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HEAD TEACHER'S NEWSLETTER
My week was mainly focused on the review of the Health and Wellbeing Faculty. It was a pleasure for the review team to visit a number of classes from S1 to Higher across all the subjects in the faculty and talk to pupils about their learning. We visited forty classes in total over three days, and held five pupil focus groups to gain a real understanding of the faculty. Thanks to the HWB team for making us feel so welcome.
I concluded my week with my fortnightly meeting with the Head Pupils. We discussed a wide range of issues including the success of the Children in Need fundraising day, other fundraising plans, Prom, plans for Comic Relief in March 2024, lockers, plans for the Pupil Voice assemblies in December, future Pupil Voice meeting dates, future meetings for the whole senior pupil leadership team, primary transition planning, and how to deter anti social behaviour in the toilets. They are a lovely group of young people and I really enjoy our conversations.
The next fortnight is important for our senior students, and I hope that all pupils taking exams over the next fortnight are feeling prepared and confident. We know how daunting and stressful exams can be so make sure you have a study timetable in place as well as getting plenty of sleep, taking study breaks and eating well.
With best wishes for the weekend.
Jodie Hannan
Key Dates
Monday 27 November- Friday 8 December inclusive: prelims
Tuesday 28 November: Parent Council briefing 7-8pm online. Focus upon attainment and self evaluation. Use this link to access the briefing: meet.google.com/mbn-eqdh-stc
Saturday 2 December: Christmas Fayre 11am-1pm
Tuesday 12- Thursday 14 December: Pupil Voice assemblies
Thursday 14 December: Christmas Concert 7-9pm
Friday 15 December: Christmas Jumper Day with funds raised going to SCIAF Israeli- Palestinian Emergency Appeal
Tuesday 19 December: Senior Christmas Dance 7-9pm
Wednesday 20 December: Pupil Voice meeting periods 6&7
Friday 22 December: Term ends at 12.15pm. Christmas assembly for S1-S3 period 1.
Monday 8 January: all staff and pupils return to school
Thursday 11 January: Senior Phase Parents’ Consultation 5-7pm: Option 1 (further details to follow)
Monday 15 January: Senior Phase Parents’ Consultation 5-7pm: Option 2 (further details to follow)
Staff
We wish Mrs Deary in Modern Languages all the best as she begins her maternity leave. We have tried to minimise any disruption to classes in the current absence of a specialist supply teacher so Mrs Deary’s classes will be taught by other languages teachers until Ms Ryan returns from her maternity leave in January 2024 and takes Mrs Deary’s timetable.
Musselburgh Learns Leadership
Strong clear leadership is vital to the success of any organisation, and in school, leadership is not restricted only to the Head Teacher or Senior Leadership Team.
On Friday 1 December our whole Extended Leadership Team, which includes SLT and all middle leaders, embarks upon a professional learning leadership programme which will run for 1 day a month over five months and is designed to strengthen our team’s purpose, alignment and focus, with the end goal of improving outcomes for our young people.
Prelims
Prelims for S4-6 pupils begin on Monday 27th November.
All pupils are asked to enter the school building via the Music doors beside the social space. The foyer will be out of use for S1-3 pupils during the exam diet.
All pupils must be quiet throughout the school building to allow pupils, sitting exams, to have the correct environment to perform to their potential.
MGS Parent Council Pub Quiz
On Wednesday evening around 40 souls battled it out to be crowned the first ever winners of the MGS PC Pub Quiz. The winning team with a score of 69/80 (or 86.25%, an A grade) were “Quiz Teama Aguilera”
They won £30 and the bragging rights of being the first winners! One of their team won the head and tails game too, taking away a premium prize.
Rounds included picture rounds, music rounds, general knowledge, TV and more - at half time we held 3 quick, fun games. Each game winner took home a prize - one of the prizes was donated by the Lord Provost to the PC at the School Prize-Giving, so thanks to him and thanks to our other donor (you know who you are NL)
Prizes for the quiz were awarded for last place, third, second and first place. A great time was had by all - with all participants being keen to come again…so we might be holding these events once a term.
The quizmaster is an alumni of MGS and was really pleased to be involved - thanks Davy.
All this fun and brain exercise AND we raised funds for the PC too - a grand total of £215.
Thanks to everyone who competed, who helped, who encouraged ticket sales.
Next time we hope to be bigger - in a bigger room and with a bigger prize fund.
Will Quiz Teama Aguilera come back to defend their status or will a new challenger usurp their title?
We will find out in Spring…
Music Achievement
Congratulations and best of luck to Tom Ferguson who is performing at North Berwick’s St Andrew Blackadder Church on Sunday 26 November.
