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HEAD TEACHER'S NEWSLETTER
Friday 28 February 2025
Friday 28 February 2025
It’s been a busy week in school with the Science review, preparing for next week’s ELC review and continuing completing courses across Senior Phase in the last 5 weeks of term before the Easter Holidays. There is more information about study support further in the newsletter.
Thanks to all parents and carers and pupils who completed the surveys and to those parents and pupils taking part in review focus groups next week.
Wishing you all a lovely weekend.
Jodie Hannan
Key Dates
Monday 3-Wednesday 5 March: ELC Review
Week beginning 3 March: S3 reports distributed
Friday 4 April: Term ends
Tuesday 22 April: Staff and Pupils return
Remember you can find all events on our school calendar, and you can add this calendar to your own too.
Parent Council
If there’s a topic you’d like the Parent Council to discuss at our next meeting, we’d love to hear from you! Please send any suggested agenda items to parentcouncil@musselburghgrammar.elcschool.org.uk by Friday 7th March. These will be reviewed by the Chair and the Head Teacher during their pre-meeting and will either be addressed immediately or included in the Head Teacher’s report during the Parent Council meeting. Your input helps ensure we focus on the issues that matter most to parents, carers, and our school community.
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
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?
The Review team will observe a number of lessons across S1-S6 over the three days and speak to a number of pupils, staff and parents in focus groups.
Active Schools
Volleyball Club
A new social volleyball club will be starting on Monday 3rd March. Sessions will be held at the Musselburgh Sport Centre gym halls from 3.45pm to 4.30pm. If your child wants to attend, please sign them up via the MGS Active Schools link: https://eastlothian.bookinglive.com/home/active-schools/active-schools-musselburgh-grammar/mgs-volleyball/?stage=Stage
Willie Innes Sports Award
East Lothian Council provides funding support for athletes, coaches and officials to continue their development. This can include:
Sports Pass (free individual use of facilities associated with their sport)
Training and Competition Grants
Coach Education Grants
If you have any questions regarding Volleyball Club or the Willie Innes Sport Award, please email mlyle@elcschool.org.uk for more information.
Easter revision programme
There are only 5 short weeks until the Easter holidays, and 3 days in school after those holidays before exams start.
I am aware that some senior pupils aren't aware of the school’s study support poster so am including it here again, will email it all pupils on their edubuzz accounts, and re post in year group Google classrooms.
E-sgoil is offering revision classes over Easter- more information and to sign up with a GLOW password e-sgoil.com/senior-phase/e…
SQA Exam Diet
The SQA exam diet now commences on Friday 25 April, not Monday 28 April https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/files_ccc/nq-2025-exam-timetable.pdf
These are the plans for all Senior Phase pupils for the week back after the Easter Holiday:
Monday 21 April: School closed for holiday.
Tuesday 22 April: all pupils return to school.
Wednesday 23 April: all S4-S6 pupils remain in school.
Thursday 24 April: Study leave commences for S4-S6 pupils with Computing and Psychology exams only. All other pupils are expected in school and Computing immersion class will be held.
Friday 25 April:
1st day of SQA exams for Computing & Psychology.
1st day of study leave for all other S4 –S6 pupils.
MGS Revision Resource Poster.pdf
Pupil Voice
18 members of our Pupil Voice group, along with Mrs Hamilton-Wylie and Mrs Walker, attended a visit to the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday. The group learned about opportunities for young people to bring about social change and how to begin that process. They discussed issues important to them at school, such as our recycling system and safety at school. They also attended a debate in the chambers, which included observing our local MSP, Colin Beattie, advocating for the Brunton Theatre, followed by a second debate on the safety of young people in regard to devices. Our pupils were polite, engaged and excellent representatives of our school.
In other news, the School Improvement group and House group delivered assemblies to the whole school this week on what they have been working on and their next steps. We look forward to our 5th Pupil Voice meeting this session on Wednesday 5th March and welcome visitors from The East Lothian Review team and The Royal High School.
Charitable Work in RME
Please see the following notices from individual pupils about what we are doing in RME and requests for donations:
Pupil 1
In RME we are supporting our local community by supporting the homelessness charity Fresh Start. Fresh Start is an Edinburgh based charity that helps people who have been homeless, be able to start afresh at their new home with basic necessities to survive and live happily. In 2023-2024, there were 33,619 people assessed as homeless, 19,470 were male, 14,150 were female. Many of these people to get settled into their new homes, need help providing essentials for a household. You could donate things such as dishes and cutlery, cleaning items, pots and pans, bed linen and towels, small household electric items, basic toiletries and also long lasting food products. It would be extremely beneficial to the charity, so if you are considering donating, please bring any of these items to Mrs Craig in D1.
