Hello and from all on the Parent Council we hope that you all had a great holiday and a belated Happy New Year to everyone!

There’s a lot of activity going on at the moment at the school, which you will have been updated about in the school newsletter.

We’re looking forward to seeing how the school evolves as the builders work their way through the refurbishment and just hope that the work on the roof will finally put to rest the water ingress problems that have plagued the school for years. It would be a shame if the lovely new decor is ruined with water damage!

Some members of the Parent Council have been invited to look at other Glasgow schools that have either had 4Rs work completed or which is further along than at Hyndland. So, once we’ve seen these schools next month we can report back on what we would hope to see as an indication of major improvement on the current internal fabric of the school.

Well done to Ms Brown for setting out her stall and persuading Glasgow City Council to allow the school to choose more educationally friendly colours for the internal paintwork than battleship grey!

Also, Glasgow City Council are finally looking to address the traffic issue around the school, though this is part of a wider traffic calming/management plan, with the consultation to be published imminently. The sneak preview that staff from Road Safety gave us at the Parent Council meeting on 20 January included both a partial one-way system on Fortrose Street and speed bumps, along with – wait for it – metered or resident permit parking bays, with a small drop off zone near the front of the school. This is part of a major management plan across the West End extending throughout Partick and Partickhill. The consultation is supposed to be launched early this month, so we will update on the details as soon as we are aware of its publication. As the principal aim for us is to improve health and safety around the school, the draft proposals are to be largely welcomed, but we did raise some initial concerns with Road Safety regarding the extent of the proposals and whether our lobbying for this might get sidelined by perhaps understandably resistant responses to the parking meters/permits. The Parent Council will agree a response to the consultation and circulate it to all parents at the school, as well as encourage everyone to respond to it.

There is a Parent Council Quiz Night organised by our own Mums on the Run coming up at Partick Bowling Club on Friday 4 March from 7.30pm, which we would urge you to attend, both in terms of it being a great laugh where prizes can be won, as well as raising much-needed funds for the school; in this case, buddy caps. Please come along and support us in supporting the school.

Please come along to the Parent Council meetings – the next of which is on Wednesday 24 February at 7pm – and contact me or any of your Parent Council reps if you have any queries or questions that you’d like to discuss. The Parent Council email address is: enquiries@hyndlandprimaryparentcouncil.org

Best wishes,

John Lewis
Chair, Hyndland Primary School Parent Council