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HEAD TEACHER'S NEWSLETTER
Prelim exams are running smoothly and I hope that they are going well for our students. A reminder too that uniform must be worn to exams for identification purposes.
It’s now December! And we have a bumper month of events as we countdown to Christmas.
Wishing you a lovely weekend.
Jodie Hannan
Key Dates
Monday 27 November- Friday 8 December inclusive: prelims
Tuesday 12- Thursday 14 December: Pupil Voice assemblies
Thursday 14 December: Christmas Concert 7-9pm
Friday 15 December: Christmas Jumper Day with funds raised going to UNICEF. Apologies for last week's error.
Tuesday 19 December: Senior Christmas Dance 7-9pm
Wednesday 20 December: Pupil Voice meeting periods 6&7
Friday 22 December: Term ends at 12.15pm. Christmas assembly for S1-S3 period 1.
Monday 8 January: all staff and pupils return to school
Thursday 11 January: Senior Phase Parents’ Consultation 5-7pm: Option 1 (further details to follow)
Monday 15 January: Senior Phase Parents’ Consultation 5-7pm: Option 2 (further details to follow)
Staff
We say farewell and congratulations to Ms Hepburn in English who takes up the Acting Principal Teacher post of English and Languages at Preston Lodge on 21 December. Her post is currently being advertised.
A reminder that Ms Holmes has now taken over Mr Aitchison’s guidance pupils until June 2024.
Musselburgh Learns
Leadership
Strong clear leadership is vital to the success of any organisation, and in school, leadership is not restricted only to the Head Teacher or Senior Leadership Team.
On Friday 1 December our whole Extended Leadership Team, which includes SLT and all middle leaders, embarks upon a professional learning leadership programme which will run for 1 day a month over five months and is designed to strengthen our team’s purpose, alignment and focus, with the end goal of improving outcomes for our young people.
House Points
December’s House Point focus is: Determination! We are awarding House points for pupils in or outwith our classes who are working particularly hard at something, seniors who are attending supported study, a pupil who has nailed a new skill at extra curricular clubs – the list goes on….!
“Walk a Mile in Mine” Bereavement Support
In March/April of 2023 Ailsa Hill our MYPAS School Counsellor, and Donna Hastings the Children and Families Lead for St Columba’s Hospice, teamed together to develop and facilitate a bereavement group for young people within Musselburgh Grammar School. As it can be difficult for young people to verbalise how they are feeling, and they can struggle to share their grief, the group aimed to provide a safe space for young people to share their stories and their experience of grief. The title of the 6 week group programme was ‘Walk a Mile in Mine,’ and culminated in each young person decorating a pair of shoes to represent to others what their grief is like. On Tuesday of this week Donna and Ailsa ran a session at the NHS Education for Scotland Annual Bereavement Conference to share their experience of developing and running the group.It is hoped that this group structure which we developed will form the basis for support that can also be offered by others elsewhere.
Rotary's Young Musician of the Year Award
On Tuesday 28th November, 6 of our pupils competed for the Rotary's Young Musician of the Year award. This annual competition features MGS, Loretto and Mansfield school of music. All of our pupils performed brilliantly!
A very special congratulations to Katie Horrell who placed 1st in the Senior Instrumentalist! She will move on to the Area Competition in February.
Libby Henderson
Sam Hunter
Tess Devlin (3rd place Junior overall)
Kira Mezaros (3rd place senior vocalist)
Hannah Scott (2nd place senior instrumentalist)
You'll see these lovely pupils and so many more on Thursday 14th December at 7pm at our Christmas Concert!
MGS CHRISTMAS CONCERT 2023
The Christmas Concert will be on Thursday 14th December at 7pm in the Assembly hall.
Tickets for adults are £5
Tickets for concessions (and pupils) are £3
You can purchase tickets on School Pay or by bringing cash to the music department!
Join us for a night of excellent music!
The Wrap Up, with Charlie & Eva’
Welcome to another edition of ‘The Wrap Up, with Charlie & Eva’, we hope everyone has had a great week this week and has been wrapped up warm in the cold weather, now let's get into it!
Prelims have started this week, so we hope everyone who is doing them this year has been preparing and studying for them appropriately. Study support for most subjects is on throughout the week so we’d advise you speak to your teachers about it if you feel you need some extra studying time! Of course though these are prelims so they’re better used as a chance to find where you need to study more and improve rather than let it panic you or cause too much stress so remember to make time for you first and foremost!
It’s been very cold this week, particularly in these past few days, so we’re reminding everyone to be very careful when walking, cycling etc to school in these conditions as they can be dangerous, and of course to wrap up warm as we enter the winter season.
S6 yearbook photos were taken last week, a massive thank you goes out to Grant Myles for his amazing camera work to take all of the S6 photos for individuals, prefects, friend groups and the S6 year group photo! There is still more to be done though so everyone in S6 make sure you’re getting leavers hoodies ordered and your yearbook profile written as there’s not long to go before they’re due!
It’s nearing the time for UCAS applications to be sent out, all senior pupils who plan to leave school for college, university, or to go into work should hopefully have spoken to their guidance teachers and have started work on their personal statements and applications, or CVs, remember these can take time so it’s always best to spend as much time as needed on them.
The Advanced Higher Chemistry pupils at MGS are having an exciting opportunity next week to do their Chemistry projects at Heriot Watt university! This will take place on the 6th and the 13th of December and is a great opportunity for them to get to work in and do their project in a university level lab environment!
Thank you for reading this week’s ‘The Wrap Up with Charlie and Eva’. We hope you’ve had a good week and are gonna take this weekend as a chance to relax and get as much revision in as you feel is appropriate! See you next week!
Dr Frost Maths Help
As you are aware all S1 to S3 Maths Homework is set on the Dr Frost Maths Platform. I have received requests regarding parental help with this. Here is a quick help video I made.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYSmc6rp8QE
Mr Harpham
Maths Study Support
Next week there will be no maths study support. This is to allow teachers time to mark preliminary exams and then moderate our marking within the department.
Mr Harpham
Senior Phase Study Support Programme
EnjoyLeisure Vacancies
Lost Property
All will be recycled by 12th December 2023 if not collected before then.
Polio/dip/meningitis vaccine
All S3 Boys and Girls will be vaccinated on Monday 4th March 2024 .
Newsletter Archive
There's an archive section on the newsletter site with all of the previous newsletters organised by date. It can be viewed by clicking on 'Archive' in the menu or using this link: https://bit.ly/ht-newsletter-archive.
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