Tom, who is in sixth year, is representing East Lothian in these regional finals, with winners competing in the grand final at the Royal Conservatoire Scotland.
Tom plays at a number of East Lothian events such as Remembrance Days and is always commended for his beautiful performances. Best of luck Tom!
Senior Christmas Dance
Tuesday 19th December 7pm-9pm
Tickets (£3) are available to buy on Ipay for all S5 and S6 pupils who wish to attend this year's Christmas Dance.
The Wrap Up, with Charlie & Eva
Welcome to another edition of ‘The Wrap Up, with Charlie & Eva’, there have been lots of exciting things happening this week!
The prelim timetables have been released, they start on Monday. We wish everybody the best of luck with their exams! However make sure you leave time to rest and have food whilst studying!
The S6 book photos were taken on Friday. Everyone looked very smart in their uniform, we cannot wait to see all the photos that are used for the yearbook as well as see all the funny columns written about our pupils.
Another thing is that the leavers hoodie order form has been released to the classroom and so they need to be filled out by the 8th of December. There are lots of great colours to choose from. Our year book profiles also must be submitted on the 15th of December.
Last Friday was our Children In Need event, it went really well and so we would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who was involved on the special day!
The theme for our S5/6 Xmas dance has been announced. This year we are doing a masquerade ball! We are very excited about this theme and look forward to seeing everyone’s masks. The tickets are now available on ipay for £3.
Thanks for reading this week’s ‘The Wrap Up, with Charlie & Eva’, we hope you have a lovely weekend!
BCMP
Another incredible day on the motorbikes! Loads of learning, determination, and perseverance, all pupils completed the track.
A lovely sunny day topped off with a barbecue at lunchtime was perfect.
Only three weeks left - time flies when you're having fun!
Laboratory Science Trip to Charles River
The Lab Science class had the opportunity to visit Charles River Laboratories and spend some time with some of the scientists there. We visited the primate unit and chatted with one of the technicians about their role in the facility and learned so much about the care of the animals and their role in research. We then moved on to visit the Histology lab and were able to see lots of scientists at work! We saw fixed body parts such as brains and eyes from different species, looked at prepared microscope slides and so many high-tech machines at work. Pupils learned so much about career paths within CRL including the many opportunities for school leavers and potential for on the job training and Higher education. Massive thank you to Elaine Gorman from DYW (Developing the Young Workforce) for organising and Mr Mells (Technologies Technician) for driving us there!
Mrs Kivlichan, Curriculum Leader of Science
Scottish School Swimming!
Last weekend we had 4 pupils representing MGS at the EAST LOTHIAN & BORDERS SCHOOLS Time Trial for Scottish Schools 2024 Championships, held at Mercat Gait in Prestonpans. Great swims all round for our pupils, who all came away with medals!
Alice Finlay
100m Back Crawl (Gold)
200m Back Crawl (Gold)
Macy Laidlaw
100m Butterfly (Silver)
Tom Barrett
100m Backstroke (Gold)
Dan Barrett
100m Breaststroke (Silver)
A huge congratulations to Alice, Macy, Tom and Dan, we are all extremely proud of you all! We will also find out in the new year if our pupils have qualified for Championships in January 2024…. Watch this space!!!
Girls Football Success!
Libby Robertson, Elise Wang, Rachel Smith and their team, Windsor Football U14s Girls were crowned Scottish Cup Champions last weekend. After securing a 6-1 win against Hamilton Academical. This season the girls have secured the treble: League Title, League Cup and now the Scottish Cup! What an achievement!! A huge well done to Libby, Elise and Rachel. We are so proud of you!!
#ThisGirlCan
For any girls looking to play football, our MGS girls football team trains every Wednesday 4 - 5 pm at Pinkie. We also have our first match v Newbattle next Wednesday 29th November, 4:30pm KO at Pinkie. Pop in and see Miss Hall (A45) if you are interested in getting involved!
Bingo and Blether
A big, big, thank you!
Our personal development class went to Brunton Court sheltered housing to deliver our second game of bingo to the residents. We had planned this since September. Our class had been collecting donations for prizes from staff and parents. We also baked scones for this special occasion. We all took part in making and serving teas and coffees as well as serving scones and biscuits. We had 2 Bingo winners. Jim, one of the residents, won twice! Two tables won the quiz and the catchphrase game we had prepared. The residents looked really happy and had even bought sweets and diet coke for us to share. Mme Dreon-Goold, our teacher was very proud of us.
By Emma Hamilton, official photographer and journalist for the Events
Medical/ polio/dip Meningitis vaccination
All S3 Boys and Girls will be vaccinated on Monday 4th March 2024 not the previous date which was Monday 26th February 2024. Apologies from the NHS. Thank you, C Harvey.
Senior Phase Study Support Programme
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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