17 November 2022: If your child is doing their National Qualifications this year, you may have questions about how they will be assessed, especially if they are doing National Qualifications for the first time.
The SQA have published a couple of latest blogs about how National Courses will be assessed for 2022-23.
Details are available here:
5 March 2022: James Gillespies High School is taking part in a research project being led by Stirling University on the impact of Curriculum for Excellence on attainment, subject choice and student experience.
As part of the research, the investigators would like to speak with a group of 4-6 parents with a child/children in S4-S6 to learn about their experience of supporting their child to make subject choices.
There will be an online meeting with the group on Monday 14 March at 7 pm (about an hour). If you would be interested in participating, please contact the Parent Council by email:
Further information is available on the project website and on Twitter:
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
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.
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
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.
JGHS Parent Council 