Online platforms to support your studies
Overview
James Gillespie’s High School gives every pupil access to a range of online study support platforms, in addition to the support available from subject teachers in class. These can be used at school and at home to help pupils revise, catch up, and go beyond what is covered in lessons.
This page explains what each platform is for and, step by step, how pupils access it. If a pupil gets stuck accessing any of these, the first port of call is their class teacher.
At a Glance
📌 ACHIEVE
An interactive study platform covering National 5 and Higher courses, with Learn, Assess and Self-evaluate tools.
achieve.hashtag-learning.co.uk📌 Glow
Every pupil’s national Scottish schools account. Used to sign in to other online services, including eSgoil and Scholar.
Accessing Glow — Edinburgh Learns📌 eSgoil
Live online lessons in subjects that may not be able to run in school. Accessed by signing in with Glow.
www.e-sgoil.com📌 Scholar
Online course materials produced by Heriot-Watt University, used to support National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher study. Accessed by signing in with Glow.
scholar.hw.ac.ukForgotten your Glow password? Any member of staff can reset it — just speak to your class teacher and they will sort this out for you.
ACHIEVE
ACHIEVE is an interactive digital study platform covering National 5 and Higher courses. It works like a digital textbook combined with a practice-question bank and a self-tracking tool, so pupils can learn a topic, test themselves on it, and see exactly where they need to focus next.
Getting Started
The quickest way to access ACHIEVE is to follow these three steps:
- Visit achieve.hashtag-learning.co.uk
- Sign up with an email address and password
- When prompted, enter the James Gillespie’s High School code: yggMbxoT
Once signed up, pupils can select all their National 5 and Higher courses and access the Learn, Assess and Self-evaluate modules for each.
Adding Courses
To set up the courses being studied:
- Select Manage Courses from the My Courses menu
- Select the level of study — National 5 or Higher
- Select all courses being studied
- Optional: some courses (such as History or Modern Studies) have optional topics and units. Select the topics that match the course being taught, or check with the class teacher which topics will be covered. This can be changed via Optional Units / Topics in the My Courses menu.
Joining a Class
If a teacher has set up a class in ACHIEVE (for example, to assign homework or tests), pupils should join it:
- Select Join Classes from the My Courses menu
- Click Join Class next to the relevant course
- Enter the class code given by the teacher and click Save
Using Learn, Assess and Self-evaluate
Learn is the starting point for each course — an interactive digital textbook with every key concept explained and illustrated, broken down into Units, Topics and Concepts. Each concept links to a concise explanation, further learning links, extended questions and past paper questions.
Assess lets pupils test their knowledge and get instant feedback. This can be a test assigned by a teacher, or a student-managed assessment chosen by Topic, Unit or Course, with the number of questions chosen by the pupil. After each assessment, pupils get an overall score and a breakdown of strengths and areas for improvement.
Self-evaluate lets pupils traffic-light their own confidence in each topic — green (confident), amber (fairly confident) or red (not confident) — building an overview of strengths and weaknesses by unit and topic, to help target revision time.
ACHIEVE also awards badges and tracks streaks (a pupil’s best run of consecutive correct answers) as an extra way to recognise progress.
Glow
Glow is the national online account given to every pupil in a Scottish local authority school. It acts as a single sign-on gateway: rather than needing separate logins for every online tool, pupils sign in once with their Glow username and password to reach a range of services, including eSgoil and Scholar (see below).
Every pupil at James Gillespie’s already has a Glow account, issued by the school. Full guidance on accessing Glow — including on school and personal devices — is published by the council:
Accessing Glow — Edinburgh Learns for Parents/Carers
Important — CEC O365 and Glow can’t stay signed in together: By default, a device cannot be signed in to Edinburgh Council (CEC) O365 and Glow at the same time in the same browser — signing in to one will sign you out of the other. Edinburgh Learns sets out three ways round this:
- Web Clip — add a Glow web clip icon to the home screen; this signs in to Glow without affecting the Edinburgh M365 sign-in.
- Two different browsers — use one browser (e.g. Safari) for Edinburgh M365 and a different browser (e.g. Edge) for Glow, so each keeps its own separate sign-in.
- Safari profiles (iPadOS 17+) — set up separate Safari profiles, one for each account, to keep the logins apart within Safari itself.
One thing to watch for: a link opened from outside Safari (for example, from Teams) will open in whichever Safari profile is currently active — if that’s the Glow profile but the link needs Edinburgh M365, it won’t work. Full step-by-step instructions (including videos) are on the Edinburgh Learns accessing Glow page.
Forgotten your Glow password? Any member of staff at James Gillespie’s can reset a pupil’s Glow password — simply speak to your class teacher.
eSgoil
eSgoil provides live, teacher-led online lessons, most often used where a subject or course isn’t available to timetable in school, or to add extra support alongside in-school teaching. Pupils join lessons at scheduled times, as directed by their subject teacher or the school’s timetabling.
How to access: Go to www.e-sgoil.com and sign in using your Glow account details. There is no separate eSgoil username or password to remember — access is entirely through Glow.
Scholar
Scholar is a set of online course materials produced by Heriot-Watt University, covering National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher subjects. It provides structured notes, activities and self-assessment questions that pupils can work through independently to support classwork and revision.
How to access: Go to scholar.hw.ac.uk and sign in using your Glow account details. As with eSgoil, there’s no separate Scholar login — access is through Glow.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: I’ve forgotten my Glow password. What do I do?
â–¼Speak to any member of staff at the school — any teacher is able to reset a pupil’s Glow password.
Q: Do I need a Glow login for ACHIEVE?
▼No. ACHIEVE has its own sign-up, separate from Glow — you create an account with your own email address and password, then enter the school code yggMbxoT. Glow is only needed for eSgoil and Scholar.
Q: I don’t know the ACHIEVE school code — where do I find it?
â–¼The James Gillespie’s High School ACHIEVE code is yggMbxoT. Enter this when prompted during sign-up.
Q: Can I use these platforms on my phone or tablet, not just a computer?
â–¼Yes. ACHIEVE, Glow, eSgoil and Scholar are all web-based and can be used on a phone, tablet or computer through a web browser.
Q: Is there a cost to using ACHIEVE, eSgoil or Scholar?
▼No — these are provided free to pupils through the school and local authority.
Q: Why can’t I stay logged in to Glow and CEC O365 at the same time?
â–¼By default, a device can’t stay signed in to both at once in the same browser — signing in to one signs you out of the other. Edinburgh Learns explains three fixes: add a Glow web clip to your home screen, use two different browsers (one for each account), or — on iPadOS 17+ — set up separate Safari profiles. See the Edinburgh Learns accessing Glow page for full instructions and videos.