Dear Parent

Restructuring PT posts

In my February newsletter, I indicated that a restructuring of PT posts was taking place in all secondary schools in the authority. I have completed my interviews and have matched staff to all posts available. The vast majority of staff were matched in to similar posts to their current ones, but there are some changes which will take effect from 6^th June 2012. Mrs Walker, who was PT Art and Design, becomes PT Expressive Arts covering Art and Design and Music. Mrs Campbell, who was PT Business Education, becomes PT Office and Information Technology covering Business Education and Computing. Mrs Howarth, who was PT Home Economics, becomes PT Health and Wellbeing covering Home Economics and PE. Mrs Shaw, who was PT Chemistry, becomes PT Chemistry and Physics. Mrs Goodbrand, who was PT Science but also shared the PT Biology post with Mrs Souness, now becomes PT Biology and Science. As I am combining posts together, a number of staff have been unmatched to a promoted post. They have given sterling and consistent service to the school in running their departments over a long period of time and we are fortunate that they  will continue with their classroom duties here. Dr Strain, Mr Clark, Mr Sneddon, Mrs Souness and Mr Dewar will thus provide our pupils with their customary and conscientious classroom teaching.

Session dates 2012/13

I was rather surprised to receive a letter from a parent who had booked a holiday for October 2012 in term time saying that they did not know the session dates for next year. This was issued to all parents some time ago but I enclosed it again for reference in the paper copy of this newsletter given to pupils.

SQA examinations

As we approach the end of a long term, pupils and staff will breathe a sigh of relief as various coursework items like the S4 English Folio are completed, signed for, and dispatched to the SQA. However, the national examinations loom ever closer and I always remind parents and pupils at this time of year that no S4-S6 pupil, no matter how gifted, can afford to take 2 weeks off. Pupils should have study plans in place and should be sticking to them – they have a lot of revision to do. Individual examination timetables from Mrs Booker have now been issued, and parents can see the running order of examinations by going on to the SQA website  – http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/41288.html – is the exact reference and there is loads of support material there  – past papers, study guides and lots more – for pupils in S4-S6. Mrs Mackie has also distributed details of the Easter revision programme – pupils must sign up for classes and spaces are limited. I am, as ever, grateful to staff for giving up part of their holidays to do this. The programme is on the website for reference. This is a time, as Mr MacKinnon says, where pupils need to be hard on themselves – be determined, be committed, work hard and conscientiously for their examinations.

School structures for CFE and enhancement column

As you are aware, I’ve used the Parent Council as a sounding board as we have been planning for Curriculum for Excellence and we have often had very productive dialogues about aspects of the programme. One of these occurred last week about the number of subjects pupils will be taking in S3 and will be taking to qualification in S4. It was suggested that it would be useful to cover aspects of that dialogue in this newsletter, which I am very happy to do.

A number of parents were unaware that schools would offer different structures in S3 and pupils might be presented for a different number of examinations in S4 or indeed could bypass presentation in S4 altogether. In our own planning, we all felt that pupils benefitted from a wide range of qualifications in S4: this gave pupils who left at the end of S4 a broad range of qualifications to show employers and colleges; and gave those who stayed on into S5 a broad range of qualifications to choose from to pick 5 subjects for S5. In deciding this, you need to have more specialism in S3 rather than asking pupils to continue with every subject from S1/ S2, so you make a choice from each curriculum area. We expanded our information to parents in the Personalisation and Choice booklet to explain this in as much detail as we could. Other schools will make perfectly valid decisions for the needs of their pupils and I am perfectly comfortable as a Head Teacher with that variety of approach. Each Head teacher should be able to justify the school’s arrangements to parents and pupils.

One of the choices in S3 – the enhancement column – is for 2 periods rather than 3 and finishes at the end of S3. It is designed to help pupils keep their choices wide in the final year of a broad general education. Some parents queried the validity of the course if it is not leading to a qualification. I am very clear that schools are not only about amassing qualifications. The enhancement courses are being designed with as much care as any other CFE course and we do intend to evaluate them all at the end of the year. The 2 periods in S4 will then be given over to English and Mathematics for work around literacy and numeracy which are part of the English and Mathematics qualifications, so that a class will have their same teacher for 4 periods rather than 3.

The Cabinet Secretary Mike Russell announced last week that he intended to put more resources into schools to help them deliver the new curriculum. He also indicated that there might be some schools or departments that will not be ready to deliver the new National Qualifications. My position on this remains unchanged: I am very clear that I do not think it is in the interest of the current S2 to have a delay. The new National Qualifications, not Intermediate examinations, are designed to mesh with the broad general education. The final documents from SQA are due out at the end of April and our staff will have a full year to prepare for starting qualification work from Easter 2013 leading to certification in May 2014. It is a challenging deadline but a deliverable one.

Musselburgh Museum

We have been asked by Musselburgh Museum if any parents if they have any photographs or other memorabilia with a Royal connection in this Diamond Jubilee Year. Anything should be handed in to the museum on loan on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Celebrating Success

Mr Parker has informed me of our successes in the recent UK Intermediate Mathematical Challenge. The following pupils were awarded certificates:

Gold: Andrew Gibson 4G1, Rachel Foley 4G1 (This puts them within the top 6% in the UK. Andrew’s performance put him within the top 2%: he was invited to take part in a European wide challenge involving 46 European countries and we await his result.)

