Newsletter Sept 2013

The September Newsletter is now on our school website and can be accessed via the menu bar on the left of our home page.

My introduction is as follows:

Welcome to the first edition of the Newsletter after the summer break. I hope you had a wonderful summer and enjoyed time away from the school routines to spend time relaxing with friends and family over what was an unexpectedly but welcome warm and pleasant summer.

The pupils are back, enthusiastic and refreshed and we look forward to working with them and yourselves towards ensuring that each and every one aims high and that they do the best that they can.

I am delighted to report that this session has started very positively and we are all now settled into a purposeful routine after the summer break.  Pupils and staff who are travelling between both the Darroch and Lauderdale campuses have found the quickest route and with the exception of a few stragglers I am pleased at how smoothly the changeover between classes is working.

This year’s SQA results, particularly at Higher, were excellent so I’d like to congratulate everyone on their achievements. Throughout the session our newsletters and website will share with you the many and varied achievements of our pupils. We continue to be immensely proud of the variety of achievements from the young people in Gillespie’s.

The new S1 have settled in well.  Staff invariably describe our new charges as polite, well-mannered and sensible. Well done to our new S1! The reintroduction of our S1 residential experience has been warmly received by pupils and the first of these involving pupils in Kyi last week at the Broomlee Outdoor centre was an outstanding success.  

It was great to meet so many of our new parents at our social evening on Thursday 29 August. Please contact your child’s guidance teacher if there are any matters that concern you as your child is finding his/her feet at High School. I hope that many parents will come along to our next Parent Council meeting on Tuesday 17 September at 7 Pm.

I am delighted to report that since we resumed in August we have seen a significant improvement in the amount of litter that was being discarded around the school. Thank you to everyone for your support in this.

You may be aware that we have placed a copy of this year’s school improvement plan on our website. This will allow you to view what we are planning to improve. The areas chosen for improvement are based on our ongoing evaluations of how we are doing in tandem with feedback throughout the year from all members of our school community.

Throughout the coming session we will continue to raise money for a variety of worthwhile causes. These will include school based projects and charities at both home and abroad. As has been the tradition over many years, our S6 will lead on fundraising efforts for our link South African schools. A St Andrew’s Day event, run by senior pupils, as well as several events throughout the year, will be organised by our Parents’ events group and JGHS Trust. In addition, there will be occasional fundraisers sprinkled throughout the year as organised by pupil led committees. Please continue to give generously. I look forward with enthusiasm to working with you all in the coming session.

Donald J Macdonald (Headteacher)