The funds for the James Gillespie’s Trust Projects come from donations and generous legacies from former pupils and staff. With the income from these funds the Trust is pleased to be able to make donations and awards to school projects where specific needs can be identified, and this is reflected in grants that have been made in recent years to certain groups within the school. In addition the Trust supports projects that will benefit the school and reflect its history.
Achievements and performance in 2023-2024
The Trustees received a wide range of Staff Grant applications during the year.
This process allows staff to apply for funding where other financial
support is in place but the Trust’s support will make a real difference
and the project would not be able to proceed without our support.
Art Terrace Tree Garden (May 2024)
One such application was awarded funds to create a green learning
space with seating for a number of outdoor learning options.
This project will not only help the school environment but also encourage and support the
students’ connection with nature.
It aims to provide a wide diversity of learning experiences and improve
the overall general health and wellbeing of all students. It will also create
a small oasis of nature and biodiversity within the campus and transform
what was an unused space into a multi-purpose teaching area.
Sports Equipment at Darroch Annexe (November 2023)
The Trust, alongside a contribution from the Parent Council Small Sums
Fund, provided mobile basketball and football equipment for use at the
new outdoor space at Darroch Annexe. This equipment has encouraged
more pupils to socialise whilst using this space, to participate in extracurricular sport and assist in their general well-being.
A+ Group (2023-2024)
The Trust had awarded funding in 2023 to The A+ Group, which supports
pupils of colour and their families, when the Group ran a 6 month pilot
project. Such was the success, further funding was awarded in 2024 to
continue supporting their invaluable work and in order to reach out to
more families who are from a broad range of demographics. All the
families involved are keen to celebrate and share their heritage, and to
contribute to achieving racial equality in school, for example, discussing
ways to decolonise the curriculum. The Group also works to support
particular needs that families feel are not currently being met.
Read the 2023 report from the A+ Group about their activities
S1 Residential (September 2023)
The Trust awarded money to the S1 Residential at the Lockerbie Manor
Outdoor Education to cover costs for pupils who could not otherwise
have attended. This type of residential trips are unique experiences and
form many lasting memories for those students. The S1s had a fantastic
time despite the weather and mud – please see the photo on the Trustees Annual Report.
The Small Grants Scheme allows pupils to apply for funds for realisable
projects. An example of this is:
S4/5 European Youth Parliament National (September 2024)
Funding was awarded towards the travel and accommodation for 9
students to attend the National Finals in Liverpool in September 2024 –
we wish them every success at the competition.
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Selected Former Projects and Fundraising Events:
Faithful & Brave: A Celebration of James Gillespie’s High School
Back in 2009 James Gillespie’s Trust started talking about commissioning a book about James Gillespie’s High School. It has been a bumpy ride with delays along the way, but John MacLeod, award-winning journalist and a former Gillespie’s pupil himself, started the mammoth task of research and writing in 2013 .
Fidelis et Fortis – Faithful and Brave REDUCED
The clock that never worked, the sinister Green Lady, the day we nearly drowned the Queen Mother – it’s all in his sparkling book, Faithful and Brave: A Celebration of James Gillespie’s High School. Commissioned by the James Gillespie’s Trust to mark the opening of the new campus in 2016, and penned by award-winning journalist John MacLeod, himself a former Gillespie’s pupil, ‘Faithful and Brave’ is fact-packed with heavily illustrated pages, covering our entire history from the last days of Mr Gillespie to Callum Skinner’s Olympic glories in August 2016.
On 14 December 2016 in the Spark Theatre in James Gillespie’s High School, followed by refreshments in Brodie’s Cafe, where there was the opportunity to buy copies of Faithful and Brave, and John was very happy to sign them.
A gripping read, a physically beautiful book and the perfect present, with a warm foreword by Grant Stott – it’s unputdownable. Buy your copy right now. And another for a friend!
Email the school at: admin@jamesgillespies.edin.sch.uk to reserve a copy and arrange for collection. Price WAS £17.99 NOW £9.99 if collected from school (with proof of purchase) or £14.50 (incl. postage) if the book is to be posted to a UK address.
Electronic payment:
- Account name: James Gillespie’s Trust
- Sort Code: 80 22 60
- Account no: 17854260
- ________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Living Stories” Oral History Project
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JGHS Pipe Band (December 2020)
Piping is well established within James Gillespie’s High School and has been running successfully for many years. Despite offering alternative methods of tuition during school closure due to Covid restrictions (recorded and online), the number of pupils engaging dropped significantly.
Funding was sought to contribute towards the cost of electronic chanters in order that face-to-face tuition can be resumed. These chanters meet current Covid guidelines for instrumental tuition within school. The Trust was delighted to fund this application in December 2020.
Project Trust
Project Trust empowers young people to be confident, effective, creative, independent and resilient through a challenging volunteering experience overseas. It provides all Volunteers with training and support before, during and after their time overseas, to maximise both the educational value of their experience and the positive impact they have in their projects and host communities.
