23 April 2025: The April newsletter from Connect is now available, with content about the Protection of Vulnerable Groups Scheme, new ‘Quick Tips’ films for Members, plus an ‘open to all’ live session “Online Safety with Police Scotland”.
Backchat newsletter now available
27 March 2025: Connect has published its spring edition of Backchat.
This edition has info about:
Reports from PC meeting on 25 March 2025
25 March 2025: Many thanks to those who joined the Parent Council meeting this Tuesday.
Agenda
- Health and Wellbeing – Inclusion X – Ian Porter and Anna Kirkwood
- Comment from Tracy Urquhart, Senior Manager Quality Improvement Officer, CEC
- Update from the JGHS Parent Council
- Headteacher’s report
- Q&A
Meeting recording
Watch the meeting recording (opens on YouTube)
Summary of meeting discussion (from transcipt, opens as pdf)
Presentations
Inclusion X suport at JGHS (Anna Kirkwood and Ian Porter, opens as pdf)
PC report 25 March 2025 (Hilary Snaith, co-chair; opens as pdf)
Finance update 25 March 2025 (Kirstin Leighton, treasurer; opens as pdf)
Headteacher’s report 25 March 2025 (opens as pdf)
Policy documents
The headteacher mentioned a number of school policy documents in his comments. You can access a range of these policies on the JGHS website:
Next meeting
The next meeting of the Parent Council will be on Wednesday 4 June in the school library at 7 pm – all parents and carers are very welcome to join us.
Travel to School survey
20 March 2025: Connect is gathering information about the travel habits, school transport provision, and safety measures around travel to/from school. for young people and parents.
The survey will take approximately 10 minutes to complete and has a comment section at the end for anything not covered in the questions.
The survey will close on Thursday 10 April 2025.
Parent Council meeting 25 March 2025
The next meeting of the JGHS Parent Council will be on Tuesday 25 March at 7 pm. The meeting will be held online via MS Teams – the link will be shared via the school email.
All parents and carers are most warmly welcome to join us.
Agenda
- Update from the Parent Council
- Headteacher’s report, HT Mr McCallum
- Health and Wellbeing / Inclusion X at JGHS, DHT Mr Porter
- Q&A
If you have any questions that you would like to see addressed, please contact the PC by email. It will also be possible to ask questions via the Q&A during the meeting.
March 2025 update from Connect
13 March 2025: The latest update from Connect is now available, covering a range of topics including:
- Launch of Connect Travel to School survey
- Audit Scotland Report on Additional Support for Learning
- Live Online Information Sessions
Engineer a Career
13 March 2025: Engineer a Career is on a mission to inspire, empower, and encourage the next generation of engineers. Through our podcast, “The Engineer a Career Podcast,” we share the stories of today’s engineers with tomorrow’s.
On 4 March 2025, Tuesday of Scottish Apprenticeship week, the first episode of Series 2 went live on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. For 8 weeks, every Tuesday a new guest shares what sparked their interest in engineering, their own route to a career in engineering, the jobs they’ve had and the projects they’ve worked on, who has helped them along their career, and what keeps them passionate about engineering.
Each episode is a great opportunity to learn from an engineer and understand the challenges they have faced and how they navigated them. Across the eight guests we explore the school to college, school to university and school to apprenticeship routes.
Whether you are a student, parent, or educator this podcast will give you a greater understanding of engineering careers.
Listen to the podcast
So far, the podcast has released 14 podcast episodes in 6 months.
Follow the link below for the podcast pack:
More information
Contact the Developing the Young Workforce team at JGHS:
Scottish Apprenticeship Week 3-7 March 2025
28 February 2025: Next week, 3-7 March 2025, is Scottish Apprenticeship Week.
This is an opportunity for young people and their families to learn more about this pathway into employment, view live apprenticeship vacancies, and hear from employers about their offerings.
DYW – Scottish Apprenticeship Week 2025 – Employers and Vacancies
Connect Virtually, Train Locally: DYW Virtual Webinar for Scottish Apprenticeship Week
If you have any questions, please get in touch with the school, or the Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) School Co-ordinator, Claire Howe:
Attainment and leaver destinations in 2023-24
25 February 2025: The Scottish Government has published its latest summary statistics for attainment and initial leaver destinations for school leavers in 2023-24.
This publication contains the latest statistics on Scottish school pupils’ initial destinations (their destination three months after the end of the school year) and their attainment during their time at school.
The statistics show that:
- 95.7 per cent of 2023-24 school leavers were in a positive initial destination. This is a small decrease from 2022-23 (95.9 per cent) and the second highest figure (alongside 2021-22) since consistent records began in 2009-10.
- The gap in positive initial destinations between leavers from the most and least deprived areas of Scotland was 4.3 percentage points. This has widened since 2022-23 when the gap was 3.7 percentage points.
- In 2023-24, under the National Qualifications measure, 83.5 per cent of school leavers left with one pass or more at SCQF Level 5 or better (down from 84.8 per cent in 2022-23) and 57.4 per cent of school leavers left with one pass or more at SCQF Level 6 or better (down from 57.9 per cent in 2022-23).
- In 2023-24, under the All SCQF measure, 87.4 per cent of school leavers left with one pass or more at SCQF Level 5 or better (down from 87.9 per cent in 2022-23) and 66.5 per cent of school leavers left with one pass or more at SCQF Level 6 or better (up from 65.6 per cent in 2022-23).
The full publication is available on the Scottish Government website.
Former chair of James Gillespie’s Trust passes away
23 February 2025: At the end of January, the Parent Council recieved the very sad news about the passing of Sheena Purdom, the former chair of the James Gillespie’s High School Trust. The obituary below was written by Trust members.
Sheena Purdom,1948-2025: Chair, James Gillespie’s Trust
Sheena spent 13 years as a pupil at James Gillespie’s, at a time when it was an all girls school. She made lifelong friends and remained an active member of the local community. Sheena trained as a teacher and followed a career in education until she retired. She taught biology in several Edinburgh high schools, retiring eventually from Leith Academy.
Sheena was always keen to support those who needed an extra helping hand and after retirement, while her daughter was still a pupil at Gillespie’s, she volunteered on the Parent Council, and later represented them on James Gillespie’s Trust. In recent years she has served as a Trustee, giving her time and expertise where it was most needed to support the young people and staff at JGHS. She was always keen to ensure all pupils were able to participate in school activities and that financial barriers were removed wherever possible.
Her time as a Trustee culminated with three years serving as chair of the Trust until she stepped down in November 2024. Sheena made a real difference to so many young people and her legacy will continue as the needs and interests of young people will continue to guide the decisions of the Trust in future.
Sheena has a special place in our hearts and she will be sorely missed.
Funeral service on 28 February 2025
Her funeral service will be held in the Mortonhall Crematorium at 2pm on Friday 28 February 2025. This will be followed by a celebration of Sheena’s life for friends and family at the Braid Hills Hotel. Family flowers only please. Donations will be collected for Air Ambulance Scotland and Guide Dogs.
About the James Gillespie’s Trust
James Gillespie’s Trust was established to harness the tremendous goodwill that is felt for James Gillespie’s High School and to support the work of the school through various educational schemes and community projects.
The Trust provides support and funding for educational and extra-mural activities within James Gillespie’s High School and its community and fosters strong links with past pupils through its alumni section.
JGHS Parent Council 