City of Edinburgh Council budget for 2023/24

22 February 2023: The JGHS Parent Council sent a letter to the City of Edinburgh Council to raise concerns about the draft budget of the Council that had made proposals to cut education services for 2023/24.

You can read a copy of the letter here:

JGHS Parent Council – budget proposals 2023

Note added 23 February 2023: The BBC News reported that at their meeting today, the City of Edinburgh Council agreed a budget that scrapped the proposed £5.5m cuts to school budgets, and the £370,000 cuts to speech and language therapy.

Read the BBC News story

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

Latest Connect newsletter now available

8 February 2023: The February 2023 edition of the Connect newsletter is now available, and covers a number of important issues including:

Connect’s School Uniform Survey Report
National Discussion – what next?
Independent Reivew of Qualifications and Assessment
New Scottish Parliament Cross Party Group on Families Supporting Children’s Learning
Scottish Education Updates

Read the newsletter here

Subscribe to the Connect newsletter

About Connect

Helping your child prepare for SQA exams in 2023

2 February 2023: The SQA has published a new blog about upcoming exam diet.

If your child is sitting National 5, Higher or Advanced Higher SQA exams in 2023, the article has information about the support options available.

This includes details about the services in the event of exceptional circumstances during their exams or appeals if you believe the grade they receive on results day is incorrect.

Read the SQA blog

Rising rolls and capacity at JGHS

1 February 2023: Following discussion at the JGHS Parent Council meeting in October 2022, it was agreed that the Parent Council would seek to engage with the City of Edinburgh Council about future accommodation requirements at the School.

The Parent Council has now sent a letter to Edinburgh City Council outlining the our concerns and asking for meaningful dialogue with the Council to address the issues raised.

A copy of the letter is available at the link below:

James Gillespie’s High School Capacity Planning

If you have any comments to make about the issues raised, please send them to the Parent Council.

Email the Parent Council

Parent and Carers Consultation

Updated 31 January 2023: You are invited to an online meeting from 6.30-7.30 pm on Wednesday 1 February 2023 to:

discuss solutions and support for parents
discuss how these can be communicated with all parents and carers

Attend the meeting

Please contact the City of Edinburgh Council Parental Engagement email account to book a space to attend the meeting, or send your views marked with for the attention of Marie Lyon.

Email the Parental Engagement team

Next Parent Council meeting on Wednesday 1 February

Update 25 January 2023: The next meeting of the James Gillespies High School Parent Council will be at 7 pm on Wednesday 1 February 2023 in the library at the school. We very much hope that you can join us.

Agenda

The main presentation at the meeting will be on work on anti-racist approaches at the school.

There will also be the regular updates from Headteacher Neil McCallum, and the Parent Council.

Welcome
Anti-Racism
- Presentations and Q&A
Minutes of last in-person meeting (12 October 2022)
Parent Council Update
Finance Update
Headteacher’s Report
AOCB
Dates of next meetings
- 21 March 2023 (online)
- 31 May 2023 (in person)

Contact us

If there are other issues that you like to raise at the meeting, please let us know by email:

Email the Parent Council

Previous meetings

Information about our meetings earlier this academic session can be found below:

Tuesday 6 September 2022

Wednesday 12 October 2022 – AGM

Tuesday 29 November 2022

JGHS Parent Council meeting minutes

City speed limit consultation

23 January 2023: The City of Edinburgh Council is looking for views on proposals to expand the city’s network of 20mph streets, as well as lowering speed limits on roads that have limits of 40mph or more, which are mainly rural.

20mph speed limit proposals map

Rural road proposals map

Whatever your views about our speed limit proposals, we want to hear from you.

Take part and complete the online survey which is available on the Council’s Consultation and Engagement Hub.

Click here to complete the survey

Please forward this email to any contacts that you feel would be interested in making their views heard on the proposals. The consultation is open and you can feedback until 8 February 2023.

Report on CCwP meeting

22 January 2023: The City of Edinburgh Council’s Consultative Committee with Parents (CCwP) met on Thursday 19 January. The JGHS Paren Council was represented by our Chair, Sarah Scott.

The committee covered a number of topics, including