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HEAD TEACHER'S NEWSLETTER
Friday 4th October 2024
Friday 4th October 2024
It was great to see so many Primary 7 parents visiting school on Wednesday evening to get a taster of all the different learning experiences that secondary school offers.
Groups of parents and pupils toured the school in groups, visiting classrooms, Science labs and kitchens where teachers and S1 pupils were on hand to explain the courses and give P7 families an opportunity to try out related puzzles, games and experiments (Science and Maths are pictured below).
Thanks to all the staff and pupils who made the evening so enjoyable and worthwhile.
I'm really excited to let you know that we now have a new way of sharing all our school news, the MGS Podcast! Our senior pupils have been working on this with Mr Dickson as part of their wider achievement classes. Hope you enjoy it and please let us know if you have any feedback.
Wishing you all a lovely weekend.
Jodie Hannan
MGS Podcast
This week, we are launching the MGS Podcast! Mr Dickson has been working with senior pupils to create a monthly podcast featuring the MGS update, news from the Head Pupil Team, interviews with teachers and some music from our talented pupils. Have a listen now on Spotify.
Key Dates
Monday 7 October: Parent Council AGM 7-9pm in school
Wednesday 9 October: Curriculum Evening 6-7pm in school: postponed. Will be rescheduled for later on in the session.
Monday 14- Friday 18 October: October Holidays
Monday 21 October: Inservice Day for staff only
Tuesday 22 October: All pupils return to school
Wednesday 23 October: Senior Phase (combined S4-S6)
Tuesday 29 October: Senior Phase (combined S4-S6)
Remember you can find all events on our school calendar, and you can add the calendar to your own too.
Parents’ Evenings dates
All Parents’ Evenings are in person 5-7pm.
Wednesday 23 October: Senior Phase (combined S4-S6)
Tuesday 29 October: Senior Phase (combined S4-S6)
Wednesday 11 December: S3
Tuesday 21 January: S2
Senior phase booking link will be available before the October break.
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: 92%
S2: 88%
S3: 87%
S4: 88%
S5: 92%
S6: 90%
Curriculum Evening
Curriculum Evening Wednesday 9th October 2024 - CANCELLED
At present our S3 Curriculum offer is under review and nearing the final stages of consultation. As a result of this, we have decided to cancel our Curriculum Evening with a view to re-scheduling when the S3 offer has been finalised. In mean time you can access the last recorded curriculum presentation here: MGS - S4-6 Curriculum Information Evening (January 2022) (youtube.com) this will give you a broad overview of the curriculum offer at MGS.
In addition to this, we would welcome questions about our curriculum and would ask you to complete the following form: https://forms.gle/GhgVKCTtzjS5mRZa8
These questions will be responded to in the form of a FAQ after the October holiday and issued via the Head Teacher’s newsletter.
Further, our Pathways section of the school website will give you all the information about progression pathways through our curriculum from S1 – S6. MGS - MGS Pathways (google.com)
Parent Council dates
Monday 7 Oct: MGS PC AGM – in person, in school 7-9pm. There will be a focus upon curriculum and course choice led by Mrs Watson, DHT Curriculum, 7.10-7.40pm, followed by AGM business.
Thursday 21 Nov: MGS PC Online briefing 7-8pm meet.google.com/oxc-fwdh-pmz
Thursday 23 Jan: MGS PC Online briefing 7-8pm meet.google.com/vnh-jkwe-kkd
Thursday 13 Mar: MGS PC full meeting – in person, in school 7-9pm
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
SCQF Ambassadors’ Success
What is the SCQF
The SCQF is the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework. It helps people of all ages and circumstances to access the education and training that is appropriate to them over their lifetime. For us, at Musselburgh Grammar, this means looking at our Curriculum to see how we can adapt and develop it to ensure that ALL pupils have access to courses and qualifications that are beneficial to them. Courses which have been introduced and developed at Musselburgh Grammar in recent years include: Barista, Powering Futures, Bee Keeping, Lab Skills, Fuel Change, Computer Games Development, Business Skills, Photography and so on.
SCQF Ambassadors
We are a group of pupils who work very hard to promote these alternative courses and qualifications in our school. So far we have led assemblies, spoken to parents and pupils at several parents’ nights and led an SCQF focus with teachers on an in-service day.
Bronze Award
In June 2024 we achieved our Bronze Award from the SCQF in recognition of the hard work we have done to promote alternative courses in the school. We received a plaque that will be displayed at the front of the school.
