Author: hilarysnaith

Free half-term activities for families in Edinburgh

14 October 2022: The City of Edinburgh Council 1 in 5 project, which seeks to raise awareness of child poverty across the city, has just published its 2nd newsletter.

In this edition there is information about free family activities happening through out October, including storytelling, bug hunting, and the Big Draw.

Read all the details in the newsletter:

1 in 5 newsletter, October 2022

About the newsletter

The 1 in 5 Newsletter supports the work of the Equity Board and Equity Network groups, and aims to:

  • Bring together information on services that education and lifelong learning services can link with to support families experiencing poverty.
  • Provide updates and reminders about welfare benefits and grants available to families, resources and staff CPD
  • Share case studies and top tips across schools and services of good practise in poverty prevention.

JGHS Parent Council annual reports and AGM

Updated 7 October 2022: The Annual General Meeting of the James Gillespies High School Parent Council will be held on Wednesday 12 October at 7 pm in the school library. All parents and carers are most warmly invited to join with us.

This will be an opportunity to review the activities of the past year, appoint office bearers, and to welcome new members.

Meeting agenda

  1. Welcome
  2. Updates from previous Parent Council meeting
    • Headteacher recruitment
    • Council engagement
    • Donald J. Macdonald prize
    • School events
    • Rising rolls
    • Arrangements for future PC meetings
  3. Chair’s Report
  4. Finance Report
  5. Election of Parent Council and Office Bearers
  6. Headteacher’s Report
  7. AOCB
  8. Date of next meeting:  29 November 2022 (online)

Annual reports

The 2021/22 Annual Report from the Chair of the JGHS Parent Council, Sarah Scott, is now available, as well as the Annual Accounts and Treasurer’s Report prepared by the Treasurer Ros Ingle:

Annual Report 2021/22

Annual Accounts 2021/22

Treasurer’s report 2021/22

Information about the applications submitted to the Small Sums Fund over the past year, and details of the allocations awarded are also available:

Small Sums Fund

Join the Parent Council

If you are interested in joining the Parent Council, please get in touch with us by email before the AGM, or simply let us know on the night:

Email the Parent Council

Training opportunity: Making work work

6 October 2022: Are you looking to return to work after a career break?

Making Work Work – for Women Returners is the Challenges Group’s women returners programme. It is a free online Skills Development Scotland-funded course for women returners looking to get back into paid work after career break.

Find out more and register to attend on the Challenges Group website

About The Programme  

The programme seeks women in Scotland looking to step back into the workplace and who face difficulties in finding work that fits with all the commitments and fun of life following a career break (e.g. for maternity, caring, health issues / disability, redundancy, relocation or other reasons).  

We are looking for women who have management experience or aspirations from across Scotland to take part in a peer-led skills refresher programme which will facilitate the confidence and networks essential to finding work commensurate with their skills, ambitions and potential.  

Don’t worry if you have not had management experience – this will not exclude you from the programme. However, you need to be willing to learn about management and leadership skills – either for your next role or a future one.  

Participants also get support with their job search, personal development and designing their (work)life blend.  

Support from the Small Sums Fund enhances SfL space

2 October 2022: Every year the Parent Council’s Small Sums Fund provides additional resources to support and enhance the experience of youngsters in the school and in extra-curricular activities, in areas where funding is not provided by the City of Edinburgh Council.

The JGHS Parent Council Small Sums Fund is open to staff, pupils and anyone connected to
the school to bid for funding.

About the Small Sums Fund

Support for Learning classroom

This year we were delighted to provide support for a range of different activities, include funds to help fit out the Support for Learning classroom in Bruntsfield House.

Mr Cockcroft, Support for Learning Leader, said:

As you know, we moved into a large, empty room in Bruntsfield House last year. We spent the money on making the room more welcoming for the students who access it and bought soft furnishings, plants, cabinets to display pupils’ work and lots of picture frames.

We held a small art exhibition in July of the work of the students who access SfL and invited their parents in to see this. It was a great success and something we plan to replicate this year. Thanks again for the money we received.

