Thursday, November 30, 2006
Posted by:- PTA @16:06GMT
wine and nibbles
PTA members are meeting on Tuesday 5th December at 7.30 in the hall and would like to extend an invitation to the school board and all parents to come along and have a glass of wine. We will also hold our PTA AGM and with parent forums coming into place next year it will be a good opportunity to consider how parents would like to be involved in future. We are always keen to have as many parents as possible involved and hope that you can join us. You will be very welcome!
Monday, July 03, 2006
Posted by:- PTA @13:06GMT
Fundraising
The PTA currently has 11 parent members and are always keen to have more parents involved. Our next fundraising activity will be helping at the gates on the Wednesday evening at the Black Isle Show. Our most recent fundraising events were a camel race night in Maryburgh and a dance at the Marybank Hall. We were well supported by local businesses who sponsored races and provided raffle prizes.
We have been able to help the school by purchasing the book tokens for the prize giving and camping equipment for the Duke of Edinburgh participants.
Our AGM will be in September and we hope there will be some new volunteers who will come along and help keep the PTA's activities going.
Anyone who is interested should pass their details on to the school office.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Posted by:- School Board @14:56GMT
Steering Group Summary of 11th May meeting
The Steering Group had its first meeting since work commenced on site on 11th May at 7:30pm.
The meeting was well attended, and a warm welcome was extended by School Board Chair, Mr John Gill. Invitations had gone out to groups already represented and there were some changes of individuals, following school board bi-enniel elections in the autumn. It was hoped that no relevant groups had been overlooked. It remains open to groups who feel they should have representation to notify the School Board, (through the school office), for consideration.
It was agreed that an invitation be given via a newsletter to be produced by Alpha/ Morrison, for residents bordering the site to nominate a representative if they so wish. This would be offered over and above any liaison that is set up between Morrison site team and the “near neighbours”.
Alpha Schools was represented by David Gay (Concession Director). Members of the Morrison Construction team, were the Construction Project Manager, Mr Derek Chambers, the Construction Manager, Mr Mark Garland, the Site Manager, Mr Lonie Macintosh, the Facilities Manager, Mr Ross Carroll and the Project Administrator Mr Roy Sinclair.
It is a condition of the contract that Alpha Schools and Morrisons will report to the Steering Group on a regular basis throughout the Project (approximately every 6 to 8 weeks), and it is hoped that a good partnership can be developed to report on progress, highlight any particular concerns and address relevant issues. It was noted that very good liaison was already established between the site manager and the Rector, which will be a regular feature throughout.The Les Taylor Group has been sub-contracted to carry out the “groundworks”.
It is anticipated that driven pre-cast piling of the structure will commence and hopefully be completed over the school holidays.
Hours of operation on the site will generally be between 8am and 6 pm Monday to Friday, though there will be occasions when working outwith this timetable will be required.
Top soil from the former playing fields will be re-claimed and stored at a local quarry for re-use later in the project.
It is planned that the school should be ready to provision and furnish in May 2008, with the opening of the new building taking place at the start of the August 2008 term.
Following demolition of the former school, the new playing fields will hopefully be ready for use in September 2009, whilst the “all weather” facility is scheduled to be ready by January 2009.
Willingness was also shown between the Contractors and the school to become involved in the project for education purposes over a wide number of areas of curriculum.
Mr Hugh Fraser, from Highland Council, confirmed that the utilisation of the building would be the remit of a Community School Management Group, under the auspices of the School Board or the new “parent representative forum” to be established under new legislation. He also confirmed that it is expected that there will also be a full-time Community and Leisure post established.
It was noted that a decision on the colour scheme of some external finishings to the building are yet to be agreed. It is anticipated that the Planning Officer will be setting up a meeting in June to reach a decision in consultation with representatives of the Community Council, the Steering Group and representatives of the school, along with local Elected members.
In advance of the decision making, a presentation of the possibilities by the Architects will be arranged for the next Steering Group meeting on Thursday 8th June. There will be no other business on the agenda.
It is also planned that such a presentation will also be given to staff and pupil representatives. Some of the prospective colours will also hopefully be appearing on the new school website, www.dingwallacademy.com
It was noted that inevitably some established trees would have to be removed, but future landscaping will hopefully take appropriate account of this.
It was clarified that there is no “right of way” through the school grounds, and that the external fence was there for a specific purpose in the interests of security and safety. This matter has been fully explored and concluded.
The next full Steering Group meeting will be on Thursday 22nd June.
Summaries of the meetings will be made available to local media and will also appear on the school web-site.
