Parent Council

Welcome to Balerno High School Parent Council

This is where you can find out about our work on behalf of parents and carers of Balerno High School students and keep in touch with issues and developments affecting your child(ren) in secondary education.

The Parent Council has had its own website in the past. However, redevelopment of the school site has presented the opportunity to bring the two organisations together into one place. We hope that you will find this new arrangement convenient.

If you want to get in touch with the Parent Council you can do that through Facebook or Twitter, or you can e-mail us at balernohspc@gmail.com

What are Parent Councils?

The Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006 gave parents the right to receive information about their children’s education as well as to be represented by Parent Councils. The act recognises that parents have a vital role to play in their children’s education and so aims to make it easier for parents to become involved with their school.

A Parent Council is a group of parents who represent all the parents and carers of students at a school. It is established by a school’s Parent Forum. All parents and carers at a school are automatically members of the Parent Forum.

A Parent Council can have the head teacher of the school, other teaching and/or community staff and senior students as members. It can also co-opt members from the local community.

What does the Parent Council do?

The main aim of the Parent Council is to provide the link between all parents and carers and their children and the school’s management, teaching and support staff. You can discover more about Balerno High School Parent Council’s objectives by reading our updated constitution (reviewed & approved at the Parent Council AGM, September 2017). You can also see the kind of topics covered at our meetings here.

If there are any questions or concerns you have about the school, we can help to direct you to the correct channels. We are always happy to hear from you. You can contact us through Facebook and Twitter and you can e-mail us at balernohspc@gmail.com

Parent Council members

Parent Council Members represent all the parents and carers of students at the school. We welcome anyone who wishes to join us. What brings us together is a wish to make a difference and to help all students at Balerno High School to get the most out of their time at school.

The make-up of the Parent Council is defined in our constitution In summary:

  • no less than 4 parents or carers
  • the Head Teacher or their nominated representative in an advisory capacity
  • up to 2 additional members of Balerno High School teaching staff
  • a representative of the PSA
  • up to 3 representatives from feeder primary schools
  • up to 2 co-opted members representing the local community

In addition, the Parent Council will invite the school’s head boy and head girl, and elected members of the local authority, to attend and participate in meetings.

For the 2021/22 session,  members of the Parent Council are:

  • Alison Robertson, Chair
  • Andrea Brewster
  • Nanda Groenewald
  • Mandy Irvine
  • Trish Lumsden, Treasurer
  • Alastair MacLennan, Vice Chair
  • Elaine MacMaster
  • Nick Weir
  • Adrienne Wilson
  • Marion Milne (Balerno Community Council co-opted member)

Useful links

This is a selection of links to relevant external websites. It’s by no means a comprehensive list but covers some sites that you might find useful. If you’re aware of a site that could be added to this list then please let us know.

** New addition ** The Balerno High School Maths Department website has help and information for pupils and parents – timelines, calendars for revision and improvement, links to past papers, practice papers, worksheets and resources for self-evaluation.

Enquire – Enquire is the Scottish advice service for additional support for learning.

Parentzone – Information about education in Scotland for parents of children aged 3 to 18, including ideas on how to support your child’s learning.

Scottish Government Schools – Latest information on Schools policy from the Scottish Government

National Parent Forum of Scotland – represents parent opinions at a national level

Scottish Parent Teacher Council – The Scottish Parent Teacher Council is the national organisation for parents’ groups in Scottish schools

Scottish Qualifications Authority – Information about Nat 5, Highers and other national qualifications. Includes links to Past Papers.

Khan Academy – a source of free educational material