Some photos of the new classroom are shown below.

Other projects

More information about projects supported by the Small Sums Fund is available at the link below

JGHS Parent Council Small Sums Fund

Parent Council Resource from Education Scotland

29 September 2022: Education Scotland has published an updated version of the Parent Council Resource. This is a guide for parents working in partnership with schools and the wider community to welcome all parents, gather their views and report back to parents.

The information is now live on Parentzone Scotland website

Parentzone Scotland

You can also access the details via the pdf linked below:

Parent Council Resource

Consultation on Local Police Plan

21 September 2022: Edinburgh Police Division are developing local policing priorities for 2023 to 2026.  A forward looking Local Police Plan will be published in April 2023.

The views of the local community are fundamental to ensure their priorities align with local needs.

They are inviting the community to contribute to development of the Local Police Plan by completing the “Your Police 2022-2023” survey.  They are keen to get as many opinions as possible, so please consider adding your input.

Your Police 2022-2023 – Police Scotland – Citizen Space

If you have further questions you can contact the South East Community Policing Team by email or visit their website:

Email Community Policing Team

South East Community Policing Team

Latest newsletter from Connect now out

11 September 2022: Connect, the body supporting Parent/School interactions, has just published its September newsletter. This edition includes a wide variety of issues including:

  • Connect’s Parent/Carer Survey on School Uniforms
  • Booking details for the lively autumn schedule of  Connect’s online Information Sessions for Members
  • Connect’s consultation submission on the next Mental Health Strategy
  • A head’s-up about Connect’s AGM plus information on becoming a volunteer Director
  • Scottish Qualifications – the Hayward Review
  • The latest education updates

Read Connect’s September 2022 newsletter here

More about Connect on their website

Recording of Parent Council meeting on 6 September now available

Updated 15 September 2022: Many thanks to those who were able to attend the meeting of the Parent Council on Tuesday 6 September 2022. It was a packed agenda and a wide range of issues were addressed:

  • PC report and update on Head Teacher recruitment – Sarah Scott, Chair JGHS Parent Council
  • Head Teacher report – Neil McCallum, Acting Head Teacher
  • Christmas Concert 2022 – Mairi McLennan, Curriculum Lead for Performing Arts
  • Active Schools – Eliot Ambrose, Active Schools Coordinator for JGHS
  • Darroch Refurbishment – Laura Stewart, Deputy Head Teacher
  • Q&A

Listen again

If you would like to listen back to any sections of the meeting, the recording of the meeting is now available on YouTube:

Listen to the JGHS Parent Council meeting 6 September 2022

Darroch refurbishment

The slides from Laura Stewart’s presentation about the refurbishment of the Darroch Annex and use of the space planned can be accessed below:

Darroch Refurbishment

If you have any questions that were not answered during the meeting, please contact the Parent Council and we will follow them up:

Email the Parent Council

Date of next meeting

The next meeting of the Parent Council will be on Wednesday 12 October.

This meeting will be our AGM, and will be held in-person in the School for the first time in over 2 and a half years. We very much hope that you will be able to join us.

Agenda for Parent Council meeting on 6 September

2 September 2022: The first Parent Council meeting of this session will be held on Tuesday 6 September at 7 pm, and all parents and carers are most warmly invited to attend. This meeting will be held online using MS Teams, and the joining link will be circulated by email by the School next week.

The provisional agenda for the meeting is:

  • PC report and update on Head Teacher recruitment – Sarah Scott, Chair JGHS Parent Council
  • Head Teacher report – Neil McCallum, Acting Head Teacher
  • Christmas Concert 2022 – Mairi McLennan, Curriculum Lead for Performing Arts
  • Active Schools – Eliot Ambrose, Active Schools Coordinator for JGHS
  • Darroch Refurbishment – Laura Stewart, Deputy Head Teacher
  • Q&A

If there are particular issues or queries that you would like raised during the meeting, please send these to us by email:

Email the Parent Council

Please note that there will no written Q&A after the meeting. Please emphasise any question you are interested in by using the “like” function in the Q&A panel to help us get through all business during the meeting.