HEAD TEACHER'S NEWSLETTER
Embedded Files
MUSSELBURGH GRAMMAR SCHOOL
Friday 09 May 2025
Friday 09 May 2025
With best wishes for a lovely weekend.
Jodie Hannan
Key Dates
Monday 12- Friday 16 May: S3 work experience
Monday 19th May: Inset day - no pupils attend (unless sitting an SQA exam)
Tuesday 20th May: S1-3 Activities (Alton Towers/Go Ape/Blair Drummond/In-school Activities)
Remember you can find all events on our school calendar, and you can add the calendar to your own too.
Reporting on pupil progress
Reporting dates
There are several reporting stages coming up. Please note reports will be issued to learners at the following times:
Year Report type Issue date week beginning
S1 level, rating and comment 19th May
Staffing
We are currently advertising for a full time permanent Teacher of Maths, and a full time Teacher of Home Economics.
Parent Council Meeting dates
Tuesday 20 May: MGS PC Online briefing 7-8pm meet.google.com/tkd-rakc-dor
Monday 16 June: MGS PC full meeting – in person, in school 7-8pm
SQA Exam Diet
The SQA exam diet now commences on Friday 25 April, not Monday 28 April https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/files_ccc/nq-2025-exam-timetable.pdf
SQA’s learner booklet – Your Exams – is available to download from their website. The booklet contains important information for learners sitting National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher exams. It also highlights the rules that learners must know and follow to ensure they are not penalised. Please encourage your child to download and read the booklet. If you have any problems accessing the booklet please ask your child to speak to their pupil support.
Download Your Exams booklet: https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/100863.12732.html
A link to this booklet has already been made available to pupils in their google classroom.
Senior pupils arriving for exams are reminded to arrive 10 minutes before the start of the exam.
For all MGS pupils not taking exams
Can we ask parents to remind their young people that they should enter the building via the Music Department (unless they have an exam) during the exam diet. If pupils arrive after 9am, they should enter through the main front door, but are reminded to be very quiet. Thank you for your help with this.
In terms of ongoing support for exams, I hope that students are finding this revision poster helpful, and the immersion class timetable (link below) has been published. All pupils should attend their Immersion sessions (unless it coincides with an actual exam). We know these sessions are incredibly useful to pupils - it's their last opportunity to ask their teacher about anything they need assurance in.
https://sites.google.com/edubuzz.org/musselburgh-grammar-school/students/sqa-exams
Rights Respecting Schools
We are currently preparing ourselves for a visit to become a Rights Respecting Silver Accredited School. We have been working hard for the last 2 years to embed Children’s Rights throughout our school and have made some fantastic progress.
Using the link below you should hopefully be able to view our Evidence Presentation and see some of the great things we have been doing in and around the school.
MGS Active Schools
Competition Opportunities:
Please see the following opportunities for your child to compete in athletics and golf events
SSAA SECONDARY TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Date: 13th-14th June
Venue: Grangemouth Stadium
Time: 10:00 (first event)
Eligibility: U20, U17 and U15 (minimum age is 13 by 31st August 2025)
EMS SCHOOLS MURRAYFIELD GOLF TOURNAMENT
Date: 13th June
Venue: Murrayfield Golf Club
Time: 08:15
Eligibility: Golfers with a full CONGU handicap will enter the 18-hole competition; golfers without a handicap will enter the 9-hole competition. Age groups will be split into 2 (U15 and 15 and over)
2025 SDS NATIONAL JUNIOR ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
Date: 4th June
Venue: Grangemouth Stadium
Time: 10:00-14:00
Eligibility: Pupils aged between 9-18 on the day of competition. Additionally students who have the following disabilities: physical disability (wheelchair and ambulant); learning disability); vision impairment/blind; hearing impairment/deaf.
