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HEAD TEACHER'S NEWSLETTER
The theme of my House assemblies this week was doing something every day that makes you feel proud. I shared a number of successes showcased on MGS twitter accounts but know that our young people do hundreds of things every day that I’m not aware of that make themselves, teachers and parents and carers proud. And the prize giving ceremony was the perfect proud moment to end the week.
Happy weekend.
Jodie Hannan
Key Dates
Monday 24 October 2022: bank holiday allocated for the Queen’s funeral as ELC already had a bank holiday on Monday 19 September.
Tuesday 25 October: Inservice Day for all staff.
Wednesday 26 October: pupils return to school.
Kayla and Rory's Weekly Rundown
Hi, it’s Kayla and Rory and welcome to our weekly rundown. It has been a very busy week for us and it was great to see so many of you at Prize Giving on Thursday night. As a head team, we think it’s super important to celebrate pupils’ achievement, both academic and extra-curricular. We tend to get stuck focusing on the negatives, especially when it comes to teenagers! But Thursday really reminded us all about the incredible pupils in this school, and allows us to celebrate them for their achievements.
We have also launched our official head team Instagram (@mgs_headpupils) so feel free to give us a follow to get updates about what we’re up to and photos from our school events.
Speaking of school events we are excited to announce the date for Fright Night which will be held on October 27th! Fright night is a horror tour and disco for S1s organised by our S6s. This year's theme is a zombie circus. You are mistaken for scientists by the ringmaster of a circus whose performers have been infected with a mysterious virus. Soon you find yourself in the circus and must get out to avoid becoming a member of the undead yourself! There will also be stalls, tuck shop, face painting and more available for purchase in the hall. Tickets cost £2 and are available for purchase via IPay.
House Points - Weekly Total
Prize Giving
What an amazing evening we had last night! It was lovely to have so many families back in school with a real excited buzz about the place. Many then joined us for refreshments afterwards too and commented on how much they had enjoyed the evening.
A huge thank you to all staff both on the night and behind the scenes for making last nights’ Prize Giving such an enjoyable and successful occasion- Mr Dickson, Miss Funk, Miss Ganson in the Music Department for coordinating and cheerleading all the musicians; Mrs McElhaney and the prefects for superb hospitality; Mrs Walker and the Wider Achievement Gardening team for beautiful flowers on stage ; Ms McCrorie for photography; staff audience members; Mr Jordan for Master of Ceremonies …and of course, Mrs Stewart for pulling it all together.
All the pupils, those receiving awards as well as all the musicians playing and seniors helping out, were brilliant, as you would expect.
Solo Piper: Tom Ferguson
Junior Rock Band: Àneu Maguire Morral, Sam Henderson, Jacob Ng, Eleanor Brown, Libby Henderson, Sam McLoughlin, Lucia Quilietti-Bird, Liam Maguire Morral and Asia McIntyre
Senior Rock Band: Daniel Robertson, Ailish Conn, Emeila Duffy, Elsie Haynes, Eva Hills, Isaah Majid, Keira McLennan, Maggie McLoughlin and Erin Montgomery.
Piano and Saxophone Duet: Michael Hoole and Fraser Walters.
Prize Giving Photo Gallery
All photographs of students receiving awards are able to be viewed by clicking the button below:
S1-3 Review
We welcome a review team from East Lothian Council to MGS from Monday 3- Friday 7 October to evaluate our curriculum and learning and teaching. The team is led by Mr Trussler, Quality Improvement Education Officer, and comprised of education colleagues from Headquarters as well as DHTs and HTs from other secondary schools. The team will be shadowing a range of S1-S3 classes each day as well as holding focus groups with pupils, teachers and parents.
House Captains and Prefect Appointments
We were delighted to officially appoint our prefects last week and managed to get them altogether with the House Captains for some photo opportunities. I am sure the school and wider community will enjoy getting to know them all and we will share some of their ideas for events soon.
S4, S5 and S6 Tracking Reports
S4, S5 and S6 tracking reports have been issued to pupils today, showing working grade, target grade and ratings for Effort, Behaviour and Homework. An information sheet for parents is available on the school website and the app.
Uniform
Congratulations to the following classes for 100% uniform all week: 1M1, 1C3, 2C2, 5C2, 6M2.
Unfortunately we are seeing a higher number of leggings being worn to school. Please remind your young person of the dress code. We appreciate the support from home.
Aiming High in Oxford
On the 11th September, 3 years after initially applying to the program, we got to attend an academic enrichment program at Exeter college, Oxford university, so we thought we’d let you know a little bit what we got up to.
After a 10 hour drive on a mini bus we were greeted at the university by Connell (the tutor working with the programme), and went out for pizza with the pupils from the other East Lothian schools taking part. Eleven of us in total got the opportunity to go down and everyone was super lovely.
