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HEAD TEACHER'S NEWSLETTER
Friday 24th January 2025
Friday 24th January 2025
It is strange to be working from home again today due to school being closed, and a reminder of how much better it is to be back in school!
I hope you find this week’s newsletter informative, particularly for S4-6 parents and carers as we are now in the last few short months before SQA exams.
Stay safe. We look forward to seeing everyone back in the building on Monday, and best wishes for a much less blustery weekend.
Jodie Hannan
Key Dates
Week beginning Monday 27 January: S1 reports distributed to pupils
Wednesday 29 January: Young Musician of the Year event
Thursday 30 January: S3 Coursing
Wednesday 5 & Thursday 6 February: Coursing Days for S4 & S5
Monday 10-Friday 14 February: February Break
Monday 17 February: Inset day for staff only
Tuesday 18 February: All pupils return to school
Remember you can find all events on our school calendar, and you can add this calendar to your own too.
Staffing
Congratulations to Ms Watson, Teacher of CDT, who has secured a post at North Berwick High School. MS Watson will be at MGS until the February Break. This post will be advertised shortly but there will be some changes to who is teaching Ms Watson’s classes after the February Break until the post is filled. This will be communicated to the relevant classes and parents once arrangements are finalised.
Parent Council Meeting dates
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
Senior Expectations
Ms Craigie and I held assemblies for S4, S5 and S6 last week to reiterate expectations of attendance, punctuality and commitment to courses.
The school’s mission is for all young people to excel at school and leave with the highest grade and number of qualifications possible to give them options and opportunities for life after school.
Every hour in school counts! As from today there are:
2 weeks until the February Holiday.
8 weeks until the Easter Holiday
9 weeks until SQA exams commence.
We all know how stressful these last few months and the exam period are, but it is critical to start preparing as early as possible and avoid panic cramming the night before an exam.
I spoke about the importance of focusing on the one or two things that will make the biggest difference to exam success in a few short months, and that this focus will be different for everyone.
Everyone in school is committed to our pupils’ success and will support and challenge them to do and be their best, but we cannot do it for them.
Study Support resources
There are a variety of resources available via MGS Revision Resource Poster on the school website > students > study resources.
You can also use the QR code to access the poster which has clickable icons. The Easter Holiday revision class programme will be published closer to the time.
eSgoil is a very valuable online resource which requires a Glow password which have been emailed to all pupils’ edubuzz accounts.
It may take a few minutes to access the resource and browse all the online revision classes and webinars but is worth it https://www.e-sgoil.com/senior-phase/study-support/
MGS Revision Resource Poster.pdf
SQA Assessment and Assignment calendar
Almost all N5, Higher and Advanced Higher courses require pupils to complete an Assignment, Dissertation, practical performance or other assessment before the SQA exam diet.
These assessments must be completed and deadlines cannot be missed.
To help pupils and parents/ carers see what is required over the next few months and plan out study time accordingly, we have collated these in a spreadsheet for all parents and pupils. This can be found on our website under 'Students', also in 'Musselburgh Learns/SQA' and will be posted in the S4, S5 and S6 Google classrooms - so you can't miss it 😀.
Active Schools
Active Schools
Welcome to Maria Lyle, our new Active School's Coordinator.
Maria spoke at all House Assemblies this week to introduce herself. She has had an inspirational career but is very modest about her international sporting achievements! Maria is a retired professional 100m and 200m sprinter for Great Britain, as well as a paralympic World, European, and Commonwealth medallist. Maria is the European record holder in the 100m and 200m sprint.
One of the main objectives of Maria’s job is to increase participation in physical activity for young people. Having had various jobs within sport previously, she knows the positive impact it can have on a person’s life. During her career as an athlete, volunteers had a big impact on her experience in sport. Without those individuals giving up their time, she wouldn’t have accessed the same opportunities as her peers.
Active Schools believes all young people deserve the opportunity to participate in sport. To ensure we keep sport accessible to everyone, they are very dependent on volunteers. This is where Maria is reaching out to our school community for help. If you have any experience in sport or physical activity, please let her know. Even an interest in helping out would be greatly appreciated.
School Medical Records
We are updating our school medical records to ensure that we hold the most up to date and accurate information for all our pupils.
If contacted, please return paperwork as soon as possible. In some cases this is vital to ensure access to school medical equipment in the case of an emergency.
If your child has a medical need that the school does not yet know about please contact our admin office mailbox.
East Lothian Review of MGS
MGS will be reviewed by East Lothian Council 3-5 March 2025. Our last Review was October 2022.
