Minutes of the MASSEA meeting at Saltwells PDC on 27^th June 2006-10-03

Present: Ben Amin, Imtiaz Bhatti, Christine Herrick, Esther Holmes, Sandra Howard, Mohammad Iqbal, Jane Lambert, Helen Law, Sandy Nott, Jean Panniker, Anne Ratcliff, Gill Rathbone, Stuart Scott, Bob Warren, Marian Woolton

Apologies from Sarah Lee, Liz Allsop and Steve Cooke

My apologies for the lateness of these minutes. I have included any action taken in the time you have been waiting for them. If there are any omissions, please let me know and I will correct them before the next meeting. My notes, which would have been adequate if I had used them quickly, have now become more difficult to understand!

Finances: Currently there is £478.26 in the bank. There is a need to regularize the account. BW agreed to be treasurer. We also agreed to invoice every LA electronically for £20.

Website: SS agreed to investigate a website. This has been done: to set up a site with RM will cost at the moment approx £100 and a subsequent yearly payment of £50. At the moment the domain name ≥massea.org.uk≤ is available. In the meantime SS has set up a temporary site on the back of collaborative learning at:

www.collaborativelearning.org/massea.html

where you will find these minutes

EMA briefing: there was general disappointment that this has not taken place. It did in fact take place later, on 25^th July. SS and SC attended and made notes which are attached to these minutes

Many EMA initiatives: discussion took place around the focus and direction of the many different strategy and DfES initiatives taking place in different LAs. Colleagues in LAs where nothing of this kind is taking place felt they were not getting enough information about the progress of this work. In some cases e.g. MEAP newsletters were not available electronically. Did we suggest that we compiled information from colleagues who were involved and then circulate it???

PLASC information on languages: its collection is not likely to be made compulsory, and a lot of training will be required on language categorisation.

Next meeting: Wednesday, 1^st November at 1.30 in Solihull.