Friday 22 January

 

Dear Parent/Carer, 

 Today marks the end of our second week of online learning for pupils in this second phase of pupils learning from home. I'm pleased to report that, overall, we are doing much better than in 2020. Significantly, Pupil engagement is much higher than last year. As we set out to do, the pupil week has structure, live lessons/interactions are taking place, pupils are getting feedback on their learning and more tasks are differentiated to better suit the range of learners' needs. In-school provision for Keyworkers' children and others who need a bit of extra support are progressing well. Of course, we haven't got everything right and we are still learning. In a week or so, we will contact you to seek your views on our current practices. We will then make changes as appropriate to improve what we are offering. 

Please, in the interim, let us know if your child is experiencing any barriers to their learning that we can help with. Many thanks to everyone for doing your best to ensure that Online learning continues to take place for our children. These are challenging times for families and school staff. Working in partnership with parents has never been more significant and important. 

The Scottish Government wishes to gather the views of parents and learners to inform the national overview of practice. If you are a parent or carer, or a learner, please use the links below to complete surveys. Both surveys will close on Monday 25 January at 12 noon. 

 https://education.gov.scot/improvement/covid-19-education-recovery/national-overviews/about/ 

  

The Parent Council will be holding a meeting (online) on Tuesday 2 February which will look at proposals for dealing with school capacity in 2021/22, and which will be attended by Council representatives. Background documents relating to the plans which have been circulated can be found at http://jghscouncil.btck.co.uk/Newsand a presentation to the November PC meeting can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/YICdgNAxPTk (from 18.53). Further details, including the link to attend the meeting will be circulated via the school nearer the time. If you have comments and questions on the proposals, please send them to the Parent Council email address  jghscouncilcomms@gmail.com by 6pm on Saturday 24 January, for inclusion in the meeting. 

The UKMT Intermediate Maths challenge will take place on 1February 2021. It will be held online. If you are interested in taking part in the challenge, please email Ms Dolan on ashling.dolan@jamesgillespies.edin.sch.uk for all the information regarding logins and practice resources, unless you have already done so. 

If you are contacting the school for any reason in the coming weeks, please use email rather than leaving a telephone message.

 My quote for this week: ‘O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us, to see oursels as ithers see us!''.(Robert Burns) 

  

Wishing all a peaceful and safe weekend. 

 

Donald j Macdonald (Headteacher)

James Gillespie’s High School