Parent Council

Recording of parent council meeting on 12 May 2021 now available

19 May 2021. The James Gillespie’s High School Parent Council met on Wednesday 12 May 2021.

Along with the usual updates from the Headteacher Mr Donald McDonad, Deputy Headteacher Laura Stewart gave an update on school capacity, and Deputy Headteacher Ben Lewis updated the PC on the current plans to organise the school communities.

A recording of the meeting can now be watched on You Tube

Recording of Parent Council meeting

The presentations given by Laura Stewart and Ben Lewis are also available.

Capacity Update 2021/22 – Laura Stewart

Pupil Support Restructuring – Ben Lewis

Next Parent Council meeting on 12 May 2021

1 May 2021: The next meeting of the Parent Council will be held on Wednesday 12 May 2021 at 7 pm via MS Teams.

Along with the usual updates from the Headteacher Mr Donald McDonad, Deputy Headteacher Laura Stewart will give an update on school capacity, and Deputy Headteacher Ben Lewis will update the PC on the current plans to organise the school communities.

The joining link for the meeting will be circulated in an email via the JGHS admin team.

Everyone is most welcome to attend.

The next meeting of the Parent Council will be on Tuesday 8 June.

Recording of Parent Council meeting on 23 March 2021 now available

26 March 2021: The Parent Council held its most recent meeting on Tuesday 23 March.

There was a presentation by Deirdre O’Brien (DHT) and Ashling Dolan (CL Maths) on the school’s recent survey of pupils and parents on remote learning. 

Presentation on survey about remote learning

The meeting also heard from Bob Shankland (DHT) about progress in putting in place arrangements for SQA assessments, the challenges that the school faces in finalising plans and how the operation of the SQA’s guidelines will affect how assessments will be carried out this year.

Presentation on SQA assessments (opens as pdf)

Although the focus was on online learning and assessment arrangements, the meeting also covered questions on Covid testing, plans to meet capacity demands in 2021/22 and the resumption of the NHS childhood immunisation programme in the school. 

Catch up with the meeting recording on YouTube

Note of meeting on 23 March 2021 (opens as pdf)

Coming up at the Parent Council meeting on 23 March 2021

19 March 2021: The next Parent Council meeting will be held online on Tuesday 23 March 2021 at 7 pm.  A link to join the meeting will be sent out next week through the school email system. 

We will hear from: 

  • Donald J. Macdonald – Head Teacher’s report 
  • Deirdre O’Brien (DHT) and Ashling Dolan (CL Maths) – report on the survey on remote learning
  • Bob Shankland (DHT) – SQA assessments

There will be the opportunity on the night to ask questions via the Q&A typed chat facility, but if you want to raise a question in advance it should be sent by Monday at 2pm to the Parent Council email and we will try to include it in the updates. 

Email the Parent Council

We know that not all parents will be free to join at the time of the meeting and we will be recording the presentations so that they can be viewed later. We are using MS Teams because it is the system approved by Edinburgh Council, but it doesn’t allow us to be as interactive as some other systems. The only people who will be seen and heard are the presenters, everyone else attending can interact by writing questions via the Q&A panel.

Parent Council Meeting 23 February 20201

You can catch up on the last PC meeting on 23 February via the minutes and recording of the meeting, and through the written responses for the Q&A.

Minutes of Parent Council meeting 23 February 2021

Recording of Parent Council Meeting 23 February 2021

Q&A for the Parent Countil meeting 23 February 2021

City of Edinburgh Council response to JGHS deputation concerning capacity issues

19 March 2021: The Parent Council has received a response to the deputation it made to the meeting of the Education, Children and Families Committee on 2 March 2021, which raised concerns about the lack of provision of additional classroom accommodation for 2021/22.  

Parent Council Deputation (2 March 2021)

City of Edinburgh Council response (18 March 2021)

At the Council Committee meeting it was agreed that further investigation would be carried out to ascertain whether additional accommodation for August 2021 would still be a possibility, even at this point in the school year. 

