HEAD TEACHER'S NEWSLETTER
Embedded Files
MUSSELBURGH GRAMMAR SCHOOL
Friday 12 September 2025
Friday 12 September 2025
Wednesday night’s prize giving was lovely. It was one of those nights where you just burst with pride at the hard work, talent, and general awesomeness of teenagers.
Thank you to all families and guests who joined us to celebrate the achievement of their children, and to all my colleagues who helped make the night such a success.
Thanks to our bands, Coastal Blue, and the ‘08, and Dan Barrett, soloist for the lovely musical interludes.
Thanks to Sandy Begbie, our guest speaker and former Grammar pupil, who shared with us his thoughts on education, life philosophy and values that have shaped his long and illustrious career.
Our Head Team, Holly McNeill, Libby Bain and Grace Ryan gave short speeches about how proud they were to be part of our school and congratulated their peers.
Asia McIntyre, school Dux, spoke about how important it was to believe in yourself, have a support system, and be a support system for others.
Most of all, a huge well done to all our Grammar pupils for their achievements, whether academic excellence, most improved in a subject, their resilience and courage or demonstrating our school’s values of determination, honesty and respect.
For me, as both Head Teacher and a parent, school is not just defined by academic success, but by how we encourage curiosity and kindness, build community and character, boost confidence and resilience and help young people be the best version of themselves, and be proud of themselves.
Last night we were very proud of them all.
Have a lovely weekend
Jodie Hannan
Key Dates
Friday 12th and Monday 15th September: September holiday weekend.
S1 Parents Evening Tuesday 16th September 5pm - 7pm.
P7 Parents Visit Wednesday 1st October.
Remember you can find all events on our school calendar, and you can add the calendar to your own too.
Staffing update
Mrs Lynch, Teacher of Art & Design, leaves us on Friday for a promoted post elsewhere. Interviews or her post will take place before the October break.
Interviews for the permanent part time post in Maths will be held next Wednesday.
Our school’s vision and values
You may be aware that one of our School Improvement Priorities this year is to refresh and reset our school’s vision and values.
Between recording our best exam results in almost a decade at S4 and S5, experiencing quite a lot of change with our school roll, and approaching our 400th anniversary next year, it feels like the right time to revisit our vision for our school, the values we hold dear and discuss what we want our school to give our young people.
Your voice is really important in shaping the school’s future and I want to gather as many views as possible from students, staff, families, associated primaries, our partners and the wider community over the next few months and will be emailing all families with further details about how you can be part of the discussion.
Parent Council Meeting Dates
These are the dates for this session’s Parent Council meetings:
Tuesday 4 November AGM 6.30-8.30pm in school.
Thursday 11 December 7-8pm online https://meet.google.com/idi-dhis-hjo?authuser=0&hs=122
Tuesday 3 February 7-8pm online https://meet.google.com/csy-mvmg-mtu?authuser=0&hs=122
Wednesday 1 April 7-8pm online https://meet.google.com/csy-mvmg-mtu?authuser=0&hs=122
Thursday 4 June 6.30-8.30pm in school
478th Anniversary of the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh
Two of our Head Pupils, Grace and Libby, along with Mrs Stewart, Senior Business Support Assistant, represented MGS at the Commemoration of Pinkie Cleugh on Wednesday.
Science Department
Many thanks to the University of Edinburgh for donating 5 microscopes to our Science department!
These are much more advanced than what we had and will allow us to have a lot more fun during our microscopy lessons!
Dalguise 2025
S6 had a fantastic weekend on the residential trip to Dalguise. A great way to start the year with various activities, games and teamwork. The students were a credit to the school and PGL staff praised how amazing the group were.
The Honest Thread
Our Honest Thread, “free to a good home” initiative is a new way to share gently used school uniforms within our school community. Anyone who is in need of these items are welcome to request them free of charge.
If you would like to receive any uniform items, please complete the short Google Form below. This allows us to organise requests and prepare your order for collection from the School Office.
https://forms.gle/8NGk3eGnr5M9bMd56
The form will be added to on a regular basis and we hope that we will be able to include items other than schoolwear; this scheme is entirely donation based, so families are always invited to donate clean, good-quality items they no longer need. All donations are much appreciated and can be dropped off at the School Office FAO Ms Ritchie.
Blythwood Shoebox Appeal
The Bronze Duke of Edinburgh group is coordinating the Blythswood Shoebox appeal this year. Shoeboxes filled with gifts are delivered to schools, orphanages, care homes and households in low income communities across 8 different countries including Ukraine. You can support this cause by:
Filling a shoebox and dropping it in to school by the 1st October
Donating items that can be put into shoeboxes such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, packs of cards, hat/ scarf/ gloves, small toys, make up, stationary items. Please hand items in by 24th Sept so that boxes can be filled.
All items MUST BE NEW AND UNOPENED.
Any donations can be handed in to Mrs Dias (D7) or Mrs Orsi (D9). Leaflets can also be collected from there. For more information, check out the charity website:
MUSSELBURGH GRAMMAR SCHOOL PRIZEGIVING 2025
Come along to the Fisherrow Centre for a day of free fun, food and community spirit! A chance to find out what is happening in Musselburgh. Fun for all the family! Saturday 4th October 11am - 3pm
Medical
All flu forms must be returned ASAP to school
Lost Property
Several water bottles, a black hoodie and a butterfly hair clip have ben handed in this week. Please see Ms Harvey if you or your young person are missing any of these items.
School Toilets
Our pupil toilets are checked on a regular basis to ensure everyone’s comfort and safety. These
checks may be done by male or female staff members, and signage is in toilets to make pupils
aware of this.
MGS website and School Handbook for parents
Our website can be accessed here MGS (google.com), and it also contains our School Handbook.
School Policies
All of our policies can be viewed on our website
Page updated
Report abuse