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HEAD TEACHER'S NEWSLETTER
What a week of mixed emotions……huge pride in the fantastic performances at the Spring Music Concert and in waving our S6 pupils goodbye. It’s always poignant bidding our leavers farewell as the S6s have been such a lovely year group to teach, but we are excited for them embarking upon new adventures in their lives. We know that they will all do us proud.
We wish all our young people taking exams over the next 6 weeks every success.
Four of our colleagues also embark upon new chapters on Monday at Rosehill High and we sent them on their way up the road this afternoon with many fond memories, laughter, and a few tears.
Teaching is all about people. It’s a vocation, not a job. We build relationships with our colleagues, young people and communities, and if we’re lucky, they become friends. Often we get very lucky, and they become family.
Rosehill pupils, parents and carers are very lucky to have such committed and passionate teachers joining the school, and they are all really looking forward to joining the Rosehill team.
With best wishes for a hopefully sunny weekend!
Jodie Hannan
Key Dates
Monday 24 April: SQA exams commence.
Wednesday 26 April: Parent Council 7-9pm online. The link to access is https://meet.google.com/pog-himg-fdh
Staffing Update
Farewell to three of our Principal Teachers who leave us today to take up Curriculum Leader posts at Rosehill High School on Monday 24 April: Mr Thomson, PT CDT, Ms Roddy, PT 1 English and Mrs Anderson, PT Modern Studies and RMPS.
Mr Thomson has been at MGS for 4 years, Ms Roddy for 15 and Mrs Anderson for 17. It has been an absolute pleasure working with them all. We will miss them hugely and wish them every happiness and success in the next chapter of their careers.
Ms Roddy and Mrs Anderson will return to MGS in May for SQA Immersion classes, and all will be back from 5 June at the change of timetable to teach the S2 and S3 Rosehill classes several periods per week during that month.
Further information on June’s arrangements for Rosehill pupils will be shared with them and parents/ carers in May.
We also say farewell to Mrs Lock, Support for Learning Teacher, who takes up post as CL Support for Learning at Rosehill High School on Monday 24 April. We wish her the very best in the next stage of her career.
Welcome to Mrs Hamilton-Wylie who joined us in CDT, and to Mr Blair, temporary DHT Grange House, both of whom joined our team on Monday. Mrs Hamilton-Wylie is a permanent full time member of staff, while Mr Blair is with us until 28 June.
Congratulations to Ms Holmes, currently Teacher of PE, who takes up a temporary Guidance post in the Pupil Support Faculty on Monday 24 April- 28 June. Ms Holmes will work with a number of pupils across Caird and Moray Houses and introduce herself to them on Monday.
Staffing Update
The departure of Mr Thomson, Ms Roddy and Mrs Anderson means that we start moving to our new management structure and four new faculties are in place from Monday 24 April.
Mrs Donnelly, currently PT Business Education and Computing is now Curriculum Leader (CL) of the Technologies Faculty- Business Education, Computing, and CDT.
Ms McCrorie, currently (temporary until 28 June) PT History and Geography, now takes up the acting CL post of the new Global Citizenship Faculty- History, Geography, Modern Studies and RME.
Mr Greig, currently PT English, Drama and Media, now becomes CL of the Communications Faculty- English, Literacy and Media.
Mr Dickson, currently PT of Expressive Arts, becomes CL of the Expressive Arts Faculty, which now includes Drama as well as Music and Art.
The remainder of the new management structure will take effect on 14 August.
SQA News
We wish lots of luck to our S4-6 learners starting their exam diet from Monday. The exams run from Monday 24th April to 31st May.
Arrangements during exams:
In the mornings, ONLY pupils sitting exams will gain access to the school through the front door/ foyer.
Uniform check will take place from 8.15am in the social space. Pupils should gather in the playground outside the dining hall to wait to be allowed into the building.
Pupils using the breakfast club will also need to wait in the playground until being allowed in.
For the remainder of the school day pupils will not be able to access the foyer (barring seeing the nurse or office) – this includes entering and leaving the building through the front doors at break and lunch. Pupils should use the other doors to leave the building. The rules at the back doors still stand – these can be used as exit points; but not entry points at break and lunch.
Some classrooms/ corridors will have NO ENTRY SIGNS during exam weeks. Please pay attention to these. Pupils should not enter these areas.
