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HEAD TEACHER'S NEWSLETTER
I can’t quite believe we are now in October! It’s my favourite time of year and the October break is just around the corner. Lots to come in school before that though, including S3 Parents’ Evening on Wednesday and Parent Council AGM on Thursday.
My moments of joy this week were the Prize Giving Ceremony on Tuesday and working with our new Pupil Voice Team yesterday. We have changed our structure to be more inclusive and representative, and develop leadership across S1 to S6, as well as to focus pupils’ discussions on our strategic improvement priorities of Learning and Teaching, Curriculum, and Wellbeing.
It was World Teachers Day yesterday and although I’m not a big fan of ‘Hallmark' celebrations, it’s always good to see the work we do recognised. I take every opportunity I can to make sure my colleagues know that the job we do is extraordinary, with the privilege of shaping young peoples’ lives, not just while they are in school, but for years afterwards. https://x.com/bbcscotland/status/1709889166794780957?s=48&t=N0Eb0B1ij92vrmpgRrkqnQ
It hasn't been possible to include details of the wonderful Prize Giving ceremony and Pupil Voice meeting this week, but next week’s newsletter will be a bumper edition.
Hope you have had a great weekend, if a little wet!
Jodie Hannan
Key Dates
Week beginning 9 October: S2 tracking reports sent home.
Thursday 12 October: Parent Council AGM in school 7-9pm. All welcome.
As well as the Head Teacher’s Report, the Chair’s Report and Pupil Voice Report, Mrs Donnelly, Curriculum Leader of the Technologies Faculty, will be sharing the work she is doing in school and with businesses in the local area to develop our pupils’ employability skills.
Monday 16- Friday 20 October: Holiday week
Monday 23 October: Inservice day for staff only
Tuesday 24 October: all pupils return to school
Wednesday 25 October: Musselburgh Learns Study Skills S4-S6 6-7pm in school
Tuesday 31 October: Musselburgh Learns S1 Maths 6.30-7.30pm in school
Tuesday 7 November: Musselburgh Learns N5 and Higher Maths 6.30-7.30pm in school
Pupil Voice
Big changes have been made to our Pupil Voice Council structure this year which will see more Leadership opportunities for pupils involved at all levels. We have widened our Council which sees almost all registration classes being represented.
This week saw our first Pupil Voice Council meeting and it was great to see everyone so engaged and giving their views. Lots of information and ideas have been gathered on the topic of becoming a Rights Respecting School which will be collated then passed back to the staff team who are leading on this.
In addition to attending Council meetings, pupils have also signed up to be part of sub-groups in areas they are interested in, where they will input into our main school priorities for this year.
Well done to everyone involved, we are really looking forward to working with you this year.
DYW
Drones in Construction
This week we welcomed David Phillips from Skills Development Scotland in to deliver drone sessions. They taught learners how to fly a drone and discussed the technology and how it is changing in the construction industry. Some S3 Engineering pupils as well as groups from Support for Learning and Inclusion had a great time and we look forward to working again with David in the near future to deliver more activities to build the skills of our youngsters.
Developing Young Workforce (DYW) Roadshow
33 of our pupils spent Wednesday morning at the O2 Arena in Edinburgh. The event brought together employers, further education, higher education, and training providers with the young people to provide face to face interactions to help them find their next step when they leave school.
East Lothian Works, Young Person's Guarantee Networking Event
Mrs Fullerton represented MGS on Thursday morning at the EL event. She presented the benefits and skills that our young people have gained through our business links with Machina. Musselburgh is the pilot school for the authority on delivering the Barista qualification in partnership with Machina. We are delighted that from this networking that further opportunities have now arisen for the school and we look forward to working with more local employers and creating opportunities for our young people.
‘The Wrap Up, with Charlie & Eva’
Welcome to another edition of ‘The Wrap Up, with Charlie & Eva’, and what a fantastic week it has been here at MGS!
