Over the past 5-6 weeks, the Parent Council has held both a Quiz Night and a Ceilidh and along with the parents, carers, teachers and children who attended, a lot of fun was had and we also managed to raise funds towards the P1 playground developments (from the Quiz Night) and start building some funds towards development work in the other playgrounds.

The Quiz Night raise £215 and the Ceilidh raised £250, in both instances these were the profits after outgoings, such as hall hire (and the Burgh Halls is ridiculously expensive!), band hire, etc.

A special thanks to the helpers and everyone who came along, contributed food, tombola and raffle prizes, helped sell raffle tickets, helped clear up, do ‘crowd control’ etc. Your contributions are greatly appreciated as always.

Additionally, another special thanks goes to Innis at Basta Pizza, for contributing a bumper gift voucher for the raffle. This is a great example of local businesses supporting their local community and, as such, they deserve plenty of patronage from the local community.

Additionally, the Mums on the Run had another very successful Bake Off and Book Sale, raising £307 towards the P7 leaver celebrations. I’m reliably informed that the kids seemed to have a good time, and the parents particularly enjoyed seeing them singing along to Rick Astley and finishing off the proceedings with an Icelandic thunderclap. A big thank you to Marco at Pizza Magic for his generosity in giving the organisers a great deal on the pizzas for the night. Another great example of community spirit and support from the West End pizza-making community!

For putting in the hard work on the improvement to the P1 playground, a special thanks goes out to everyone, including the student volunteers from Glasgow Clyde College. It’s looking so much better and hopefully we can get some more parent and carer volunteers coming forward to help continue this work on the P1 playground and the other playgrounds.

The P7s had their leavers disco on Thursday 22 June. Over 45 kids danced the night away to DJ Billy and his high energy tunes. A great time was had by all. At the end of the evening they were all presented with their leavers gifts, which included a T-shirt, yearbook and scientific calculator.

Thank you to the Parent Council for their contributions to the event, which included covering the cost of the DJ and the calculators.

On Friday 2 June the Parent Council held our usual Spring Ceilidh (for the second time at Hyndland Community Hall), which was as ever a lot of fun for parents and children alike, and is also a great fundraiser for the school.

The event was organised by Nadia Miller who did a fantastic job preparing for it and also on the night. Thanks also to Alan Bonnyman and Graham and Ashley MacFarlane, along with Nadia, for sourcing raffle prizes. Thanks very much folks!

Special thanks should also go to the following people for helping out on the night through – variously – obtaining additional raffle prizes, selling raffle and tombola tickets, taking admission fees, setting up the good, setting up and clearing up, etc.

Further special thanks are also due to the following people and/or businesses who generously donated raffle prizes: Amber and Black, Conor from Cafe Source Too, Hely Hair Studio, David and Cathy Kinnear at Hyndland Bookshop, Hyndland Fox, Ikea, James Allan Butcher, Pampas, Roscoe’s Deli, Sainsbury’s Novar Drive, Soulspace, Station Flowers, and The Yellow Shop; and also to Jamie Smith and his ceilidh band for their excellent performance (and for Jamie kindly waiving his own share of the band fee).

On the night we took £633.20, of which £250.20 was profit after the hall hire, band costs and food and soft drinks were taken into account. This is an excellent contribution to the work the Parent Council does to support the school.

Thank you to all of you who were involved in any way!

On Friday 2 December the Parent Council held our usual Autumn Ceilidh, which was a couple of weeks later than usual due to a combination of the new venue’s availability and also that of the ceilidh band.

However, while the turnout wasn’t as good as usual – which we think was largely down to its closeness to the Christmas holidays and clashes with parents’ staff Christmas nights out – it was as ever a lot of fun for children and parents and carers alike and is a great fundraiser for the Parent Council to help the school.

The event was organised by Nadia Miller and Wendy Jordan – thank you both for a great job! Special thanks also go to the many people helping out on the night through a large array of tasks,  everyone who brought food, raffle and tombola prizes, and all of the parents and carers, teachers and children who attended.

This was the first time that we used Hyndland Community Hall as a venue instead of Partick Burgh Halls. Although smaller, the hall does take up to about 150 people (according to the convenor) and I think that we probably had around 70-80 in the night, though perhaps I might need to work on my numeracy skills!

Using this venue and a BYOB approach was a bit of an experiment, but the hall hire was £350 cheaper and, all things considered, we think it went well and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves!