The Trust has been delighted to make financial contributions to students wishing to participate in Gap Year opportunities with Project Trust. Several students applied for and were granted awards for 2019-2020. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, their time away was cut short but, as you will see from the accounts below, Eva & Hector still had the most amazing experiences.
Eva Sigurdardottir spent her year in Santiago, Chile, helping to teach English to children at secondary school level – read about her year here: Eva ́s Year as a Volunteer in Santiago
Hector Friend spent his year in a small village in Nepal, teaching English and occasionally computers to primary school age children – read about his time here: Hector’s Year Teaching in Nepal
In recent years students have taught maths and science in Guyana, taught English in a school on a Japanese island and in Chile.
Together in Sport Rwanda (2018)
In 2018 four JGHS students took part in a volunteering opportunity with Together in Sport Rwanda, a youth exchange that provides an invaluable opportunity to experience the diversity and complexity of another culture
The purpose of this trip was a cultural exchange with Faith and Hope primary school in the Bugasera region. They worked closely with students aged 5-11 from disadvantaged backgrounds: working within the school engaging in a number of activities and tasks such as decorating classrooms, teaching physical education and games, along with a qualified PE Instructor from Inveralmond High School.
Crazy Tie Competition (2011)
In 2011 the Trust funded a competition amongst the pupils to design a crazy tie in memory of a much-loved history teacher, Mr Caddell, who had died very suddenly in the summer.The winning design featured skylines from Edinburgh, USA, India & Thailand. Proceeds from sales of the tie went to Chest, Heart & Stroke Scotland.
Physics Podcasts
The Trust continues to fund small projects for JGHS students with the most recent award in 2009 funding the production of Physics podcasts for Scottish schools in collaboration with Edinburgh University.
In the financial year 2005/06, the Trust made 5 small grants awards:
Battle of the Bands!
£250 was awarded for the transportation of the fans of ‘Danny Cockroach’ – The James Gillespie’s High School rock band, to support their friends in the finals of the ‘Battle of the Bands’ in Leeds. The money was used to pay for a coach and driver and 35 fans and had a great time! The band did not win the competition but certainly performed better for the support!
Eco- Bike!
£150 was awarded to pay for the parts to construct an electricity generating bicycle, as part of the alternative energy project within the school. The bike will be use to demonstrate the creation of alternative electricity supplies, generated by human energy. The bike will be used at open days and within different departments of the school.
UK Maths Challenges – Upper & Lower School
Two awards of £210 and £100 were made to the Upper and Lower schools to pay for the entry fees for contestants to take part in the UK Maths Challenges run from Leeds University.
Software programme
£100 was awarded for the purchase of a software disc, ‘People In Need’, which gives access to fundraising information to pupils, whose families are on Family Income Support and will allow them to research, for themselves, possible sources of additional finance for residential or school trips.
CD Demo support
£200 was awarded to the members of the rock band ‘Twisted Willy’ to support the funding of their first recording on CD. They hope this will help them show their work and could be used to launch a career in the music business!
Olympic Speed biking!
£250 was awarded to Callum Skinner, who competes in track cycling at a National level. The award will pay for travel to his training weekends and competitions and for various pieces of equipment for his bike. He hopes his success will lead him to the Olympics! Good luck from the Trust, Callum!
See the update on this award on our News & Updates page …
Theatre Production
A grant of £200 awarded to Zoe Barker, to assist production costs in a show entitled “Into the Woods” presented by The Melodramatics. Zoe comments on her experience:
“… this helped me to gain confidence in a career in musical theatre. As I was the youngest actor in the company I was given lots of advice and tips on how to perform on stage. I was also fortunate enough to work with some former professional singers… The experience which ‘Into the Woods’ gave me will hopefully help me in pursuing a career in musical theatre and I hope to be invited for an audition at four drama schools down in London in April of 2009.”
Download the application form and guidelines as a Word document
Download the application form and guidelines as a PDF document
The James Gillespie’s Trust £10K Challenge
An enormous thank you to all of you who supported the three Trustees and myself in the 2011 BUPA Great Edinburgh Run. Those of you who were sensible enough to stay warm and dry indoors may remember that Sunday 2 October was a very wet day and indeed, as you can see, we did get very wet!
Back trouble prevented Allison from taking part but Jean Cathro, Mimo Caenepeel and I braved the weather and completed our 5K in a respectable 53 minutes and 29 seconds (we had a microchip in our shoes which timed our walk exactly). I think our medals were more for endurance in the face of horrible weather than anything else! Jeremy completed his 10K run in an impressive 1 hour, 11 minutes and 22 seconds … well done Jeremy!
Although money is still coming in, we believe we have raised about £2,500 towards our goal of raising £10,000 this financial year and hope that this will enable us to make progress with the book (see above).
“Living Stories” Oral History Project
“Living Stories”. This was a two-year Oral History project to gather, curate and archive the oral history of James Gillespie’s School in the Bruntsfield and Marchmont communities of Edinburgh. Our application to support this project was approved by the heritage lottery fund.
