Friday 12 June

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope this finds you all well.

August 2020 Arrangements.

On Friday 12 June, Alistair Gaw (Executive Director for Children and Families), contacted families to share the outline arrangements for children returning to Edinburgh’s schools in August. The full letter can be accessed here. Staff at JGHS will now work towards achieving what we have been asked to deliver. I would ask for everyone’s patience as we strive to get our arrangements right for every child whilst recognising that key factors such as staff availability, SQA exam arrangements for 2021 and social distancing metrics are all likely to have changed by the time pupils resume on 12 August.

Black Lives Matters

This past week, we have seen protests spreading to all parts of the UK in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis, USA, on 25 May. This horrific act, and the video which recorded it, have not only led to expressions of anger and pain, they have also sparked action. People have taken to the streets to demand justice for George Floyd and an end to the structural racism, which has hindered millions of people across the world from reaching their full potential. 

At James Gillespie’s High School we speak often of embracing and valuing diversity. Current events have given us all pause for thought as to how we as individuals and as a school, can continue to learn and educate ourselves and others in regards to what this really means in a modern and multicultural society. Our founder’s links with the slave trade provides us with added responsibility and opportunity to talk to our young people about what happened in the past. We recognise and acknowledge that schools, including JGHS, are not free of institutional racism. We have recently, through the school equalities group conducted investigations into the levels of racism and sexism experienced by our students, and the findings show us that we as a school must take more responsibility for their eradication.

We have a commitment to tackle both overt and institutional racism and make sure it is top of the school's agenda in 2020-21.  We will be doing this through the school Equalities Group, which will help our faculties review where our curricula does and does not support anti-racism, and to identify opportunities to do better.  The Rights Respecting School Group is also active in challenging racism and prejudice and will be using the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and pupil feedback from an S1-S3 survey to inform its action plan for next session. We will actively encourage and support pupils to get involved and engage with discussions and debates about challenging systemic racism and the Black Lives Matter movement. If your child is keen to get involved please ask them to contact Ms Peters on tania.peters@jamesgillespies.edin.sch.uk

Our eyes, ears and hearts are open to what is happening around the world and as we put our energies towards reopening our school in August 2020, we also acknowledge the work ahead of us to serve our school and community even better in the weeks, months and years ahead.

Parent Council

We’d like to invite you to the next Parent Council meeting online on Tues 23rd June at 7pm. This will be a chance for us to hear updates on plans for the return-to-school in August, approaches to blended learning and the use of online education.  We will have presentations from our Head Teacher, Donald Macdonald, and members of the JGHS Senior Management Team.  If you have any areas you would like covered please let us know via the Parent Council email at jghscouncilcomms@gmail.com and where possible these will be included in the presentations.  The meeting will be organised through Microsoft Teams, which is the system being used by Edinburgh schools, and further details about access will be sent out nearer the time.  Our last meeting is available to watch online at https://youtu.be/DJ4a41mna-I and brief minutes and Questions & Answers raised at that meeting are available to read at our website at http://jghscouncil.btck.co.uk/Minutesandfiles   Many thanks - JGHS Parent Council

The National Parent Forum of Scotland (NPFS) has organised a live Q&A with John Swinney, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills. This event will take place on Tuesday 16th June, 7pm – 8.30pm.  Parents are asked to  email questions in advance (ideally as soon as possible, but the deadline is midday Tues) to: office@npfs.org.uk   and the link to register for the event is here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Jr1M5-1hTLmVw6x86ZlWnA   More info at NPFS  https://www.npfs.org.uk/2020/06/10/parent-qa-with-deputy-first-minister-john-swinney/

Connect (formerly the Scottish Parent Teacher Council) would like to hear your thoughts on how things are going during lockdown so that they can share these with Scottish Government, local authorities and schools.  They ask if you can please take part in this survey so that they can continue to speak up for parents. https://bit.ly/ConnectNextStepsSurvey

Online Learning survey

We would greatly appreciate it if parents could complete a survey to let us know how your child/children is/are experiencing online learning at this stage. If you have more than one child at school, please complete a separate survey for each child. The deadline for completion is midnight on Sunday 21 June. The survey can be accessed below: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ShareFormPage.aspx?id=af6sSGo3tUKfacnke7-5xOyyWkX2LF9CgNT_TgNM4jBUNEtKSllMNE43UlpEQlZXQUZSRllGWU41Ty4u&sharetoken=nnkfbQGbHivK1AD2mKFE

Lothian Equal Access Partnership for Schools (LEAPS)

Parents of S5 and S6 are requested to share the following information with pupils. This has been added to the PSE TEAMs portal but some pupils may benefit from a wee reminder!

S5 and S6 applying to an HNC, HND or degree course this year could be eligible for one-to-one help with their application from Lothian Equal Access Partnership for Schools (LEAPS) and getting prepared for leaving school and starting their course.

In order to be eligible, pupils have to fulfil one of the following criteria:

1. First in their family (siblings don't count) to go to university - i.e. their parents don't have a degree
2. Are a young carer
3. Are, or have ever been, in care
4. Are eligible for FSM or EMA

Some postcode areas make pupils eligible. Please check the LEAPS website for a postcode check and for more information - https:www.leapsonline.org/  Pupils must  email Mrs Pearce to tell her they are eligible and interested at cait.pearce@jamesgillespies.edin.sch.uk by Friday 19 June.  They will not be able to access this support otherwise.

S1 befrienders (Pleas relay to pupils in S6)

For new S6 – we need S1 befrienders to help our new S1s settle into High School in August. Those S6 who would like to develop skills, have something to put onto an application form, or serve the school community they should consider becoming a befriender.  Befrienders usually help out with one or more of the following: Helping the new S1s

•                     Helping out in classes

•                     Helping out in SfL and running lunchtime clubs.

There will be opportunity to undertake training before and during the summer using Teams as well as contact during the summer for preparation for the new term in August.  Friday period 4 will be set aside for regular catch ups and face to face training. Pupils who are interested should email by Friday 19 June from an email address they will check regularly (including over the summer) to cait.pearce@jamesgillespies.edin.sch.uk with a few lines about why they would like to be involved.

Contacting us

1.            Our admin email will be checked each day and we will continue to respond to requests.

2.            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 of the week:  ‘No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.’ – Nelson Mandela

Donald j Macdonald (Headteacher)