First of all we held our annual Prize Giving Ceremony, and what a night it was! There were so many fantastic awards given to our talented pupils for a multitude of things, whether it be “most academically able” or the Mansfield School of Music award, the night was certainly spectacular. We are both so proud of everybody and their achievements. Both of us spoke to John McMillan who was a special guest at the event. He is a Labour Councillor, as well as a Provost & Cabinet Spokesman for Environment, Economic Development & Tourism. It was really lovely to meet him and it was really interesting to hear what he had to say.
We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who was involved in making the night happen, to all the parents who came and to Mrs Stewart for organising the event, she truly is a star! To those who never received an award, not to worry because we are still so proud of all your hard work throughout the past year!
On Thursday we held our first pupil voice meeting of the year and it went down really well! We received so many great responses from the class representatives throughout all years groups, so we are definitely starting on a great note and are very pleased with the enthusiasm towards the Pupil Voice itself so far. In the meeting we discussed amongst four groups about the Rights Respecting Schools. It was great hearing about what people knew about it as well as how we could promote it around school.
On Wednesday the Advanced Higher/ Higher Drama classes went on a trip to see a new play called ‘Group Portrait in a Summertime Landscape’. We had Owen Allan in S6 talk about his experience. Owen said, “Overall as an experience I think it was good because I got to see how actors performed on a smaller stage and I learned about a few skills I could implement within my own performance for Higher Drama”. We are very glad to see that everyone had a good time.
There have been lots of flu vaccines this week so we hope you are all feeling well especially since flu season is fast approaching. The nurses have been really helpful (as always) by making us feel safe when receiving our vaccines. They are fantastic, so a huge thank you to them!
Thanks for reading this week’s ‘The Wrap Up, with Charlie & Eva’. We hope you all have a lovely weekend!
Fundraising
Last week saw pupils and staff complete a huge fundraiser by walking 500 miles, and more! All in memory of Mr Gray. In school we raised a massive £1026 for CHAS. A huge thank you to all staff and pupils for their efforts last week. A group of staff then took to the city centre of Edinburgh last saturday for the Shine Night Cancer Research 10k. We were joined by Mr Gray’s family which made the walk even more special. Thank you to everyone who sponsored the team. We managed to raise a brilliant team total of £2,315!!! Both events a total of £3341 was raised for two very worthwhile charities.
Extracurricular
Latest version of the extra-curricular timetable. Pupils can use the QR code to sign up for as many clubs as they like!
Rugby
Our Musselburgh Grammar Rugby teams put in an awesome display at the weekend against George Watsons B. The S2’s got off to a cracking start and It was great to see a mixture of tries showing their skills in many areas leading to a 63-7 win. The S3 team also came up against George Watsons B and ran out 24-12 victors after a tight game up until the final 10 minutes.
A reminder of training times if anyone wishes to give rugby a try!
S1 - Tuesday 5-6pm @ Pinkie
S2 - Tuesday 5-7pm @ Musselburgh Rugby Club & Wednesday 6-7.30pm @ Pinkie
S3 - Tuesday 6-7.30pm @ Pinkie & Thursday 5-7pm @ Musselburgh Rugby Club
S5/6 - Tuesday & Thursday 7-8.15pm @ Musselburgh Rugby Club.
Come and see Tom Foley in A45 for more info!
Health and Wellbeing - PE Department
A gentle reminder that all pupils should bring a full change of PE kit for all PE lessons. This to support pupil hygiene and to allow pupils to participate to the best of their ability.
Pupils wearing Crocs to PE will not be allowed to participate for safety reasons so please make sure all pupils have appropriate footwear for PE.
Office
Please remember to sign in at the office if you’re arriving after 9.00am. It’s really important for fire safety. Thank you.
S3s - if you don’t know your Edubuzz login details, please come to the office for a reminder. You will need to know these for your parent/carer to make an appointment at Parent Consultations, and parents have all been notified of this.
Employability Pathway 2023
Please save the date, all welcome. If you are a business or know of any businesses who would like to secure a spot. Please contact the school or alternatively email, employability@musselburghgrammar.elcschool.org.
Medical
If you missed your flu vaccine, please see Ms Harvey who will give you the number to phone the NHS.
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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