Silver: Craig Flynn 4M1, Kieran McLister 3C3

Bronze; Rory Cotter 4C2, Katherine Heller 4G1, Greig McLay 4G1, John Archer 4C1,

Rachel Sharples 4C3, Lydia Macleod 3C1, Nathan Lang 3C1

In golf, Lewis Bain S4 has been selected for  Year 1 of the Scottish Golf Union Junior Squad. Stuart Blair S5 and Connor Good S5 have been selected for the Lothians Junior Coaching Squad.

Health and Safety

Please, can I remind parents of the procedures for the safe use in schools of prescription drugs, paracetamol etc. If your child is required to take such medicines in school, the box of tablets should be put in an envelope providing directions for our nurse to administer the tablets. The tablets should then be handed in to the nurse on arrival at school. The nurse is not able to provide any tablets or medicines not sent in by this method. Pupils are not allowed to carry such medicines in their bag to classes nor distribute such tablets to fellow pupils.

End of term

We say farewell to two long-standing colleagues at the end of this month. Mrs McPhillips has been a member of the Modern Languages Department since 2004 and her knowledge of her subject has undoubtedly enriched the experience of all pupils who have passed through her hands over the years. A popular colleague, she will be missed and we wish her well in retirement. Mrs Cranston who deals with all the reprographics in the school has also chosen to retire. A Musselburgh resident of long-standing, she will be a familiar face to many because of her work in the Honest Toun Association and her work with the Honest Lad and Lass. She will be sorely missed – her ready smile and flexible approach were the salvation for many staff chasing deadlines for preparing work for classes. Like so many of our ancillary staff in the school, nothing was too much bother for her. We benefitted enormously from her business background in publications. Similarly, best wishes for a long retirement.

School closes for pupils and staff at 12.10 on Friday 30^th March. We reopen to both pupils and staff on Tuesday 17^th April. However, many pupils and staff will be in the building over the Easter holiday for the Easter revision programme. I wish everyone an enjoyable holiday.

Yours sincerely,

Ronnie Summers

Head Teacher

Dear Parent,

Given that the January newsletter was longer than usual, I’m going to try to keep this one fairly brief.

S2 Choices and S4/5 choices

I was very pleased at the excellent turnout for both these events, where we explained what is involved in making choices for S3 and for the senior school. Curriculum for Excellence has led us to review our arrangements quite extensively and we have produced a much bigger booklet to guide parents and pupils. You can see the booklet on the school website – it’s called Personalisation and Choice. Pupils were given a paper copy of the booklet along with their S2 report and other information last week. S2 Parents will have a chance to talk to teachers at the S2 Consultation Meeting on Thursday 1^st March from 5-7pm.  As the arrangements are different this year, I’ve placed the presentation on the school website too – just scroll down past the pupil news items and click on the link.

This is a busy time for S4 pupils as they have a number of items to complete for Standard Grade coursework and we want them to produce these items to the highest possible standard. They too will be making choices for S5, dropping from 8 subjects to 5 in senior school. They will start their new courses in June, but will have the chance to re-course after the examination results are published in August.

Curriculum for Excellence

Some new short films have just been published on Curriculum for Excellence for parents on the Engage for Education web site at www.engageforeducation.org/cfefilms.  The films illustrate, in nursery/primary/secondary learners’, parents’ and teachers’ own words, the kind of impact and benefits that CfE is having across the country.   The films contribute towards the Cabinet Secretary’s CfE Action Plan 2011/12 commitment to develop new materials for parents which illustrate the benefits of CfE, following specific calls for such resources from parents.  They have been developed in co-operation with the National Parent Forum of Scotland.

We released S2 reports last week. I’m very satisfied as Head Teacher about the level of detail they contain about a pupil’s progress in an individual subject, though think we need to do more work with the SEEMIS organisation about the layout of the report. The report has a feedback section at the end of the report – we welcome your feedback.

Promoted posts restructuring

I made mention of this in my last newsletter. This is an exercise which is being carried out in all 6 East Lothian secondary schools. In this school, I am amalgamating some PT posts into one post where I think there are linkages between departments. We want PTs to be taking on new enhanced roles with whole school responsibilities and to be part of a more developed promoted post structure. All 31 Principal Teachers are being interviewed by 9^th March and matched to the new posts. I intend to retain the majority of our existing posts, but am rationalising others. These are – a PT Expressive Arts to cover Art and Design and Music; a PT Office and Information Technology to cover Business Education and Computing; a PT Health and Wellbeing to cover Home Economics and PE; a PT Biology and Science instead of PT Biology and PT Science; and a PT Chemistry and Physics instead of PT Chemistry and PT Physics.

Wear It Red Day

This was held last Friday with Mrs Booker organising much of it on behalf of the British Heart Foundation. We raised £670 with some money still to come in – well done to everyone involved.

Fairtrade Fortnight

This began on 27^th February and it is interesting to note how much pupil knowledge around this element of global citizenship has developed in the last few years. One of the big events is in Mathematics where all of our S2 pupils, as well as some P7 pupils, played the Fair Trade game where groups of pupils represent a country and inherit a certain amount of resources at the outset. Through mathematically related endeavours they can gain funding and trade with other countries for necessary items to further improve their wealth. This gives pupils a very good appreciation of the inequalities in the world and how difficult it can be for less wealthy countries to progress as well as the need for richer countries to provide support.  

