HEAD TEACHER'S NEWSLETTER

MUSSELBURGH GRAMMAR SCHOOL

Friday 24 October 2025

It was a pleasure to welcome Laurence Rockey, Chief Executive, and Nicola McDowell, Head of Education, to MGS on Thursday.

Grace, Libby and Holly gave them a tour of the school including visiting some classrooms to see Chemistry and Physics in action.

It’s always lovely to welcome visitors to our school and get such positive feedback on pupils- thanks very much to Holly, Libby and Grace for being such good ambassadors for MGS.

Jodie Hannan

Staffing Update

We say farewell and best wishes to Mrs McElhaney in Home Economics, and Ms Funk in Music who leave us today after 7 years and 5 years each at MGS.

Ms Funk’s replacement commences in late November, and interviews for Mrs McElhaney’s role are on Monday. Both their timetables will be covered by a combination of faculty colleagues and supply teachers until their replacements are in place.

On Monday 27 October we welcome Mrs Toles to the role of acting DHT Curriculum and Mrs Watson to the post of acting Curriculum Leader Modern Languages.

Thank you very much to Mrs Kivlichan who moves back to CL Science from acting DHT; to Dr Brown and Mrs Duff for acting CL Science and to Mrs Duff who also had the role of acting CL Modern Languages: I am very appreciative of all their hard work while in post for the past 8 weeks.

Due to aforementioned staffing constraints in the Food Fabric & Care department, we have had to put a temporary cooking rota in place, beginning on Monday 27th October.

From the 27th, until the Christmas holidays no S2 pupils will be doing any practical cooking, but will instead be focusing on theoretical topics, including Foods of the World which explores different food from across the globe, and the Health and Wellbeing topic of Mentors in Violence Prevention, which provides opportunities for young people to explore healthy relationships and is an important tool in supporting wellbeing and positive mental health.

S2 pupils will move back to getting practical cooking lessons in January, and S1 pupils will focus on theoretical topics and Mentors in Violence Prevention.

MVP link below

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/glowblogs/mvpscotland/

Key Dates

Tuesday 28 October: Senior Phase Parents evening 5-7pm

Thursday 30th October: S1 Fright Night

Friday 31 October: Whole school Halloween dress up day! Food donations for the Pennypit Trust please.

Wednesday 12 November: Employability Pathway event 4-6pm

Friday 14 November: S4-S6 prelim timetable published.

Monday 1- Friday 12 December: S4-S6 prelims.

Remember you can find all events on our school calendar, and you can add the calendar to your own too.

Study Support

Please click the link to take you to our S4/5/6 Study Support timetable, and our updated Revision Support Guide too:

MGS Revision Resource Poster.pdf

Parent Council Meeting Dates

These are the dates for this session’s Parent Council meetings:

Tuesday 4th November AGM 6.30-8.30pm in school.

Thursday 11th December 7-8pm online https://meet.google.com/idi-dhis-hjo?authuser=0&hs=122

Tuesday 3rd February 7-8pm online https://meet.google.com/csy-mvmg-mtu?authuser=0&hs=122

Wednesday 1st April 7-8pm online https://meet.google.com/csy-mvmg-mtu?authuser=0&hs=122

Thursday 4th June 6.30-8.30pm in school

Notes from the office

Our friendly office team are the first port of call for most parents and, often, pupils. We look after pupil records, timetables, attendance, and all communications to and from school. Here are some of the things we’re working on at the moment, and we need parents’ help with:

Annual Data Checks - thanks to everyone who has sent these back. This information is absolutely vital to us, because it gives us the details we need to look after your young person when they’re at school. Contact details, medical information - we need it all! Please take the time to check what we have sent, update it, sign it, and send it back to us. Without accurate contact information, we may not be able to get hold of you if your young person needs help while they’re at school, or we may not be aware of their current medical requirements.

Planned Absence and Appointments - please let us know if your young person needs to be out of school. We know that medical appointments sometimes need to happen during the school day; just email us or call us, and this avoids us sending home absence texts. If you are intending to take your child out of school on holiday during term-time, we need to have this in writing, because we need to keep it in your child's record. Just send us an email with the start and end dates. Please be aware that most holidays during term-time are recorded as unauthorised.

Water Bottles - we're becoming aware of an increasing number of pupils asking to be let out of class to get a drink of water. We do have disposable cups available at the office, but this means pupils are missing out on learning time, and it's also using a considerable amount of plastic cups. If parents could ensure their child has a water bottle with them each day, we'd really appreciate it. Water fountains are situated on the ground floor for pupils to top up their bottles at break and lunchtimes.

