Parent Council news from school year 2016/17

7th June 2017: The latest National Parent Forum of Scotland newsletter is available.

7th June 2017: Responses are requested to the consultation launched by Mark Russell, MSP, for the Proposed Restricted Roads (20mph Limit) (Scotland) Bill in the Scottish Parliament by 7th August 2017. Responses to the consultation can be submitted via the Scottish Parliament’s Smart Survey site at http://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/20mphSpeedLimits/

24th May 2017: Help us Recruit Teachers. Parents can get involved in helping the school to recruit their teachers but to do this you must be trained.  The last Recruitment and Selection Training this term will take place on Tuesday 6 June 2017 from 6pm until 9pm at Liberton High School. If you would like a place on this training course please email us or contact the City of Edinburgh Council directly on parental.engagement@edinburgh.gov.uk

15th May 2017: The next meeting of the South East Locality Group – representatives from primary and secondary schools in JGHS’s neighbourhood – will take place on Wednesday 31 May 2017.  If you have any items you would like raised at the meeting please email us.

14th May 2017: Active Kids vouchers can no longer be collected from Sainsbury’s, but they can still be donated to JGHS until 6 June. Remember, every voucher counts towards brand new equipment. Get the kids to look in the car, on the fridge, under the sofa and in every old shopping bag for any missing vouchers. Then, post them into the collection  box at the school reception as soon as possible, so we can start counting!

14th May 2017: Thank you to all the volunteers and the bakers for your help on Sat 22nd April at the Open Afternoon held by the James Gillespie’s Trust. Your help was much appreciated and all the money raised will go into school funds.

18th April 2017: VOLUNTEERS NEEDED – can you help for an hour or two to sell teas/coffees/snacks on Sat 22nd April 1.30-4pm? The James Gillespie’s Trust is holding an Open Afternoon this Saturday and the Parent Council is providing refreshments.  Baking donations would also be very welcome and can be dropped at school on Saturday morning from 10.30am. Please email us if you can help. Thank you.

18th April 2017: Scotland’s anti-bullying service ‘Respect Me’, based in Glasgow, is offering FREE Online Safety Training designed to increase parents’ and carers’ awareness of bullying and the other risks and challenges children and young people face online. It includes a practical, hands-on session on social media, looking at how to set and manage profiles and privacy settings, to help ensure that children and young people are safe online. For further information and to book a place at their next event on 15 June 2017 email enquiries@respectme.org.uk

28th March 2017: Please see attached letter.docx from the Director of Qualifcations Development at the SQA outlining the impact of the removal of units and unit assessments. For each National 5 course, the changes have resulted in one or more of the following:

extension of the existing question paper
• extension/modification of the existing item of coursework
• a new question paper
• a new item of coursework

27th March 2017: Thank you everyone for collecting Sainsbury’s Active Kids vouchers.  So far you have handed in 3,000 with 5 weeks to go when Sainsbury’s will still be issuing vouchers.  Please keep collecting and filling up the box at the school office and please ask your friends and family to help us reach our 2017 target.  

15th March 2017: City of Edinburgh Council has approved a pilot scheme which will allow residents to apply for up to five, free road closures. The closures will allow children to play and residents to socialise between 1 April to 31 August 2017 on streets free of vehicles. Residents can apply via the Council’s website at playing out.

28th Feb 2017: World book day takes place in the UK on  2nd March and this year we are asking if you would like you to donate a book to the school via our new Amazon Wish List: http://bit.ly/JGHS-wishes.  There are a huge range of books to choose from; every book donated gets a plastic cover to keep it fresh and a label inside to say it was donated to the school by you.  Thank you.

9th Feb 2017: Fantastic opportunity for our pupils – the next ENGAGE event is on 7th March 6.30-8pm at Best Western Braids Hill Hotel – for pupils thinking about what to study, do, be. Expert advice from: Janet Archer, Chief Executive Officer, Creative Scotland. ENGAGE is a Boroughmuir Parent Council Initiative also open to pupils from James Gillespie’s and George Watson’s schools – entry by donation.  More info at Engage Flyer.

8th Feb 2017: An early heads-up that the City of Edinburgh Council’s Parental Engagement Strategy is due to be reviewed this year. The current strategy can be found at Parental Engagement Strategy 2013-2017   Please email us with any thoughts or suggestions for the new strategy.

4th Feb 2017: Scottish Schools Pipe Band Championships takes place at JGHS on Sunday 12th March – a huge celebration of talented young musicians  Come along and support this fantastic event and if you can give an hour of your time to help run our tuckshop please email us.  We hope to turn this into a successful annual fundraiser for our school.   

4th Feb 2017: SAINSBURY’S ACTIVE KIDS VOUCHERS – Last year with your help we collected 3,439 vouchers, which allowed us to buy table tennis, badminton and tennis equipment and marker cones for the PE department, so let’s see if we can do even better this year. A collection box is at the school office now to accept your vouchers.

4th Feb 2017:  The City of Edinburgh Council is consulting on proposals to close Panmure St Ann’s Special School at the end of June 2017. Any remaining pupils on the school roll would be given places at other schools within Edinburgh. Visit http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/panmureconsultation for details of the proposals and to complete online consultation survey which closes 27 Feb 2017. 

10th Jan 2017: Members of parent councils can help their school recruit staff and senior staff.  If you would like to do this you must complete the City of Edinburgh Council training courses.  The next training dates for recruitment of senior staff are  6-9pm Tuesday evenings on: 17 January 2017, 28 February 2017, 25 April 2017 or 6 June 2017 at Liberton High School, 328 Gilmerton Road, Edinburgh EH17 7PT.  Please email us us if you are interested.

