MUSSELBURGH GRAMMAR SCHOOL
HEAD TEACHER'S NEWSLETTER
Friday 23rd August 2024
It was a pleasure to meet our Head Pupils, Katie, Summer and Ailsa, on Wednesday, the first of our fortnightly meetings. We discussed their plans for Junior leaders, their individual areas of responsibility and their role in Pupil Voice, as well as the community events where they will represent the school. They will be leading House assemblies next week to outline the Junior Leader role and application process.
At the end of the first full week back in school we’re right back into the swing of things and it feels as though we have been back for months!
Our S1 pupils are a delight to greet each morning and have settled into school and routines well. Trips have already gone out to the Scottish Parliament and the Traverse Theatre, and preparations are well underway for the Prize Giving ceremony on the 4th of September.
Wishing you a lovely weekend.
Jodie Hannan
Key Dates
Wednesday 28 August: Musselburgh Learns N5 & Higher Maths for parents and carers 6.30-7.30pm in the Hall. If there are S3 parents/carers wanting more information about the difference between Maths and Maths Apps, you are more than welcome too.
Monday 2 Sep: MGS PC Online briefing 7-8pm meet.google.com/xov-dovm-tto
Wednesday 4 September: Prize Giving Ceremony 7-9pm.
Staffing
Recruitment for the temporary Teacher of Spanish and Science Technician have been successful and both will join the Grammar team once recruitment paperwork is complete.
Our Spanish candidates taught part of a lesson as part of the interview process and commended the pupils on how well behaved, welcoming and keen to learn they were which is lovely to hear.
MGS website and School Handbook for parents
Our website is live!. Please head over and have a look, it has lots of useful information for parents - including our School Handbook and the School Calendar. The school calendar is now in Google format so you are able to add it to your own calendar should you wish.
If you would like to do this click the '+' sign that's at the bottom right of the school calendar, as shown in image below. This will mean you're kept up to date with all our events, e.g. Parent Consultations, Reporting dates, etc.
Pupil Voice
Mrs Hamilton-Wylie has now taken over leadership of Pupil Voice from Mrs Walker who has done a sterling job with it for the past 7 years. Thanks to Mrs Walker for all her hard work establishing Pupil Voice and Mrs Hamilton-Wylie is very much looking forward to working with the pupils to ensure they have a voice in school improvement.
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: 95%
S2: 89%
S3: 89%
S4: 88%
S5: 95%
S6: 93%
‘Achieve’ online study resource
I purchased this subscription in January and it has been well received by pupils, parents and teachers.
New S4 pupils can access the resource here https://achieve.hashtag-learning.co.uk/user-start/?next=/ and use the code 9ZELGg4e to link to the MGS account. This information is also in the S4 year group classroom.
Medical Society
Medical Society is back! Any pupils (S1-S6) interested in pursuing a career in medicine, vet medicine or dentistry then please come along to A48 on Monday lunchtimes. We will discuss what pupils can be doing to ensure they stand the best chance of securing a future in these careers.
Mrs Duff and Alana Thompson
Parent Council dates
Monday 2 Sep: MGS PC Online briefing 7-8pm meet.google.com/xov-dovm-tto
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
Medical
Flu vaccination will take place on 12th and 13th December 2024. Pupils will receive a form this week from their register teacher. If you did not receive a form please go and see Ms Harvey in Medical room.
C Harvey
School Medical Assistant
Wellbeing
For all young people.
If you’re in need of a bit of support for general health and wellbeing. Our NHS school nurse will be in our wellbeing room on Wednesdays from 9-12. For more information come to your Pupil Support Leader.
Head Team Blog
Hi everyone, Katie Ailsa and Summer here!
We hope you are all settled into your new subjects and excited for a new school year.
Firstly, a little bit more about us;
Katie - This year at school I am taking Advanced Higher geography, Advanced Higher maths, Higher media and Higher music tech. When I leave school I want to study geography and documentary making at university. I hope to one day become a documentarian! I am also part of the school music department and play in wind band, orchestra in jazz band playing clarinet.
Ailsa - This year at school I am taking Advanced Higher Spanish and Modern Studies as well as Higher Business and Philosophy. I really enjoy all of these subjects and I’m still deciding what I would like to study at University next September. I am a dancer and have been since I was 2 and this is something I am very passionate about. I also completed the higher dance course outside of school as a 6th higher last year. I am a social person and so I hope that when I am older I can work as part of a big team doing something that I love.
Summer - For s6 I am taking 4 subjects of which include Higher Classical Studies, Higher History, Higher Art and Design, and Higher Admin. I enjoy being creative and I love social subjects. When I leave school I would like to do a dual degree of politics and potentially finance, I live to help and talk to people and hope one day to be in a job position where I get to chat to people and have a good team around me. However, I do also want to one day travel the globe and visit all 7 wonders of the world.
We hope these introductions helped you become a little more familiar with us and our interests!
Secondly, within the next few weeks we are appointing a junior leadership team for S3s. Keep an eye out for how to apply on the S3 year group google classroom, we look forward to reading all of your applications and we are looking forward to working with the Junior Pupil Team throughout this school year. Good luck to all the applicants!
iPayimpact App available
The iPay App is now available for quicker payment of school meals, ties and other funds. Please make sure when paying using iPay that you are paying into the correct fund.