Ubuntu

Minutes of Meeting of PSA on 1st August 2015

Parents School Alliance

Minutes of Meeting

Dance room, Deens Academy

Date: 1st August 2015

Attendance- Kavita Sivakumar, Swati Ranjan, B. Neelima, Sushila Narayanan, Ketan Jain, Sasi Taneja, Aparna Nawathe, Pritha Abraham, Dahlia Joseph, Shreeja Shibin, Seema Surekha, Kavita Srivastava, Reena Verma, Bonita N, Dhanya R, Athira Panicker, Vyasan V, Shanti S, Reeti Chugh, Shalini Singh, Orpita Basu, Srividya, Padmapriya Natarajan, Archana Singh, Hemlata Pande, Shanthi Menon

Meeting location-Conference room, Deens Academy

Meeting started: at 9.00am

Agenda & Discussion Points

1.Reviewing previous meeting action points. 

  • Communication Channels – improvement in phone’s being operational since last meeting.
  • Uniform – discussions and inputs being worked upon by school with vendor. Current decision is to continue with same vendor. School to further look into the sports T-shirt quality specifically certain house colours (yellow). Leggings will not be included as part of school uniform.
  • Facility review and follow up measures – Borewell and ECC – PSA members to schedule another audit to review the measures taken.
  • Walky parents n traffic outside school – provision for shade for waiting parents cannot be met as there is no place. Traffic continues to be an issue outside school gate and PSA members finding it difficult to garner help in face of rude behaviour. Some support from local wardens has been garnered and barricades to help traffic flow is in place. Road condition discussed and Shanthi mam will again get in touch with local authorities and seek any assistance from PSA members.
  • School timing –at present status quo.
  1. Scholastic :
  • Faculty at ECC – Concerns and specific points have been shared with Shanthi mam for her attention. This is across several grades and challenges with regards to correction also discussed.
  • Test frequency in lower grades – as per Shanthi mam the students are not expected to prepare specifically for the tests and the results are for teachers to work with students on. The sending of books at home is meant for parent’s review purpose and not for studying for the test. School will review the plan of sending books home on certain days.
  • Amount of homework and writing in KiDeens – higher than last year brought to attention of mam. There is some inconsistency across ECC and Borewell on this. Clarification on handwriting style will be looked at by school across the sections.
  • Also Smartwork information is delayed for some classes. This could be a queuing issue – school to look into it.
  • A proposal from PSA members to include study circles / more guest lectures as a supplement to curriculum learning in higher grades to be taken up for further discussion with Maam.
  • Other points discussed included hurried completion of portion in time for exams, teachers should help students understand concepts in case of missing classes for events, notes sent through Smartwork increasing screen time ( school has mentioned these are covered in class and not meant for printing or studying), loss of books / projects left in the classrooms.
  1. Co-Scholastics :
  • Participation and Selection for events – this continues to be a concern area and PSA has requested that the entire process should be looked at. In some grades or areas there is clear selection process; elsewhere it is lacking or not transparent. Also, shared need to include more intra- school events to enable maximum participation.
  • Communication regarding events to the students also can be improved.
  • Club Activities – PSA members have shared data points with Shanthi Maam and team regarding the existing club fees, concern with specific clubs (eg. Crafty Hands) which school has also noted. Would like a relook at the usefulness of clubs and the process of allocation of clubs.
  1. Transport :
  • Mr Atiq could not join in due to unavoidable circumstances and meeting for transport will be rescheduled. Atiq Sir to give date and time options.
  • Shanthi mam discussed the points that were put forth (attendance register in bus, teacher’s responsibility in bus, cleanliness and seating) and some specific route issues were discussed. Also, on absence of matrons in bus – Maam’s direction is to not let children board the bus till a matron is present.