Community Update 9 June 2025

Dear Parents

It was great to see so many of you at our parent information sessions in April and again at our Senior School and Junior School parent events last week.

School uniform 
Moving through our last month of the term, we are continuing to listen to the views of our community. We are currently holding uniform focus groups for staff, parents, students and alumni to gather feedback on a selection of fabrics and initial designs. Once completed, we will collate the survey and focus group feedback to share with our uniform supplier as we move into the next design stage.

On the subject of uniform, I would like to thank the amazing volunteers in our Thrift Shop who have been instrumental in supporting parents as we transition to the new uniform. The price of blazers has now been reduced by 50% and there is still a good stock of items. If you are planning a visit to the Thrift shop, do not forget that it has moved home to Dean Park House. If you are not able to find something in the Thrift shop, please add your name to the waiting list – summer always brings fresh donations, and our volunteers work diligently to match families with the items they need as new donations come in.

Review of our outdoor and indoor spaces 
In June, our Student Engagement team is walking the sites with Junior and Senior students. Senior School students who have expressed a wish to be involved in the review of the outdoor and indoor spaces will walk the Queensferry Road site to offer their thoughts on how we can enhance the look and feel of our outdoor social spaces and our shared indoor spaces. The Junior School students will focus on the outdoor play areas at Ravelston this term with an opportunity to be involved in the design of the new year group corridors next year. This is an important step in ensuring that the spaces shared by our students at Erskine Stewart Melville are inspiring, functional and shaped by those who use them.

Guidance structure in the Senior School 

Last week we wrote to parents about the organisation of pastoral care in the new Senior School, which will restructured so that Heads and Assistant Heads of Year will remain with their cohort from S1 to S5, creating strong relationships with the students and parents. When the students transition into Sixth Form, they will have their own unique guidance and support team to ensure a smooth transition to the next life stage.

To ease the transition into the new School and keep social continuity, we also intend to maintain existing Senior School registration groups in the first year of ESM, meaning only S1 and S6 students will register in co-educational form groups in 2026.

As always, thank you for your continued support.

Kind regards

Anthony Simpson
Principal