These Reviews are valuable opportunities to evaluate our work and ensure we keep improving our young peoples’ experience in school. The main questions for our self evaluation are:
How are we doing?
How do we know?
What will we do next?
This involves the Review team observing a number of lessons across S1-S6 over the three days and speaking to pupils, staff and parents in focus groups.
In preparation for the Review and for the team to gather your views, I will be sending surveys to all pupils and parents/ carers in the week beginning 3 February with a closing date of Wednesday 19 February. I would be grateful if you could take the time to complete these. Pupils will have the opportunity to complete their surveys in PSE classes that week too. I will share further details of the Review over February and March’s newsletters.
SCP 2025/26 College courses link
Schools College Partnership (SCP) offers a wide range of part-time college courses for S4-S6 pupils and provides greater choice in a variety of subjects which may not be available at school. SCP courses count as one of your column choices which can be added into your existing timetable. Pupils study their college course on two afternoons per week; Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.
Edinburgh College have started to publish their School College Partnership (SCP) and Full Time Courses for the next academic year, starting in August 25.
This is a link to the SCP courses, where you would attend college normally on a Tuesday/Thursday afternoon.
https://www.edinburghcollege.ac.uk/courses/for-school-pupils
The Edinburgh College website will also publish their Full Time Courses for any school leavers.
Please be mindful that whilst college are updating their website some courses from 24 are still sitting on the system, please ensure you are looking for August 25 starts!
If you require help in applying for any of the above courses, please call into B16 to make an
appointment with A Hoffman or S Dalton.
Prom 2025
Prom 2025 is currently being organised and we are looking to support our S6 students as much as we can with their prom attire; prom outfits are normally only worn once and can be costly.
We are looking for any dresses, suits, shirts, ties, shoes, bags, and jewellery. The Honest Thread will set up a pop up shop prior to prom for pupils.
If you have any pre-loved items you are able to donate please donate to the main reception FAO Ms Ritchie.
Thank you for your support.
Head Team
Hello everyone, a slightly late welcome back to school and we hope you had a great Christmas and new year!
Just a quick update on what the three of us are up to - on Tuesday the 21st we had the S2 Parents' Evening, which went smoothly as always thanks to the help of the prefects! We also had an online Parent Council meeting, where the three of us discussed exactly what we had been up to the last month or two regarding our strategic and operational roles as head pupils.
That’s about it for this week - if you guys have any questions or just want to check in with us our emails are:
@mg19khorrell@edubuzz.org
@mg19amckinnie@edubuzz.org
Hope you all have a nice weekend and stay safe!
School Trips and Activities 2024-25
School Trips and Activities 2024-25
We wrote to S1-3 parents back in November to let everyone know that we were planning activities in May, while the senior pupils are on study leave. The dates for these activities will be Tuesday 20th May, and Friday 23rd May. The Tuesday trips will be to Alton Towers, Blair Drummond, or Go Ape (Tuesday 20th May), and on the Friday there will be a range of activities closer to home (MGS). On both days there will be in-school activities for those pupils who prefer to do this. Pupils in receipt of free school meals or who are care-experienced will receive funding towards their choice of trip. More information will be coming out about these very soon.
S3 Residential 2026
S3 Residential 2026
We are excited to announce that the first S3 residential to PGL Ford Castle will be taking place in May 2026! All current S2 pupils have been asked to complete a form posted on their year group Google Classroom as a note of interest. Ms Ritchie will be handing out consent forms next week with all relevant information. These will be due by Friday 31 January.
We would love for as many pupils as possible to attend this trip, it’s going to be a good one!
SQA Exam Diet 2025
Please follow this link to see the SQA Exam timetable for Spring 2025: Exam timetable and learner apps - SQA
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: 82 %
S2: 89%
S3: 89%
S4: 90%
S5: 92%
S6: 91 %
Medical
Polio/Dip vaccinations
All S3 Boys and Girls and also some catch ups will have received a polio/dip/meningitis form.
Please return this to school asap.
The vaccines will take place on Thursday and Friday 20th/21st March 2025.
HPV VACCINE
All S1 and also some catch ups will take place on Tuesday 3rd June 2025. Please return your
form back to school asap.
MMR VACCINE - Catch ups (only if you received a blue form) will be vaccinated on Tuesday
3rd June 2025
Reminders to parents:
Asthma: emails have been sent out regarding returning Asthma consent forms. Please return these if you have not yet done so. If your child requires an inhaler, this must be carried with them at all times.
Infection Control - if your child has had vomiting/diarrhoea, they should not return to school before 48h after the last episode. This helps limit the spread of any bugs - thank you for your co-operation.
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