PTA

Parent Teacher Association

 

Children are more likely to thrive when there is a close relationship between home and school. Every Class in the School is composed of children who come together daily from a wide variety of families, homes and cultural and religious backgrounds. What we experience as a group is the Steiner Waldorf curriculum, as interpreted and presented to the pupils by their teachers.

Current PTA Initiatives

 

The PTA are focussing on two key projects over the coming months, identified as vitally important to enhancing the School:

 

New Parents and Access to University

PTA Committee

Laura Whyte

PTA Co Chair

Laura, the former CMIG Chair and parent of a Class 7 pupil, joined the school in 2020. She brings a wealth of organizational and communication skills to her role as Co-Chair thanks to her background as a research project manager, maths teacher, and science educator. She is a staunch advocate for empowering parents to help their kids engage online safely and for increasing volunteering across the school.

Julie Angelosanto

Secretary

Parent to a Lower School pupil and Class 3 Convenor, Julie has kindly taken on the role of Secretary for the PTA. She joined the PTA Committee formally in January.

Fiona Moore

Committee Member 

Fiona’s children are in Classes 8 & 6. She has been a parent of the school for over a decade (holding the wealth of knowledge of organising the Christmas Market). She joined ESS staff in 2023 as the After School Club Leader

Nick Brett

Committee Member

Nick has been a long-time teacher of the School, is a member of Management and was recently appointed Interim Head of School.

Lindsay McQuade

Committee Member

Lindsay’s son joined Middle School (Class 8) in 2022, coming from a parent-led school.

Peter Sheen

Committee Member

Peter Sheen is the Movement Education/PE Teacher at ESS and has been instrumental in setting up the popular Circus Arts and other Extra Curricular Clubs. His daughter graduated from ESS in 2019, and his son is a current Class 12 pupil.

Deirdre Hill

Committee Member 

Deirdre has a decade of PTA experience as a former parent. She is also a long-serving teacher in the Upper School. She has taught Anthroposophical Studies on the Teacher Training Course; is on the School’s Festival Group and a member of the College of Teachers.

PTA Member

 

All parents and/or carers of pupils and teachers attending the School  are automatically a PTA Member.

 

It is recognised that parental / carer participation in the educational process at ESS is foremost through supporting your child’s learning at home, which looks at education from a different standpoint to mainstream schools. We have only to look back to our own childhood to recall the important part that home life played in our own growth and development.

 

A well-directed Parent Teacher Association can strengthen the spirit of what makes this approach to education critically relevant in instilling a lifelong curiosity for learning, whilst equipping them to meet the ever-increasing array of social, political, economical and natural challenges.

 

Joining the PTA is one of the many ways parents are an engaged part of the school community. Other areas include being part of a PTA Working Group (such as the Friday Market, Extra Curricular Clubs), Trip volunteer, member of the Board of Trustees, contributing to the parent-led Christmas Market (the School’s largest annual fundraiser) and sitting on the Christmas Market Investment Group

 

The PTA meet monthly, with the Minutes of each meeting made available to the wider PTA members (i.e. all parents / carers of enrolled pupils) here once approved. (Read here). Contact: pta@edinburghsteinerschool.org.uk

NEXT MONDAY MEETING:
4.30pm – 6pm, in the School Library
2nd September
7th Oct
4th Nov
2nd Dec
13th Jan
3rd Feb
3rd Mar
24th March
5th May
2nd June
30th June
Want to join?