Bruntsfield Parent Forum & Council

The Parent Forum is the parents and carers of children who attend Bruntsfield Primary School. All parents and carers are automatically members. The Parent Forum has an Annual General Meeting (AGM) where parents and carers can volunteer to become members of a smaller group, known as the Parent Council.

The Parent Council is the business committee of the Forum which organises and coordinates the activities of the Parent Forum and was established under the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006. It is made up of elected and co-opted office bearers, and a number of regular members.

The Parent Council exists to

  • facilitate communication between the parents and the school management;
  • organise and run a range of activity clubs which are accessible to all children in the school;
  • organise and run a range of fundraising activities and social events.

We also have a number of Working Groups, which sit within the Parent Forum. Each Working Group nominates a representative, who has a vote on the Parent Council.

Meet the Team

The Parent Council is made up of elected office bearers, a co-opted Comms Team, and a number of regular voting members. Each of the Working Group also has a co-opted representative who has a vote on the Parent Council. We are always happy to help with any questions or concerns. You are welcome to approach us if you see us in the playground, or you can get in touch via the contact details below.

Elected Office Bearers

Jay
JayChair
Aravind
AravindVice Chair
Marilena
MarilenaSecretary
Catriona
CatrionaTreasurer

Comms Team

Ali
AliClass Reps
Nesma
NesmaGraphics
Annabelle
AnnabelleEmails & Newsletter
Tracy
TracyWebsite
Moria
MoriaFacebook
Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash

SOME IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW…

For more information about the general role and duties of Parent Councils, please see the introduction and slide presentation from Connect below. Connect (formerly the Scottish Parent Teacher Council) is a charity that works to support parental engagement in education in Scotland.

The important documents that define the Parent Council are our Constitution and the detailed Remit and Description of our Groups. You can download copies of both documents here:

Bruntsfield Primary School Parent Council raises funds for good causes, primarily through events organised throughout the school year, from any surplus generated through running the extensive Clubs programme and through one off initiatives.  This process is designed to allow the Parent Council to apply rigour to the distribution of funds, ensuing transparency and good governance.

The Parent Council seek to agree which good causes to support on an annual basis, to allow for considered decision making, and to allow applicants to plan on a reasonable timeframe.  Funding decisions would ideally be made at the time of the AGM, early in the school year, but are possible on an ad hoc basis throughout the year.

This process is designed to provide applicants with the greatest chance of success and this form has been created to provide you with a framework to allow you to consider the criteria against which your application will be assessed. Members of the Parent Council will be available to assist in working these through with you if required.  For small value grants (e.g. less than £1,000) we only require sections 2 and 6 to be completed.

Applications for funding are encouraged from the whole school community:  teachers, school staff,  parents, club organisers and club tutors. Fundamentally, the Parent Council seeks to support initiatives which can have the widest possible enduring impact on the pupils of Bruntsfield Primary School. We encourage applications to be aligned to the curriculum and to be be deliverable with the support of the teaching body.

We will assess applications against criteria set out below, agreed by the Office Bearers and co-opted members of the Parent Council. Satisfactory applications of under £1,000 will be actioned by this group, satisfactory applications of over £1,000 will be put forward to the wider Parent Council for approval.

The Office Bearers will work with applicants to help refine any applications which fall short, so that they have the best chance of succeeding. In the event that an application does not receive approval, feedback will be made available to the applicant.

Funding Criteria

  • Inclusive: to be relevant to the widest possible pupil body.
  • Enduring: to have impact beyond the funding period.
  • Progressive : to be able to be built upon after the initial project.
  • Aligned to the curriculum; to support one or more area of the curriculum.

Downloads

Funding Application Form [DOC]

Funding Tracker – February 2023 [DOC]

If you would like further clarification of the process, please contact the Parent Council Chair at  [email protected]

The Parent Council has formal businesses meetings as often as necessary and at least once in every school term. These meetings are open to all parents and carers. All formal meetings are minuted, and minutes made available here on the Parent Community website. In addition, there are a number of informal meetings throughout the school year,  with a chance to ask members of the Parent Council questions, find out more about getting involved etc.

For all meeting dates, agendas and minutes, please visit the MEETINGS section of this site.

The Parental Involvement and Links to the Community subgroup has set up a system of Parent Representatives, who can co-ordinate activities within each class. The suggested role of a Parent Representative is the following:

  1. To represent the class on the Parent Council
  2. To collate and update class contact lists
  3. To advertise and promote Parent Forum events
  4. To liaise with the class teacher to discuss ways in which parents could become actively involved in supporting additional class room activities such as golden time, seasonal events and class excursions etc.
  5. If required, to produce a rota identifying which parents / carers are available to help and when.

For information on your class representative, please contact [email protected]