Future events

Wednesday        14 March             S3 Examinations begin

Friday                    30 March             Term ends

Tuesday               17 April                 Start of new term

Wednesday        25April                  S4 examinations start/S4 study leave

Mon/Tue             7/8 May               Holiday/In-service day

Wednesday        9May                     S5/6 study leave begins

Yours sincerely,

Ronnie Summers

Head Teacher

Dear Parent,

I wish a happy New Year to all those connected with the school and hope that you had an enjoyable holiday.

Events before Christmas

I was pleased that one of Mr Paterson’s final acts as PT Music was to supervise the Christmas Concert. As I said from the stage that evening, his legacy as PT was evident – committed staff and instructors, a large and responsive orchestra and various musical ensembles packed with talent from all the age groups. I wish him well in his retirement and thank him for many years service to the school. It was a superb night, and I know from talking to members of the audience later how much they enjoyed it.

We also had our Show – this year showcasing S6 Talent as well as our Pantomime “The Devil’s Tale”. We were well entertained from both parts of the show and my compliments to all performers and staff and pupils behind the scenes. The Marketplace event that afternoon and evening was also great fun for all present and made for a lively entrance to the Hall.

S2 Parents Meeting Wednesday 1^st February 2012 at 7pm

We have spent a lot of time as a school on our plans for implementing A Curriculum for Excellence. I outlined to parents of S2 pupils back in June that we intended to continue allowing pupils to maintain very broad choices for S3 and that pupils would continue to sit up to 8 subjects in S4. (That presentation is shown in Head Teachers letters section of the school website –dated 28^th October). We have started explaining to S2 pupils in PSE how that choice process takes place and are putting the finishing touches to our completely new S3 Choice Booklet as we move to a new set of qualifications for these pupils in May 2014. We intend to put a copy of this booklet onto the school website as well as providing paper copies. We have carried out a “dry run” with S2 pupils in the Hall to explain how the new choice form works – Mr MacKinnon was very satisfied with pupil understanding of the form and what they had to do.

We have always had an S2 Parents Meeting to keep parents informed of the process and we will hold one again this year. I would really encourage parents to come along to this – with your child if you wish – as the process is different in some ways this year.

Recognising that this is a new process, I would like to make this evening dedicated to the S3 Choice process so that parents have plenty of time to listen to the presentation and that we can take general questions from the audience later and then talk to individual parents about specific questions after that. We are really committed to helping parents understand what Curriculum for Excellence is trying to achieve and how we want all our pupils to reach their potential through face to face meetings like this.

I would thus like to hold the S4 Choice Evening on Thursday 2^nd February at 7pm, one day later than the date published in the mailshot.

S4-6 Pupils

We will soon be issuing the S4 reports which will incorporate details of pupil performance in their preliminary examinations as well as overall progress in the course. Some pupils will be delighted with their reports, some will realise that they have underperformed – my message at this time of year to S4 pupils is that there is still time to improve your grades if you put in the hard work and listen to staff advice. Good attendance is absolutely essential for all pupils so that coursework items like the English folio are done for deadline dates and done to the highest possible standard.

Senior pupils will be sitting their preliminary examinations very soon and Mrs Booker has issued examination timetables to them and has offered advice on revision sites to use. I repeat a point I made in an earlier newsletter – the pass rate for all examinations is 50%, whether at Intermediate 1, Intermediate 2, Higher or Advanced Higher.  I remind you of what was said in my December newsletter – that pupils need to achieve over 35% to proceed to presentation at their current level. If pupils score barely above this, they have a great deal of work to do to reach a pass. We had good attendance at this week’s S5/6 Parents’ Meeting, allowing staff to explain what pupils need to do to improve and to give credit for the progress they have made so far.

S3 Pupils

I would like to pick up on several points which emerged in the S3 Parental Questionnaire organised by the Parent Council – more on the S1 one next newsletter. 

As indicated in the Mailshot, S3 pupils have examinations in March which test their knowledge and skills on what they have learned in the whole of S3. These examinations are significant, since they give us a clear indication of progress and are used to help departments decide what level of presentation (Foundation/ General or General/ Credit) – pupils will be following in S4. When I spoke to S3 pupils about their reports last May, it was clear many pupils have revised very badly or insufficiently. It would be very helpful if parents could make sure pupils are taking these examinations seriously and are well prepared for them.  Work revised well now tends to stick in the memory and help revision for the S4 preliminary examinations.

Staff will be helping pupils prepare for the examinations in terms of revision of topics and exam technique as we approach the examinations.  Several parents said they were not clear about how they could help pupils revise. If you go to my Head Teacher section of the website, you can click on a presentation published on 28^th October for S4 pupils which gives a list of revision websites.

I have to trust pupils to take letters home from school and parents should expect regular communication from us. Regrettably, we are not in a financial position to post all our communications to you and you have the right to expect your child to transmit communications.

