like to change that. Set up to support education about and in the countryside for children aged from 5 to 14, it has a range of teaching materials and posters, a list of risk-assessed farms for educational visits and even information about transport grants for such farm visits (depending on area). To find out more phone 0131 335 6227 or visit their website www.rhet.rhass.org.uk

Your questions answered.

Do we need a copyright licence to play music at our school events?
This question sent us scurrying to a series of authorities to find the answer. Eventually we contacted the Performing Rights Society who tell us that a blanket licence is held in London by the Centre for Education Management. This licence covers all events involving music within schools throughout the UK so you do not have to apply for any kind of copyright. The only exception is for musicals and plays. For example, if you want to put on a show like "Cats" you would need to apply for performing rights from the music publishers who hold the specific copyright.

What help can you give us on fundraising ideas?

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