Welcome to Musselburgh Burgh Primary School, better known as The Burgh. Our school was built in 1964 as a merger between the original Burgh School and Fisherrow School.
The ground floor of the building houses our Nursery, two Early Years classrooms, our ‘N-Zone’ Nurture Room, large Assembly Hall with Stage, Dining Hall, Gym Hall, a Meeting Room and several offices. Ten further classrooms, a Library, and Support for Learning base are located in the two storey block. The TU in our playground includes a welcoming Family Room space for our parents and carers to feel included and to participate within our school, while also offering an environment for wider projects in partnership with our community. Our newly-appointed Family Support Worker, employed through the Scottish Government’s Strategic Equity Fund (SEF), is also based within this area, working closely with identified learners and their families. The TU also houses an additional dedicated Nurture base for small group work and intervention work from our multi-agency therapy partners. This space includes a sensory room and a separate outdoor learning area. The Burgh is situated in Musselburgh town centre and has a very mixed catchment area.
Currently the school benefits from the allocation of significant Pupil Equity Funding. This funding has been utilised to develop our Nurture provision across the school, including a Nurture base staffed by a Nursery Nurse, a Nurture Breakfast Club, free healthy tuck shop, food bank, and our Friday Fun Club. We have also targeted support towards closing the poverty related attainment gap, through the employment of additional members of Support for Learning and ASN Auxiliary staff, in both our Early Years and Second Level teams. Development of language and communication skills, including self-regulation, oral literacy, visuals and signing, as well as phonological and vocabulary awareness, are also a PEF priority for the school again this session, with continued weekly intervention from our allocated Speech and Language Therapist.
Our school roll has seen a further reduction over the last session and there are currently 269 pupils from P1 to P7, in addition to the 1140-hour Nursery with capacity for 40 full-time places. We have eleven mainstream classes with composite groupings at P2/3, P3/4, P5/6, and P6/7. The Burgh’s Senior Leadership Team comprises a Head Teacher and Depute Head Teacher, as well as three Principal Teachers who share responsibility with the HT and DHT for the Early, First and Second Level teams.
Our commitment to raising attainment will see us build upon our successes over the past 12 months in raising our Writing attainment, through the implementation of a new whole school programme, along with targeted effective improvement methodology processes at 1st level. To support improvements in attainment in a broader and more general sense, our focus this year will be on the essential skills and pedagogical approaches integral to high quality teaching and learning; a refreshed curriculum rationale; and a review of our school approaches to moderation and assessment.
During session 2022/23, the Burgh welcomed visitors from the local authority’s Education and Children’s Services team for a week-long School and Early Learning & Childcare Review to support our self-evaluation for self-improvement. This was a hugely valuable and positive experience for everyone involved. Feedback from the School Review, including recognition of our various strengths as well as areas for continued development, have informed our Standards and Quality Report for session 2023/24.
At the Burgh, we are committed to working together as a whole team to deliver the values, purposes and principles of A Curriculum for Excellence. We work in partnership with our families and the wider community to ensure that we deliver the best care and educational experience that we can for all of our pupils.
If you would like further information about our school, please don’t hesitate to contact the School Office.
Mr Jon Doyle
Head teacher