We spent the rest of the week going to museums, looking around the university, punting (some more successfully than others) and researching for our presentations which we gave at the end of the week. Kayla did hers on The Social Contract by Jean-Jaques Rousseau and Lauren did hers on crystals, and specifically on how so-called “crystal healing” is impossible.
On the last night we got all dressed up to go to a very fancy dinner and then went for late night hot chocolates and a walk around the city.
We hope you have enjoyed hearing about our experience and would encourage any juniors interested in applying to get involved, there’s no harm in having a go!
Lauren + Kayla
Strictly MGS!
We are delighted to announce the return of Strictly MGS. This will be an evening event on Thursday 9th of February in which you will be able to watch your teachers attempt to dance and vote for your winning couple, celebrate the amazing wider achievement and charity work that goes on in MGS and raise money for charity, perhaps even topping the £1087.89 raised in 2019.
We would not have been able to run such a successful event in 2019 without senior pupils and for the event to return we will need the help of our pupils! So, we are looking for S4/S5/S6 pupils to fill a number of roles including teams working on the following: backstage/on the doors, baristas, costume and decorations, choreographers, pupil dancers, judges, orchestra, presenters, tech team and recruitment of staff and pupils. If you are interested in getting involved, even if you don’t know at this point what you want to help with, please sign up with Mrs Craig in D1.
All pupils will be invited to attend the event in February, keep an eye out for tickets, you don’t want to miss it!
Advanced Higher Modern Studies visit to HMP Edinburgh
This week AH Modern Studies pupils were lucky to be able to see first hand the work of the Scottish Prisons Service during their visit to HMP Edinburgh.
We felt incredibly fortunate to be able to talk to the prison manager, several guards, a group of female prisoners in a recovery session and a large number of male prisoners in for different offences and different stretches of time. This kind of first hand experience is so valuable and something we have really missed during the pandemic.
European Day of Languages
This week we have been celebrating European Day of Languages. Our Senior Language Ambassadors have worked incredibly hard to organise lots of exciting events for all pupils to celebrate other languages and cultures as a school community.
We had a great European themed bake off for staff and Seniors with May Wheeler in 5M2 being crowned the Star Baker! She created a fantastic cake representing Greece.
Our S1 and S2 pupils have been completing a QR code scavenger hunt. The winner was Aneu Maguire-Morral in 1G2.
As well as this, all S1-S3 pupils have been completing a Taskmaster activity in their language classes this year. A huge thank you to our masked singers this year:
Monday - Miss Funk & Mr Anderson singing Dancing Queen in French
Tuesday - Miss Rankin and Miss Scott singing Call Me Maybe in Portuguese
Wednesday - Miss Ganson singing Chandelier in Dutch
Thursday - Mrs Orsi & Mrs Dias singing Paparazzi in Italian
Friday - Mr Mather singing Mr Brightside in German
We’ve had a great week celebrating European Day of Languages and are already looking forward to 2023!
Literacy
S3 pupils had a special visitor on Thursday - Gerald the CEO of the Superpower Agency! The group were developing their understanding of open and closed questions and their interview skills. Their carefully crafted questions helped them to tease out a lot of information from their interviewees. Thank you Gerald, Heather, Kevin and Lesley for taking part and for working with us!
D&T MVPs for September
Well done to all our MVPs for September. Keep up the good work team, some fantastic work done this month!
Alistair Myles - S1 - Consistent Great Work, Excellent Attitude and Application, Maintaining High Standards, Determination To Succeed.
Mia Robertson - S4 - Always tries her best and works extra hard to understand new content.
Bryce Gibson - S4 - Outstanding effort in workshop, adhering to Health and Safety protocols, perseverance and endeavour.
Nicole Moore - S2 - Excellent Attitude and Application.
Foxlake
Another fantastic team building day at Foxlake before the next Ocean Youth Trust Scotland sailing trip. A great day all round for pupils, staff and OYTS.
Bridges Centre Motorcycle Project (BCMP)
We are back on track working alongside BCMP, it’s a small group to start us off. All pupils loved this experience and are looking forward to next Tuesday when we can attend again. It is great for learning transferable skills such as clear communication, listening, following instructions, teamwork as well as and most important safety.
Future Pathways Evening
Lost Property
There is a lot of lost property in Ms Harvey's room. Come in and see if any of it is yours. Thank you, Ms Harvey.
Flu Vaccine
All pupils will be vaccinated on Wednesday 5th October 2022. Please check your class time outside Ms Harvey's room.
Water Bottles
A reminder that all students should bring a refillable water bottle to school.
Medical
If you are unwell during the school day please see Ms Harvey in the medical room. Do not go home by yourself. We have a duty of care for all pupils. Go to Ms Harvey's room and she will call your parent or carer. Thank you, Ms Harvey.
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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