Promoted posts restructuring

East Lothian secondary schools have been working together to consider how we wish to allocate promoted posts at Principal Teacher level. Traditionally, schools had a PT for every subject as well as PTs in Guidance and Support for Learning. We made some changes to our own structure back in 2004 when we combined some departments together. All secondary staff were briefed on the proposed changes at staff meetings on the first day of term and the authority is in discussion with the trade unions about aspects of the proposals as part of the consultation phase of this for professionals. For that reason, I do not wish to elaborate further to parents at present, but will do so in my next newsletter.

Recycling Projects in S5/6 Personal Development

One group have signed up to Recycool, an innovative recycling campaign. We are collecting used printer cartridges for school funds. There is a collection box at the front door of the school. We welcome contributions from parents and pupils and we hope you can help us: please hand in used cartridges with your child or simply take them to the box at the door. Many thanks.

Another group is running a recycling project which collects old textiles and clothing. If you have any old textiles that you no long want, please give them to your child in a plastic bag which can then be placed in the large Rag Bag cardboard box at the front door. The group has raised over £25 so far and is ambitious that they can raise more with your help. All funds will go to Hearing Dogs for Blind People. Many thanks to those of you who have already contributed.

School calendar until Easter break

Wednesday 25^th January – S4 reports issued

Thursday 26^th January – S5/6 Preliminary Examinations start

Wednesday 1^st February – S2 Parents’ Choice Meeting 7pm

Thursday 2^nd February – S4/5 Parents’ Choice Meeting 7pm

Monday 13^th – Friday 17^th February inclusive – school holiday

Monday 20^th February – staff and pupils return

Thursday 1^st March S2 Parents Consultation Meeting with staff 5-7pm

Wednesday 7^th March – Return of S2 choice form

Tuesday 13^th March – Return of S4/5 course choice forms

Wednesday 14^th March – S3 examination begin, ending 27^th March

Friday 30^th March – term ends for pupils and staff at 12.10

Tuesday 17^th April – term resumes for pupils and staff.

 Please note also that the national SQA examinations begin on 25^th April – parents can see the exact dates of examinations on the SQA website. However, despite the fact that parents should not be taking their child out of school on holiday during term time, we have had senior pupils miss these national examinations and thus receive no award for a subject since there are no resits.

Yours sincerely,

 Ronnie Summers

Head Teacher

Dear Parent

End of term

As we approach the end of a very busy term, it is worthwhile reflecting that we had to close the school to pupils for 5 days because of the weather at this point last year. I would remind parents to notify the school of any change of contact details, including mobile phone numbers – we have had occasions where we cannot reach parents when children have fallen ill because numbers have not been updated.

I was very disappointed that the school received calls from parents on Thursday saying that they were not sending their child to school because of the windy weather. There were clear messages that the school was open to pupils in the morning and would close at noon for pupils, with staff remaining in school – there was no reason for children to be off. All pupils in this position are being recorded as an unauthorised absence.

I would remind parents to check the authority website ( http://www.eastlothian.gov.uk) and the school website – (http://www.mgsonline.org) – for information as well as listening to local radio.

We look forward to a number of events before the end of term – the Christmas Concert on Thursday 15^th December, the S6 Variety Show and pantomime “The Devil’s Tail” on Wednesday 21^st December with the Marketplace event in the afternoon and evening, the Christmas Service on Thursday 22^nd, the last day of term. Tickets for the Concert are £1 from school office or on the night; tickets for the S6 school show are £3.

I have issued a note to staff reminding them to work with all classes till the last two days when they can do alternative subject-related activities. Please do not listen to fairy stories from children claiming no-one else is going to school or that classes are not working – they are!

It is particularly important that S4 pick up the pace of work again after their prelim examinations are over and that S5/6 push on with their courses before their prelim examinations commencing Thursday 26^th January. I would remind all parents of S5/6 pupils that 50% is the pass mark for all examinations and that the mark of 35% is only used as a permission to proceed to presentation – it does not mean that you have passed the examination. Around 35% means, in truth, that you are very much lagging behind and that you have much work to do to achieve a pass in May. All senior pupils would thus do well to spend time over the holidays gathering up and organising notes and revision materials, making a revision plan, and starting to revise for late January.

Staffing

We wish Mr Paterson PT Music a long and happy retirement at the end of this term. He has built up the Music Department over a long period of time, recently very well supported by Mr Armstrong, and gathered together a highly skilled and committed group of instrumental instructors. His legacy can be seen at every concert performed by our pupils, who are a credit to them all. Ms Halliday is joining us as his teaching replacement in January with Mr Armstrong as Acting PT Music.

Mrs Waddell in the office is also retiring at Christmas. She has seen many changes in the school over the years including a change of location when the school was refurbished and has built up the skills of the office staff who are such an important group as the public face of the school. I owe her a considerable debt personally as she works so efficiently as my Personal Secretary – nothing has ever been too much trouble for her and we will all miss her quiet efficiency and cheery demeanour. Her replacement Mrs Ferguson joins us in January.

Mrs Jardine PT Guidance returned to the school in later November after her maternity leave finished. I would like to express my thanks to Mrs Taylor who was Acting PT Guidance during this time and supported the pupils in Grange House so well and so conscientiously.

Metro Newspaper

I have written a letter of complaint to the editor of Metro newspaper. They carried a comment from someone claiming to be a parent that the school had not observed the one minute’s silence on Remembrance Day. That is categorically not the case. Such a comment is particularly annoying when we had an impeccably observed 2 minute silence at 11.11 once pupils were in class; had a special Remembrance Service organised by Ms Howie with readings from senior pupils, the laying of a wreath and poppies beneath the school’s War Memorial in the foyer and Robyn Grant playing the Last Post in tribute to the fallen; and a collection of £740 for Poppy Scotland during the week.

