MUSSELBURGH GRAMMAR SCHOOL
MUSSELBURGH GRAMMAR SCHOOL
THE GRAMMARIAN
SPECIAL EDITION
SCHOOL VALUES
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Thursday 22 January 2026
Thursday 22 January 2026
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Welcome to this special edition of the Grammarian which is all about our new school values.
This week’s House Assemblies were led by our wonderful Values Ambassadors. There are five groups, each pitching to the whole school the value they think is most important for our school, after which we will all vote for our favourites.
The poll is now open to parents and carers, including P7 parents and pupils in our cluster primary schools to cast your vote, and it closes on Sunday 25 January. Details of the survey are at the end, after each of the presentations.
Our values ambassadors are:
Ambition is represented by Victoria Macnamara 1G1 and Evie Martin 1C2.
Belonging is the chosen value of Lily Jordan 1G1.
Honesty is being pitched by Tom Barrett 4C1, Ben Russell 4M1, Archie Oswald 4C2, Louis Duncan 4C1, Daniel Durie 4C2, Daniel Hunter 4M1 and Toby Horsburgh 4G1. (This is also the team who created the viral video!)
Perseverance is the focus for Sam Devlin 3G1, Daniel Tomlins 6M1, Zoa Strachan 3G2, Laura Walker 1M2, Millie Hamilton 1M2 and Prem Sharma 1G1
Respect/ Kindness is represented by Elspeth Barry 2M2, Hollie Trimble 2G1, Daisy Dougan 2C2, Ava Menzies 2M1, Zak Dowding S3, Lewis Exley 6M1, Euan Thomson 2M2.
Victoria introduced the assembly by reminding us all that we have been talking about values a lot in school recently and why they are so important.
Values are our core beliefs, the things that are very important to us and that we believe really strongly in.
Values guide our actions and our behaviour. They guide what we say to each other and how we make decisions. We should live and breathe our values every day.
We all now have the opportunity and responsibility to decide on which values are the most important ones for MGS. From all the recent conversations between staff, families, students and the wider community the short list of values to choose from is:
Ambition
Belonging
Honesty
Perseverance
Respect/ Kindness
Ambition
Victoria and Evie explained that ambition means to have a strong desire to do or achieve something or to have passion to achieve success! It also means you do what you’re doing to the best of your ability. To us, ambition is important because ambition isn’t just a word.
It has real meaning, and it isn’t just doing work; it’s doing the best you can and being proud of it! We think that ambition should be one of our values because it’s important to always do your best in school and in life.
Education is so important to having a successful and happy life, so we should be ambitious for ourselves.
Voting for ambition as one of our values means that we always try our best.
It means that we expect the best for us all, not second best.
We can’t imagine MGS without ambition!
Vote for Ambition!!
Belonging
Lily told us that Belonging is when we feel secure, accepted, included and emotionally connected to others.
Feeling that we belong to a group and a community is very powerful.
Belonging makes us feel safe, and when we feel safe and accepted, we want to try our hardest to succeed, and work hard for the success of the community we belong to.
Lily believes that belonging should be a value because we all belong to MGS. When we feel that we belong we feel appreciated which can make you work harder and be even more successful than you are now. Vote Belong!
Honesty
Daniel and Louis have put the Honesty in Honestas, and along with Tom, Ben Archie, Daniel Durie and Toby, produced this video to tell you why Honesty should be one of our values (credit to Miss Ganson in Music for the star singing role!)
The Honesty video can be viewed in the survey.
Vote Honesty!
Perseverance
Daniel, Zoa, Sam, Laura, Millie and Prem feel that persevering is a key value and also produced a video to persuade us to vote for this.
The Perseverance video can be viewed in the survey.
How can perseverance not be important to MGS?! Vote Perseverance!!
Respect/ Kindness
Euan and Hollie presented the importance of Respect and Kindness along with a video created by Elspeth, 2G1, Daisy, Ava, Zak and Lewis.
Kindness and Respect were two of the most popular values chosen in the consultations. They really matter because they shape how we treat each other every day.
Choosing respect to be one of our values shows that you care about the school and wider community as well as yourself.
Respect is already one of our current values which shows how important it has been for generations before us, and we believe respect is one of the most important values we can have.
When respect and kindness are recognised, everyone feels safer, more confident and more able to be themselves.
The Respect and Kindness video can be viewed in the survey.
Can you imagine a school without respect and kindness?
No! neither can we!!
Vote RESPECT and KINDNESS!!
Lily then told us about what would be happening tomorrow, Friday 23 January:
1. It’s a Dress down Day in the colour/s of your chosen value. Donations to the Pennypit fund can be made at the door.
2. All pupils and staff will vote for their three preferred values out of :
Ambition
Belonging
Honesty
Perseverance
Respect/ Kindness
Evie then concluded our assemblies, thanking all the Values Ambassadors for inspiring us with their Values pitches.
Remember, dress up and vote on Friday!
Your vote for our new school values matters!
Parents and carers can now vote using this survey- your vote matters too!
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