Intercultural Youth Scotland

A+ Group to continue at JGHS for 2023-24

17 November 2023: The A+Group supporting pupils of colour and their families at JGHS has just received funding from the JGHS Trust for the 2023-24 session. The group will meet on Zoom throughout the year, and the new meeting dates will be shared with parents and carers very soon.

Read the 2023 report from the A+ Group about their activities – August 2023

The A+ Group has also shared information about a number of other activities around anti-racism and equality in which parents may also like to be invovled.

City of Edinburgh Council Parent Equalities Reference group

Edinburgh Council Parent Equalities Reference group is looking for inputs from any Parents/Carers who would like to have a direct say in the City of Edinburgh Council’s Schooling & Equalities work.

They particularly welcome parents and carers from under-represented groups.  The role of the Reference Group is to give an ‘on the ground’ view to inform the authority’s Equalities work and provide a link with parent councils and community organisations.  It will meet 4 times per school session. 

Any parents who are already supporting or would like to support Equalities work in their school / Learning Community and are interested in sitting on the Parent Equalities Reference Group are welcome to contact nikhat.yusaf@ea.edin.sch.uk for more information.

Support for Palestinian children & families at JGHS

A+ Group member Ms Sara El-Awaisi has set up a meeting with the Senior Leadership Team of the school.

The meeting will be exploring how the school can provide support to Palestinian children & families within our school community, particularly those with family in Gaza right now.

JGHS Race Equality & Anti-Racist working group

A new ‘Race Equality & Anti-Racist working group’ is being started at JGHS.

The first meeting will take place on Tuesday 21 November at 12.15 pm in the school. The A+ Group, Grace Dempsey from Intercultural Youth Scotland, the JGHS Lead for Equalities, Ian Porter, Anti-Racist Club tutors, and a representative from the city council’s EAL (‘English as an Additional Language’) team, will be attending the meeting. 

If you are interested in participating, please contact A+ Group Coordinator Zaki El-Salahi

Related posts from JGHS

Antiracism activities at JGHS – posted February 2023

Intercultural Youth Scotland – posted March 2023

New resources from Intercultural Youth Scotland

11 May 2023: Intercultural Youth Scotland (IYS) is Scotland’s leading charity for Black and People of Colour youth.

They have recently developed some new resources that can be shared with anyone who might benefit – click the links below view flyers with more information:

About IYS

Find out more about the work of IYS on their website:

Intercultural Youth Scotland

Antiracism actvities at JGHS, including a presentation by Grace Dempsey from IYS were discussed at the Parent Council meeting on 1 February 2023 – you can find more details at the link:

Parent Council meeting on 1 February: addressing antiracism

Parent Council meeting on 1 February: addressing antiracism

Updated 30 May 2023: Many thanks to everyone who was able to attend the JGHS parent council meeting on Wednesday 1 February.

This was a very interesting meeting, which covered a wide range of topics over the course of the evening.

Minutes from JGHS parent council meeting on 1 February 2023

Headteacher’s report

An update on school activities was presented by the headteacher Mr Neil McCallum – see link below.

Headteacher’s report 1 February 2023

Antiracism activities at JGHS

The main focus was on antiracism activities at JGHS with presentations give by teachers Mr Porter, Mr Watt and Mr Cham, and by Grace Dempsey from Intercultural Youth Scotland, and the work she is doing in the school to support pupils and teachers to address racism and discrimination.

Intercultural Youth Scotland

A+ Group

We were also very pleased to hear about the A+ Group, a new project that will be starting in the school later this month, led by Zaki El-Salahi.

The group:

  • is for Parents & Carers of young people who are from the African and Asian diaspora, and go to JGHS
  • is also open to Parents & Carers with ‘Ethnic Minority’ status, who want to listen, learn from, & support Black and Asian families at JGHS
  • will make specific parts of our meetings welcome to White/’Ethnic Majority’ Parents & Carers – to listen, learn from & support us.

You can learn more about the group and its aims below:

A+ Group – slides

A+ Group further information

The group will meet online on the last Wednesday of each month from February to June 2023. For further information and/or join the A+ group, please contact Zaki:

Email Zaki