We are now at the end of what has been a very busy term. This week our seniors have been completing their final preparations for their SQA exams and great to see a number of them taking advantage of the Easter Revision Programme to help support their studies too. Our Senior Pupils’ Higher Modern Studies class also managed to find the time to bake and sell there baking, in aid of Ukraine, and for the Emergency Disasters Committee, and raise £252!  A fantastic achievement. This will be added to the total we raise today for wearing yellow and blue to school today. We are so proud of our school community coming together to support this cause.

Mr Illingworth and I led assemblies this week on positive relationships/bullying and used a number of areas raised by both pupils and parents/carers to highlight areas of strength and areas for improvement, and the high expectations of us all to be part of a kind, caring and compassionate approach in our school and wider community. These assemblies focused on the statement by Mahatma Ghandi, ‘Be the change you want to see in the world’ and also reflected on our other statement from our last series of assemblies. ‘If everyone in this school had our attitude, what kind of place would it be?’ Any further discussion you can have at home with your young people around these statements would be much appreciated so we can work together at making the school the best environment it can be for all our young people to thrive in.

Updated COVID Guidance

The Scottish Government published updated guidance for schools two weeks ago, to take effect from Monday 18th April (the week before we return to school in East Lothian). Moving forward, the following will apply:

Children, young people and staff must stay at home and self-isolate if they have symptoms of COVID-19, whether they feel unwell or not; if they have tested positive, even if asymptomatic.

There will be no Covid isolation room after the Easter break

From 18 April 2022, there is no longer a requirement for schools to issue individual information (“warn and inform”) letters to low risk contacts when positive cases are identified, or for them to test prior to returning to the school environment provided they remain without symptoms. However, in East Lothian, we will still send these letters until the asymptomatic testing finishes at the end of April.

Good hand hygiene (using hand sanitiser where necessary) and surface cleaning will still be expected. Enhanced cleaning will continue at the school until the end of the summer term.

We will have an ongoing focus on ventilation, with CO2 monitoring taking place on an ongoing basis in all classrooms/teaching areas.

Face coverings will still need to be worn by pupils, staff and school visitors in corridors and other communal spaces, and on school transport (this is likely to be update during the holidays so we will keep you informed of any changes to this on our return after Easter). Face coverings will not be required in classrooms, but young people and staff will be supported if they wish to continue wearing one. We appreciate that some young people will still wish to wear these during their SQA exams and when in the assembly hall.

Physical distancing will still apply in keeping with general guidance. As in wider society it will remain important to be cautious and exercise personal responsibility, recognising that, where possible, it is safer to keep a distance from other people.

There will be no restrictions on parents, carers or wider family members entering school buildings, although they will be expected to comply with the school’s routine measures. There are therefore no restrictions on in-person parent / carer evenings, parent / carer related events and meetings in school buildings e.g. subject choice events, careers events, fundraising events, family learning activities, volunteering in school, Parent Council and other similar events or meetings. Parents, carers and family members will be able to attend indoor and outdoor sporting and cultural events. Risk assessments will be put in place for these events and communicated to parents/carers so they can assess their risk and attend/or not attend.

The Chief Medical Officer’s advice is that children and young people on the highest risk list can follow the same advice as for the rest of the population. This includes attending education settings, unless their clinician has advised them otherwise individually.

Assemblies will be held during week commencing Monday 25 April to outline to pupils what the new mitigations are and to ensure a shared understanding of the ongoing expectations (including for those sitting SQA exams).

We will retain aspects of our one way system as this reduced corridor incidents as the school flowed better than the two way system within our narrow corridors.

We will be working on an updated risk assessment, and this will be on our website in due course.

COVID Testing

The Scottish Government has confirmed that, from 18th April, pupils and staff will no longer be asked to undertake a Lateral Flow Device test twice a week. You can find details of the Government’s Test and Protect transition plan in the link. Schools have been asked to distribute all remaining stock of LFD test kits. To this end, these have been issued daily, at the front vestibule, and many pupils and staff have collected these.

Our school’s risk assessment has been updated to reflect these changes.

 

Staffing

Catherine Bell is our preferred candidate for a temporary Pupil Support Worker

Our advert for a computing teacher will be interviewed after the holidays

Classroom Assistant position – 15 hrs per week – permanent – advertised today

 

Pupils’ News

S6 Leavers’ Day

Today we bid farewell to our S6 pupils. Although they will return for a few days post Easter before going on exam leave we celebrate their last six years at Knox Academy this morning with a short formal ceremony, followed by some fun team activities (led by the PE department) and finish off their day with a gathering in the assembly hall, with staff, for a buffet lunch, which has been very kindly provided by Tesco and our Home Economics Department. Staff will also look forward to joining them at their S6 Prom on 16 June 2022.

The last few years have been a challenging time for them all and they have coped admirably with the ups and downs associated with this. They will have lots of memories of their time at the school and many of the friendships they will have made will last a lifetime.  As they venture into the next phase of their lives, all here at Knox Academy would like to wish them all the very best for their future. We hope they will keep in touch with us and let us know how they are progressing.

S4/S5 Leavers

It was nice to gather this morning with some of our S4 and S5 pupils who have decided to leave Knox Academy on 31^st May. This will also be their last ‘official’ day of following their school timetable prior to going on exam leave a few days after the Easter holidays.  A number of our pupils in these year groups are going on to college or employment and training. We also have one young person who has had a ‘conditional’ offer for University and who hopes to attain the exam results to allow her to access this place at the end of S5. Whatever our leavers are going on to do, we wish them all the very best with their chosen pathways and we hope they bring them fulfilment. We hope they will keep us updated with their progress.