Author Event

We are excited to announce that author Miranda Moore will be visiting Musselburgh Grammar School on Monday 27th of October to lead a creative writing workshop with pupils during periods 6 and 7.

Miranda is the author of the upcoming YA novel A Beautiful, Terrible Thing, which explores themes of grief, healing, family, and hope. Her visit is part of a national promotional tour, and we’re thrilled to offer pupils the chance to engage with a published writer and develop their skills in character, voice, and structure.

Although the workshop is limited to a small group, all pupils and families have the option to purchase a signed copy of the book, which will be delivered to the school on the day of the event.

Order a signed copy here: https://nightowlbooks.co.uk/products/musselburgh-grammar-school-signed-copy-a-beautiful-terrible-thing

The blurb for ‘A Beautiful, Terrible Thing’: Cara’s world broke when her younger brother, Si, dies in a car crash. Three months later, she’s trying to find her way back, when she meets Nathan. Gorgeous, smart and kind, she feels a freedom when she’s with him. But he’s hiding a huge secret. His world broke three months ago too – when he ran a red light and killed a boy. There’s no way Cara and Nathan can be together, but they find it impossible to be apart.

This is a stunningly written, thought-provoking drama about loss, atonement, and love which defines a lifetime.

We look forward to welcoming Miranda and celebrating creativity in our school community!

Rosie Dodd -Teacher of English

Daniel Tomlins in S6 is organising a new whole school event on Friday 31 October.

For the first time ever, staff and pupils are invited to dress up in Halloween costumes, with competition for the best staff costume and House points for all pupils who come to school in costume.

Please note that full face masks are not permitted on grounds of safety, that is, staff must be able to identify all of our pupils, and all costumes must be appropriate for school.

Pupils who do not wish to wear costume can attend school in uniform.

S1 Fright Night

Tickets are available now via Schoolpay

Future Pathways

We are delighted to invite you once again to take part in our Future Pathways Afternoon at Musselburgh Grammar School.
This year, we have introduced a new format, with the event taking place during the school day to ensure that all pupils can participate, while parents and carers are invited from 3:30pm onwards.

The event is designed to:

Showcase the range of opportunities available to pupils as they make subject and career choices.

Highlight the excellent support and services provided by local agencies and organisations.

Bring together partners across the community to share expertise and inspire young people.

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.

Extra-Curricular Duke of Edinburgh Groups

We are excited to announce that we are starting up extra-curricular groups at both Bronze (S3) and Silver (S4/5) level in the next month! At this point, we are asking pupils to complete a Google form to apply to take part in the award. The Bronze group will combine with the curricular group for the expeditions in May and the Silver group will work towards expeditions in June and September. (You do not need to have completed Bronze to take part in the Silver Award)

What are we looking for in the applications? The Duke of Edinburgh Award requires participants to show commitment to activities over a period of 3-12 months (depending on level) taking part in each of their 3 chosen activities for at least an hour a week (physical, skill and volunteering). Preparation for the expedition will take place in sessions at school either at lunch time or after school and attendance at these sessions is compulsory to make sure that they are ready for the expedition. Activities are logged and checked by a leader and assessors complete reports to show that goals have been met and the activity is completed. We want to see that applicants understand what they are signing up for and have thought about what they would like to do for each section of the award. Places are limited in both groups. If the number of applicants exceeds the number of places, a waiting list will be set up.

Is there a cost? Initially, there is a £40 charge to cover enrolment costs of the award which grants participants access to their electronic logbook . Expedition costs also have to be paid to cover campsite fees, fuel and transport as well as wear and tear of group equipment such as tents and stoves.

Application forms can be found on year group Google Classrooms. Letters with further information will be sent home once places have been allocated. If you have any questions, please get in touch with us at school.

We are happy to support The Pennypit Trust’s request for donations to its festive provisions this year. The Pennypit works in partnership with East Lothian Council, the NHS, schools and Social Work to support families and last year 200 families across Musselburgh were supported by the Pennypit Trust. All donations from our Halloween Dress up Day will go to the Pennypit.

Donations can also be dropped off at school at any other point in the school year.

Christmas Fayre

Join us for our annual Christmas Fayre on Saturday 13th December, 11am till 1pm.

Our talented S1 and S3 Business pupils are crafting unique, handmade products during classes, ready to sell at the fayre! Come along to support their creativity, pick up some one-of-a-kinds gifts and get into the Christmas spirit with family and friends.

Our school’s vision and values

You may be aware that one of our School Improvement Priorities this year is to refresh and reset our school’s vision and values.

