Carol Concert 2012

On the evening of Tuesday 18 December James Gillespie's HS and associated primary schools are staging our Christmas Carol Concert at the Usher Hall. There will be a wide range of music played and enjoyed during the evening including classical repertoire and ensembles, a FP choir (please contact the school if you are an FP and you would like to be involved!) traditional Scottish music - such as the marvellous school pipe band, clarsach ensemble, accordions and Gaelic choir- as well as some rock and pop, and this wonderful evening is set to end with an impressive 400-strong choir finale! Tickets can be reserved online at the Usher Hal box office.

An event not to be missed!

Achievements at the mod

Congratulations to all JGHS pupils who performed at the recent National Mod in Dunoon.  The following JGHS pupils achieved bronze, silver or gold awards in a variety of competitions. 

• Finlay Cunniffe S4: Silver Award in the Advanced Clarsach solo class

• Sean MacPherson S5: Bronze Award in the Advanced Clarsach solo class

• Simon and Cameron MacDonald S4/S1: Gold Award in the Clarsach Duets over 14yrs

• Romy Byron and Martha Cunniffe S1: Silver Award in the Clarsach Duets under 14yrs
• Jenny Macdonald (S1) and Tuesday Rose McDonough (S1) : Bronze award in the clarsach duets under 14 yrs
• Tuesday Rose McDonough (S1): silver award in clarsach with self accompaniment
• Ann Mackenzie and Catriona Macgregor (both S3) : bronze award in clarsach duets over 13 years
• Finlay Lawson: silver award for intermediate 1 solo clarsach
• Ceitidh McLuskey:  bronze award for intermediate 1 solo clarsach 

Parent Council Meeting

All parents are invited to come along to our Parent Council meeting on Tuesday 19 November at 7pm. I will be sharing updates with parents on:

• New Build Plans
• Consultation on School values
• Curriculum for excellence
• School attainment for session 11/12
• What we are going to do to improve further this session

Please come along and have a say in how the school is run!

Wine Tasting at Gillespies

Thank you to our Events Committee for organising a really enjoyable wine tasting on Thursday evening. It was a great opportunity for staff to meet parents over a glass of wine whilst being entertained and educated by Michael from Peter Green - a local retailer of fine wines. A discount is available on some excellent wines if you visit Peter Green's soon. Make sure you tell them you have a link with Gillespie's!

Mandarin at Gillespies

On Monday 12 November I attended the first Scottish China Education Network (SCEN) China Youth Summit at Gleneagles with Cat Macdonald and Leanne Bell, two of our S6 students. Both Cat and Leanne are two of our seniors who have opted to study Mandarin as part of their sixth year. As their S6 leadership project they have chosen to develop   Chinese Studies at Gillespie's.This is their account of the day.

Although we were a little nervous to be speaking in front of so many people – we later learned there were over two hundred delegates! – we were reassured by listening to the students who spoke first. Fortunately, it turned out that presenting was not so bad after all. We told the audience about our own personal connections to China, and explained the difficulties we had faced in studying Chinese at high school. When we mentioned the problem of finding a teacher, there were many rueful nods among the students in the crowd!

We heard so many interesting stories from other high schools. One presentation was given by students from Crieff High School and Morrison’s Academy, who had travelled together to Hong Kong to run the Wilson Trail, a gruelling and mostly uphill trek across Hong Kong. This trip was organised and partly funded by a former pupil from Morrison’s Academy who is now a successful businessman based in Hong Kong. The students had all loved their trip, and it was fantastic to hear them talking about their new found enthusiasm for learning Chinese.

Of course, Gleneagles Hotel provided an excellent spread at lunchtime, which was lovely. Leanne and I took the chance to get to know some of the students from other schools that were attending the conference. We even met a Scottish student with the same tastes in Chinese music as us! As well as other students, we also talked with the convener of Young Chinese Professionals, who had some good advice for us.

A particular highlight for me personally was the opportunity to meet Lord Wilson, former governor of Hong Kong. He was a very well-respected figure in China, and it was fascinating to hear his insights into the current and future importance of the country. We talked to him about our experiences in China, and he was interested to hear about our plans for introducing Mandarin in our school in the future.

Both Leanne and I really loved attending the conference, and we really learned a lot from listening to various people speaking. We came away with many useful contacts for the future, as well as a list of new ideas to further our goal of introducing Mandarin at Gillespie’s. 

During the conference both Cat and Leanne were rewarded for their efforts in promoting Chinese Studies by being appointed as SCEN ambassadors. Both girls intend to continue with their Mandarin studies when they begin at university in Autumn 2013.