Haddstock Music Project 2022

Students & staff from across our Knox Academy community have been involved with the HADDSTOCK-KNOX Music Project 2022 this term, funded by the YMI, ELC Arts Service and ELC Instrumental Service. Professional Tutors came into school over a number of weeks and facilitated workshops for Samba, Build-A-Band and Just Sing! Songwriting. Senior Phase students Ellen Hunter, Ailsa Thomson & Daisy Ingram led the Goat’s Toes Folk Group. On Tuesday 29 March the four groups performed under the stage lights and the audio was recorded by Liam Morrison (Learning Support). Professional photographer & film maker Rob McDougall brought his recording gear into school and taught the students how to professionally capture the visuals as the groups performed.

The completed film will be shown on Saturday 28 May, 12 noon at St Mary’s Church, Haddington, as part of the Haddstock Music Festival. There will also be a live performance of the original song created during songwriting workshops called ‘Hold Your Hope Up’.

Congratulations to Thomas Robertson (S3) who won 1^st prize for his design of the Haddstock-Knox Music Project 2022 Logo. 

 

Curriculum and SQA Information

Edinburgh College

Exam Leave

The expectation is that senior pupils who are following courses at Edinburgh College will continue to attend their college course during exam and study leave unless they have an exam on that day.

Curriculum and SQA Information

All senior phase pupils have been issued with an individual timetable. This includes school timings, room details and seat numbers for each of their exams (Please note these may be slightly different to SQA published times). These should be checked carefully with any errors highlighted to Pupil Support Leaders as a matter of urgency.  Thank you.

Estimate Grades for SQA Qualifications

These were issued, with a covering letter, to all S4, S5 and S6 pupils, yesterday. If pupils were absent from school, they will be posted home. Information was also distributed on Tuesday for young people who have Alternative Assessment Arrangements in the forthcoming exams. Please do make sure you have contacted Jenny Wright in Support for Learning if there are any issues with these.

We will deliver a short online assembly on our return to school around the expectations for the SQA exams. The main points we will raise are as follows:

• Pupils do not need to register on their exam days as attendance will be recorded by the exam invigilator. 
• It is essential that pupils are on time for all exams. Plans should be made to ensure that pupils arrive in school 20mins before the start of every exam.
• If your young person is ill or likely to be late, please notify the school immediately ideally before the start of the examination.
• Any equipment required for an exam should be brought to school - pens (more than one) highlighter pen, HB pencil with eraser, calculator – as appropriate.
• Pupils should arrange their own way home for exams that finish after 3.15 pm Monday – Thursday and 1.05 pm on a Friday.
• Mobile phones, tablets, smart watches or other electronic devices are not allowed into the examination room. Any pupil caught using a phone could have their exam cancelled.

Additional information can be found on the SQA website.

Easter Revision School and Booster Sessions

Pupils attending the in-school Easter Revision sessions should now have had notification of their timetable for attendance at these. If they are unable to attend any of these sessions they should let the member of staff running it know ASAP. That way their place can be re-allocated to another pupil in the case where numbers are at their maximum. Thank you. Booster and immersion sessions will also take place after the holidays that all pupils in S4-S6 can access.

 

Parents’/Carers’ Information

Parents Portal

Parents Portal is a new way for parents to access information on their children, interact with their schools and easily access other school services. By using a single login, parents will be able to update their own and their children’s details, report absences, look up their children’s reports, access SchoolPay, the school calendar and much more. 

Knox Academy will be launching the service for parents, with instructions on how to register.  More details will be available in the coming weeks.

Achievement Ties – Applications Now Open

A reminder that Achievement Ties applications are now open with the deadline for nominations this session on Friday 6 May 2022.  Nominations can be completed through the google form found here .
For information please see the attached Presentation. A presentation to pupils is planned on this in the next week. 

Pupils’ Achievements

East Lothian Young Musician of the Year

Congratulations to Ben Gentil, S5, who was runner-up in this. He played a magnificent piece on the drums. This amazing performance also coincided with achieving 100% in his Grade 6 Music (on the drums).

British Swimming Championships

Louisa and Helen Stoddart qualified to swim, 50m butterfly, at the British Championships on Wednesday 6 April. After a successful swim in the heats Helen secured a place in the Junior finals in the evening. In a very tight final (0.8secs between 1^st and 8^th !!) Helen finished 5^th equal in a time of 28.22secs. What a fantastic results!  We wish Louisa, Helen, and a number of others, all the very best in the Scottish National Age Group Qualifiers in Glasgow over the Easter weekend and we look forward to hearing how they perform.

Netball

Congratulations to our junior girls’ netball team who narrowly won against Preston Lodge HS on Wednesday. Great team play by all.

Covid-19 Information

During the holidays please continue to report all positive Covid-19 cases to covidinschools@eastlothian.gov.uk or if you do not have access to email, telephone 01875 613921.

 

Dates for your diary:

Monday 11 – Friday 22 April       Easter holidays (Easter Revision Sessions for S4-S6 who have signed up to these)

Monday 25 April                            All pupils and staff return

Wednesday 27 April                     *Exam leave starts for S4-S6 (Booster and immersion sessions)

 

Wishing you all a happy, healthy and peaceful Easter break whether this be at home or away.

Sue Cook

Parent Council

The Parent Council has requested a footer on my HT’s update that remains there year round and which offers quick links to remote learning resources, course choices, supported study and careers news. Clicking on these headings takes you straight to these pages.

Please also look at our website for lots of other information. Please also follow us on Twitter for up-to-date news on a day to day basis.

Please also remember to follow us at: www.ka-net.org.uk @knoxacademy @knoxacademyHT for the latest information and updates