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HEAD TEACHER'S NEWSLETTER
We heard with sadness yesterday about the death of the Queen. We are living in times of great political, financial and social change, and the passing of the Queen adds to this feeling of uncertainty.
I know how saddened our community is by the passing of the Queen, and a number of teachers discussed the significance of the occasion with pupils today. As part of the funeral plans now being put in place in Edinburgh, the Royal Archers, whose competition I was honoured to be invited to in June, will play a key role. I also asked the Lieutenancy of East Lothian to share their thoughts with us below. We await guidance on the period of national mourning, and will communicate further advice when that comes.
Best wishes for the weekend.
Jodie Hannan
Remembering the Queen: A message from the Lieutenancy of East Lothian
The Lieutenancy of East Lothian is deeply saddened by the death of Her Majesty The Queen.
For more than 70 years, HM The Queen has served our nation and devoted her life to public service through unmatched dedication and devotion. As Head of State and Head of the Commonwealth she was respected across the world and leaves a legacy unlikely to be matched in our lifetime.
Her family connections to Carberry and visits to Musselburgh Racecourse will bring reflective memories to many in our community.
This is a time to reflect on the life of a remarkable woman who served the nation for seven decades to the very end.
Key Dates
Friday 16 and Monday 19 September: September Weekend
Tuesday 20 September: School resumes for all staff and pupils
Thursday 29 September: Awards Ceremony
House Points - Weekly Total
Kayla and Rory’s Weekly Rundown
Hi guys, it’s Kayla and Rory and we are back with our weekly rundown. We both hope you have had a good week despite the miserable weather and are all looking forward to the weekend. Next week Kayla is jetting off down to Oxford to participate in a programme for the school so it will just be Rory around the school.
On an exciting note we have organised our first event: The Extra Curricular Fayre! Come along at break and lunchtime on Tuesday the 20th of September to get a feel for all the amazing clubs that run throughout the school. We have Sports, Music and many more clubs coming along so there will be something for everyone.
We are looking forward to working with all 6 of the new house captains this year so huge congratulations to them and we cannot wait to hear all of their ideas. Good luck to everyone who applied for prefect. We can't wait to start working with you all.
We have also been working on some events behind the scenes so watch this space for updates and have a lovely weekend :)
School Review - Parent and Carer Surveys
Dear Parent/Carer,
We are welcoming colleagues from East Lothian Council into school from 3-7 October to carry out a review of our Broad General Education (BGE) phase of schooling (S1-3) and of our safeguarding procedures.
As part of this review, we invite you to share your opinions on our BGE phase and safeguarding procedures. Two surveys can be found below:
QIT Survey – https://forms.gle/UK4inrAypKBc95Us9
Safeguarding Survey - https://forms.gle/PsPyaDVHwmwZtYur9
Pupils have also been asked to complete similar surveys.
I would be grateful if you could complete both surveys before the closing date of Monday 26th September at 5pm. Your opinions are important in helping us evaluate our practice.
Thank you for your support.
Mr J. Webster
Depute Head Teacher
Oxford University Residential
We are delighted that Kayla McKinnie and Lauren Wright are heading off to the University of Oxford for a residential trip for five days. The girls have waited patiently during covid for this chance, working online with the university, and we are delighted they will have such a unique experience with peers from schools across East Lothian. As well as participating in tutorials and seminars, they will have a chance to experience punting and a formal dinner. We look forward to catching up with their news when they return.
BUSINESS & COMPUTING FACULTY UPDATE
Achievements
Well done to all our August pupils of the month:
Entrepreneur: Mia Beattie
Senior Business: Karim Zidonis
Digital Champion: Ellie Petrie
Senior Admin: Lewis Yip
IT Expert: Daniel Tomlins
Senior Computing: Charlie Devine
S3 Admin Touch Typing
We are so proud of our S3 Admin pupils whereby 54 learners have already successfully passed their E-Touch Typing SCQF (Level 4) 20 words per minute qualification. Well done to them all.
Computing Student
Mr Pereira will be joining many of our Computing classes as our student teacher this term. We will enjoy his input to classes through to the end of November.
Website
For the last few months we have been creating our faculty website. Parents/carers and pupils can access the site to find out about the faculty vision and values, our team, courses, timelines, achievements, gallery and support videos. It is work in progress but we are excited to finally launch this:
MGS Business Education & Computing Science (google.com)
FA Business Skills
We were delighted to see ex-student Milo Mitchell in the Herald paper this week talking so positively about the Foundation Apprenticeship. Milo was the first MGS pupil that we took through the programme and this article shows how beneficial our course is. This year Mr Shelton has 22 pupils in Year 1 of the course from not just MGS but the other 5 schools in the authority. We really enjoy working with our partners at East Lothian Works and Limelight to deliver such a successful programme.
S1 Google Profiles
Our S1 pupils have started to create their digital profiles within Digital Enterprise. On their site they will record achievements, extracts of their best work, assessment and homework scores and transferable skills. Pupils can share their sites with parents/carers - please ask your child about this if you would like to see progress so far.
S1 Google Summaries
All S1 pupils have now been invited to a year group classroom. In the class there is a Google form that is required to be submitted. The form allows the youngster to give permission for their parents/carers to access Google classroom summaries. By agreeing to this and providing an email address the parent/carer will receive a summary every couple of weeks to inform them of work outstanding/homework due in the form of a summary.
Christmas Market
Save the date - Saturday 10 December, 11 am - 1 pm. We love the build up to our annual Christmas Market in December whereby our S1 pupils along with other Business Education students get to show off their enterprising skills. The department will keep you posted with product updates each month in the run up.
Active Schools
It has been great to see new and returning pupils joining our Active Schools Programme over the last three weeks. With us seeing a new record at Badminton this week with 52 pupils ranging from S1-S6 attending!
It is very important to us at Musselburgh Grammar School to get our young people more active and more often. Our Active Schools programme, helps us to do that, offering a wide range of Sports & Physical Activities for all pupils to get involved in free of charge; before, during and after school. We still have lots of spaces available across the programme and welcome new sign ups all throughout the school year.
We aim to make all our activities inclusive to everyone and understand that everyone has differing needs and requirements. We will try to make reasonable adjustments where possible and work with pupils and parents/carers to ensure this happens. Our sign up form will ask you to provide as much detail as you wish. If you would like to discuss further in confidence, please contact our Active Schools Coordinator Jade Hall on Email: jhall1@elcschool.org.uk.
For all Active Schools updates and opportunities please follow:
Facebook: MGSActiveSchool
Twitter: @MGSActive
With your help we are hopeful we make this year our most ACTIVE yet!
Eco Club
The Eco Club has started back up again. We are collecting crisp packets for donation to the Crisp Packet Project to be turned into blankets for the Homeless! Any donations can be passed on to Dr Brown in A47 or Miss Woodhead in A27.
We are also looking for old tea cups and saucers to upcycle into bird feeders! Any help would be much appreciated.
Future Pathways Evening
Communities Day Update
In light of the sad news of the passing of Her Majesty the Queen, on behalf of the Musselburgh Area Partnership I am sorry to announce that we will not be proceeding with tomorrow’s Communities Day event as planned. It is hoped to reschedule this event at a later date and I thank you for your understanding at this sad time.
Gaynor Allen
Chair
Medical Room
If you are unwell during school time do not leave school without permission. Ms Harvey will call home and sign you out. We have a duty of care for every pupil in the school. Thank you, Ms Harvey
Flu Vaccine
Flu vaccine for S1 to S6 will take place on Wednesday 5th October 2022. See Ms Harvey if you need a form.
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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