Next Steps
Moving forward, we are aiming to achieve our Silver Award in the next few months. We will be focusing on spreading the word to parents and also engaging further with pupils. We will attend Parent Council meetings, speak to pupils during PSE lessons and deliver more assemblies. Over the coming months we will use this newsletter to showcase and turn the spotlight on some of the courses offered at Musselburgh Grammar.
Travel and Tourism trip to Newhailes (Part 2)
N5 Travel and Tourism pupils welcomed a follow up visit to Newhailes House on Thursday 26th September to investigate the varying employment opportunities both at Newhailes and within the National Trust for Scotland. We had talks from current members of staff regarding their job role and responsibilities as well as discussing desirable training, qualifications, skills and attributes. Our main take away and top tip was the value of volunteering not only to explore potential employment sectors but also to ‘get your foot in the door’. Pupils will now write up their findings as part of their assessment folio for Unit 1:Employability.
Special thanks to Dixie and Diane from NTS for all their advice and insight.
Mrs Dias and Mrs Orsi.
Great Musselburgh Bake Off
What a great way to end this week with our first House Event: The Great Musselburgh Bake Off! It was open to all S1-6 and the pupils did an amazing job of decorating their cupcakes, with unique designs and excellent skills on show. All pupils were awarded house points for entering and you can see their creations below!
A well done to our winners: Nyx Chapman in the S3-6 category with her haunted halloween creations (with her own chocolate models!). Elspeth Barry in S1 won in the S1-2 category, with another spookily amazing set of cupcakes.
Thank you to the judges: Ms Hannan, Ms Craigie and Ms Walker for being the best Pru Leiths we could ask for, with even some Paul Hollywood handshakes being given out!!
S1-2:
1st Elspeth Barry
2nd Simran Singh
Joint 3rd Zoa Strachan and Caleb Ballantine
S4-6:
1st Nyx Chapman
2nd Regan Bailie
3rd Hannah Rostron
Eco Club
This week’s House Assemblies reminded pupils that we have a thriving Eco Club and welcomed others to join. Ella, Jasmine, Maya and Anna presented the following slides, and I plan to attend one of their meetings after the October break to hear their progress and see how I can keep supporting their excellent work.
Pupil Voice
This week, the following pupils received their first ‘service coin’ for their hard work in recent weeks towards Pupil Voice. Whether it be designing the new logo, planning and presenting assemblies or working hard behind the scenes to map out the year ahead, they have all hugely contributed to getting the group started this year. Service coins can be collected throughout the year and are awarded for hard work and dedication to Pupil Voice. Well done to Eleanor Greene, Ella Main, Jasmin Notarangelo, Holly McNeill, Nicole Moore, Euan Allan, Maja Makowska and Summer Stirling on receiving your first coin of the year.
Wider Achievement Dementia Friends
This week was our first week joining the members of the Dementia Meeting Centre in Musselburgh. We started with a speed round of questions that would help us get to know each other better and break the ice. We went into small groups made up of a mixture of
MGS pupils and members. We had 6 minutes in each group to chat and answer questions that were written on cards, then we’d move around to a new group and discuss more questions. It was a great way for everyone to share experiences. We found out where the members grew up, their favourite foods, the music they listened to, what pets they had and much more! We found that we had more in common with each other than we thought and near the end of the activity we shared the most interesting things we had learned about each other to the wider group. Afterwards, we got to share some baked goods and a cup of tea. By this time, we had all relaxed and were able to have conversations with the members about common interests. The members showed us pictures of previous activities that they’d done. We all had such an amazing time there and are excited for more weeks to come.
-Written by Michael Underhill 5C2
MGS website and School Handbook for parents
Here is the link to our website, and it also contains our School Handbook.
Extra Curricular clubs and Study Support Sessions
We have added links to our website with information on all lunchtime/after school clubs, and also our Study Support sessions. You can find it all in the ‘Student’ section of our school website.
SQA Exam Diet 2025
Please follow this link to see the SQA Exam timetable for Spring 2025: Exam timetable and learner apps - SQA
Medical
The Flu vaccination will take place on 12th and 13th December 2024. If you did not receive a form please go and see Ms Harvey in the Medical room. All forms must be returned to school as soon as possible.
All pupils who have Asthma please have your inhaler with you in your school bag at all times
C Harvey
School Medical Assistant
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