Dear parent/carer

You should have now received the letter from Lesley Brown, Chief Operating Officer (Education).

I never thought I’d ever be writing such a letter to you all.  I know, like all staff here, you will be devastated by the situation we all find ourselves in.  However, although the school building will be closed, we will continue to work closely as a school community.  We are all absolutely in this together.

Regarding SQA exams, please know that there is vast amounts of work going on both in school and out of school at the highest level to ensure that pupils are not at a disadvantage.  Please note that pupil assessment has taken place throughout the year and grade estimates are not based solely on prelims. Staff are also continuing to work closely with pupils to continue to assess remotely where young people are able to provide extra evidence of progress or complete SQA work.

The school is going to be open to a very small number of pupils next week to finish off SQA assessments and teachers will be in touch with pupils directly where this is the case.  In line with ELC advice, the school will be closed from this afternoon for all other pupils. 

To the parents of those pupils that plan to leave us in S4, S5 and of course our S6s, I am so sorry that we end their time at Knox Academy in such an unplanned way.  Please know that I, along with all staff here, wish your young person good luck in all their future endeavours and please know that we will always be here for them should they need us.  We would also hope as Former Pupils, they may work with the school and our young people in the future to pass on their talents and skills to our school community.

All pupils in S1-S6 have been provided with user names and passwords for Google Classroom and S4-S6 for Scholar UK.  Staff have been asked to ensure that work is provided for all their classes so that learning takes place during the period of closure. This inevitably will take time to set up lots of resources for all classes but teachers are working hard on this and will continue to do this as they work remotely. Provision has also been made for those unable to access IT and Mrs Clubb sent letters and information home to pupils who do not have access.  Please ensure your young person regularly accesses their EduBuzz email as this, along with Google Classroom, will be our main modes of communication with our young people.

A number of departments have given out learning packs (pencils/pens/rulers/paper etc.) to young people for use at home. We have also provided sanitary products to pupils both at the end of the school day today and yesterday. More of these can be collected from your local foodbank.

This document about managing anxiety may help in supporting your young person through this difficult time.

Please do take care and get in touch if we can help in any way through admin@knox.elcschool.org.uk. If you are able to please also follow updates on the school website (you can signup for automatic daily emails from the website if you are not already receiving) and twitter feeds (more work will be provided on these too) on @knoxacademy @knoxacademyHT.

Best wishes to all and please look after each other.

Sue Cook