A simple call to the school would have clarified all this – it was sloppy journalism. There was a statement from the school in the paper the next day after we contacted them ourselves – but many people may not have seen the correction. I await a reply on behalf of the school’s pupils.

Parents’ Meetings

These have been very well attended during the term – 77% of parents for S3 and 85% for S1 in the last month. We are delighted to see so many parents supporting us in this way. The Parent Council have also taken the chance to issue questionnaires to S1 and S3 parents and we have had a discussion about the responses at the last Parent Council meeting. However, we know that some parents were unable to attend the meeting and some did not have time to complete the sheet on the night – so I am reissuing these to S1 and S3 parents with this newsletter.

You can return the forms to me by the end of term via the school office and I will pass them on to the Parent Council. I then would like to summarise them and give responses in a later newsletter in the new year.

S2 Parents – Subject Choices

Staff in the school are now thinking ahead to S3 courses next year. If you have had an older child through the school, you will remember that they made choices about the subjects they wanted to take in S3/4 in February and March of S2, with their transition to S3 in June’s new timetable.

S2 pupils will still be making choices inside the framework of a broad general education, though the process is slightly changed as part of Curriculum for Excellence. We held a practice session with pupils a few days ago to see if they understood the process, while emphasising that their real choices would be made later on once Guidance staff have taken them through all the information they need via their PSE class and they have been issued with the Choice Booklet which is being revised. The subjects pupils choose will let them continue with the experiences and outcomes for a Curriculum for Excellence in S3 and then lead on to 8 subject presentations in S4 – English, Mathematics and RME plus 5 other subjects. Keeping a broad subject choice will give pupils the chance to then select 5 subjects for S5. I have talked all of this through with the Parent Council and referred to this in my June talk to parents.

SQA have released a new qualifications leaflet for parents of children in S1 and S2 and you can see this on the SQA website at http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/46161.html. However, we intend to distribute this leaflet as part of our briefing to parents in February when I will explain the process of choice in detail. Pupils are welcome to attend that meeting which will take place on Wednesday 1^st February at 7pm.

Mobile Phones

I issued a reminder to pupils last month about the need to use mobile phones responsibly – they should be off completely in class and never in view and not on between periods. There is concern emerging from staff and parents that pupil use of mobile phones is getting in the road of good learning and teaching. We already confiscate mobile phones till the end of the day if they are being misused but I would like parental support for the school position – pupils are here to learn, not to be sociable at the wrong time and place.

Lost property

Various items have been handed in to the office over the term – if your child has lost any property, they should ask the office before the end of term.

And finally…the school closes at 3.50 on Thursday 22^nd December to pupils and staff. The staff return on Monday 9^th January and the pupils return on Tuesday 10^th January. I wish everyone connected with the school a Merry Christmas and prosperous new year in 2012.

Yours sincerely,

Ronnie Summers

Head Teacher

Dear Parent

Fundraising for Alex Muir

You may recall from my last newsletter that we intended to hold a dress down day on 14^th October for Alex. We raised over £1400, so a big round of thanks to everyone for contributing.

S4 revision and presentation

I spoke to S4 pupils the week we came back about preparing for the November preliminary examinations using a presentation called “Springboard to Success”. That presentation was given out to the parents who came to the S4 Parents’ Meeting and it is also now posted on the Head Teacher’s Letters section of the school website. There are references at the end to various revision websites which might interest parents as a way of supporting pupils. I also issued the examination timetable.

S4 Parents Meeting and S1 impending Parents Meeting

We used the facility of Group Call to contact all S4 parents by phone message the Friday before the meeting. We were delighted to see 71% of parents attending this meeting and having the chance to talk through their child’s progress with the staff – important with examinations coming up. We keep on emphasising that pupils need their parents more than they realise in encouraging them to work hard and do well and be ambitious for themselves.

Scottish Parent Teacher Council Conference 12^th November

I was absolutely delighted to be asked to lead a discussion group at the forthcoming conference on Curriculum for Excellence in the Secondary School. It will give me the chance to explain why I think CFE is important, why it builds on much existing good practice, and to hear the views of parents from across Scotland. It will let me incorporate those views into subsequent newsletters and talks given to parents in this school in future.

Staffing

Mrs Goodbrand has left on maternity leave. Her PT Science remit will be covered by Mrs Robertson and her PT Biology remit which she shares with Mrs Souness will be covered by Mrs Ellis. I am interviewing this week for a Biology teacher to cover her teaching load. Mr Paterson intends to retire as PT Music at the end of this term. Mr Armstrong will be Acting PT Music and I am interviewing this week for a temporary teacher of Music to start in January. Mr Bain has taken over Mr Nicolson’s classes in Social Studies as Mr Nicolson has gone on secondment to Education Scotland as a Development Officer.

Mobile phones

We would remind parents that mobile phones are allowed in school but that we expect pupils to use them responsibly only before we start the day, at interval and at lunchtime. However, too many pupils are not putting off their phones and we continue to confiscate them if they are on or being used in class – they are becoming a distraction from concentrating in class. Some pupils have claimed they need to have a phone on because their parent needs to contact them: we do not accept that, as a parent should contact the school switchboard.  For persistent offenders, the next step is for me to retain the phone pending contact with parents.