Pupil 2
In RME we are supporting our local community by donating to homelessness charities. This charity is called Fresh Start. Fresh Start is a charity that helps homeless people get established in their new homes, they provide multiple services that give practical and social support helping people resettle successfully. They can help by providing starter packs and basic essential household items to help set up a person in their new home. You can help out by donating things like long lasting food products for example, Household items like pots and pans, cleaning items and even dishes and cutlery. You could also bring things like tinned food, pasta packets, rice etc. If you are able to bring anything in to donate please bring it along to Mrs Craig’s room in D1.
Pupil 3
Food poverty
In RME we are supporting our local community I have chosen to support food poverty.
Did you know that?
One food poverty charity provided 124,893 meals in 2023/4.
They gave out almost a tonne of food and essentials each day.
What is food poverty?
Someone living in food poverty either struggle to buy sufficient food due money problems or can not easily access it.
What to donate?
Canned food
Crockery
Cleaning supplies
Pots and pans
Small household items
Bed linen and towels
If you would like to donate please bring items to D1- Mrs Craig
Pupil 4
In RME we are supporting a local charity. We are supporting a local food bank which helps give food parcels to those in need. East Lothian sent out 124,893 emergency food parcels in 2023 and 5067 children in East Lothian are in food poverty . We suggest you donate canned foods and dry food (non perishables) . Please bring Mrs Craig in D1.
Pupil 5
In core RME we are making efforts to support a local food bank which assists the issue of food poverty massively and East Lothian handed out around 124,900 food parcels in 2023 and we would love for people to donate non perishable food such as dry foods or tinned foods, speak to Mrs Craig in D1 for more information.
Pancake Day 2025!
Oh! hasn’t Pancake Day really crepe’d up on us this year?
It is Pancake Day on Tuesday 4th March, so to get us all in the mood from 24th February - 10th March pupils can submit a picture of the pancakes they make. Every entry will be awarded house points, with bonus points for pancakes that are flippin' amazing! Hopefully 'stacks' of points will be added to the house totals.
Please upload pictures using the google form:
If you are struggling please email photos to amcelhaney@edubuzz.org
Staff will be getting involved with a pancake making afternoon on Tuesday, we can’t wait to share lots of pancake photos next week!
SCQF Ambassadors
The SCQF Ambassador team had a busy start to the year, visiting S2-S5 PSE classes throughout January and February to discuss alternative courses, such as Foundation Apprenticeships and National Progression Awards, and their many benefits. These sessions were timed to coincide with pupil course choices and helped students explore different pathways, highlighting options beyond traditional subjects that can lead to exciting future opportunities. The team continues their hard work towards achieving the Silver Award, ensuring ongoing improvements and engagement. As always, students are encouraged to attend SCQF meetings every Monday lunchtime in C9, where they can learn more about widening and developing the curriculum, ask questions, and contribute to the team’s efforts. The journey towards greater recognition and success continues!
Eleanor Rose Greene
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 😀.
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: 91%
S2: 89%
S3: 89%
S4: 90%
S5: 91%
S6: 91%
SQA Exam Diet 2025
Please follow this link to see the SQA Exam timetable for Spring 2025: Exam timetable and learner apps - SQA Please check the timetable as there have been some modifications to the original timetable.
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.
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:
We are in the process of updating our medical records. If we have contacted you to return a form, or to provide information, please do this asap. It will ensure we are able to help your child if necessary. Without the correct form in place, we may not be able to administer emergency medication.
We are unable to hold antihistamines in school, unless your child has had them prescribed.
If your child requires an inhaler, this must be carried with them at all times, and we must have received your asthma consent form.
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.
School security
Following the recent Safeguarding Review, we’re looking at improving various procedures we have in place in school, including auditing our medical forms, updating our Health & Safety procedures (including fire safety and building security), and tracking attendance.
Parents and visitors to the school will notice some new posters at the main entrance reminding everyone to sign in at reception. We politely request that visitors do not enter the school building without a member of staff accompanying them, unless they have been directed to do so. This is to ensure the safety of everyone in the building, and we thank you for your cooperation with this.
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