S1 Halloween party

We had a superb halloween party tonight for pupils in S1. Thank you to all the S6 pupils and Guidance staff who teamed up to make it such a fun and entertaining night. My favourite moment of the evening was when a 'scary' S6 pupil leaped out from a darkened recess in Warrender  and screeched in my ear to frighten me. The screech that followed when he switched on his lantern and realised it was me was even louder!

Rumours are rife as to whether our legendary 'Green Lady' joined the festivities. Now that all the children are safely tucked up in bed and it's all quiet again in Bruntsfield House I hope she gets a chance to play the piano in peace and have a restful night.

Sgoinneil

Warmest congratulations to all our pupils who did so well at the National Mod in Dunoon last week. They were outstanding and did us proud! Nach math a rinn iad uile!

Profile of the ideal pupil

According to the 30 pupils in our junior pupil council the ideal pupil would have the following qualities and characteristics:

• Independent
• Organised
• Confident
• Respectful
• Has perfect attendance and is punctual
• Attentive
• Contributes to each class
• Well behaved
• Responsible
• Honest
• Dresses appropriately
• Balances school and social life
• Works to the best of his/her ability
• Participates in Extra curricular
• Asks questions and
• Looks after others

Characteristics of the ideal teacher

Many of us have fond memories of at least one teacher from our schooldays. His/her personality and the way we were made to feel about ourselves and learning stay with us for a long time. What though are the characteristics of the ideal teacher in the eyes of pupils in 2012?  According to S1, 2 and 3 pupils at James Gillespie's HS their ideal teacher has the following characteristics/qualities:

• Enthusiastic
• Fun
• Happy
• Fair
• Does not have favourites
• Promotes active learning
• In control
• Responsible
• Respectful
• Down to Earth
• Positive
• Understanding
• Friendly (but not necessarily a friend)
• Knowledgeable 
• Experienced and
• Never gives up on us.

National Mod

I would like to wish success and enjoyment to all those who are competing at the National Mod in Dunoon next week. Several pupils from Gillespie's HS and from Tollcross PS will be there. I'm really looking forward to spending the week on the Cowal peninsula with my family. Lets hope that the sun shines!

Humanity

International 'Day of the Girl'

I am delighted that our Pupil Council has decided to focus their efforts on raising funds and awareness of the plight of girls in some countries in the world. The Girl Effect is a campaign sponsored by the Nike Foundation and Warren Buffet's NoVo Foundation.

International 'Day of the Girl' took place on 11 October 2012

Pupil Council meeting

I am looking forward immensely to working with the S1-3 members of our pupil council tomorrow. The pupil council is made up of a representative from each tutor class. Each year therefore has 10 representatives.

The day will begin with a short questionnaire on a variety of aspects about the school. I will publish the results on this blog. Following this task we will divide into groups and the pupils will discuss what values we should adopt as a school. (Teaching staff and Office staff were involved in a similar exercise two weeks ago).

After this we will use a 'carousel' approach to allow groups of pupils to answer the following questions:

1. What are the characteristics of the ideal pupil?
2. What are the characteristics of the ideal teacher?
3. How can we make lessons more interesting?
4. How can we get rid of litter?
5. What do we need to change at Gillespie’s
6. What must not change at Gillespie’s?
7. How can we improve behaviour and encourage all pupils to be the best they can be?
8. How can we improve attendance?

I will be intrigued to what see emerges from the discussions! The results will be shared with all staff and pupils.

Parents face jail over kids’ truancy

This rather alarming headline caught my eye at the weekend when I was browsing the various on-line news stories. (Full story at: Evening News) Regardless of what one thinks of using custodial sentences to punish those who offend against society, I welcome the fact that Edinburgh Council is prepared to support children by taking such a tough line with those who are neglecting their responsibilities as parents. I sincerely hope that this 'last resort', won't be necessary. Based on my 30 years experience of working in  a variety of schools, pupils, whose attendance is poor, invariably struggle to secure a positive outcome on leaving school. Performance in Maths is particularly adversely affected when attendance is poor. We also need to bear in mind that erratic or poor attendance has a disruptive impact on other pupils. 

In an increasingly competitive world all of our young people need and deserve the best possible education. Whether that education takes place in school or in an alternative setting doesn't matter as long as pupils turn up on time each day with a desire to learn and better themselves.  At Gillespie's the attendance target for all pupils is 100%.