Fright Night

My compliments to S6 who planned and ran the S1 Fright Night on Thursday 27^th October with supervision from staff. A good and scary time was had by all!

Session dates for 2012/13

Please find enclosed an attachment indicating the session dates for 2012/13. We would remind parents that they should not be withdrawing their children for holidays during term time.

MIDYIS and Student Evaluation Survey

All secondary schools in East Lothian will be making arrangements for S2 pupils to sit the MIDYIS test created by Durham University. (Pupils will have sat the equivalent PIPS test at various points in primary.) This information allows schools to chart the progress of pupils and to ensure that they realise their potential later when they reach the examination stages of their school career. Mrs Booker is making the arrangements for pupils to complete this online during Computing/ Business Education time. The same S2 group in all schools will also be sitting the Student Evaluation Survey, as will P6 pupils in all primaries. This is an opportunity for us to hear the pupil’s views on their education and the facilities they have locally. I am making the arrangements for pupils to sit this in CDT time over the next 2 weeks.

S5 Motivational  Speaker

While we have more and more pupils returning to senior school, it is clear to us that some of this group find it hard to make the jump to the pace and challenge required in senior school and need support. While they will always get that from teaching staff and Guidance staff, Mr Semple arranged  to bring in a motivational speaker from the educational organisation Live-N-Learn on Tuesday 1^st November for 50 pupils. His message was very grounded  – that success comes through effort, hard work and self-belief. We intend to monitor the progress of the pupils involved up to the preliminary examinations. Live –N-Learn will return for a follow-up workshop thereafter. We also want some of our S6 pupils to mentor the S5 and give them a chance to share their experiences and good practices, given that they were in a similar position last year.

Yours sincerely,

Ronnie Summers

Head Teacher

This is the presentation which I gave to S4 pupils on 27th October to help them prepare for the preliminary examinations next month and to help them be successful in May 2012. It gives revision sites too.

Click on the link below. It takes a little time to upload.

S42011sept

Ronnie Summers

click on the link below to view the presentation

S2 parents june11

Ronnie Summers

Click on the link below to view the presentation. It takes a little time to upload, so be patient.

S1 parents sept11

Ronnie Summers

Dear Parent

Dress Down Day

Friday 14^th October will be a Dress Down Day to benefit one of our own pupils. Alex Muir in S3 has been seriously ill over the last year and is currently in a wheelchair and attending school. He and his family are involved in various fundraising activities to get money to buy a special exercise bike, walking frame and other mobility aids. These will help him walk again. His determination to be part of school and get on with life is a real credit to him and he deserves our support. All funds we raise on the day will go to support Alex and we are asking pupils to donate at least £1 at registration on Friday…

Over the past two weeks, the school has been focussing on the national initiative Show Racism the Red Card. To emphasise this, we want pupils to show their awareness and support for the initiative by wearing at least one item of red clothing on the Dress Down Day.

October holiday

School closes for pupils and staff at 12.10pm on Friday 14^th October. Staff return on Monday 24^th October and pupils return at 8.45 on Tuesday 25^th October. I wish everyone a pleasant holiday.

S4 Work Experience and preliminary examinations

Our S4 pupils are out on work experience either week beginning 3^rd October or week beginning 10^th October. We expect full attendance during these weeks and staff will be working with pupils as normal. I’d like to thank Mr Dewar for all his work in arranging placements from the authority database and for assisting pupils where they have self-found placements as these have to be suitable, not least on the grounds of health and safety. Work experience remains a very valuable experience for pupils, not least because it opens their eyes to the challenges of the workplace and the demands placed on you as an adult. If nothing else, it helps them understand why we get annoyed as parents when simple chores are not done at home while we are away at work!

S4 preliminary examinations begin on 17^th November and last until 2nd December. I would expect pupils to be revising for these examinations from week beginning 24^th October, to give themselves plenty of time for revision. It was very clear in the S3 examinations that pupils had underachieved because they had not put in this revision time and were not prepared for long examination papers which tested all of the course. They should be looking over work done right from the beginning of S3, not just since August. Staff are also starting to run revision classes. I’m planning to talk to S4 in the week after the holidays about what they need to be doing. It is far easier to prepare for the May examinations if you have prepared thoroughly for the preliminary ones. I’ll probably post some further details about what revision involves on the school website after the holiday as I know parents want to support their children in this area.

Head Teacher Presentations

In September 2010, I spoke to parents of pupils just entering S1 about A Curriculum for Excellence and what it meant for their children. I followed that up in June with a talk about what S2 would hold for pupils. I have just repeated the S1 talk to the new S1 parents. The two presentations will soon be posted on the head Teachers Letter section of the school website for the benefit of parents who were unable to attend.

 Good health

(a)    I thought I’d share a conversation I had with one of my staff. Noticing that a significant number of pupils in one class were particularly tired and unable to work properly in class, she quietly started asking when pupils had got to sleep. Answers varied from 1.30 a.m. to 4 a.m. – the reason being pupils playing computer games on PCs or various consoles. I’m sure all parents are as startled by this as we were. If your child is having real difficulty getting up in the morning despite going up to their bedroom at a reasonable hour, maybe you might want to check up on this and take the temptation away downstairs. (Just for reference, the recommended amount seems to be from 8-10 hours. If they really sleep on at the weekend, it is maybe a sign of sleep deprivation from the week so they need more sleep during the week.  As adults, we know we don’t perform at our best when we are tired and children need to be alert and active during classes.

