Parent Council

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.

Parent Council meeting on 15 December 2020

4th December 2020:  The next meeting of the James Gillespie’s High School Parent Council meeting will take place on Tuesday 15 December at 7pm, and will focus on exams and assessments.

The meeting will be held on MS Teams, and we will send out the link via the school email.

If you have any questions in advance of the meeting, please send them to the Parent Council email  and we will try to include them in the update.

Parent Council Annual General Meeting on 14 October 2020

8 October 2020:  We would like to invite you to the next Parent Council meeting which will be our AGM and will take place online on Wednesday 14 October at 7pm.

The MS Teams link will be sent on Tuesday 13 October by the JGHS Admin team. 

The proposed agenda is below.

  • Chair’s Report and update – Ailsa Macintosh, chair
  • Treasurer’s Report  – Ros Ingle, treasurer
  • Election of PC Committee members and post holders        
  • Head Teacher Overview – Donald Macdonald    
  • Update for S1 parents/carers – Ben Lewis, Deputy Head Teacher      
  • Questions & Answers via the Q&A typed chat facility

We very much hope you will be able to join us.

Upcoming Parent Council meeting on 22 September 2021

17 September 2021: We would like to invite you to the next Parent Council meeting which will take place online on Tuesday 22 September at 7 pm. We will email out the MS Teams link on Monday 21 September from JGHS Admin team. 

We will hear from:

  • Donald Macdonald, (HT) – Overview
  • Jeff Warden, (DHT) – Digital Learning
  • Deirdre O’Brien, (DHT) – Learning and Teaching
  • Ian Porter/Ben Lewis (DHTs) – Pupil Support
  • Ian Porter/Ben Lewis (DHTs) – PE update
  • Bob Shankland (DHT) – SQA update

Questions & Answers via the Q&A typed chat facility in Teams. If you would like to raise any issues or ask any questions ahead of the meeting please email us by 2 pm Monday 21 September and where possible these will be included in the presentations.  

Email the Parent Council at jghscouncilcomms@gmail.com