To enter any of the 3 competitions, or for more information, please email mlyle@elcschool.org.uk. PLEASE NOTE INTEREST BY 16TH MAY
Musselburgh Windsor 2011 (U14) girls Football
Erica Olds, Zoa Strachan, Freya Main and Ava Davidson are all members of the Musselburgh Windsor 2011 (U14) girls team. They train very hard week in week out with league and cup matches every Saturday. The team had the fantastic opportunity of going to Champigny-Sur-Marne, Musselburgh's twin town on the outskirts of Paris to play football against the local French team (A.P.A.C), maintain relationships with the twinned town and experience the French culture.
The trip was organised through the Twinning Association with the support of Musselburgh Windsor Football Club. The girls and their families did a lot of fundraising, including a sponsored beach clean of Musselburgh beach, bake sales at Pinkie pitches where they train and a collection at Musselburgh Tesco. They also gratefully received some corporate sponsorship.
The Musselburgh Windsor team were kindly hosted by the A.P.A.C. team the night they arrived; had dinner in their club house and an evening kick about.
Saturday was match day involving an 8-a side match in which Musselburgh beat the home team 4-1 (including goals from Zoa and Erica)!
The girls also had some free time to enjoy exploring Paris and practice their French!
S3 STEM Airport Trip
A group of 15 S3 pupils had the opportunity to visit the new STEM centre at Edinburgh Airport where they learned about various airport careers involving STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths). The pupils took part in many team building activities including ‘Balloon Chairs’, ‘Code Cracking’ and ‘Who can build the strongest bridge?’. The pupils were an absolute credit to our school and everyone contributed to the tasks, discussions and welcomed in the pupils who visited from Royal High School. Well done everyone!!
MGS Sports Awards 2025
Now Accepting Nominations!
MGS is delighted to announce that planning has begun for this year's Sports Awards.
Each year, the school hosts a formal, evening celebration of all the sports related success within our community.
If you wish to put forward the name of a pupil who you feel deserves to be celebrated, please complete the survey below:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1IN6ttHt5KTQG3VzxlKB4VO9U7Jf13i8BvOkzbMVmyY4/edit
Beekeeping Zoo trip
Our S3 beekeepers had a wonderful trip to the Zoo on Wednesday where we found out about employment opportunities at the Zoo. We found out that there are over 200 employees at the Zoo and that there are many different employability and volunteering opportunities. Some of the people employed include plumbers, gardeners, IT developers, those in finance, shopkeepers and even a spray painter who volunteers to create artwork around the Zoo. We found out about funding for the zoo and how this also helps conservation projects to protect the animals natural habitat elsewhere in the world.
Our tour ended with a bit of information on the transferable skills linked to the beekeeping course at MGS and how this could link to employability at the zoo, including, breeding research to boost the population of other invertebrate populations in the wild.
Year group attendance
Improving attendance to improve attainment is one of our school improvement priorities this year and we expect pupils’ attendance to be at least 90%. We are tracking pupils’ attendance carefully throughout the session and more information about our attendance strategy will follow. I hope parents and carers find this weekly update on each year group's attendance useful.
S1: 91%
S2: 89%
S3: 90%
NHS Step into Allied Health Professions Work Experience Week Tuesday 17 - Friday 20 June 2025
Useful information for those interested in applying for university in 2026
Higher Education Entry Guide
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w_ArM_UpbJJPFXdwncD8HW_UiMa0u3de/view?usp=sharing
Higher Education Open Days
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NUkBG3lqDNvbRyBGcMevg3Ymsp2duuIG/view?usp=drive_link
Medical
HPV VACCINE
All S1 and also some catch ups will take place on Tuesday 3rd June 2025. Please return your form back to school asap.
MMR VACCINE - Catch ups (only if you received a blue form) will be vaccinated on Tuesday
3rd June 2025
LOST PROPERTY
A green and black short jacket was handed in this week, if this belongs to you, please collect from Mrs Harvey's room
MGS website and School Handbook for parents
Our website can be accessed here MGS (google.com), and it also contains our School Handbook.
School Policies
All of our policies can be viewed on our website
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