26 Jan Minutes of CF Committee Meeting – 25 January 2019
Attendees from the Committee and School:
Elizabeth Mackie (Chair), Leon Choueke (Head), Mel Solomou, Lorraine Gerrard (Chair of Governors), Louise Foulkes , Andy Day, Sarah Wiley, Georgia Norton, Emma Grove
Also present: Fran Kellett, Tilly Cowan,
Committee members not present: Nikki McNamara (Class Rep Coordinator), Kit Bhatti, Helene Fauquet, Alan Midgley, Francesca Iannaccone, Peter Salerno, Morinade Akinbobola, Eva Gonzalez, Katie Colton, Lucy Davies, Susie Cottee, Ana-Maria Volaric, Nora Ghanem, Claire Wright, Sam Scott, Andrea Voros, Suz Cocksedge , Challe Hudson
Plastic Free Coleridge Project
Fran Kellett gave some background to the plastic free Coleridge project being run in conjunction with Laura Bosworth and the children’s plastic free team. The aim was to make the school single use plastic free particularly in the areas of packaging and bottles. Various activities had been run already like plastic fishing in the Thames.
The first step had been the purchase of the 6 new water fountains which unfortunately had not yet been installed. The project was now moving on to replacing single use plastic bottles by offering branded stainless steel water bottles for sale. A poll had been taken of parents and also of pupils. The results had shown the following:
- 275 children responded and said they wanted the bottles
- 217 children wanted the branding to be by colour stream
- 140 parents had responded
- 130 parents already had reusable bottles
- 107 would buy a stainless steel bottle
- 93 parents said the intended price point £10-12 was acceptable.
The project team would now investigate further the process for ordering the bottles and how to sell them. LC also agreed to chase up the installation of the water fountains.
Clean Air Project
Tilly Cowan reported on the first meeting of Clean Air Coleridge, a small group of parents focused on improving air quality for the children in school. The main focuses of the group at the moment are:
- Installing a “Green wall” on the East side particularly at the frontage onto Crouch End Hill
- Promoting no driving to school
- Anti-idling
- Diverting London Concrete lorries away from school at peak times
- Potentially different entrances away from the main roads
Various suggestions were made in the meeting to assist in the project’s aims:
- A survey of the number cars driving to school and idling vehicles to give us a base line against which to measure the success of the campaign
- Spider plants and other indoor plants for the classrooms
- contact the school marketing team to talk to them about posters and the campaign
- shout out to parents who can help with our endeavours. once we have a clear sense of what we’re aiming for, for instance, Y5 parent owns a landscape gardening company- to see
- what help we can get for free
- linking -up with the playgrounds project
Playgrounds Project
Work on the research and development of the design brief had started with Tipping Point Network. This element was funded by CF. Discussions were also ongoing with Haringey Council. The aim was to prepare a complete brief which could be phased which could then assist with potential grant applications and other matched funding requests. Work was being undertaken with groups of children and staff and there would be also be an opportunity for parent involvement. Debs Kuypers also confirmed that the governors had sought quotes had been sought for aspects of the work necessary to create proper disabled access on the West Side and also to bring some of the closed off areas back into use.
Funding and Spending
There is a significant balance (less committed expenses & reserves) of nearly £106,000 – this is predominantly earmarked for the Grounds project. The earmarked funds for the grounds from the two Summer Fairs and the Cycle Ride were around £55k.
Events and Inclusion
Fireworks had been a success having moved to a combination of a Committee plus year groups events like Summer Fair. The Bazaar had also been successful although as usual there had been some confusion about its format particularly for newer parents. Silent Disco was on the way and then the Quiz. The kids’ movie nights proposal was going to get off the ground with an event for Year 5 run by Emma Grove.
There was discussion about how information was given to parents and the various sources; school, class teachers, year groups, reps and CF all could lead to information overload particularly for new parents. The marketing group was working on strategies for the school and Georgia would link in with CF to discuss how to work together on this.
The meeting ended at 10.30. The next meeting is on Tuesday 12 March at 9am.
Elizabeth Mackie February 2019