Law Primary Parent Council  

Thanks to those that came along to the Mental Health Info eve – please feel free to email us with any feedback or suggestions for other info evenings you would like to see.

Please find attached a PDF of the slides.  Mental Health and Wellbeing Information Evening

Here is the website Martin was talking about: https://sites.google.com/edubuzz.org/mhwb-information-point/single-point-of-access

Template letter from parents to ELC re Haddington Rd

For those concerned about road safety please see the attached letter we would encourage you to send.  Please note this is NOT a Parent Council document, it was created by a group of concerned parents so should be signed personally not as part of the Parent Council.

Parent Council Meeting

An invite to the final Parent Council meeting of 2021 on MONDAY 29th NOV at 19.00.  The agenda:

• School Updates – including those agenda items shared by parents / reps.
• Additional Support Needs (support at school) – presentation by Shona Thomas.
• School website / handbook – tell us what you need.

To register for a Google MEET link please fill in this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeBF9bWfNVzdl_RjazVtTWOrujFpeWbM7ZsxHKjs1DBPVg88Q/viewform?usp=sf_link

A reminder of two events this week for all Parents / Carers:

Mental Health + Your Child:

• Google MEETS on Thursday 18 Nov, 19.00-20.30
• ALL WELCOME.  To register:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdjGyO_5egW53V0Q7TYA6Tj23iDJYfnquDkCJamsxB6qXK2DA/viewform?usp=sf_link

Parent Council Coffee Morning:

• Lodge Grounds (Table Tennis Tables) on Friday 19 Nov, 09.00-10.00
• Steampunk coffee and cakes provided.
• ALL WELCOME including kids – just come along to meet us, suggest any agenda items for the next PC meeting, get involved with the PC or just eat our cake.

Best wishes

The Parent Council Team

lawprimaryparentcouncil@gmail.com

As you know we are a small coordination team – enthusiastically flapping about in between work commitments + family life so apologies if comms is a bit sporadic.  As ever extra hands and heads are welcome and needed – please email us if any of the issues and events below connect with you and you would like to offer support.

Some info about what we’ve been working on – update at the next PC meeting MONDAY 29 NOV at 19.00 via Google Meets.  Registration info to be shared next week.

You are also invited to meet us for Steampunk coffee and cake in the Lodge Grounds (table tennis tables) this Friday (19th) at 09.00.  Kids are welcome.  Come and meet us and tell us how things are going at school, suggest any agenda items for the next PC meeting, get involved or just eat our cake.

This is an update on some of the things our team are working on:

• We continue to work with ELC on the new nursery build – new drawings have been published HERE – our primary concerns have been safe and effective pedestrian access to the nursery (there is no car park) and the orientation of the building for better use of natural sunlight.  Take a look and feel free to email us with comments – this is going to affect kids and families in NB for many many years so we really need to get this right!
• There is a new nursery PC group – email us if you want to get in touch with them.
• We continue to push for the new path at the back of the school so that children don’t have to walk down Haddington RD.
• We have organised an info evening for parents on 18 Nov at 19.00 – MENTAL HEALTH + YOUR CHILD.  Register HERE.  Poster is also attached.  Please share with other parents / carers.
• We are undertaking an ambitious review and redesign of the school website and the handbook given to all new parents / carers.  We will be asking you to contribute to this at the next PC meeting so that you can tell us what you feel needs revising, adding, editing.  Thanks to the parents that have come forward to help with this already.  Anyone with a particular skill set in web design / comms would be very welcome.
• Project Playground is bubbling away in an enthusiastic mix of many colours.  Next step is convincing ELC to let them get their coloured paint brushes on the tarmac and building.  Watch this space.  Thanks to the PTA for submitting a funding application and fundraising such a huge amount of money at the brilliant yet soggy Halloween trail in the Lodge.  AMAZING work again PTA!
• Hate plastic bottles in the lunch boxes?  Thanks to parents for emailing us about this.  There is a petition you can sign HERE – if anyone wants to take this forward on behalf of Law please email us.  It’s such an important issue, but we just don’t have the capacity at the moment.  The least we can do is share the petition link.
• Reps – we are aiming to get a rep for every class at Law to improve communication between the school and parents, and especially to be a point of contact for new parents arriving.  Please get in touch if you would like to join the team of reps – they are a friendly bunch who we often supply with coffee and cake.  A great way to get to know folk in the school.

Have a great weekend!

Kate (Chair)

Mental Health and your Child

This is an invite to all Law PS parents and carers to come along to an evening event on Thursday 18 Nov, 19.00-20.30 via Google Meets.  BYOB!