New qualifications

Scott Murphy from the SQA joined us at the school this evening to talk to parents of pupils in S1,2 and 3 about the changes to Scottish school qualifications. I was delighted to see that our parents turned out in very large numbers and took the opportunity to raise a variety of concerns. I would encourage anyone who has a question they wish to raise about the new qualification to contact either Mr McCallum (DHT) or me. If we don't have the answer we will take advice from the SQA. Parents can also contact Scott Murphy directly at the SQA.

Details of the new qualifications can be found on the SQA website. This evening's presentation will be placed on the school website in the next day or two.

In November we propose to hold a further evening meeting for parents where we will share our latest thinking on how best to prepare our pupils for the new exams.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) evening  we are having an open evening for parents to share our plans for how we will manage classes during the rebuilding of our new school.

Another very busy day

After the excitement of last night's hugely successful African children's choir concert I arrived at school today with a spring in my step and very much looking forward to the day ahead.

My first meeting of the day was with Rev Karen Campbell, the minister at Marchmont St Giles. Our meeting gave us the opportunity to explore how we might work together in the future. Our school has much to gain from further developing partnerships in our local community and beyond. 

Immediately after this meeting I met with headteachers from our neighbouring secondary schools to discuss areas of mutual interest. This included curriculum structures and how each of our schools is progressing with Cfe.

At lunchtime I met with Dr Judith McClure along with Cat and Leanne (both senior pupils) and Mr Irvine (Curriculum Leader for Modern Languages) to explore how we continue to develop Chinese Studies at Gillespies.

In the evening we had a very well supported Open Night where we welcomed P7s and their parents from our local primary schools to visit our school. The evening was very well attended and, based on initial feedback, ran very went smoothly. Mrs Kinnear (DHT) will write to all of our P7 families to get further feedback and offer further opportunity to anyone who wishes to find out more about our school.

Amnesty Group

Well done to our amnesty group who raised £31.46 at a bake sale on Friday. Thanks to John and Mairi for organising this. 

Rock concert at Queen's hall

What a fantastic night out! A variety of bands from our school entertained a sizeable audience at this grand venue on Thursday evening. Well done and thanks to everyone who contributed to making the evening such a success. I particularly enjoyed seeing how comfortable our younger performers were on stage and how supportive the audience was. The staff band (Messrs Alexander, Carson, Mcphail, Adams and Dearsly) were tremendous and gave the younger rockers a run for their money. McPhail, who was an outstanding lead vocal, rolled back the years and shared with us afterwards that, prior to joining the second oldest profession, he sang in a band. We look forward to hearing more from this band as they continue to 'grow old disgracefully' together.

The heart of a child's learning

'Children do better when families support their learning. There are lots of different ways you can get involved - from reading together, spending time talking and listening and finding out about their day through to helping them prepare for exams.

Your involvement makes a world of difference to your child. so do it today. Speak to your school and visit the Parentzone website for practical advice and ideas.' (Source - Education Scotlanf website)

All parents are invited to the first meeting of our Parent Events Group (formerly known as the PTA) on Wednesday 12 September at 7 Pm. Please come along and support us!

Au revoir

The retirement of a special teacher is a watershed event for a generation of students. We all associate favourite teachers with our youth - a care free time when life was vibrant and summers seemed endless. On Friday night one hundred and thirty serving and former staff from Gillespie's attended a retirement function at George Watson's rugby club to say our farewells to a number of staff who have, over the years, made an outstanding contribution to our school. Those whose service to our school was being marked by this special occasion were:

• Mary Ross (English)
• Stuart Robertson (Chemistry)
• Sandra Evans (Modern Studies, Geography and Guidance)
• Sylvia Campbell (Art and Design)
• Kevin Woods (Geography)
• Duncan Macleod (Modern Languages)

Based on what I have seen in my relatively short time at the school and the outpouring of good wishes from so many associated with the school in recent months, I anticipated that this farewell event would be special. And so it was.

The food was great, the company superb and the after dinner speeches were quite outstanding. In just over two hours all those who were leaving shared many fond memories with us. Their well crafted stories, laced with humour, were hugely entertaining and provided a rich insight in to what makes Gillespie's such a special school.  We wish all of our former colleagues a deserved long and happy retirement.

Si Parents' social evening

Thank you to everyone who attended our social evening last night. It was great to see such a large turnout!

It would be terrific to see many new parents coming along to our next Parent Council meeting next Tuesday - 4 September at 7 pm in the school library. As I mentioned last night this is one of the best ways of supporting our school and influencing key changes in the years ahead. Its also a very effective way of finding out what really goes on in school.

