Curriculum Structure

Curriculum Structure

Musselburgh Grammar School operates a 33 period week.  This consists of 32 teaching periods (50 mins) plus 5 x 10 minute daily registration slots (making 33 periods).   

BGE Curriculum Structure

S1 Curriculum

The S1 curriculum has, this session, been updated to give young people one additional period of Maths and two periods of Digital Literacy. 

Consultation with staff, learners and parents has resulted in the removal of Health and Well-being as a distinct subject to ensure our school approach better meets the criteria of "responsibility for all". 

Chemistry, Physics and Biology are taught within a 3 period block of Science (single teacher delivery)

Social Subjects is taught under the heading of "Citizenship" with History, Geography and Modern Studies themes built into the 3 periods per week slots (single teacher delivery). 

Core subjects include PE, RME and PSE. 


Post Covid, the number of teachers per week for each S1 pupil was an issue, affecting relationships and making transitions from P7 more challenging for learners, as well as affecting consistency of experiences. Last year we reduced number of teachers having contact with S1 classes to improve learner experience. 

S2 Curriculum 

The S2 Curriculum this session has been updated to give young people one additional period of Maths.  As with S1, Health and Wellbeing has been removed as a discrete subject. 


Learners do two periods of core PE and one period each of PSE and RME. 


Social Subjects and Science in S2 are taught as discrete subjects. 


Our S2 into S3 course choice process takes place in January. 

S3 Curriculum 

Young people in S3 have made subject choices but are still experiencing their entitlement to Broad General Education.  Our model allows S3 learners to benefit from longer exposure to BGE outcomes whilst having greater opportunity for personalisation and choice. S3 pupils are not tied into two year courses; change at end of S3 allows learners more time to make subject choices that are relevant to their future career path. 

Young people in S3 study nine subjects plus core languages, PSE, PE and RMPS. 

All Pupils in the BGE now have an opportunity to study a language until the end of S3. 

This session learners in S3 will experience four periods of Maths and English throughout the year. 

Within our S3 HWB offering there are opportunities for diverse choices that equip learners with employability skills and open up their experiences/ pathways. Examples include: 

Our S3 offer caters well for learners who as part of their school experience access our support for learning/ inclusion provision. Learners can select from courses that allow them to work in smaller groups with greater 1:1 support.  Choices include: 

BGE Engagement with Regional Vocational Offer 

We continue to work in partnership with East Lothian Works to diversify our BGE curriculum offer.   There are currently 25 students engaging in such courses.  As shown in the chart the highest engagement is in BGE Construction (9), Uniform Services (5) and Boxing (4). 

Senior Phase Curriculum Structure

Our Senior Phase was reviewed and re-structured in 2022 following return to in-person teaching after Covid.  We now operate a "true" senior phase where S4-6 learners are timetabled as one group and are taught together. There was a need to increase pace and challenge in senior phase, to develop more focus on employability skills and to diversify our curriculum offering across all faculties to ensure that there was parity of opportunity for all learners at this stage. 

In S4: 

Learners study seven chosen Subjects x 4 periods per week.

They have, in addition, one period of PSE and RME and two periods per week of PE.

Most National 4/5 classes are combined with S5/6 classes to allow for greater choice of subjects/ experiences.


In S5: 

Higher courses are taught with an allocation of 6ppw teaching time.  

In line with S4, N4/5 qualifications are allocated 4ppw teaching time and may include a combination of S4/5/6 pupils.

Learners are able to achieve a greater number of qualifications at N4/5 level and/or when combined with Higher courses. 

Learners leaving school with N4/5 qualifications only or, when combined with some Highers, are well placed to compete for college courses or employment opportunities with a broadened range of national qualifications. 


In S6: 

our S6 structure allows learners to choose between a variety of Higher/ National 5 and Advanced Higher options. 


We have, over the years, continued to update and refresh the range of subjects available at Senior Phase introducing new SQA and SCQF framework subjects such as:


Media Studies, Drama, Laboratory Skills, Photography, Computer Games Development, Travel and Tourism, Fashion and Textiles, Sport and Recreation, Retail, Health and Food Technology, Italian. 


School College Partnership/ Foundation Apprenticeships: 


East Lothian Council operates a common school day amongst its secondary schools.  This allows flexibility and diversity in our curricular offerings and has built partnerships between schools/ local colleges on a Tuesday/Thursday afternoon.  Increasing numbers of our young people engage in college courses at our nearby campuses while others utilise the FA offerings available at MGS or the other secondary schools.  The chart here shows our current engagement with FA courses. 

Wider Achievement

As part of our senior phase curriculum young people have opportunities to experience Wider Achievement courses.  These have been planned and designed to: 



Examples of our MGS Wider Achievement Courses in session 2023/24:



Skills for Life, Learning and Work

Musselburgh Grammar School works closely with our local DYW branch as well as East Lothian Works and Skills Development Scotland to develop an employability approach within our curriculum.  There is a real desire to highlight the links between our school pathways and the world of work for our young people.  Our Employability and Partnership Officer, Anne Hoffman, works with our learners to engage them in the world of work. 

In recent years our approach at MGS has focused on employability partnerships and developing opportunities for our young people within this framework. This has involved for example: 

Our curriculum consultations and review this session have highlighted our need to develop more of an awareness of employability skills across the whole school curriculum.  This coming session, through each faculty building a skills focus into its courses/ learning and teaching, developing connections with at least one employability partner and working collaboratively to develop a consistent approach to meta-skills, we hope to raise the skills profile across our school.  We also aim to increase our use of MyWorldofWork by inviting pupils to become MyWOW ambassadors and promote this to peers via assemblies and PSE lessons.  The goal is that young people across MGS will increase their use of MyWOW and that parents/ carers will become familiar with the resources to support their young people.