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.

Edinburgh City Council NE/SE Locality Meetings

12 February 2021: The Council’s NE/SE Locality meeting was held on 19 January 2021.

The main topics discussed were:

School session dates 2022/2025 – the Council will be sending out a questionnaire to parents, teachers and pupils looking at arrangements for school holidays up until 2025.

Remote Learning Provision – including the roll out of digital devices; the provision of Wifi to those without it; the availability of online teaching/learning resources; the approach to remote learning across Edinburgh schools.

A copy of the presentation can be found here:

NE/SE Locality Meetings January 2021

A note of the meeting can be found here:

NE/SE Locality Meeting 19 January 2021

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.

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.

Updates from Edinburgh City Council

18 November 2020

NE/SE Parental Engagement Locality Group

The Edinburgh City Council NE/SE Parental Engagement Locality Group met on 3 November 2020.

The Teaching, Learning and Assessment presentation delivered to the meeting, and the minutes are which took place via Microsoft Teams on 3rd November is now available

Teaching, Learning and Assessment presentation

NE/SE Parental Engagement Locality Group meeting minutes

Edinburgh City Council consultations

Edinburgh City Council is seeking parents’ views in two consultations. 

One is a formal consultation on the Council’s budget (closing date 10th Dec) and is available here. and the other is an informal consultation on Gaelic-medium secondary education (closing date 11th Dec) and is available here.

Budget consultation

Gaelic-medium secondary education consultation

Updates from the National Parent Forum and Connect

Posted 8 October 2020

National Parent Forum

The National Parent Forum held its AGM on Saturday19 September 2020 and hosted a Q&A meeting with Depute First Minister John Swinney.

A report of the meeting is available on the Forum website

Read the latest newsletter from the National Parent Forum

Sessions for parents and parent groups from Connect

The October 2020 programme of free sessions for parents and parent groups from Connect (formerly the Scottish Parent Teacher Council) is now available.

Connect October programme

The calendar has full details of sessions and booking links.  Places are free but booking is essential. 

Sessions include:

  • Constitutions for Parent Councils/PTAs
  • Parent Councils – What’s Our Role Now
  • Social and Fundraising Events 
  • Online Meetings and AGMs
  • Sharing Ideas and Plans

Connect has also conducted a survey asking about children’s experiences back at school.  What’s changed?  Are communications going well?  Have blended learning plans been shared? 

Read more news from Connect on their website.

Connect

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.

SE/NE Locality Meeting: Digital Learning and Assessment

17 September 2020: Below is a brief summary from the South East Locality Meeting about Digital Learning and Assessment on Thurs 10th Sept.  Edinburgh Council officials update: contingency learning plans in place; developing training for teachers re blended learning and are also looking at videos for parents to help them support children with blended learning should it be needed.  Schools have been asked to appoint Digital Leaders and develop a Digital Learning Strategy. 

Edinburgh Council has written a Responsible User Protocol which, once signed will enable live video lessons should the need arise. 

A number of digital learning resources were named: 

  1. clickview coming online which will have curriculum aligned resources and allows for video to be shared
  2. scholar
  3. e-sgoil – can sign up for after-school classes (places allocated on first come first serve basis)
  4. Digilearn.Scot
  5. Edinburgh Council is working on plans for practical subjects; hopes to have Active Schools in place after the October holidays; and music tuition in person or online is to happen immediately.  A recruitment drive is underway to build up a pool of teachers who can help cover absences. 
  6. Minutes and slides from the meeting will be uploaded once available.