10th Jan 2017: Happy new year and welcome back to the new school term.  Our next PC meeting is at the school on 24th Jan 2017 at 7pm. Everyone is welcome.

18th Dec 2016: Funding opportunities update – 

7th Dec 2016: Invitation to secondary pupils to ENGAGE with questions of Career Choice – especially those who might want to do things a little differently and explore unusual routes into work.  Next event 24th January 2016 6.30-8pm at Best Western Braid Hill Hotel with: Avril Mahon, Founder & Director, Women Run Strong; Harris Cains, Business Development Manager, RF Com Ltd; Dr James Howie, Director, ASCUS Art & Science Lab; Mark Kerr, Co-Owner, The Canny Man’s;  Caitlin & Hannah Matheson, Co-Owners, SisCo Hair & Nail Salon. 

Initiative organised by Boroughmuir PC and open to JGHS and George Watson’s schools. Please see attached flyer. £5 per family. Next Engage event 7th March 2016. 

6th Dec 2016: As part of the consultation on the expansion of early learning and childcare in Scotland the Scottish Government wants to hear the views of parents and carers and is running a series of Ministerial engagement events with parents in December.

The Edinburgh event is 6pm – 7.30pm Thursday 15th December.

25th Nov 2016: The SPTC invite you to complete their questionnaire relating to the Scottish Government’s Governance Review at: http://www.sptc.info/education-governance-review-the-sptc-survey/

The Parent Council’s draft response to this questionnaire is available for review. Please submit any comments or questions to jghscouncilcomms@gmail.com 

25th Nov 2016: The next City of Edinburgh Council Recruitment & Selection Training will take place on Tuesday 6 December at Liberton High School from 6pm.  If interested please email JGHS PC.

27th Oct 2016: The Scottish Government has initiated a review of the governance of Scottish education. The review starts from the presumption that decisions about individual children’s learning and school life should be taken at school level. It will consider the system changes required to: empower schools, decentralise management, establish school clusters and create new educational regions. The review document is available from: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/09/1251/downloads

9th Oct 2016: EASYFUNDRAISING – RAISE MONEY FOR JGHS WHEN SHOPPING ONLINE. Do you ever shop online? JGHS Parent Council is registered with Easyfundraising so that every time you shop online you can raise funds for the school AT NO COST TO YOU.  You can access over 2,700 well known retailers including John Lewis, M&S, Boden, iTunes, Sainsbury’s and loads of insurance, travel and service companies through Easyfundraising, and they will donate a small percentage of what you spend to JGHS to say thank you for shopping with them. 

It’s a really simple process, all you have to do is go to http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/JGHSparentcouncil register as a supporter the first time, and then get shopping. Then always remember to go to the Easyfundraising website first and click to your chosen retailer from there. Bookmark it, save it to your desktop or install the optional “Find and Remind” facility to give you a prompt. So far in 2016 we have raised £437 through Easyfundraising and we currently have only 101 supporters. So please sign up and click through to help the school. 

7th Oct 2016: Bòrd na Gàidhlig is now consulting on Draft Statutory Guidance on Gaelic Education. This covers issues such as: A clear process for requesting GME; Expectations of local authorities and other agencies as part of this process; Recruitment of teachers; Availability of Gaelic materials and resources; GME at secondary; Additional support needs for GME; Available funding for education authorities for GME; Support for families in GME. Parents of GME pupils are encouraged to complete the survey here26th Sept 2016: Just a reminder that the National Parent Forum of Scotland survey for the Review of the Scottish Schools Parental Involvement Act 2006 has a CLOSING DATE of 6th NOVEMBER 2016.

21st Sept 2016: The Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills has launched ‘Empowering teachers, parents and communities to achieve Excellence and Equity – A governance review’. Please find attached this link to the review on the Scottish Government website. The review will run until 6 January 2017.  People are encouraged to respond to the review in writing or attend one of several engagement events to be held across Scotland.

For more information about planned events, or to find out how to submit your views, visit : http://www.gov.scot/educationgovernancereview

14th Sept 2016: The National Parent Forum of Scotland are running a survey of parents’ opinion on the impact, successes and shortfalls of the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006. This includes looking at how well schools involve parents in what they do, and finding ideas to develop ways to better involve parents in the life and work of their schools. We would encourage parents to take part.

10th Sept 2016: Pupils in S3-6 are invited to an Engage event on 28th September 2016, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., Best Western Bruntsfield Hotel. This first event will cover Exam Subjects, Career Choice & Female Leadership in Scotland (boys welcome too). The plan is to hold one of these per term on different topics, jointly with Boroughmuir and George Watson’s schools. Please see attached flyer. Small charge of £5 per family to cover venue and refreshments.

7th Sept 2016: Many S6 parents attended a very useful session last week on preparing Personal Statements and applications for further education. The slides from the session are now available here.

26th August 2016: * PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF DATE* An S1 parent has suggested a Mega Picnic for new S1s on the Meadows (next to the playground and tennis courts – between Boroughloch walk and Townswomen’s Guild walk) on Sunday 4th September at 2 pm. Bring your family, siblings, dogs and grannies, bring your own food and drinks, and feel free to share. (Will be cancelled if raining). We hope this will help our youngsters-almost-teenagers to settle and make new friends sooner. This is also a great opportunity for us to meet each other, make “connections” and discuss different aspects of education, after school activities, sports, culinary arts, etc. 17th August 2016: Welcome back to our new school year, and a special welcome to new families joining us this year. To join our mailing list, please email us.