There has been so much happening this week with the lead up to Christmas. Our Christmas Fayre was very well attended last Saturday and the S1s and S6s did so well in selling their products – even a Spotify Christmas playlist on a key ring – very creative! Thank you to all parents/carers, staff and pupils who came along to support it and make it the success it was.
It was wonderful to see so many of our young people and staff sitting down to enjoy Christmas lunch together on Wednesday. It was absolutely delicious. A huge thank you to Maria Millar and her team for being such fantastic cooks, not just on Christmas lunch day, but all year round.
We have also had inter-house games this week, with all year groups able to earn House points by participating in Dodgeball. Thank you to the PE Department and House Captains for running this. This competition culminates with a Staff v S6 pupils at the end of today. May the best team win.
Parents’ and Pupils’ Information
SQA Timetable
This has now been revised and can be accessed here.
Christmas Concert
What an incredible array of talent on stage at this year’s Christmas Concert. Great to see pupils, parents/carers and staff as part of the performances, making it a real community event! Thank you to all performers, who were just amazing, and helped it feel a lot like Christmas. Thank you also to Mrs Martin and Ms Colquhoun for organising the concert and being the comperes on the evening. Many thanks to the Music Staff, Music Instrumental Staff, Art Team, Dance Choreographers, Programme designers, Lighting and Sound Team, Refreshment Team, Janitors, Cleaners and Senior Pupils for all your work in bringing the concert together. A final thank you to all parents/carers, staff, pupils and friends of the school who came along to be our audience and to support our talented young people.
S4-S6 Christmas Dance
A great night was had by all. The seniors looked amazing all glammed up in their dresses and suits and danced the night away in the hall. They even found time to have some festive photos taken by Mr Dempster. A huge thank you again to parents and staff who attended this evening to help out, as without you these events would not be possible.
Pupil Support Base Christmas Lunch
Thank you very much to Tesco Haddington who very kindly sponsored this. Thank you also to Mrs Fraser who supplied the turkey for it. The young people, worked under the care of Mr Gilholm, to produce a mouth-watering lunch for those invited – which I was privileged to be one of. Santa even visited to hand out some gifts.
Careers Evening
This will take place on Wednesday 18 January 2023. S1-S3 6-7pm and S4-S6 7-8pm. Over fifty businesses will be in attendance at this evening and parents/pupils will have the opportunity to talk to them about their jobs and the qualifications needed for them. Please put the date in your diary. It would be great to have as many of you along as possible and it will also help your young person consider their learner pathway subject choices. The list of businesses attending can be found here.
S3 Parents’ Evening
This has now been re-scheduled for 2 February 2023. This will take place, in school, from 4.30-6.30pm. Please add to your diaries. This will be a very useful parents’ evening to help with information about your young person’s learner pathway choices for S4. S3 Reports will come out on 1 February and will be useful in terms of questions parents/carers can ask around these too.
Christmas kindness - update
Thank you to all pupils, parents/carers and staff who very kindly brought in items for this year’s Christmas boxes. These boxes will be distributed to our local food banks, including the Lammermuir Larder in Haddington. With the ongoing cost of living crisis this is an important way of coming together and helping our local community. We appreciate all your generosity.
Scottish Seabird Centre
At the Scottish Seabird Centre, discover a fun, new interactive exhibition about one of Scotland's rarest birds. Help Secret Agent Corncrake discover why the noisy yet secretive corncrakes are disappearing from Scotland.
This interactive exhibition has been masterminded by RSPB Scotland as part of the Corncrake Calling project with support of the National Heritage Lottery Fund. It was co-designed with students from Lochgelly High School, The Glasgow Academy, Berwickshire High School, Castlehead High School, St. Joseph’s Academy & Banff Academy. Supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Corncrake Calling is a new four-year project to save these small brown tawny members of the rail family.
The exhibition is open from 10am daily until 20 January, last entry is 3pm.
Haddington Farmers’ Market
Tomorrow will be the final market of the year, with entertainment from Haddington Primary, Haddington Church carol singers and Haddington Pipe Band. If you are able, please come along and support them and our local producers.
Parents’ Information
Support
Please do not hesitate to contact our Pupil Support Team by emailing your young person’s House Team garleton@knox.elcschool.org.uk, lammerlaw@knox.elcschool.org.uk, traprain@knox.elcschool.org.uk if you would like to discuss any support we can offer.
We also appreciate that Christmas will be a difficult time for many families so if you do need some support over Christmas you may find these numbers useful.
Pupils’ News
Achievement Ties
Congratualtions to the ten young people who applied for, or were nominated for, achievement ties. Four achieved full colours (Morven Kenny and Phoebe Hamilton (S1), Finley Taylor (S4) and Isla Hamilton (S5), two achieved half colours (Boyd Fearnside (S1) and Alex Black (S4), and four achieved an endeavour certifiate (Isaac Swan-Ashe (S1), Jamie Towler and Tara Murray (S3) and Katie Mead (S5). Thank you to the Achievement Committee for meeting to agree these awards. There will be another opportunity for pupils/staff/coaches to apply for Achievement Ties again in March 2023.
Chess
Earlier this year, Ross Blackford (S5) was selected by Chess Scotland to play in the Liverpool Quadrangular tournament which was held 9-11 December between under 16, 14 and 12 age-limited youth teams from Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales. Ross played on board 2 for the under-16 team, although due to the pairing system, he had a game against the top English player in round 1. Unfortunately, he lost the game, although later learnt he had just played the reigning European youth champion! However, Ross beat the English and Welsh board 2 players in the next two rounds to finish on 2 out of 3. Scotland ended up winning all 3 sections of the tournament for the first time in its history. Huge well done to Ross being part of the winning team.
Rugby
A fundraising match was held at Haddington Rugby Club to support Archie Hamilton (S4) who was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, which is rare type of blood cancer. The total raised was just short of £1000. Further fundraising took place on Thursday, with a staff bake sale, which raised £257.53 towards The Teenage Cancer Trust and The Bone Cancer Trust and we are ending the term with a Christmas themed dress down day, with half of the funds going to Archie and the other half to Our Community Kitchen.
End of Term
On the last day of term we will finish at 3.25pm. In the morning all House Groups will have social dancing and in the afternoon there will be a whole school quiz, led by our House Captains. This will be a further opportunity to earn House points. We will end the day with our traditional gathering in the hall to sing ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’.
As this is the last HT’s update I will be sending out this term, I would like to wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from me and all here at Knox Academy. Thank you for all your support throughout the term. We will look forward to welcoming all of our young people back on 4 January at 8.28am.
Dates for your diary:
Tuesday 20 December – End of term (3.25pm)
Wednesday 4 January 2023 – Start of new term (8.28am)
Tuesday 10 January – S4 Parents’ Evening (online) 4.30-6.30pm
Monday 16 January – Course Choice Information Evening S2-S5 (online) – 6.30-7.30pm
Wednesday 18 January – Careers Fayre – at Knox Academy – all year groups – 6-8pm
Thursday 9 February – Diversity Evening – 5-9pm – at Knox Academy (tickets £5/£3)
Our school calendar is updated regularly and should be used to access all information throughout the year and allows you to plan ahead too.
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
