The constitution for Gartconner Primary School and Nursery Class Parent Council is detailed
below:
1. The objectives of the Parent Council are:
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To work in partnership with the school and nursery to create a welcoming environment
that is inclusive for all parents and carers.
To promote partnership between the school and nursery, its pupils and all its parents
and carers.
To develop and engage in activities which support the education and welfare of the
pupils.
To identify and represent the views of parents on the education provided by the school
and nursery and other matters affecting the education and welfare of the pupils.
Promote contact between Gartconner Primary School and Nursery Class, parents, pupils,
providers of local pre-school and secondary education and the wider community.
To report to, and be representative of, the parent forum. All parents and carers of
children at the school and nursery automatically become members of the parent forum.
2. Membership of the Parent Council shall be as follows:
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A minimum of 4, up to a maximum of 12, members from the Parent Forum.
A maximum of 3 co-opted members from the wider community.
At all times parent members shall have the majority membership of the Parent Council.
The Head-Teacher has a right and a duty to attend all meetings or send an appropriate
representative. The Role of the Head-teacher is to provide advice on the learning and
development of the pupils
A further staff representative will always be welcome to attend.
The opportunity will always exist for a senior member of the Pupil Council to attend
meetings of the parent council, at any time, should the requirement to do so arise
3. Selection of Members for the Parent Council
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Parent members shall be selected for a period of 3 years, after which they may put
themselves forward for re-selection for a further period of 2 years. No parent member
can serve on the Parent Council for any consecutive period exceeding 5 years.
o Parent members who have served a 5-year term must wait 1 year before they
can reapply for membership of the Parent Council
All parents/carers of children at the school or nursery have a right to put themselves
forward for membership of the Parent Council.
o Applications can be made at any time throughout the school year.
o Notice of receipt of applications for membership shall be posted 2 weeks before
any meeting held to confirm selection.
If more applications are received than positions available, including current members
wishing to extend their initial 3-year term, the Parent Council will hold a ballot.
o This can take the form of either a show of hands by all of the parent forum
present at the selection meeting, or if it is the agreed decision of the Parent
Council that there is not a large enough representation of the parent forum at
the selection meeting (normally greater than 10% of the pupil roll), then by
parental ballot via the school. The ballot papers will be issued, returned and the
results announced within 2 weeks of the selection meeting
Co-opted members shall serve for the period of one year only and shall be re-selected to
join if a majority of the Parent Council agree. There is no time limit on service by a coopted member.
4. Office Bearers
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The Parent Council shall have a Chair, Vice-Chair and Clerk, who will be regarded as the
Parent Council Office Bearers.
The option is also reserved to include the roles of Treasurer and Secretary as office
bearers at any point in the future if they become required.
The Chair and Vice-Chair of the Parent Council will be agreed by all members
immediately following its formation. Subsequently all appointments will be selected
during the Annual General Meeting of the Gartconner Primary School and Nursery Class
Parent Council.
The Roles of Chair and Vice-Chair for the Parent Council must be filled by a parent or
carer of a child attending Gartconner Primary School and Nursery Class. If the child
ceases to be a pupil, a new office bearer will be agreed at the next meeting of the Parent
Council.
Office bearers can only serve in that role for a maximum of 3 years. After this point they
are required to stand down from this role, the resigning office bearer is still eligible to
serve the maximum 5 years allowed on the Parent Council.
5. Accountability
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The Parent Council is accountable to the Parent Forum for Gartconner Primary School
and Nursery Class and will make a report to it at least once each year on its activities;
this report will always take place at the Annual General Meeting.
This does not limit the reports to the Parent Forum, the Parent Council will ensure that
all meetings are fully open and accessible to all members of the Parent Forum at all
times
If a minimum of 12 members of the Parent Forum request a special general meeting to
discuss issues falling within the Parent Council remit, the Parent Council shall arrange
this meeting within 3 weeks of the date of application. An agenda and invitation shall be
sent to all members of the Parent Forum with at least 2 weeks notice.
If an appeal by a smaller number of parents is made directly to the Chair, the Chair in
consultation with the Vice-Chair, will act reasonably in considering whether a meeting
shall be arranged. The Parent Council shall give all members of the Parent Forum at least
2 weeks notice of the meeting and, at the same time, circulate notice of the matters to
be discussed at the meeting.
If the Parent Council is required to hold an extra-ordinary special general meeting, then
notification should be supplied to the parents with a minimum of 1 weeks notice, 2
weeks notice will always be preferred.
6. Sub-Committees of the Parent Council
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The Parent Council will at times be required to establish sub-committees to work on
tasks or projects as agreed by the Main Parent Council
Each sub-committee will always follow the standards required of the general
constitution of the Parent Council
If necessary for its operation, a sub-committee may form its own constitution, this must
always
o Defer to the Main Parent Council at all times
o Have a constitution that has been agreed by the majority of the main Parent
Council
o Be open for scrutiny upon request by any member of the Parent Forum, School
staff or East Dunbartonshire Council
o All committees must take minutes of all meetings and present these to the main
Parent Council at the earliest opportunity
7. Annual General Meeting
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The Annual Meeting will be held in September of each year. A notice of the meeting
including date, time and place will be available to all members of the Parent Forum at
least 2 weeks in advance. The meeting will include:
o A report on the work of the Parent Council
o Selection of the Parent Council and Office Bearers
o Any Business the Parent Forum may wish to Raise
o A report from any other Parents Group operating within the school
The Parent Council will take every reasonable step to ensure that all members of the
Parent Forum will have the ability to attend the AGM and that no parent will be
excluded.
The Chair will stand down at the AGM, the meeting will be chaired by the Vice-Chair
until the appointment of a new Chairperson.
