December 2019

HEAD TEACHER'S UPDATE 13 DECEMBER 2019
Published: 13 December 2019

School News

S4/5/6 Prelims

These are now completed and young people are beginning to receive their marks back. The S5/6 Parents’ Evening takes place on Thursday 9 January and the S4 Parents’ Evening takes place on Wednesday 15 January and these evenings will provide an important opportunity to discuss your young person’s progress, next steps and presentation levels. I would encourage parent/carers to make attendance at these evenings a priority so we can work together to achieve the best outcomes for your young person.

Pupil News

The Big Sleep Out

It was great to have a number of our pupils taking part in the Big Sleep Out last weekend to support raising funds for the homeless.  Last Saturday night was extremely wet and cold for this event and their experience of sleeping out in these conditions demonstrated the need to continue to work together to reduce and ultimately eradicate this.

Parents/Carers Information

HMI continuing engagement

HMI have provided very positive feedback on the school’s progress in addressing areas for improvement identified in our original inspection in November 2016 and initial follow up in March 2018.  We will now look forward to receiving their final report in due course.

Diligence Certificates    

These will be issued next week. Diligence nominations, from subject teachers, are given to those pupils who demonstrate hard work and commitment, on a day to day basis throughout Term 1 (August – December).  The certificate will detail all subjects they have been nominated in. The ultimate aim is for pupils to be nominated in all of their subjects and if in term one they are not, to aim higher and achieve this in Term 2 (January – March/April). The idea behind these awards is to create ambition (one of our school values) and raise attainment and achievement through sustained effort and commitment to their studies.  More information on our diligence awards is available by clicking on this link Diligence Awards

Christmas Concert

It was a fantastic start to our festive celebrations on Wednesday evening with talented performances at our Christmas Concert from choirs, duets, pipes and drums, Goat’s Toes, Orchestra, Jazz and Rock bands. It was great to see so many parents/carers, family friends and school partners attending to support our young people. A huge thank you, in particular, to the music and instrumental teachers for their work throughout the year with our musicians which ensures they progress so well and are able to put on such a high quality performance. Thank you also to all the staff who came along to support and help with the running of the concert.

Christmas Dance

You will be aware from previous Head Teacher’s updates that this takes place this coming Tuesday, 17 December, from 7-9.30pm. This is an event organised by the school and the PTA.  Unfortunately we only had 300 tickets available for this event and this was decided by the school based on health and safety/fire regulations and the number of staff who were willing to come along and ‘staff’ the event to ensure an appropriate staff:pupil ratio.  We are aware that some young people did not get tickets and will be disappointed by this. In order to try and find a positive solution for next year we would intend for the school, PTA, pupils and parents to have a working group to look at the best way forward with dances/events and that the PTA and school could get more parents along to support the running and supervision of some of these events. If this was the case we may be able to consider running more dances across more evenings.  I do hope that the goodwill amongst our staff in supporting events across the year, at the school, is recognised as many go above and beyond to make these happen. A huge thank you also to the PTA for their role in this event and their support in the running of it on the night.

Dates for your diary (please also refer to the CALENDAR on the school website for all events across the year):

  • 17 December – School Christmas Dance – 7-9.30pm
  • 19 December – S6 Panto – 6pm (donations on the evening at the door)
  • 20 December – end of term school closes at 12.15pm
  • 7 January – staff resume after the festive break
  • 8 January – pupils resume school following the festive break
  • 9 January – S5/6 Parents’ Evening
  • 15 January - S4 Parents’ Evening

Sue Cook

HEAD TEACHER'S UPDATE: 9 DECEMBER 2019
Published: 09 December 2019

School News

Christmas Concert

This will take place this Wednesday evening at 7pm in the school hall. Tickets are available in advance from the Technical Department and on the night. Even if you do not have a young person performing please do come along and support the school community.  Please also click on the following link for my letter about our Arrangements for the End of Term and Christmas