All pupils coming to school for exams and immersion sessions must still wear school uniform for security purposes.
We appreciate your support with these arrangements in order to help us have a smooth exam diet.
Miss Chisholm
EMPLOYABILITY PATHWAY 2023 (Meaningful May)
The Employability Pathway is for pupils who are sitting 2 or less National 5s. Meetings were held in school and emails went out to remind pupils. Thank you to those who attended and have completed the paperwork, if your son/daughter is eligible and has not yet completed the necessary paperwork, please see Ms Hoffman, B16.
Please note, if your parental consent is not returned, unfortunately due to H&S, pupils will not be permitted to take part when we are going on events out with the school.
Week 1 Monday 24th April- Friday 28th April is allocated for coursework/ unit assessment completion for National courses. Learners should have been notified by Principal Teachers/ subject Teachers of the times teachers are available for this.
Please note:
Learners should sign in at the school office on arrival
Learners should sign out at the school office once finished
Uniform should be worn
Any queries contact the school via the admin office.
We will publish a weekly timetable of events due to last minute changes. Week 2 is shown below:
- All of the above events are in school, pupils must enter by the rear door due to examinations
- Please appreciate pupils are sitting exams, keep the noise to a minimum
- Pupils to meet in the rear social area to be registered
Kayla and Rory
Hi and welcome back to our LAST weekly rundown!! We wanted to thank everyone for such a fantastic year and we hope you enjoyed all the events we planned this year. Good luck with exams and everything that comes after, and good luck to the next head team (you'll need it!). We are both so grateful for the incredible year we have had as the Head Pupils and wish you all the best of luck in the future.
Bye for now,
Rory and Kayla
Senior pupil appointments
The process for applying for senior pupil positions for our Pupil Head Team (S6), House Captains (S6), Equalities Captains (S5/6) and Prefects (S4/5/6) is now underway.
Those young people moving into S4, S5 and S6 in June have information on Google classroom and via email about how to apply.
We are really excited to develop this student body in the school and look forward to welcoming applications. Please note the dates:
Those in current positions should submit a new application for 2023/24. Thank you.
Spring Concert
On Wednesday, our pupils put on a FANTASTIC performance! Our Spring concert had 18 acts including 6 rock bands, wind bands, highland dancing, duets, choirs, solo acts and more! With the audience full, the pupils put on a really high quality show! Well done to everyone involved, and thank you to our pupil stage hands as well! We were also delighted to welcome back the primary wind band who performed the main theme from Star Wars brilliantly. Keep your eyes out for our summer ‘jam’! Here is a photo of the junior band rehearsing before the doors opened:
Travel and Tourism trip to Musselburgh Museum
The S5/6 Travel and Tourism class visited Musselburgh Museum this week to check out the new ‘Schools’ exhibit. We had a talk from Simon Fairnie about the history of the museum, how they organise exhibitions and the opportunities available in museums. The students enjoyed looking at the items on display and even spotted some family and friends in the old school photos!
Eco Week
This week MGS held its second Eco Week to offer opportunities for pupils to experience eco-friendly and sustainable methods of travelling, eating and shopping.
There was a mostly vegetarian/vegan bake sale on Monday, there was a free book swap on Tuesday and those who could were encouraged to walk to school on Wednesday or use any method of eco-friendly transport. A big highlight was the return of the Free to a Good Home stall on Thursday and big thanks go to Mrs Howie, Mrs Beveridge and the Support for Learning team for all the preparations that went into this - it was a really fabulous display of what the MGS community can do together!
The final day was a dress-down day with donations being split between the Scottish Wildlife Trust, a local charity called Recycling First and the school Equity Fund. We have raised an incredible £283.48 this week to split between them!
A final thanks goes to the pupils who took part in the 1.5 MAX Global Schools’ Climate Summit, our fabulous Eco Club, Dr Brown and Miss Hepburn for their help in designing and coordinating the week!
Refereeing
A big well done to my refereeing class who have passed their course and achieved two units at SCQF Level 7, equivalent to an Advanced Higher, which is a fantastic achievement for this brilliant group of young people.
Wishing them all the best for the future and hopefully the start of an exciting new career for them.
Mr Lee
Lost Property
There are a number of items of lost property, including North Face jackets. Please check with Ms Harvey if you are missing items.
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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