It has been organised by parents and is being hosted by Martin Lahiffe, Mental Health Youth Worker for the North Berwick cluster.  He will be talking about:

• What is mental health and why it is important
• Strategies for parents / carers to support good mental health and well-being in their children
• Signposting to organisations and resources for additional support

There will also be a member of staff from the school attending, who will be able to answer questions about practices and policies at the school.

 ALL WELCOME.  To register go to:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdjGyO_5egW53V0Q7TYA6Tj23iDJYfnquDkCJamsxB6qXK2DA/viewform?usp=sf_link

This session has been arranged following feedback from parents / carers that they would like to better understand how to support their child’s mental health, particularly in the context of the last couple of years.  Please feel free to bring questions or to just come along and listen in.  We’d love your support for this event; if successful we would like to host other information evenings in the future so please do let us know if you have ideas for other topics you’d like us to cover.

Any questions please email lawprimaryparentcouncil@gmail.com.

Best wishes

The Parent Council Team

Nov 1_PC Meeting[12219]

Click on the link above to see the presentation given at the meeting on 01 November 2021.

Class representatives act as an essential link between the school and parents in their class, for issues and ideas in both directions.  Parents can consult their class rep for any matter that does not relate to specific individuals and the rep may answer it directly, or pass it on to the wider parent council or school as appropriate.

The types of things you are expected to do include:

• Advise any social media groups you may have, that you are their PC rep and that they can raise any issues with you at any time, not just for a PC meeting
• Follow Law Primary Parent Council on Facebook if you are on it
• Promote PC information, sub group work, and invitations to meetings and coffee mornings, to your class
• In advance of PC meetings, ask for any issues parents want raised – as constructive as possible.  Positive feedback is always appreciated too! This should be collated and emailed to the Parent Council, via lawprimaryparentcouncil@gmail.com.  If we get this a few days before the meeting we can raise it directly with Mrs Mackinnon for her Headteacher briefing if appropriate.  (Parents are still able to post ideas themselves if they prefer, on the jam board that is circulated to people on the email list ahead of each meeting).
• Attend the PC meetings and coffee mornings where possible and feed back from those to your class
• Let your class teacher know that you are the class rep for their class.  If there is anything they would like to disseminate or explain to the class’s parents they can choose to do so through the rep.
• Spread the word about the Parent Council and encourage engagement where possible.

If you are interested in becoming a class rep, we are still in need of volunteers for P2 and for P6.  There are year group reps for all others, but we are still looking for a class rep for each class.  Take a look here and see if you can help!

Please get in touch if you can.

lawprimaryparentcouncil@gmail.com

Updates

• There are some exciting things happening with Project Playground – the PTA is submitting a grant.

• We continue to campaign and work with the council and North Berwick Trust to install a path at the back of the school, so that parents and pupils can avoid Haddington RD.

• We are planning a parent info event in Nov (date tbc) to explore mental health provision and support for pupils. This will be online, and info will be sent out after half term.

• There is a new nursery group, which has a clear focus for supporting parents and kids to get to know each other better.

• We sent a letter to Paul McLennan MSP asking that the Parent Council be included in discussions around any future changes to provision at the Edington Hospital.  We received a response saying that he is keen to work collaboratively on this issue.

Next term

Outlining our plans for next term, we have been working with the school and the council to better understand how we can work more effectively as a Parent Council.  As Law is such a large school, and there are so few of us actively involved we need to refocus and restructure how we work.  All parents are welcome to work with us.  This year we will work:

• To continue to listen to parents and encourage contribution to the meeting agendas, but to ask if parents contribute an ‘issue’ they also contribute a possible ‘solution’.  This will allow us to think about ways we can work together to resolve issues.

• To continue to hold coffee mornings and meet with parents informally, as we recognise the online meetings do not allow much space for open discussion.

• To continue to work in small working groups so that parents can get involved in specific projects and feel that they are making a real contribution to the school.  These groups will work closer with the school so we can work more effectively with staff.

• To work closely with the PTA.

Improve communication between parents and the school (our overall goal for 2021-22)

• To rethink how class reps can work more effectively to improve communication within each year group.  We have had lots of you come forward to help with this.  Thanks, but we are short of reps for P2, P5, P6 and P7!

• School website – needs an overhaul.  The school is keen for us to work with them on this.

• School handbook for new parents – needs a review and update.

As communications are such a key focus, we are looking for help.  If you have a background in web design, writing / editing, PR please help us!  We will also be thinking about content so anyone who has a key interest in seeing something added to the website / handbook we will also let you know how you can get involved.

We look forward to seeing you after half term.

Kate (Chair) + Gemma (Vice-Chair)

lawprimaryparentcouncil@gmail.com