Computing (BEBRAS challenge)

This year we introduced the BEBRAS Computational Thinking challenge to Knox Academy and one of our local primary schools. This challenge involved over 380 pupils tackling a number of problem solving puzzles. There were 159 participants who scored more than 50%. Twenty-one students from across both schools have been invited to participate in The TCS Oxford Computing Challenge which takes place in March next year. (by Mr Blair, CL Numeracy and Computing)

Pupil News

U18s Rugby

Our U18s made it to the semi-finals of the Bowl against a combined high school of Jedburgh & Hawick. The final score was 7-19. Jedburgh/Hawick went on and won the final this week.

The school and rugby club should be extremely proud of these young men for being great ambassadors for the community. The players this season have demonstrated the true value of respect for each other with the ability to support their team mates on the pitch as well as off the field. Their behaviour enables younger players to aspire to look up to them as a role model, who they interact with. There is a real passion of team harmony with pride in how they perform and who they interact with. They were physically sore for a few days as they did not leave any effort in the tank. As discussed with the team after the game, who were all emotionally hurting, it’s how they take this learning and transfer it into their school work and future games (by John Gibson, Coach)

Squash

Dylan Pearman in S3 continues to perform at a high level in this sport. In the middle of November he played in the Edinburgh Sports Club 50/50 Gold Competition and finished 2nd in the Under 15s.  The following week he competed in the Newcastle Junior Open, winning all 3 matches and won the Under 15's title. Dylan has also continued to represent Tyne Squash Club in the Open East of Scotland Leagues and has not lost a match this season. His next major competition is the Scottish Junior Open (28 to 30 December) which attracts Juniors from all parts of the world. We wish him all the best in this competition and look forward to hearing how he got on.

Parents/Carers Information

Diligence Certificates    

As you will be aware from previous Head Teacher’s Updates, our new diligence certificates are about to be issued to pupils in the next week or so (we are just waiting on them arriving from our print room).  Diligence nominations, from subject teachers, are given to those pupils who demonstrate hard work and commitment, on a day to day basis throughout Term 1 (August – December).  The certificate will detail all subjects they have been nominated in. The ultimate aim is for pupils to be nominated in all of their subjects and if in term one they are not, to aim higher and achieve this in Term 2 (January – March/April). The idea behind these awards is to create ambition (one of our school values) and raise attainment and achievement through sustained effort and commitment to their studies. It would be great if parents/carers can engage with their young person about their nominations and if any subjects do not feature on the certificate, discuss with them how they are going to achieve that during term two.  More information on our diligence awards is available by clicking on this link Diligence Awards

Health, Wellbeing and Safety

To encourage health and wellbeing, it would be great if parents/carers could encourage their young person to walk/cycle/scooter to school if at all possible (ideally wearing something with high visibility at this time of year). If you do have to drop your young person at school by car, please can I ask you to ensure that you do not do so on the double yellow lines outside the school’s entrance.  This is an exceptionally busy area in the morning/end of day and by parking up on yellow lines, even just for a minute, this compromises everyone’s safety.  Thank you for dropping off your young person in a ‘safe area’ and ensuring the safety of all.

Staff News

Congratulations to Phil Gilholm who won the ‘Unsung Heroes’ category at the Star Awards on Thursday evening. Well done also to Maria Millar, our Cook, who was nominated for the One Council Award.

Dates for your diary (please also refer to the CALENDAR on the school website for all events across the year):

  • 9-12 December - HMIe visit (continuing engagement)
  • 11 December – Christmas Concert – 7pm – Main Hall
  • 17 December – School Christmas Dance (tickets limited to 300) – 7- 9.30pm
  • 19 December – S6 Panto – 6pm (donations on the evening at the door)
  • 20   December – school finishes at 12.15pm for Christmas holidays
  • 8  January 2019 – school resumes for pupils at 8.28am

Sue Cook