(b)   You are probably aware that we do not sell cans of fizzy drinks in the school and emphasise that pupils should be drinking water. We have become aware recently that a lot of pupils are now purchasing large cans of high energy drinks like Rockstar or Emerge at lunchtime. These contain extremely high levels of caffeine and staff are telling us that pupils’ behaviour and concentration is much poorer after lunch than before.

(c)    S1 Internet Safety

Pupils in S1 Business Education were asked to carry out a questionnaire to allow us to try to find out how pupils were using the internet at home.   Many of our S1 pupils already use Facebook for Social Networking, even although the minimum age is set at 13. Many pupils are using the internet on a daily basis – often for good reasons – but some are claiming to be on for 4 hours or more a day.    We have addressed this issue in class and have reinforced the need to be safe whilst on the internet by not giving out personal details.   We monitor pupils on the internet and can block inappropriate sites – this is much more difficult at home.    Pupils who spend lots of time on the internet late into the night do come to school tired and do not perform to the best of their ability.

Successful events and successful people

We had a hugely successful Fashion Show and Performance on the theme of Japan last month with pupils modelling clothes of their own design on that theme and pupil performances. You can see a trailer for this on the website and we hope to post a video of the event on the website quite soon. My congratulations to everyone involved behind the scenes and on the stage.

One of our pupils Amy Strachan has hit both local and national press recently – she performed CPR on one of her friends after she had collided with a lamppost and stopped breathing. She learned CPR as a member of the Army Cadets and was quick-minded and skilled enough to put it to good use. She is on the final nomination list for the British Red Cross Humanitarian Citizens Award and we are keeping our fingers crossed for her.

Rachel Sharples performed superbly at the Commonwealth Youth Games winning a bronze medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay team and she also made the 200 butterfly final. She enjoyed the whole experience and she has made friends with people from all over the commonwealth.

The school golf team has made an encouraging start to the East Lothian Secondary Schools League (2011/12) with a 4-2 win over Knox and a 4.5 -1.5 win over North Berwick. The match against Dunbar was called off. The players who have been involved are Murray Whyte, Jamie Wright, Connor Good, Stuart Blair, Lewis Bain, Jack Valentine.

Thanks also to Blair Naples, Sophie Bain, Lauren Lee, Morgan Naples and Declan Henderson who have been picked to play but didn’t have the chance to compete due to opposition call offs.

Morgan Naples won the East Lothian Girls (Handicap) Championship with a net score of 63 – well done Morgan. Stuart Blair, who earlier in the season reached the quarter finals of the Men’s Lothian Championship, recently won the Lothians Junior Champion of Champions, in which he beat all the other junior champions in the Lothians.

We hosted the East Lothian Modern Studies Conference on Friday 7^th October. Susan Deacon spoke to senior students from across the county, then BBC broadcaster Brian Taylor took a session on politics and broadcasting and then we hosted his Big Debate live on Radio Scotland. This was a splendid experience for pupils to be in the audience and have the chance to see and hear national figures. My thanks to Mr Nicolson for the time he has spent organising this.

Finally, the school has been given a flyer from the Musselburgh Museum and Heritage Group. If you are interested in this, you can contact them on mmhgmusselburgh@gmail.com. The flyer has been scanned in overleaf – though not in the online version of this parental newsletter! 

Yours sincerely,

Ronnie Summers

Head Teacher

Dear Parent,

I hope you received the August Newsletter which was given to pupils to bring home to you right at the start of this new academic session.

 We enclose information about the school in booklet format once again and I would ask you to keep it in a safe place for reference through the session. Posting all this information home is expensive but helps ensure everyone has a clear understanding of the expectations we have of our pupils and it lays out the important dates for the coming year.

We do try to duplicate all the mailshot information on the school website www.mgsonline.org.uk which continues to develop and this will tell you more about the school, the work of our departments and what our pupils are achieving and doing over the course of the year.

S1 – A Curriculum for Excellence

I would like to invite S1 Parents to a meeting on Curriculum for Excellence on Monday 26^th September at 7pm where I will speak about the experience pupils will have in S1 and about their broad general education in S1-3. This seemed to work well last year as I had very positive feedback from parents about the meeting.

Parent Council AGM

This is held near the start of every school session and this year’s meeting is on Wednesday 28th September at 7 p.m. Details of the work of the Parent Council including a report from the Chair Mrs Kirkpatrick is enclosed in this mailshot. There are vacancies on the Parent Council and we would particularly welcome interest from parents of new S1.

Pupil safety

The authority has made the area around the school a 20 mph zone when pupils are arriving and leaving the school. However, pupils also have responsibility for their own safety by walking on the pavement and only crossing the road when it is safe to do so. We have received complaints about pupils walking on the road in Dalrymple Loan at lunchtime and I will remind pupils about basic road safety.

By the time this reaches you I will also have reminded pupils not to walk through the school car park when they get off the bus in the morning and when they are leaving at the end of the day. I also remind all parents that they should drop off and collect their child a distance away from the school to ease congestion.

