Staffing
Curriculum Leader Science – this is being advertised until Sunday 2 June and interviews take place on Tuesday 11 June.
English vacancy (August 2024 – 1 June 2025) – a temporary, full time English vacancy will be advertised on 7 June.
Congratulations to Ms Jo Donald who has been appointed as an HE teacher at Winchburgh Academy. She will start there in the new session. We will be advertising a full-time, permanent post soon in this area.
We would like to wish Mr Steven Illingworth all the very best for his year’s acting Head Teacher position as this starts on Monday. Mrs Zara Machen will take up the acting Depute Head Teacher during this time and will also become Head of Traprain House.
SQA
These have now finished. We will look forward to welcoming all of our senior pupils back to school on Monday, 3 June, when our new timetable starts. Pupils should report to their register classes and will be issued with their new timetables at this point. All pupils should be in school uniform and if they need any support with this, they should speak to their pupil support leaders. A reminder that hooded tops are not allowed to be worn in the school building. Thank you for your support with this.
BGE Ceremony
This took place last Friday and was a great event organised by our Pupil Support Leaders and run by our S3 pupils. Following on from a speech from me about every day providing great learning opportunities, we presented all pupils with a certificate of achievement and then our school band, Cryptic, played for us.
Grease
A reminder that tickets are now on sale for the school musical - Grease. Performances will be on 17 June & 18 June at 19.30pm each evening. The cast has been working tirelessly on this production for the whole year, and are very excited to perform. Tickets are on sale every lunch time in the school canteen and cost £7 for adults and £5 children/concessions.
10km Run in aid of LoveOliver
Congratulations to all our pupils and staff who competed in this to raise money for LoveOliver. At present the total raised in a whopping £1769 – exceeding the target set by £769. A huge thank you to all who donated.
Quadrant
Our Parent Council suggested that there may be some designs that parents/carers/families have done but not costed them. Please do not let this put you off submitting them. To allow some more submissions we have extended the date until 7 June. Please submit to njones@knox.elcschool.org.uk. Thank you.
New Cycle Racks
Please can I ask all young people who cycle to school not to use the cycle rack at the front of the school on Monday as we are getting new ones fitted on this day and the fitters will need access to this wall. They should padlock their bikes at the far end of the dining room area (on the wall facing the Rosehall Gates or outside of the small gym). Thank you.
Carers week 2024 – putting Carers on the map
Do you care for a relative or friend who due to illness, disability or mental health condition couldn’t cope with out your support? Caring for someone with additional needs can be tough without the right information and support.
East Lothian has advice information and support services for both young and adult carers.
Visit Carers of East Lothian – Supporting people who care for family and friends (coel.org.uk) or call 0131 665 0135 or Young carers | East Lothian Council to find out more about support available.
Lost Property
There are a large number of clothing items, including jackets, which remain unclaimed. If your young person has lost any items, please ask them to enquire at the office. To assist in reuniting lost property with their owners, please ensure that clothing items have names clearly marked. Thank you (Knox Academy Office)
Knox Choir
I will launch on Wednesday 5th June 3:30 - 4:30pm in the Music Department. A warm invitation to all staff, students, parents and alumni.
Our first concert will be with Haddington Community Choir on Saturday 22nd June at 5pm in St Mary's, Haddington.
Battle of the Bands
A huge thank you, and WELL DONE, to you all for a fantastic set of performances at the weekend. I felt very proud not only of the event, but of the way you handled yourselves and of the incredible talent that we have here in East Lothian. I would like to remind you that you can claim your prizes by contacting me and that if you would like to know more about opportunities ELJam can offer then you can view them all on our Eduhub blog. You can join ELJam by clicking here. (By Charlotte McMillan)
Haddington Tennis Club – Free Events
This Saturday, 1 June, the Haddington Tennis Club is holding its annual Open Day from 2pm to 5pm. This free event gives children and adults of all ages and abilities the opportunity to come and give tennis a try in a fun and welcoming environment.
There will be lots of fun events for children to get involved in, prizes, free coaching sessions and tea, coffee, cakes and other snacks to help keep the energy up for all the tennis fun.
We hope to see lots of you at the courts on Saturday afternoon for what we are sure will be a smashing time (By Haddington Tennis Club)
Successes
S2 Inspiring Minds Day (Wednesday 29 May)
This was a hugely successful day with Balfour Beatty, Army, EDF, Leonardo, HyperEd, Strutter Aviation and Nat West all giving very generously of our time to do interactive activities with our young people to develop their meta skills. The engagement from all of our pupils was fantastic. Here is what one of the businesses said: ‘It was a thoroughly enjoyable day, and your Knox Academy students were a pleasure to work with. We had some exceptional outcomes, and all of the groups - including those that enjoyed slightly less success with their finished products - were highly collaborative and showed themselves to be excellent problem solvers and team players. In short, they were a credit to their school, which clearly has a wonderful ethos and a very purposeful, ambitious and respectful culture at its heart.’
Young Musician of the Year 2024
Leila Maycock represented East Lothian at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow for the National Finals of Young Musician of the Year, accompanied by IMS tutor Liz Woodsend. A fabulous opportunity for Leila to perform to such a high standard against approx. 30 other young musicians. A huge congrats to the winning saxophonist, Euan Kemp (17) from Douglas Academy in East Dunbartonshire.
Haddstock 2024
ODDSOCKS & Cryptid represented Knox Academy at the East Lothian Battle of the Bands competition. Check out our Twitter account to see many more Knox Academy musicians performing at Haddstock 2024. A huge thank you to Beki Dover, Charlotte McMillan, Liam Morrison, Jon Arnold and the rest of the teams at Haddstock, East Lothian Council Arts, ELJam and The Brunton for the fabulous opportunities the weekend festival created for our young musicians.
Girls’ Rugby
Congratulations to the U14s Girls’ Rigby Team (joint Knox/Dunbar team) who won the U14s Shield at the Falkirk 7s on Wednesday 22 May.
Swimming
We had a number of brilliant performances, by Knox pupils, in the Haddington Total Swim Meet last weekend. They were: Emma Carmichael – (11-12yrs age group) 100 Individual Medley(IM)/50m butterfly/50m back crawl - 1st in all events; Emily Westgarth - (11-12yrs age group) 100m Freestyle/200 IM - 1st in both; Lucy Hall (13-14 yrs group); 100 IM/ 50 backcrawl; 50 fly; 200 IM – 1st in all events; Boyd Fernside (13-14 yrs group) -100 IM (2nd), 200 IM and 50m fly – 1st and 50 breastroke – 2nd. Well done to all performers!
Dates for your diary:
3 June – start of new timetable for all year groups
13 June – P7 Information Evening
14 June - S6 Prom
14/17/18 - P7 Transition Days
17/18 June – Grease – 7.30pm – tickets now on sale every lunchtime
20 June – Evening of Celebration
28 June – End of term 12.15pm
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
Quick Links:
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 @knoxacademyHT for the latest information and updates.