The members of the Parent Council along with their email addresses are as follows.

Chair: Gary McCarthy

Email: gary.mccarthy@muiroford.freeserve.co.uk

Secretary: Lesley MacKenzie

Email: riomac5@gmail.com

Treasurer: Andrea Wright

Email: andi.w@tiscali.co.uk

1. 1.                  Welcome and Apologies

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. Apology was noted.

1. 2.      Minutes of the previous meeting of 3^rd December 2009

The minute was agreed as a correct record, and was approved and signed. Proposed by Angie Cushnie, Seconded Lorna Macleod.

Matters arising from Previous Minutes: Thanks to Parent Council and Parents for Xmas party. Torridon: Angie reported that the dance went well in the end and the school received £454 which was half of the proceeds the other half going to the hall. The Community Notice Board: Nothing happening at the moment.

3.  Parent Council admin procedures: Gary wants changes to be made to the way that the Committee is run and the way that actions are carried out.

• Minutes: To be put on the School Blog after they have been approved. Minutes to be circulated I week after the meeting to all who were present for approval.
• Agenda:   All topics for the Agenda of the next meeting to go to the School and then Mr Quigley to contact Lesley. 2 weeks before the meeting a note to go out with the children stating the date and time of the meeting.
• Approving Draft Minutes: As before.

1. Valentines Disco: It was at first thought that a Valentines Disco would be held at the hall but due to Valentines Day being in the middle of the long weekend it was decided to make the date Thursday 25^th February from 4.30 to 6.30 and to raise money for the Haiti Earthquake Appeal. The price of tickets is to be confirmed nearer the time. Miss Bate, Lorna and the Do Good Group will organise.

1. 4.      Eco Update: Gregor reported that the school needed a “tidy up”. A letter to be sent out to Parents. The greenhouse is in need of some repair and to finish off the roof and the door. Help is required preferable on a Tuesday as the janitor is around. A letter is to go out asking for help. The School has received its Silver accreditation and the sum of £250. We are now hoping to go for the Green award but there are still a few things need to be done around the school like a climbing frame.  

Julie suggested applying to the Postcode Lottery for funding and it was also suggested that the Eco Council apply for some of the Wind farm money.

Miss Bate added that donations of plant pots, seeds and compost would be gratefully received and maybe a newsletter should be started up to keep parents informed as to what is happening.

On a final note Miss Bate suggested buying a flag pole for the future!!!!

       5. Wind Farm Money Update: Jo and Angie attended a meeting last week    discussing the allocation of the unspent  money. It is possible that the school may get some money but it is not a certainty. The current Community Council is not sympathetic towards the school but their AGM is coming up and hopefully new members will be elected who are. It was decided that the school needs someone with a strong character to hopefully get elected onto the final panel of 12 people. Rhona Fraser and Stuart Sinclair were people the meeting thought would be good for the job.

Forms are to be filled in detailing requests and returned to The Scottish Community Fund. Applications open on the 1^st Feb 2010 until 31^st May 2010 and a decision made at the beginning of the summer. A person from the SCF is coming to Marybank and it is hoped that a meeting can be arranged with either Rhona or Stuart if they are willing to take the job on.

         6. Canteen Floor Replacement: Mr Quigley had positive feedback for this! The Catering Department is willing to pay the £800 needed to replace the flooring. Julie and Jo are looking to paint the inside of the canteen at some point.

        7. Fundraising: A meeting will be held after the close of this one to discuss what is happening with fundraising. Susan and Heather have both intimated that they would like to be involved in this.

        8. Parking: There was a visit from the traffic Warden on Monday 18^th January about the situation arising from amount of cars at the school.

Parking is an ongoing problem around the school but it is not something that an easy solution can be found for due to lack of free land. A designated parking area would be ideal and turning the wide pavement into a drop off zone was suggested. This would need to be discussed with the Council. Mr Quigley will send a letter on behalf of the school and the parent Council will send one too.

        9. AOB:

i)                    School Trip: Angie asked about the School trip. Mr Quigley said that he had only 5 questionnaires returned so the subject will have to be given more thought. The whole subject is ongoing.

ii)                  School Bus: Julie brought up the point that the new driver of the bus was driving very fast and not taken the appropriate safety precautions. Mr Quigley said he would take up the matter with Spa Coaches.

