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HEAD TEACHER'S NEWSLETTER
In preparation for next Tuesday’s Employability evening, this week’s House Assemblies focused on employability and it was a pleasure to welcome several visitors, one a parent, to speak to all pupils about their own career path. We are also organising career mentoring opportunities for a number of S4 pupils to further support their employability skills.
The Humanities faculty organised poignant Remembrance Assemblies for all year groups this morning, including a lovely performance from our musicians. As a History teacher to trade, this is always one of the assemblies I value the most, particularly as wars continue to break out across the world with terrible suffering and loss of life.
We observed a minute’s silence at 11am and laid a wreath at the school’s commemoration plaque. Eva and Charlie will also represent the school at Sunday’s service on the Mall.
Have a lovely weekend.
Jodie Hannan
Key Dates
Tuesday 14 November: Employability and Pathways evening for all S1-S6 parents and pupils 6-8pm.
Friday 17 November: Children in Need fundraising day.
Wednesday 22 November: Parent Council quiz from 7pm at the Store club, North High Street.
Monday 27 November: Prelims begin.
Tuesday 28 November: Parent Council briefing online 7-8pm. Please use this link: meet.google.com/mbn-eqdh-stc
Wednesday 19th December: S5/6 Christmas Dance
Staff
Interviews for office staff and Pupil Support Workers will be next Monday and Thursday respectively.
Preliminary Examination Diet
The prelims begin on Monday 27th November 2023 for all S4, S5 and S6 students entered for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher courses.
The master timetable was issued on Friday 10th November in year group google classrooms and by email to parents and carers. Pupils will receive individual timetables during registration next week. Please note that seat numbers will only be available on the school notice board, in the foyer, the day before an examination. Pupils must attend all exams and must arrive 15 minutes before the published examination start time.
Pupils who are entitled to additional arrangements must see Mr Donnelly to get their room allocation and start times, in advance of the prelim exam diet.
Any pupil that does not attend a prelim examination may have their SQA entry for the May examination diet withdrawn.
Remembrance Assemblies
On Friday morning, students from the Humanities Faculty presented Remembrance Assemblies to all year groups. These assemblies informed students about why it is important to remember the loss of life in WWI and other conflicts, the story behind the poppy and individual stories of soldiers from Musselburgh. Students from the Music Department played an excellent rendition of Abide With Me. Thanks to all those involved: James Blakeley, Isaah Majid, Shehwar Hyder, Summer Stirling, Eva Hills, Eleanor Myles, Ella Main, Mia Beattie, Tess Devlin, Thea Cooke, Hannah Scott and Julia Scott.
Employability Pathways
On Tuesday 14th November we will hold our annual Employability Pathways evening from 6-8pm in the school hall and social space. We have over 70 partner agencies joining us for this evening; from Universities and Colleges, employers and training providers, and subject leaders and third sector organisations. This event is open to all pupils and parents from S1 - S6 and may be of particular interest to pupils in S2 - S5 for subject choice ideas and support, plus those in S4 - S6 considering their next steps beyond school. We very much look forward to welcoming you to this event.
Thanks to Rochelle, Claire and Jonathon who took time out of their work this week to present their pathways to our house assemblies and talk about the benefit of attending pathway events. We are delighted that they are working with us to build the skills of our young people. In addition to the assemblies, the team presented our new mentoring programme to all S4 pupils during PSE lessons (slides are on the S4 Google Classroom). This is an exciting programme we are aiming to launch in January for 6 weeks whereby, we will match pupils to a business mentor in an industry they are interested in. The programme will develop employability skills with the pupils and advise them on CV writing and Interview skills. We look forward to updating you on our progress in the near future.
Musselburgh Learns
Curriculum Leader Professional Development
Last week saw half our curriculum leaders engage in professional learning in school along with colleagues from Dunbar Grammar School. Staff worked with depute head teachers from both schools to develop a better understanding of how to move our learning and teaching from good to great by thinking about their feedback based on observations in class and expectations from HMIe.. Staff involved commented, “It was an excellent day”, “A wonderful CLPL session”, “An excellent day collaborating, sharing and getting a snapshot of where we are at and what we need to work on.” A change to practise has already been put in place in some areas and we look forward to seeing next steps.
We will be guests at Dunbar Grammar later in the session to roll this out to all other curriculum leaders.
SYP - Scottish Youth Parliament
The Scottish Youth Parliament is the democratically elected voice of young people.
You, as a young person, have the opportunity to elect a representative for Musselburgh who you believe will represent your beliefs.
Scan the following QR codes below to read more about the policies and key issues important to our candidates in Musselburgh.
Scan the QR code below to vote. Hints when voting…
Use your 16 digit Young Scot Card number
Our constituency is North Midlothian and Musselburgh not East Lothian.
This is the Additional Member System voting system so with the candidate you would like to win click the 1!
Bingo & Blether 2023
A big “Thank you” to MGS staff and parents who donated prizes for our senior phase cross generation community project.
First Event was on Monday afternoon. The elderly residents of Mansfield Court had a great time. Our class performance was thoroughly appreciated by all.
The class had also baked delicious scones with Mrs Beveridge for this special occasion. Evie’s home baking was also very popular.
Our Personal Development class is looking forward to their next performance in Brunton Court on Monday 20th.
‘The Wrap Up, with Charlie & Eva’
Welcome to another edition of 'The Wrap Up, with Charlie & Eva. There are many exciting things happening at the moment.
Prelims are fast approaching which can only mean one thing… GET STUDYING! There are many study sessions after school for certain classes, so make sure you check out when they are on. However, it’s important to make sure you get some to yourself as well as breaks in between each subject. At the end of the day these aren’t your official exams, but they are important in terms of keeping you on track. All we can say is good luck, and do the best that you can!
This week on the 11th of November it will be Remembrance Day and so there will be many things around school in memorial of this historical day. Both of us will be attending the Remembrance Day Service on Sunday to lay our school’s wreath.
Next Friday we will be having our very own ‘Pudsey Day’ in order to raise money for the charity ‘Children In Need’. It will be a dress down day where you can wear spotty clothes or PJ’s in exchange for a donation. We will be raffling off 2 gift card hampers alongside some other prizes, there will also be a ‘guess how many sweets are in the jar’. It will be 50p for a raffle ticket and £1 per guess of how many sweets are in the jar. Raffle tickets and the jar of sweets will be brought around classes as well as sold outside the social space at Lunch. As well as that, there will be a bake sale in the hall. We desperately need cakes, so if anyone is able to bring any that would be great, but they must be nut free. Lastly, at 12:30 in the back green, there will be a chance to sponge your teachers, this will be 50p per throw. Ultimately we are trying to raise as much money for this cause as we can! We are very much looking forward to this event, as well as seeing everybody’s cool outfits!
We hope you have a great weekend! We shall see you next week!
East Lothian Schools Swimming Gala
Next month we have our annual East Lothian Schools Swimming Gala and are looking for pupils in S1 - S6 to represent MGS and compete at this event. Events include: 50m Butterfly, 50m Backstroke, 50m Breaststroke, 50m Freestyle, 100m Individual Medley and relays! If we have lots of entries for the same stroke, final squads will be selected based on PB's!
If you are interested or have any questions come and see Miss Hall, our Active Schools Coordinator in A45. You will also be able to sign up there.
Employability Pathway 2023
Please save the date, all welcome. If you are a business or know of any businesses who would like to secure a spot. Please contact the school or alternatively email, employability@musselburghgrammar.elcschool.org.
Senior Phase Study Support Programme
Lost Property
There are lots of items in lost property. If not collected by 12th December 2023 all will be recycled. Thank you, C Harvey.
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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