It was also agreed that consortia arrangements to share senior level courses between schools would also be looked at.

The response deals in part with these issues, but the Parent Council will be considering whether further steps should be taken to pursue the points raised in the deputation.

All Parent Council documents relating to the S6 capacity issue and plans for flexible digital learning in 2021/22 can be found on the Useful Files page

Useful Files

Deputation to City of Edinburgh Council about capacity at JGHS

26 February 2021: The Parent Council has submitted a deputation to the meeting of the Education, Children and Families Committee on 2 March 2021, raising concerns about the lack of provision of additional classroom accommodation for 2021/22 for consideration by Councillors.

JGHS parent Council Deputation to Education, Children and Families Committee

If you would like to support the deputation, please contact members of the Committee to let them know:

Contact Education, Children and Families Committee members

Since submitting the deputation, we have also received a reply to our letter to the school (below) which restates the Council’s position that additional accommodation will not be made available in 2021/22 and provides further details on how the school thinks FDL will work. 

Headteacher response to Parent Council letter of 5 February 2021

The Parent Council will continue to pursue the points raised in the deputation next week to underline the parents’ preference for ensuring accommodation is in place for next year.

Capacity issues at JGHS

5 February 2021: Thank you to everyone who attended the meeting hosted by the Parent Council on Tuesday 2 February 2021 on capacity contingency proposals and to all those who put forward comments and questions before, during and after the meeting.

Link to recording of meeting on YouTube

It is clear that there are significant concerns about the plans and in particular about the fact that the Council has ruled out additional classroom accommodation, on the lack of specific communication on the proposals to S5 pupils and their parents, and on the potential effect on next year’s S6 pupils, both from a social and an educational point of view.

The Parent Council has written to the school, Council officers and councillors to highlight these concerns and asked for an early response – see below. Any replies will be posted here when received.

JGHS PC comments on capacity contingency proposals 5 February 2021

Parents submitted a number of comments and questions, prior to the meeting on 2 February 2021, a summary of which can be found below:

Capacity Contingency Plans – Parental feedback and questions 25 January 2021

Parent Council meeting to consider S6 capacity issues

29 January 2021:  On Tuesday 2 February 2021 the parent council will host a meeting considering proposals to deal with school capacity problems in 2021/22. 

The meeting will be held online at 7pm; the link for the meeting will circulated via school email next week.

Parents have already submitted a number of comments and questions, a summary of which can be found below:

Capacity Contingency Plans – Parental feedback and questions (25 January 2021)

Further details and links to other documents can be found at the 18 January entry below.

This meeting will be of particular interest to those parents with students in S5 as the proposals will particularly affect those going into S6 next year.

Upcoming meeting of the Parent Council 2 February 2021

18 January 2021:  The next parent council meeting will take place on Tuesday 2 February 2021 at 7 pm. 

We will email out the MS Teams link via the school email.

This meeting will look at the specific issue of capacity contingency plans for the 2021-22 session in light of delays to the refurbishment of the Darroch building due to Covid. The meeting will hear from school staff involved and the Council officers with whom they have been working:

  • Donald Macdonald, Head Teacher
  • Laura Stewart, DHT (Equity and Rising Rolls)
  • Lorna French, Schools and Lifelong Learning Service Manager (City of Edinburgh Council)
  • Crawford McGhie, Senior Manager Estates and Operational Support (City of Edinburgh Council)

The school has provided the following background documents:

Survey of Advanced Higher pupils, December 2020

Capacity Parent Council update document, January 2021

An outline of proposals was presented to the Parent Council in November 2020 – the presentation is available below.

JGHS Contingency Planning 2021-2022 November 2020

The section relevant to the capacity issues starts at 18.53.

View the November 2020 meeting on YouTube

The Parent Council is gathering in and collating questions, which should be sent to jghscouncilcomms@gmail.com by 6pm on Sunday 24 January.