Bus passes

All pupils who live in Wallyford and Whitecraig should have a bus pass issued by East Lothian Council and these passes must be carried every day: the bus driver can charge pupils for transport if they do not carry a pass. If the pass is lost, the pupil must reapply for another pass.

Pupil Planners

All pupils have been issued with a pupil planner to record homework. Homework is not just written work – it can be revision, research, projects, watching a particular TV programme or surveying family members. The planner should be carried every day and we would encourage parents to check planners. A pupil’s timetable should be copied in to the planner.

SQA Results

There were some superb individual performances from pupils, including several pupils who picked up 9 Grade 1 passes  – ie a top pass in every single subject in S4 and several pupils who achieved 5 Higher passes in a single sitting. Similarly, there were a lot of pupils who require a lot of support in their learning and who worked very hard to achieve their results and we were just as delighted to see their success. Despite all the prompting from staff and the hope we had for them, a group of pupils did not reach the goals we set for them.

We continue to have a lot of success in many ways – almost every pupil achieves an award at Grades 1-6 in English (again 96%) and Mathematics (95% – up2%). (Several pupils had attendance which fell away over the year and who then did not turn up for examinations, much to our disappointment, accounting for the shortfall.) The number of pupils getting at least 5 passes at Grades 1-6 again stayed consistent at 93%, the same as the last two years.

The number of pupils achieving 5 or more passes at Grades 1-4 fell to 67%. That is a disappointing 11% drop from the previous year, though this figure has been steadily rising for the last few years. Too many pupils let themselves down this year despite all the warnings that they were not performing at their potential and needed to work much harder. They know that they are going to have to work all the harder in S5 to make up the ground they lost. Most are back in school for S5 as so few pupils left school over the summer.

27% of pupils managed to achieve 5 passes or more at Grades 1-2 – down 1%. A lot of pupils did work very hard after their preliminary exam results to achieve this, as we only had 19% in this position in November. We explained how their target grades in their S3 reports would only be achieved by steady work, solid revision and good preparation for the November prelim. There were some excellent performances from pupils in this group which will have prepared them well for the Higher Grades they will sit this year.

For S5, many did well with some very good individual performances.  30% passed one or more Highers, which is in line with our usual performance at 30%, though down on last year’s much higher figure of 36%. Our Credit pass rate dropped last year, so we suspected that our 3 or more Highers figure might drop a little – 15% managed to get to this benchmark – down 1% on the year before. 5.5% of our S5 pupils, about our usual number, achieved 5 Higher passes and are obviously now very well-placed when applying to university or college for places. We were pleased to see more passes at Grade A and Grade B this year, moreover.

S6 pupils are now a very mixed group – high-flyers looking for passes at Advanced Highers and more Highers, others looking to sit Highers after following Intermediate courses in S5, some needing to get a big clutch of passes after making a mess of the previous year. Our S6 last year had badly underperformed when they were in S5 after a very good set of S4 results. They recovered well in S6 with over 20 getting 3 Highers in a single sitting in S6, for example. However, our Advanced Higher pass rate dropped to 9% from 14% the year before – simply explained by the fact that we had fewer presentations with pupils scrambling to do Highers they had failed the year before.

 One very pleasing figure was that our statistics for 5 passes at level 5 (Credit/ Intermediate 2) at 56% and 3 passes at level 6 (Higher) at 35% by the end of S6 have risen substantially – 11% and 9% respectively. This is a reflection of the fact that more and more of our pupils are staying on to S5 and S6 and thus acquiring more qualifications and also the fact that they are realising that the challenge to get a job or to get entry to further or higher education is dependent on the qualifications you can get.

Senior school – rules about presentation for SQA examinations

The pass rate for examinations is 50%. As in previous years, we have told pupils that if they do not get 35% or more in their preliminary examination in February, then we will drop them down to the next level – ie from Higher to Intermediate 2.

Given that the pass rate for Higher examinations is 50%, this is a generous cut-off mark. It still means that pupils will need to work very hard to achieve a pass in May. We see no point in presenting pupils for a subject at a level when they have no chance of a pass, and the preliminary examination is a good indicator of likely success. We much prefer to see pupils get a pass in a subject rather than study for the whole year and leave with a No Award. We will not, however, be allowing pupils to drop subjects in the early stages of this term – they have to persevere and work at their learning. The argument that they will “drop a subject to concentrate on the others” cuts very little ice with us – pupils just do less work, in our experience.

I spoke at my first assembly to the senior school about how challenging the economic climate is and that pupils need to realise there are both adults and school pupils seeking employment and college/ university places. All pupils need to achieve their potential if they are not to find themselves left behind – and that would be a huge shame because our pupils have lots to offer.

Up-to-date contact details

The mailshot includes a form which parents should return to the school giving us to date contact details which are logged onto our data system. This information is important as we have to reach you if your child is absent from school, but essential if we have to reach you in a medical emergency. Please return the form as soon as possible.

I wish all pupils a successful year and remind parents that we are here to help – we want pupils to be happy at school and achieve their best. The first port of call is usually your child’s Guidance teacher and I would encourage you to make use of their skills and knowledge.

Yours sincerely

Ronnie Summers

Head Teacher