On the night we took £581.45, of which £196.45 was profit after the hall hire, band costs and soft drinks were taken into account.

This is an excellent contribution to the work the Parent Council does to support the school. Thank you to all of you who were involved in any way!

It was with a tear in the eye and a lump in the throat that in Partick Bowling Club on Friday 26th August we said goodbye to one of Hyndland Primary School’s oldest relics, I mean much loved jannies, Janny Joe Cameron.

Joe was at Hyndland Primary School 21 years, man and, well, older man!

There was a fantastic turnout of staff, former staff, current and former parents of the school, as well as – probably most tellingly – pupils past and present.

On they day – and I believe well into the night for some! – ‘the Janny’ had more hugs than a newborn baby and more kisses than a Glasgow Fair weekender on Blackpool Beach with a ‘Kiss me quick’ hat on!

While asking that we “celebrate the life of Joe”, one particularly astute punter reminded the Parent Council Chair that “he wasn’t dead yet!”. The hapless Chair had meant to add “…at the school”, but the free-flowing beverages had clearly impaired both his speech and thought processes somewhat. Joe’s were somewhat more impaired than that by the time he had left the building!

It was both a sad occasion in that we were saying goodbye to Joe as the school Janny, but it was a lovely opportunity for all of his colleagues and friends that he’d made during those 21 years to share the day with him.

Good luck Janny Joe Cameron – Friend! Colleague! Legend! And very much alive!

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Parent Council collection for Joe, which raised just under £400 (meal vouchers, fine rum and a brown envelope stuffed with…); those who gave him cards and gifts directly (of which there were many); and all those who turned up on the afternoon and into the early evening. Thanks also to the Headteacher Helen Brown and her colleagues for arranging the event and providing refreshments for all.

Joe asked the Parent Council to pass on his sincere and heartfelt thanks for all of the gifts, cards, hugs, kisses, kind words and support. He said that he has been overwhelmed.

A huge thanks to the 15 or so parents and children who attended the summer working bee with great success; bringing tools, enthusiasm, ideas and food to keep us all going. A great achievement in one day and a testament to how working together can achieve great things and as one of the parents said on the day:

“It is a great lesson to teach the children, about working together and seeing the difference it can make.”

From the raising of the funds through the ‘Pennies for Playgrounds’ to the getting the job done on the day it was very successful.

One of the two leads on this great project, Sarah Frood, Director of Icecream Architecture and HPS parent, said that she would be happy to work with other parents if they want to do a similar thing in other playgrounds. Sarah can be contacted at: sarah@icecreamarchitecture.com

Thanks again to everyone who helped out on the day – a note wasn’t made of everyone’s names, sorry – you know who you are! A very special thanks goes to Sarah and Kate for organising this, and particularly to Kate who continued co-leading the project even though she had in effect moved on from the school.

This project shows the innovative ways in, and the extent to, which parents are prepared to help improve the learning and social experiences for the children (and parents) at the school.

On Friday 20 May the Parent Council held our usual Spring Ceilidh, which – some obnoxious behaviour to parents and children from one of the Burgh Halls staff aside – was as ever a lot of fun for parents and children alike, and is also a great fundraiser for the school.

The event was organised by Wendy Jordan who did a fantastic job preparing for it – including obtaining some great prizes for the parents’ raffle – and also on the night. Thanks very much Wendy!

Special thanks should also go to everyone helping out on the night through selling raffle and tombola tickets, taking admission fees and with food, etc. Thanks also to everyone who brought food, raffle and tombola prizes, and to all of the children and their parents and carers who attended and had their purses and wallets emptied by their children from the moment they paid their entrance fee to the moment that the last raffle and tombola tickets were sold.

Further special thanks are also due to the following people and/or businesses who generously donated raffle prizes: Tribeca Group for the gift vouchers for Tribeca, Usha’s, Roasters and Smoak; Alison Mussett for securing the tickets to the Museum of Flight and Rio Cafe – and also, of course, to the Museum of Flight and Rio Cafe; the Wheatley Group for donating lots of napkins, cups and paper plates, the money box and letting Wendy print stuff out at work; and the ceilidh band for their excellent performance.

On the night we took £1,023.95, of which £439.75 was profit after the hall hire and band costs were taken into account. This is an excellent contribution to the work the Parent Council does to support the school.

Thank you to all of you who were involved in any way!