Between recording our best exam results in almost a decade at S4 and S5, experiencing quite a lot of change with our school roll, and approaching our 400th anniversary next year, it feels like the right time to revisit our vision for our school, the values we hold dear and discuss what we want our school to give our young people.

Your voice is really important in shaping the school’s future and I want to gather as many views as possible from students, staff, families, associated primaries, our partners and the wider community over the next few months and will be emailing all families with further details about how you can be part of the discussion.

Dance club has officially started for all year groups!

Every Monday after school from 3:30-4:30 in the dance studio for a mix of fun, creativity and choreography! Whether you're an experienced dancer or just want to try something new, everyone is welcome! :)

Intergenerational Community Wider Achievement

Our sixth year students that participate in the Intergenerational Community Project for Wider Achievement took our first trip of the new school year to St Andrews High Church to visit The Musselburgh Meeting Centre. This is an organisation that provides support for people living with dementia.

This Wider Achievement project is in its third year of running and provides an opportunity for pupils from our school to meet with the centre’s members and form intergenerational friendships that help engagement with the local community.

On arrival, we sat in groups with the members to have a catch up, as well as some tea and coffee. On our first visit this term, we showed everyone an extremely packed slideshow of pictures from our residential trip to Dalguise, and talked about all of the different activities we completed whilst we were there (including the chaotic and messy foam fight!). We also did some crafts with the group, helping everyone to create bookmarks to sell at an upcoming church fair. We all brainstormed ideas for the designs of the bookmarks as the aim was to create them so that they all represented different aspects of Musselburgh. Some ideas we came up with included horse racing, mussels and sail boats, and the end results were absolutely amazing, with lots of unique and creative designs being produced.

We went to visit the group again on Friday 3rd October, and we had a lot of fun planting new bulbs and flowers around the church garden together. We also enjoyed some delicious home grown potato soup made by some of the members and pupils! We looked at some pictures of activities and trips the group had been on recently and heard their stories from their recent excursions

On Friday 24th October, the Meeting Centre Members are coming to MGS to visit us for a change! We are planning to do some musical based activities with them all, possibly including some singing, body percussion and a performance from the MGS Jazz Band which we hope they will enjoy!

The Honest Thread

Our Honest Thread, “free to a good home” initiative is a new way to share gently used school uniforms within our school community. Anyone who is in need of these items are welcome to request them free of charge.

If you would like to receive any uniform items, please complete the short Google Form below. This allows us to organise requests and prepare your order for collection from the School Office.

https://forms.gle/8NGk3eGnr5M9bMd56

The form will be added to on a regular basis and we hope that we will be able to include items other than schoolwear; this scheme is entirely donation based, so families are always invited to donate clean, good-quality items they no longer need. All donations are much appreciated and can be dropped off at the School Office FAO Ms Ritchie.

Poppy Scotland Appeal

Musselburgh Grammar School are once again supporting the Scottish Poppy Appeal. Pupils be coming around class rooms to collect donations. Alternatively, donations can be made by using this QR code.

Internet Safety Workshop

Head Team

It’s been an exciting week for the Head Team! Holly met with Pupil Voice to discuss ways we can continue improving school life and ensure everyone’s ideas are heard. We also had the amazing opportunity to meet with the Chief Executive and Head of Education — we gave them a tour of the school and shared all the great things happening in our community.

Our plans for the school’s 400-year anniversary celebrations are well underway, and we can’t wait to share more soon! On top of that, our newly appointed Prefects are ready to begin their duties next week, and we’re looking forward to seeing them take on their new roles and make a real difference around the school.

Car park safety

A safety reminder to all families who drop children off at school in the morning that they should be dropped off in the turning circle outside

the main gates and then use the footpath to the main doors, not walk through the car park.

This is due to a few near accidents recently with the volume of cars in the car park and pupils walking through it. If it is essential to come into the car park then the one way system must be used, again, to prevent accidents.

In addition, any S6 pupils having driving lessons should not be using the school car park for any part of the lesson due to the amount of cars in the area including narrow lanes and parking bays.

Thank you for your support.

Medical

Flu vaccinations will take place on Wednesday 17th December and Thursday 18th December 2025. Please return your form if you have not already done so.

School Toilets

Our pupil toilets are checked on a regular basis to ensure everyone’s comfort and safety. These checks may be done by male or female staff members, and signage is in toilets to make pupils aware of this.

MGS website and School Handbook for parents

Our website has lots of useful information for parents, and includes our School Handbook and School Policies. Have a look! We welcome your feedback.

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