James Gillespie's High School

Standards and Quality Improvement

Our School Improvement Documents

Each year James Gillespie’s High School publishes two linked documents that set out how we are doing and what we plan to do next. They are summarised below, with links to the full documents.

Standards & Quality Report (June 2025)

This report looks back at the past school year — what the school did, how well it worked, what evidence we have of impact on pupils, and where we are going next, evaluated against the national “How Good Is Our School?” framework.

Download the full report

School Improvement Plan (2025–26)

This plan sets out our priorities across the 2025–26 and 2026–27 school years, the actions we’ll take, who is responsible, and how we’ll measure success. Progress is reviewed and published in January and May each year.

Download the full plan

Our School Values

  • Respect
  • Kindness
  • Integrity
  • Inclusion
  • High Expectations

Where We’re Strong

  • Relationships between staff and learners are positive, supportive and caring in almost all cases.
  • Digital learning is used effectively in almost all lessons observed to help pupils access their learning.
  • Strong record of positive destinations for school leavers — 95% in the most recent year.
  • Attendance remains above 96%, ahead of both local and national figures.

Our Four Improvement Priorities (2025–26 to 2026–27)

Leadership & Pupil Voice

Giving pupils and parents a stronger, more visible role in shaping school improvement, and embedding a new Learning, Teaching and Assessment policy consistently across all subjects.

Inclusion & Wellbeing

Strengthening attendance support, reviewing our Anti-Bullying Policy, improving support for care-experienced young people, and closing equity gaps for our most disadvantaged pupils.

Curriculum

Improving literacy and numeracy attainment, broadening qualification pathways in the senior phase, and building sustainability and digital skills into everyday teaching.

Gaelic Medium Education (GME) & Cultural Capital

Growing staff Gàidhlig fluency and confidence, expanding Gaelic-language work experience and cultural exchange, and developing a consistent bilingual teaching toolkit across the 3–18 GME pathway.

Progress against these priorities is formally reviewed in January and May each year, with updates published alongside the plan.