Membership

Membership of SSBA has risen dramatically again over this past year. The membership figure of 1621 last year has reached 1803 at the end of April 2000.

Fourteen Education Authorities continue to take out Group Membership for their School Boards saving the authority approximately £10 per Board.

The ‘old’ Board finish their two year term on the 20^th May 2000. Details of the ‘new’ Executive Board are available at the back of this report. As you will see, some vacancies still exist and we will be endeavouring to fill these as soon as possible.

SSBA continues to provide training around the country and the four SSBA tutors have covered from Shetland to Dumfries. Most of the Education Authorities have been very supportive and we continue to provide training in partnership with the Authorities where they do not provide their own. We have also put together training courses for School Boards who want to organise their own training. This has worked out well in most cases because the School Boards in the neighbourhood got together to organise their own.

Courses most popular at the moment still seems to be:

Powers, Responsibilities and Partnership

Effective Meetings and Communications

Appointment of Senior Staff

School Board and Headteacher or staff

School Board training for Councillors

The new practical guide for parents is proving to be a real winner. This has brought in a total of £13,000 to date. It was written by our Chief Executive with the support of the teaching unions and headteacher associations. These are most useful for new members.

The offices in Newall Terrace, Dumfries continue to be given free of charge by Dumfries and Galloway Council. We operate the school year (Dumfries and Galloway) and normal opening hours are 9 - 5. Visitors are always welcome.

1. Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum - Ann Hill
2. General Teaching Council - David Hutchison
3. Scottish Qualifications Authority - Ann Hill
4. McCrone Committee - David Hutchison
5. Scottish Qualification for Headships - David Hutchison
6. Scottish Executive Committee on Sexual Health Education - John Waddell
7. Scottish Executive Parents as Partners Committee - Ann Hill and Alan Smith
8. Scottish Schools Ethos Network - David Hutchison and Ian Findlay
9. Scottish Executive Anti-Bullying Network - Ann Hill
10. Education for Work and Enterprise Advisory Group - Joanne Beaumont
11. Scottish Qualifications Authority Primary Education Group - Derek Robertson

Our newsletter continues to be well received. Unfortunately, only members will receive a copy in the future because the Scottish Executive Education Department have withdrawn the grant for distribution to non-members.

Issues this year have covered topics such as COSLA’s vision for education by Danny McCafferty, School Holidays, Nursery Education, Government Consultation documents, Learning for Life, Benchmarking Parental Perceptions of schools in South Ayrshire, Core Skills, Section 28 questionnaire, China links with South Ayrshire, Equal Opportunities Guide for parents and details of the SSBA conferences.

The price of "Grapevine" remains at 40p plus p+p for non-members. Simply ask for an order form if you are interested in receiving copies.

We continue to organise conferences for School Board members. The ICT 2000 and Beyond Conference held in Kilmarnock was well received by Boards. The Investing in Parents Conference in New Lanark gave us the opportunity of hearing what Boards were concerned about and the International Conference in Glasgow is underway this month. This Conference has over 100 delegates every day from some 24 countries around the world.

Information on SSBA can now be found on the internet. I hope you will agree it is worth a visit.

You can find us at -

http://www.schoolboard-scotland.com

The debate around Section 2A was not handled as well as it could have been by SSBA. However, the consultation carried out in February showed that parents and School Boards wanted more information before finally deciding whether Section 2A should be repealed.

John Waddell, Executive Board member for East Renfrewshire has joined the Scottish Executive Committee taking the guidelines forward and he reports that good progress is being made. The Minister has reassured SSBA that we will be consulted on the guidelines and circulars.

At a recent meeting the Executive Board agreed to include the following items on the Agenda for our Annual Meeting:

• Proposed changes to the constitution to allow us to obtain charitable status
• The role of SSBA Executive Board members
• How SSBA represents School Boards
• Standing orders for regulating meetings of the Executive Board of SSBA

As well as looking at future procedures for SSBA the ‘new’ Executive Board are meeting on the 2/3 June to take forward recommendations of the recent Inquiry Report findings.

At a recent meeting with Sam Galbraith, Minister for Children and Education, we brought to his attention the difference in School Board budgets across Scottish education authorities. He has promised to look into the situation and we will let you know if and when we make any progress with regard to getting our recommended School Board budget accepted.

The Accounts were audited by Farries, Kirk and McVean, Chartered Accountants, Castle Street, Dumfries and are enclosed with this report.

Annual Accounts 1999