A new S1 pupil's perspective

Thank you to Tuesday Rose McDonough for sharing her thoughts on High School after her first week with us.

On the run up to high school I was incredibly nervous. The whole idea of a completely new school with completely new teachers and completely new friends is quite intimidating. I was most worried about finding my way around and not getting hopelessly lost. As I first walked into the school I felt like everyone’s eyes were on me, but soon I was greeted by a couple of my friends, and as the day went on, I started to feel more and more at home. I enjoy the lessons a lot more than the ones we got in primary, especially Science and English, and I think that it’s good to get a variety of classes. 

Before we started, we had a three day transition; I think I would have been a lot more nervous if I hadn’t been to it. It's nice because it means that you don’t go into high school clueless about what awaits you.   The school was one of the most welcoming places I’ve been, and I have made lots of new friends there.

I hope that all of our new charges now feel as settled as Tuesday Rose. If you get lost, need advice or you just want to chat about something that is worrying you then please speak to any of our S6 helpers or any member of staff.

S1 parents' social event

It's now a full week since our pupils returned and in some ways it feels like we've never been away! Staff and pupils are back in their routines and it's great to see how well our new S1 pupils are settling in to the 'Big school'. Our S6 'befrienders' have been superb in supporting our new charges and ensuring that they arrive safely at their intended destinations.

Next Thursday evening (30 August) all parents of S1 are invited to join us at the school from 7-8 pm to meet senior staff and other parents. I hope to see as many there as possible!

Prior to the main event we would like to meet with parents whose children speak more than one language. (details will follow in a letter from Mrs Kinnear). The last survey that was undertaken showed that 47 languages were spoken at Gillespie's. In addition to valuing the diversity that exists at Gillespie's, we also seek to explore how learning can be enhanced by using different languages at home and in school.

History is one for the future

In recent times, learning about History seems to have become very popular and interesting. The TV series entitled 'Horrible Histories' has won various awards and, in our household, it has been compulsive viewing for our two daughters. How then as schools do we follow that?  I am delighted to report that at Gillespie's High School, History is thriving! One example of the wonderful work we do was staged in our assembly hall today when Dave Clarke (a practising teacher of History at Stewart's Melville and a former student at Liberton High School) presented to several enthralled assemblies.  

At the end of the day I set off from my office with the intention of popping into a few classes.  What was to have been a fleeting visit to the hall, as I particularly wished to go and see some of our new S1 classes in action, turned out to be so amazing that I stayed for 45 minutes. Dave Clarke was inspirational and the pupils and staff were transfixed. Amongst other amazing facts we learned about moustaches, polishing buttons, how to use bayonets, Elsie Inglis and the fearsome reputation of the Highland regiments. This was curriculum for excellence at its glorious best.

After a rapturous round of applause several pupils and staff stayed to survey and hold the various items that were utilised during the presentations. A particular favourite of mine was an actual 'dog-tag' from a fallen soldier. As the pupils departed I asked several what they thought of the presentation. Comments included: 'He was amazing - he should be performing at the Fringe' and 'That's how to teach History sir' give an accurate representation of the awe and wonder among the pupils who were there. Many thanks to the History department and Mrs Carruthers in particular for organising such a superb experience.

Back to school

'First day at school. Stomach sinks. Tears well up. Bottom lip trembles - and you're just the parent. First-time parents get more anxious than their little darlings, so let's spare a thought for them and those others new to school this week - the newly qualified teachers.
As with every "ordeal", the waiting is worse. Parents, awake since 6am, look with adoration and apprehension at little darling's new clothes and shiny shoes laid out ready.
Meanwhile, new teacher, shiny of shoe, has been in the school car park since 6am and is desperate for the loo, but the school is not open yet ...' (Source:Guardian newspaper)


 Tomorrow morning (Wednesday 15 August) we will warmly welcome all of our pupils back to school after what I hope has been a fantastic summer holiday. I am delighted that we have a full complement of staff who are all ready and raring to go.  I look forward to congratulating pupils on a superb set of exam results before we roll up our sleeves and continue on our journey to excellence through the new session.

A very large number of new staff (24) have joined us over the summer following the departure of an equally large number of colleagues. I suspect that this very large number of 'new' staff is unprecedented at Gillespie's. Some of  the 'new' staff (3) I refer to are staff returning after a year's break on various adventures including maternity leave and travelling for a year. The past two days has given us time to work with the new staff to prepare for what, I'm sure, will be another busy and wonderful year in the life of James Gillespie's.