In August, as most of you will know, the School Board ceased to exist and has been replaced by the Parent Council. The Scottish Executive (as was) wanted to modernise and strengthen the links between parents and schools and to increase parental involvement in their children's education. Of course we have fully supported this and have made the changes required of us. However, one good thing about this new approach is that it allows us to be flexible and to put in place the structures, committees and groups which suit us best. So although we had to wind up the Broughton Association as part of this, we have kept the name to cover the fundraising side of the Parent Council activities. The Council will continue to help with the management of the school in a similar way to before and also intend as a priority to find ways to improve communication between the parents and the school - and the school with the parents.

We want the Council to include parent members to cover every year in the school, and we still have some places available. We also want more parents to help by getting involved in fundraising, for instance, and if you have any skills, knowledge and experience that you think would be useful then please get in touch. The first AGM of the new Parent Council is on 14 November and everyone is very welcome to come along.

We want to make parental involvement a reality - not just because the Government have told us to - and this will work best if as many of us as possible get involved!

Geoff Brown, Chairman.