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HEAD TEACHER'S NEWSLETTER
Another busy, (and short!) week in school with lots going on across all faculties.
House Assemblies this week focused on our school value of Respect and we were all very impressed by the S3 pupils who emphasised its importance in all our interactions with other people, as well as respecting ourselves.
Next week’s House Assemblies will badge each pair of House Captains and range of S4-S6 prefects.
Thank you all again for your support of uniform- it has been a pleasure to greet such a smart and well mannered group of young people every morning.
Best wishes for a lovely long weekend.
Jodie Hannan
Staffing
We are delighted to welcome Ms Castles to the Mathematics Department and Ms Dudley to the Geography department.
Key Dates
Friday 16 & Monday 19 September: September weekend
Tuesday 20 September: All pupils and staff return to school
House Points - Weekly Total
Uniform
A fantastic effort by our school community this week. 89% of our roll of 1220 pupils were in full uniform all week and six register classes had full school uniform for every pupil:
1C3, 2C2, 6C, 6M1. 1G2 & 2G2
Prefect Appointments
We are delighted to announce our prefect appointments for session 2022/23.
Caird House: Lucy Meldrum, James Blakeley, Eva Hills, Eleanor Greene, Carys Friend
Moray House: Ellie Dewar, Katie Horrell, Scott Radley, Lewis Downes, Sophie Ritchie
Grange House: Shewar Hyder, Hannah Livingstone, Abbie Elgin, Max McKenzie, Holly Liddle, Katie Hannah
Congratulations to all. We look forward to working with you more closely with others in the Head Team and the House Captains as you help represent the school and drive forward our aims.
Blythswood Shoe Box Appeal
The Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Group is collecting shoeboxes and donations to fill shoeboxes to send to those abroad who live in severe poverty. If you have any donations of the following, please pass them in to Mrs Dias in D10. We need donations of:
Christmas wrapping paper, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, hat/ scarf/ gloves, face cloths/ sponge, facial wipes, toiletries, small toys. ALL ITEMS MUST BE NEW AND UNOPENED.
Leaflets for making up your own shoe box will be available from school.
Thank you for your support.
Support For Learning
Our literacy intervention and numeracy programmes are now starting with over 100 of our S1-S4 pupils having access to a variety of interventions such as the Reading to a Dog programme, Level 3/4 Literacy support, Paired Reading, Corrective Reading, Spelling, Toe by Toe Reading Labs, Mathletics, Number friends and Education Quizzes.
This year our paired reading programme is bigger and better thanks to our wonderful S6 buddies and teacher volunteers. We have lots of pupils being supported twice weekly and lots of prize draws for those pupils completing quizzes as they go. Lots of senior pupils will also benefit from achieving certificates for volunteering as part of the Saltire Award Programme
Our second year of our S4 Outdoor Learning course is in flow. They have completed lots of visits including Musselburgh Lagoons, Butterdean Woods, Prestongrange Beach and Preston Tower. Geocaching seems to be a new favourite hobby for lots of our pupils.
Our Personal Development class have now started planning for their Bingo and Blether day in a local care home. The first two years of this have been a massive success so we have high hopes of the pupils making this one bigger and better.
We have a number of other initiatives now started up including Street Soccer on a Monday morning for S3 boys. All participants are learning how to become proper coaches and set up training sessions and at the same time achieve a level 4 leadership award.
Our Horse Riding Therapy sessions have also begun at Muirfield for a small number of S2/S3 pupils. This is a fantastic opportunity for pupils to get to know more about horses, how to care for them and of course how to ride them. Our first session went extremely well with all pupils meeting their own horses which they will work with for the next 10 weeks.
We are delighted to announce that we will be piloting some reading to dog sessions in the next few weeks. Mr Donnelly’s dog Hallie will be our new MGS Therapy Dog. Hallie already works with pupils in and out of school on a Friday morning so this will be a nice transition to more structured sessions.
Pupil Support
On Wednesday, all S2 pupils attended Smashed Live, an interactive drama performance.
This performance and workshop highlighted the issues, dangers and impacts of underage drinking.
These messages will be reinforced in PSE classes in the coming months.
Literacy
Week 1 of the Superpower Agency got off to a great start on Thursday morning!
A group of S2 pupils are working collaboratively to build on their already excellent literacy skills. Over the next two months they will be exploring the theme of identity as a stimulus for the role of creative writing. Excitingly this will be published later in the year. Stay tuned for updates.
For more information on the great work of the Superpower Agency please see: https://superpoweragency.com/
Eco Club
The Eco Club have been busy this week creating our “Bee and Bee”, an insect hotel which we’ve started to put together in the quad. It was a real team effort!
We are also looking for donations of old teacups and saucers which we are going to use to make bird feeders for our garden.
Making small steps towards getting Musselburgh Grammar our Green Flag award!
Global Schools’ Climate Conference: 1.5 MAX
After the success of last year’s Climate Conference, which involved pupils and schools from across the globe, pupils at MGS have been invited to get involved in the 2022 1.5 MAX conference in November.
Pupils interested in shaping the way our school talks about Climate Change, learns about it and tackles it should register their interest through their year group Google Classroom by the 23rd of September. This is open to all year groups and we have 16 spaces.
Future Pathways Evening
Lost Property
There is a lot of lost property in Ms Harvey's room. I have 10 S1 black jumpers and lots of other stuff. Pop in after the holiday weekend and have a look. Thank you, Ms Harvey.
Flu Vaccine
All flu forms must be back by 22nd September 2022. All pupils will be vaccinated on Wednesday 5th October 2022.
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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