Parent Council meetings

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

Recording of Parent Council meeting on 29 November

1 December 2022: Many thanks to everyone who was able to attend the meeting of the JGHS Parent Council on Tuesday 29 November 2022.

This was a very full meeting which covered a lot of information about activities within the school, and included a very useful presentation about the SQA results achieved by young people at the school in the 2021/22 exam diet.

A recording of the meeting is now available on YouTube and a brief minute is linked below.

Recording of the Parent Council Meeting on 29 November 2022

Minutes of Parent Council Meeting on 29 November 2022

The slides presented by the Headteacher Mr Neil McCallum on the SQA results can be viewed at the link below:

SQA presentation by Neil MacCallum, 29 November 2022

Next Parent Council Meeting is 29 November

Updated 24 November 2022: The next meeting of the Parent Council will be on Tuesday 29 November 2022 at 7 pm. The main presentation at the meeting will be an analysis of the school’s SQA results in 2022.

The meeting will be held on MS Teams, and the joining link will be sent by the school just before the event, so please look out for the email. We hope you will be able to join us.

Draft agenda

Update from Parent Council
Headteacher’s report, including updates (amongst others) on:
- Mental health work in the school
- IT in the school
- School trips
- Staffing
- Transition into the Darroch building
- The S4 prelims
SQA results 2021/22

There will be the opportunity on the night to ask questions via the Q&A typed chat facility, but if you want to raise an issue in advance, please email the PC and we will try to include it in the updates.

Email the Parent Council

Dates of future Parent Council meetings

Wednesday 1 February 2023 (in the school)
Tuesday 21 March 2023 (online)
Wednesday 31 May 2023 (in the school)

Report from Parent Council AGM on 12 October 2022

28 October 2022: The James Gillespies High School Parent Council held its Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 12 October, in the school library. We were joined by approx 30 parents, for this first in-person meeting of the PC in over two and a half years.

Meeting business

The meeting addressed a number of issues, and a full minute of the proceedings will be available shortly.

Updates from previous Parent Council meeting
- Headteacher recruitment
- Council engagement
- Donald J. Macdonald prize
- School events
- Rising rolls
Arrangements for future PC meetings
Chair’s Report
Finance Report
Election of Parent Council and Office Bearers
Headteacher’s Report

There was considerable discussion about the rising rolls at the School, and this situation has been taken as an action for the Parent Council to pursue in the coming weeks.

The presentation made by PC treasurer Ros Ingle is available at the link below.

JGHS Parent Council Treasurer Presentation, October 2022

Darroch Annex

The PC heard from deputy head teacher Miss McIver about the refurbishment of the new Darroch Annex, which opened for business on 27 October 2022.

Pupils and teachers alike are very excited to be moving into the new teaching and activity spaces!

The images of the new annex at Darroch: clockwise from top left – new entrance, bright and spacious classrooms, gym hall (with a sprung floor), dining hall.

New members and office bearers

The meeting also re-appointed the existing office bearers of the Parent Council, and we were delighted that a number of new members have also joined the committee.

The full committee membership is below (new members are indicated by *):

Sarah Scott (Chair)
Kirstin Leighton (Secretary)
Ros Ingle (Treasurer)
Hilary Snaith (Communications)
Laura Bird (Communications)
Tiziana Basciani*
Nicolas Boyes
Rob Dunbar
Orla Hobson
Christiane Kerlen*
Padraic Kinsella*
Ailsa Macintosh
Caroline McKellar*
Aileen Nimmo
Bec Phipps*
Kate Pinault*
Vikki Plant
Joanne Sapienza Chapman*
Steffi Schultze
Lisa Sutherland
Penny Tarsia
María Angélica Thumala Olave*
Charles Warlow

We are very grateful to all the members, new and old, who have joined the Parent Council.

Next meeting

The next meeting of the Parent Council will be held online via MS Teams at 7 pm on Tuesday 29 November 2022.

More details will be available on our website in due course.

Contact us

If you have any questions for the Parent Council, or issues that you would like to raise with us, please do not hesitate to get in touch:

Email the Parent Council

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.

Dates for upcoming Parent Council meetings

21 August 2022: The JGHS Parent Council meeting will be holding regular meetings throughout the year. All parents and carers are very warmly invited to join us at these meetings, and to bring any questions or areas of concern to our discussions.

This year’s meetings will be held in a mixture of online and in-person formats.

Dates of meetings

Meetings will be held at 7 pm on the following dates:

Tuesday 6 September 2022
Wednesday 12 October 2022 (AGM)
Tuesday 29 November 2022
Wednesday 1 February 2023
Tuesday 21 March 2023
Wednesday 31 May 2023

Contact us

f there are any issues you would like to raise with the Parent Council, please contact us by email:

Email the Parent Council

Recording of Parent Council meeting on 17 May now available

18 May 2022: Many thanks to those who attended the meeting of the Parent Council on 17 May. It was a momentous evening, as it marked the last time for our current headteacher, Donald MacDonald, to attend this meeting before he retires this summer.

We were also very grateful Nikki Graham, the new JGHS Mental Health Coordinator, who spoke about supporting pupils at the school with mental health challenges. You can access the slides from her presentation below.

Mental Health Matters at JGHS

If you were unable to join to the meeting, or would like listen again to any of the information presented, a recording is now available on YouTube.

James Gillespie’s High School Parent Council Meeting 17 May 2022

Next Parent Council meeting is on Tuesday 17 May

Updated 13 May 2022: A quick heads up that the next meeting of the JGHS Parent Council (and the last of this academic year) will be next Tuesday 17 May at 7 pm on MS Teams.

The joining link will be forwarded by the School the day before the meeting.