           If Callum is retiring it was decided that a collection be made for him.

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         iii)      Parent Council: A list of names and positions to be put onto the School

Blog and also a notice with the names, positions and email addresses to

be put in the school notice board.

          iv)      Speed of Passing Traffic: Gary has spoken to the Camera Safety    

                     Partnership and they have agreed to put in a traffic counter to  

                          Determine the quantity of traffic and the speeds at which it is travelling.

Date and Time of Next Meeting

The next meeting will be held on Thursday 24^th March 2010 in Marybank Primary School at 7.30 pm.

On Friday 17th April, highly regarded Scottish Ceilidh band, Torridon, will be playing at Fairburn Memorial Hall in Marybank to raise money for the school. We hope to use this money to upgrade our range of musical instruments.

Tickets cost £8 each and can be bought from the school office or by calling Angie on 01997 433297 or Heather on 01997 433416. Doors open at 8.30pm and children are welcome to come along until 10pm.

World Book Day 2009 was held at Marybank Primary on Thursday 5th March and involved pupils from Marybank, Strathgarve and Strathconon. There were a number of exciting events including workshops involving local authors Jackie Wood, Erica Munro and Gail Haddock. Other workshops were to design a bookmark, create a sensory book for St Clement’s School and designing a book-themed t-shirt!

In the afternoon, we had a visit from two Caley Thistle players-Eric Odhiambo and Dougie Imrie. They read out limericks and answered questions from the children before they started our ‘Space Hopper Reading Challenge’ relay race (won by Strathconon!).

Photos of the big day will be posted later this week so keep checking back!

 We have been invited to take part in a huge international blogging challenge…and we have accepted! More information about the challenge can be found by clicking on the following link: http://wyatt67.edublogs.org/

We will keep you updated on how the challenge goes but it is great that Marybank is going to be represented on such a wide scale!

GOOD LUCK AND HAPPY BLOGGING!

Yesterday (Thu 19th Feb), Leonie and James (along with Mr Q and Mrs McClelland) took part in the official launch of the Highland Literacy Project Reading Blog at Borders Bookshop in Inverness. Marybank Primary has played a huge part in creating and contributing towards this blog which is hoped will encourage children from all over the Highlands to post book reviews and discuss their favourite books.

Caitlin and Ryan reviewed a book by Anne Fine recently and posted it onto the HLP Reading Blog and today, they received a comment from Anne Fine herself, saying how pleased she was that they enjoyed her book!

The picture above shows Leonie and James (along with pupils from three other schools) at the press launch. Well done guys for representing the school so well.

To see the blog, go to: http://hlpreadingblog.edublogs.org/

Ok, so it is a few weeks late in coming, but at long last, here is the photo of the Marybank Football team that took part in the Ross-shire Football Festival at Dingwall Leisure Centre. We played a number of games and managed to win one and draw two but all in all played pretty well. Here in the picture you can see that the team take the game very seriously and are planning the tactics on a piece of paper!!!

A very warm welcome to all our blogging visitors. I would like to wish one and all a very enjoyable and successful 2009!

We are already one week into this term but it feels like we have been back for months! This promises to be a very busy term with many things due to happen including:

-The re-start of our Healthy Tuckshop

-World Book Day (Thu 5th Mar)

-Cross Country Championships (Fri 27th Feb)…don’t forget that our girls are the defending champions in group E!

-Basketball festival

-Football Tournament at Dingwall Leisure Centre

-Auditions for our performance of ‘Joseph’

-Our trip to see ‘Joseph’ at Eden Court

PLUS A WHOLE LOT MORE!!!

One of my resolutions is to try to keep the main school blog updated as often as possible so please check back regularly to find out what is happening in and around Marybank Primary.

A Happy Blogging New Year!

Mr Quigley

Just a short post to say a massive thank you to all the parents and community who supported our Christmas Fayre on Friday. It was a very successful event!

Huge thanks also to Miss Bate and Mrs McClelland for their orchestrating of the whole event and to the rest of the Marybank staff for their tireless help and support. Finally, thanks to all the fabulous children who once again shone (in the dark evening sky!) in so many ways. You did us proud!

You can see a slideshow below of some of the things that have been happening over the past month. A very, merry Marybank Christmas to one and all!

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