Dear
Parents, Carers, Pupils, Partners and Colleagues,
I
hope this finds you all happy and well.
SQA grades
I am
delighted to share that school (estimate) grades for all pupils in S4, 5 and 6
were submitted by Friday’s deadline. A total of 2,620 exam grades were entered.
Sincere thanks to DHT Bob Shankland, supported by Sharon Kerr (senior admin)
and all staff in the school who contributed to generating our estimates over
the past few weeks. This was a mammoth task that has taken countless hours of
discussions and deliberations. Thanks also to the many parents who contacted us
to ensure we had any additional information that might apply. At this
stage we do not know what the examination arrangements will be for 2021.
The
SQA are aiming to share details of final awards with all pupils on 4 August.
Until then, we hope that pupils, parents and staff can relax and focus on
future studies whilst relaxing over the summer.
Schools returning in August.
The
Scottish Government and City of Edinburgh Council have shared some initial
guidance with us on schools reopening from 11 August. We will work closely with
parents through our Parent Council to ensure that we manage this process and
painlessly as possible.
Our
approach (at JGHS) to getting staff and pupils back to work will be focused on
4 key areas.
- Safety. Staff and pupils will need to feel safe.
- Support and Dignity. We will seek to recognise that we all are at different stages on our journey to recovering and catching up. Support for all will be unconditional and positive.
- Sense of belonging. We all benefit from being part of a connected and supportive community. It will take time and effort to reform the JGHS community.
- Space to share (Reflections etc.) It will be important to allow pupils and staff to talk about and reflect on their experiences during recent months. We should avoid falling in to the trap of assuming that everyone is ready to start where they left off. A bit of time at the beginning spent talking about what happened will pay dividends the long run.
Parent
Council
Thanks to our Parent Council for arranging for
an online meeting to take place online on Tuesday 26 May. The
meeting gave members of my senior team and me the opportunity to talk about
some of our current practices and to explore some of our initial thinking
around pupils and staff returning in August. The following link takes you to a
recording of the online meeting. https://youtu.be/DJ4a41mna-I
A copy of questions asked with responses will follow and will appear on the
Parent Council section of the school website.
Arrangements
for children of Key Workers
The HUB facility is
there to allow the key workers to attend their work and should only be used if
there are no alternative child-care arrangements to placing the children in the
HUB. Booking is now open for week commencing 1 June. It was be extremely
helpful if you could book by Tuesday 26 May. Direct link to JGHS Booking Form
University applications - for parents of S5 (going into S6 pupils)
The new
S6 pupils will start to focus on researching university and college
applications in PSE next week and will continue with this in PSE for the rest
of June.
We also
have an excellent JGHS UCAS parents’ guide written by one of our parents Jacqui
Stark (to whom we are eternally grateful) and the updated version will be on
the school website from early next week.
From
today, if they haven't done so, pupils are strongly encouraged to sign up for the
UCAS hub which is a really helpful tool to research courses and options. https://www.ucas.com/what-are-my-options/create-your-ucas-hub-today
The S6 PSE Teams page will include a range of materials including instructions and support on how to start a UCAS application - this is separate from the UCAS Hub. These resources will also be online next week.
MySQA is an
online service for learners where they can view their qualification
information, check their personal details and sign-up to receive their exam
results by text message or e-mail (in addition to their paper certificate).
To register for this service, learners should
must have:
- Scottish Candidate Number (which is also their school computer login number)
- An e-mail address
We would encourage all candidates to register
with MySQA and ensure that their qualification and personal information is
recorded correctly.
Any discrepancies should be highlighted to the
school as soon as possible by emailing: admin@jamesgillespies.edin.sch.uk
2020 Leavers’ Form
A reminder that Mr McPhail sent out a
communication for the attention of all potential schools leavers, stating the
requirement for them to complete our online Leavers’ Form. It is
essential that all students planning on not returning to JGHS for
academic session 2020-21, complete this form. Otherwise, they cannot
be removed from the school roll. 104 of our 172 have completed thus far.
Your help in ensuring that these forms are completed would be greatly
appreciated.
The 2020 Leavers’
Form can be accessed by using the following link: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=af6sSGo3tUKfacnke7-5xNXkpAnUVFdLr9EwY6VuiGlUQlJGWEg0QkI3MlRHMlROSjBJUlUyR0VKWS4u
Miscellaneous
- Edinburgh Mòd goes digital Join one of Edinburgh's largest Gaelic cultural events online.
- Year heads for S1-6 will continue with current year head responsibilities until the end of June. A year group specific message from year heads will follow I the next few days. This will cover what would ordinarily be said at year group assemblies.
School Trip Refunds
We are in the process of calculating refunds to
all parents and carers for contributions made to the many trips and events
James Gillespie's High school organises. The school's administration team is
working hard to collate the income, expenditure and charges for each of these
events and, of course, discussing with suppliers refunds for cancelled trips
and events. You will be aware from Press reports that some companies are very
reluctant to give cash refunds. In line with government advice, we are asking
all of our suppliers for full cash refunds. We are aiming to refund all monies
paid by the end of June and would hope to complete this process by the end of
July.
Contacting us
- Our admin email will be checked each day and we will continue to respond to requests.
- Please note that though the school is physically open for the HUB, the school campus remains off limits to everyone else. Some limited access will be made available to staff in the coming days to access resources.
My quote for the week: “Optimism is the most important human trait, because it allows us to
evolve our ideas, to improve our situation, and to hope for a better tomorrow.” (S Godin)
I’d like to wish everyone a
lovely week ahead.
Donald j Macdonald (Headteacher)
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