HEAD TEACHER'S NEWSLETTER

MUSSELBURGH GRAMMAR SCHOOL

Friday 26 September 2025

Another busy week in school! We've had pupils visiting Newhailes, as well as hosting our Macmillan coffee morning, Pupil Voice - to name but a few. Well done to all our pupils and staff who continue to contribute to the community that makes Musselburgh Grammar School such a hive of productivity.

Next week we welcome parents of P7 pupils in the Musselburgh community into school, to get an idea of what it will be like for their children coming up to secondary school. We will have some S1s helping out on the evening, and no doubt some of our very capable senior pupils too. If your child is involved in this, thank you - they are an ambassador for the school.

Wishing you all a sunny and restful weekend.

Jodie Hannan

Key Dates

P7 Parents’ Introductory meeting, Wednesday 1st October, 6.00pm - 8.30pm

All Break - Friday 10 October 2025

Staff In-service Day 3 - Monday 20 October 2025

Pupils Resume - Tuesday 21 October 2025

S1 Fright night Thursday 30th October

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, or view it below.

Study Support 2024-2025.pdf

Parent Council Meeting Dates

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

Tuesday 4 November AGM 6.30-8.30pm in school.

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

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

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

Thursday 4 June 6.30-8.30pm in school

Pupil Voice

On Tuesday afternoon, we held our first Pupil Voice session of the year, beginning with great enthusiasm and an excellent turnout. 55 class reps joined us following a lively round of class representative elections last week.

The session opened with fun icebreakers to help everyone connect, before moving into a thoughtful discussion on adopting a solution-focused mindset for the year ahead. Ms Hannan introduced plans for the re-set of our school's vision and values - key work that the pupil voice group will be a part of driving this year.

A special thank you goes to our team leaders Ella, Erin, and Maja, who each led engaging discussions in their focus areas:

Ella Main S5 - School Improvement
Erin Munro S4 - Learning and Teaching
Maja Makowska S6 - Enrichment and Extracurricular Activities

Their leadership, ideas, and enthusiasm have set a strong foundation for what promises to be an exciting and impactful year for Pupil Voice

Free School Meals

We know that some parents don’t apply for Free School Meals because their young person doesn’t use the canteen. But did you know:

The amount of money awarded for Free School Meals is added directly to pupils’ Young Scot cards, and there is no way for anyone else to tell they are getting Free School Meals. £2.45 is added automatically each day, and the pupil can use this at break and/or lunchtime.

And did you know that being awarded Free School Meals has other benefits?

Clothing Grant of £160
50% funding for school trips (up to a maximum of £125) - including Dalguise and S1-3 Activity Week
The fee for UCAS applications is waived (currently £28.50)

You can find out more information on the East Lothian Council website. If you need help to apply, or more advice, you can contact freeschoolmeals@eastlothian.gov.uk

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.

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.

IT incident this week - parents were made aware of a council-wide incident this week, which has led to the temporary disabling of pupil edubuzz accounts. For pupils studying Foundation Apprenticeships, we understand this might cause worry. Mrs. Donnelly is liaising with East Lothian Works regarding how pupils studying for FAs can receive communications, and we hope to have more information on this soon. In the meantime, if you have any concerns regarding your young person's Foundation Apprenticeship in relation to this, please get in touch with Mrs. Donnelly.

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.

Travel and Tourism trip to Newhailes

The S5/6 Travel and Tourism class visited Newhailes House and Gardens this week to find out about the National Trust charity and have a tour of the house. Thank you to Dixie and Dianne who gave us an insight into the careers available within the National Trust, and told us all about the history of the estate and the events that take place.

DONATION DEADLINE EXTENDED!

We have received donations of toiletries and some games and gifts and now have 3 completed boxes and 5 that have been started. We have checked through donations and made a list of what we need more of:

Socks, hat/ scarf/ gloves, small toys/ games, sponges, soap, underwear, sweets.

We have lots of shoeboxes wrapped and ready to be filled, there is a list of what a full box needs to help you get started.

For more information, visit the website: https://blythswood.org/shoeboxappeal/

Silver Duke of Edinburgh Expedition

Our Silver Duke of Edinburgh group were on their final assessed expedition in the Scottish Borders last week. The groups took the train on Wednesday morning to Tweedbank in Melrose and they spent the next 3 days navigating their way across the moors and hills, camping at Thirstane Castle in Lauder. A location which the original Duke of Edinburgh himself had once visited and stayed. Pupils then returned home on Friday by train from Stow.

They faced mixed weather conditions throughout the trip and some tricky navigation scenarios. Their excellent communication, map skills and determination saw them all successfully complete the expedition and demonstrate their aim of teamwork and motivation. In total, they walked 40 miles over the 3 days!

Participants now have to evaluate their expedition and submit final evidence of their other three sections: Physical Activity, Skill and Volunteering, in order to achieve their full Silver Award.

Special thank you to ELC Outdoor Education for providing extra kit for all of the DofE expeditions - without this amazing resource, and their staff, we would not be able to run DofE at such a minimal cost. Thanks also to the DofE staff team. We are very proud of the efforts of all the pupils for their achievement and really enjoyed spending time with such a motivated and enthusiastic group.

Macmillan Coffee Morning

This morning we hosted a Macmillan Coffee Morning for staff, organised by our S5/6 Events Management Course. The pupils below did a fantastic job and pulled off a brilliant event. Pupils baked for the event, communicated with staff and set everything up on the day. The team also served all staff cakes and tea/coffee, doing so with enthusiasm and a big smile.

We are so proud of our pupils for doing something so wonderful. Through the coffee morning, we managed to raise £220 for Macmillan, which is fantastic and shows how generous the staff here at MGS are 💚

The Events team from today:

Robyn Calder, Ava Collie, Ethan McGhee, Grace Dilly, Elsie Wiggins, Kishan Singh

Well done guys, you absolutely smashed it!

Mrs McElhaney

Antisocial Behaviour

We’ve received reports of anti-social behaviour occurring at the astro near Campie Primary School during Friday afternoons, evenings, and weekends; sometimes with larger groups gathering.

At present, it is unclear who is responsible for the anti-social behaviour. We kindly ask families to be aware of this issue and to discourage young people from using the astro as a meeting point during these times.

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.

Head Team

Due to some IT issues, we are unable to give you our 'blog' this week. We will be back next week with a bumper issue!

Holly, Libby and Grace

Musselburgh Youth Clubs

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.

Lost property

Various items have been handed in to Ms Harvey, please go to her office to claim anything you may have lost.

Medical

All flu forms must be handed back to the school office as soon as possible. If you do not hand your form back in time there will be a mop up clinic date to follow soon. Flu vaccinations will take place on Wednesday 17th December and Thursday 18th December 2025

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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