All parent members of the Parent Council are eligible to put themselves forward as
Chairperson, with the exception of any member who has served a 3-year term as
Chairperson previously within their 5-year tenure as part of the Parent Council.
If more than one person wishes to fill the role of Chairperson then a ballot shall be called
by the acting chair.
o The election of the chairperson shall take the form of a ballot of all the
members of the Parent Council and Parent Forum Present. The method of ballot
will be at the discretion of the acting Chair, however it shall take the form of
either a show of hands or by written ballot of those currently present.
Upon election, the Chairperson shall immediately resume chairing the meeting. The
Vice-Chair and all other office bearers shall stand down and the selection process
detailed above shall be repeated for all elected office bearers.
Agreement will be sought from the Clerk if they will continue in their role, if the Clerk
stands down, they have a responsibility to ensure that all minutes from the meeting are
completed accurately before it is considered they have fulfilled their duties to office.
The Parent Council shall take all steps to ensure a new Clerk will be available to be
ratified in post at the next meeting of the Parent Council
All parent members, if still eligible, shall confirm at the AGM if they wish to continue as
members of the Parent Council for a further year
8. Meetings / General Meetings / Special Meetings
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The Parent Council will meet a least once in every term. A quorum shall be 3 parent
members. Parent Forum members shall be notified a minimum of 4 weeks in advance of
the date of the meeting, with an invitation sent 2 weeks before the meeting.
Any questions that a member of the Parent Forum wish to raise should be submitted a
minimum of one week in advance of the date of the meeting, if the question has not
been submitted, then the Parent Council reserve the right to postpone this question for
answer at a later date
Should a vote be necessary to make a decision, each Council member at the meeting will
have one vote, with the Chairperson having a casting vote in the event of a tie.
Any two members of the Parent Council can request that an additional meeting be held,
and all members of the Parent Council and the Parent Forum will be given at least 2
weeks notice of the date, time and place of meeting.
It is expected that all Parent Council members conduct themselves in an appropriate
manner showing respect and due consideration towards all present at meetings. If these
expectations are not fulfilled, the chairperson, or their representative, has the right to
call the meeting to order and if necessary either suspend the meeting or ask the
transgressor to leave the meeting if agreed by other members of the Parent Council
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The Head-Teacher and the Clerk will not normally hold voting rights at any meeting of
the Parent Council.
o The Clerk shall only hold voting rights if they are an elected member of the
Parent Council temporarily fulfilling the role of the Clerk.
9. Parent Council Member Expectations
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All Parent Council members are reminded that at all times they are considered
representatives of the Parent Forum of Gartconner Primary School and Nursery Class by
all members of the wider community and are at all times accountable to the Parent
Forum of the school.
If a Parent Council member acts in a way that is considered by other members to have
brought the Parent Council into disrepute; their membership of the Parent Council shall
be terminated. This will happen should the majority of the parent forum agree.
Termination of membership would be confirmed in writing to the member, and a notice
of explanation passed to the Parent Forum.
Parent Council members are expected to make every attempt to attend as many
meetings as possible.
o If a Parent Council member does not attend 2 meetings in a school year without
passing apologies, unless there are extenuating circumstances then their
membership will be considered terminated. The Chair will confirm this in
writing.
o If a Parent Council member does not attend 3 consecutive meetings, regardless
of apologies being passed, unless there are extenuating circumstances then
their membership will be considered terminated. The chair will confirm this in
writing.
Any member of the Parent Forum may bring a complaint regarding the conduct of a
Parent Council Member to the Parent Council by any means possible. This complaint
shall be discussed at a Special General Meeting of the Parent Council that all parents are
welcome to attend.
o All complainants shall be considered confidential, unless it is determined at a
later date that the matters raised are spurious or vexatious.
10. Notes and Minutes
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Copies of the minutes of each meeting will be available to all parents of children at
Gartconner Primary School and Nursery Class and its teaching and support staff. A copy
of the minutes shall also be circulated to East Dunbartonshire Council for record
keeping. The Clerk of the Parent Council will ensure distribution.
These Minutes shall be displayed
o On the Parent Council notice board
o The School Website
o Parent Council Website (if available)
o The Local Library
11. Confidentiality
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It is imperative that the work of the Parent Council is open and transparent; however
there may be occasions where matters of a confidential nature require to be discussed
and in such circumstances it is acceptable for that element of the meeting to be closed
to the Parent Forum.
o Matters relating to issues of a confidential nature should not be recorded in an
‘open’ minute, but should be recorded and retained in a ‘closed’ minute by the
Chairperson and Head Teacher.
o In such circumstances, the ‘closed’ minute should carry an appropriate
protective marking that is agreed with the local authority.
Matters relating to individual teachers, staff and children must not be the subject of
discussion at Parent Council meetings.
There may be questions asked at meetings that it would not be appropriate for the
Head-Teacher or their appointed representative to answer. It is agreed that the HeadTeacher can reserve the right not to answer a question at the open forum; however it is
expected that a reply would be returned by an appropriate medium at the earliest
possible convenience. Confirmation will be made at the next Parent Council Meeting
that this matter had been closed.
Any member of the parent forum who brings a concern or query to the Parent Council
has the right to confidentiality if this matter is discussed in open forum. The parent can
waive that right to confidentiality at any time.
12. Changing the Constitution
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The Parent Council may change its constitution after obtaining consent from the
majority of the Parent Council.
Members of the Parent Forum will be advised of any proposed amendment and given a
minimum of 2 weeks to respond to the proposal.
A copy of the signed constitution shall be kept with the school for safekeeping
Any amendments to the constitution should be communicated to East Dunbartonshire
Council at the earliest opportunity.
13. Disbandment
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Should the Parent Council cease to exist, any remaining funds will be passed to the
education authority to be used for the benefit of Gartconner Primary School and Nursery
Class or its natural successor.