James Gillespie's High School aims to provide it's advanced higher students with a mere 3 hours of classroom time every week in the coming academic year. This is a steep drop from the normal 5 hours of classroom time and will greatly affect the learning and attainment of advanced higher students, who will already be disadvantaged due to the coronavirus and its effect on education.

The other 2 hours of learning will be provided through so-called Flexible Digital Learning (FDL). FDL reduces the amount of time that students spend with teachers, makes it more difficult to ask questions to get help, and impacts the mental health and social skills of students.

We oppose FDL, and we ask that other solution are considered such as renting halls in the local community or sharing classrooms with other schools in the community such as Boroughmuir High School.