Parent Council

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

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

Welcome
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
AOCB
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

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

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

Welcome back to the Parent Council

19 August 2022: The first Parent Council meeting for 2022/23 will be on Tuesday 6 September at 7pm.

This will be an online meeting and will be an opportunity to find out about the work of the PC, meet our new Headteacher, Neil McCallum, and hear about what is happening at the school at the start of the new term.

Questions for the meeting can be raised in advance by emailing the Parent Council and we will try to include them in the updates. There will also be the opportunity to raise questions via the Q&A typed chat facility on the night.

Email the Parent Council

Please look out for the joining link for the meeting, which will be sent by the School in the week of the meeting.

This year, the PC plans to have a mixture of online and in-person meetings – dates for all the meetings are given below:

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

Mr Macdonald is leaving us

1 June 2022: As you will be aware, our Head Teacher, Mr Macdonald, is retiring at the end of this term.

The Parent Council thought it would be nice to mark the occasion by setting up some awards in his name for pupils, to fit with the school values. We would also like to get him some small personal gifts.

We hope that many parents would like to contribute to this, so if you wish to do so, please use the following link to CollectionPot:

Mr Macdonald’s retirement collection

Once we have arranged the gifts, we will post the details on the PC website. please note that the Pot will close on 24 June.

We have also set up a ‘virtual’ leaving card which you may also wish to sign – this may be found here:

Mr Macdonald’s leaving card

**PLEASE USE THE CARD AND NOT THE DONATIONS PAGE FOR ANY MESSAGES, as Mr Macdonald will not see the donations page**

Many thanks!

Update on recruitment of new Headteacher at JGHS

27 May 2022: The post of Headteacher at JGHS was advertised by the Council at the beginning of May, with the hope that a replacement for the school’s retiring Head, Donald Macdonald, could be put in post as close as possible to his departure date in August.

That advert has now closed, and the Council have decided that the post should be re-advertised to allow more time for all prospective candidates to register an interest. This will take place after the summer holidays at the beginning of the 2022/23 school session.

For the period up to Christmas, the Council are planning to designate an Acting Headteacher, and are hoping to recruit a suitable candidate from amongst the secondary Headteachers in Edinburgh.

Parent Council involvement

Parent representatives have been working with the Council to find the best way forward in this process. The Parent Council has emphasised the importance of a capable, committed and enthusiastic acting Headteacher being in place as soon as possible so they are able to work with Mr Macdonald in the run-up to his retirement and can take over smoothly after the summer.

They have also stressed that the new recruitment process should be a dynamic and open one, which is advertised as widely as possible and will maximise the possibility of a competitive range of candidates being attracted to the role.

Please send any comments you have about this matter to the Parent Council.

Email the Parent Council

Results of survey on online parent consultations

18 May 2022: Many thanks to everyone who took part in the recent survey about online parent consultations at JGHS – over 160 people sent in their views – which was a fantastic response.

As was reported at the Parent Council meeting on Tuesday 17 May there was a broad overall split in views, between parents who preferred online meetings, in-person meetings, or a mixture of the two.

Many parents felt that it was more convenient to attend the meetings online, with no need to travel, or navigate their way around a busy school. Equally, many also missed the opportunity to see the environment in which our children spend so much time, and to engage with teachers face-to-face.

The survey results have been passed to the school to help inform their planning for the upcoming academic session.

A summary is presented below.