May 2024

Published: 31 May 2024

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 resourcescourse choicessupported 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 84CEAEA2   for the latest information and updates.

Published: 17 May 2024

Staffing

Following a successful interview, Zara Machen has been appointed as the acting Depute Head Teacher for Session 2024-25. She replaces Steven Illingworth who goes to Dalkeith HS to be acting HT for that session. An advert for the Curriculum Leader of Communications will go out on 31 may 2024 on My Job Scotland.

Activities Week (13-17 May)

S1 enjoyed a varied programme of events at the school during our annual activities week (film production; dance; laser cutting; multi-sports etc.). S2 enjoyed trips to Dundee’s waterpark; Edinburgh Zoo and Blair Drummond Safari Park, whilst most of our S3 pupils headed off to Yorkshire for a fun filled week of outdoors sports and activities. The week culminated on the Friday for our S1/2s with inflatables on our playing fields (picture gladiator type games). Our S3 finished their week by helping out in the community with a litter pick and cutting back weeds along the Tyne.

A huge thank you to all staff for their organisation of this week as it takes a lot of preparation and wouldn’t happen without them all going above and beyond to do this. From chatting to the pupils they all seemed to have had a great week learning and trying out new things and developing great working relationships with their peers and staff.

SQA

Exams have gone very well so far and pupils’ attendance at these has been excellent. A reminder that although it is a holiday on Monday, those pupils sitting an exam on that day should attend at school.

Evening of Celebration

This will take place on Thursday, 20 June 2024. The S1-S2 ceremony will take place from 6-7.15pm and the S3-S6 from 8-9.15pm. All award winners will be notified over the coming weeks. These awards are based around academic excellence for S1 and S2 pupils are completely separate from our diligence awards which are based around commitment and effort on a day to day basis. S3-S6 are subject awards. There will also be some special awards on the evening too. As spaces are limited at both ceremonies only two guests, per award winner, will be able to attend. In S1 and S2, again due to limited space, we will be presenting merit awards to those who have attained 3 or more merits in their subjects. Those who achieved one or two merits awards will be presented with their certificates at House assemblies in the last week of term.

Diligence Awards

Due to IT issues last term (which parents/carers were aware of) this meant a slight delay in processing the diligence awards that should have gone out late March/early April. These will be now be issued to S1-S3 pupils at the end of May. Diligence award recognise hard work and commitment to learning, on a day to day basis, which we believe is the biggest factor in young people achieving their best. Pupils will receive nominations from their teachers where they feel that they show this attribute. Where no nomination is received for a subject this means that the young person needs to commit more to their learning (effort/application) going forward. Although most pupils will get merit certificates they will differ in the number of nominations they receive. We would be grateful to parents/carers for discussing these diligence awards when they come home and identifying subjects your young person is doing well in and where that ‘extra push/effort’ is required. Thank you. These awards do not link to the Merit Awards, which are presented at the Evening of Celebration, and are based on academic attainment in subject areas.

S2 Careers Day 29 May 2024

As part of our approaches to Developing the Young Workforce we are introducing an event for S2 that we hope will become an annual event. On 29 May we will have 6/7 businesses come into school and the S2 House classes will rotate around these during the day (a period at each business).

The aim of the day is for the businesses to highlight some of the key meta-skills that their line of work utilises and relate these to what our young people do in school. This will help many of our young people make the link to their learning and life skill for the work place.

Love Oliver – 10km run fundraiser

A number of staff and pupils are running the Edinburgh 10km race on Saturday 25 May to raise funds for LoveOliver, our winning charity in this year’s Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) programme.

LoveOliver is a charity based in Edinburgh set up by Andy and Jennifer Gill after their son, Oliver, died at of a Malignant Rhabdoid Tumour. Their vision is to strive for a country in which every family with a child diagnosed with cancer knows there is hope of a cure and that they will have appropriate financial and emotional support on their cancer journey.

This charity has helped people across Scotland and even in Knox Academy itself! LoveOliver was the winner of Knox Academy's Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) Programme in 2023/2024, and has a personal connection to one of the team.

We are hoping to raise as much money as possible to support this great charity. Participants are:

Ryan Pirie, Anya Boardman, Freya Maycock, Alice Kirkland, Lucy Darling, Matthew Davison, Helen Stoddart, Ava Middlemiss, Sam Palmer, Euan Farquhar, Emilis Vaicaitis, Fergus Allan, Rory Burns, Ms Borwick, Mr Flood.

If you would like to donate, please click on this link. Thank you (By Mr Flood)

Edward Scissorhands

We had a fabulous time at the Ballet on Wednesday evening - all students representing our school perfectly. They were mannerly and polite whilst watching the show, at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre. The choreography was both funny and technical. Leads and cast were brilliant, costumes and scenery stunning, as you can see in the photo above, there were even moving hedges !!! All supposed to have been cut by Edward, with his scissorhands! (By Mrs McSherry)

Successes

European Mixed Team U15 & U17 Squash Championships 2024 in Portugal.

The U15 team finished 6th out of 15 Countries and the U17 team finished 10th out of 20 Countries. Congratulations to Jamie Pearman (S3) and Phoebe Hamilton (S2) who played for the U15 team and also to Isla Hamilton (S4) who played for the U17 team.

Athletics

Congratulations to Aoife Swan-Ashe who won a silver medal in the 300m at the East District Championships last weekend.

 

Dates for your diary:

22 April – Friday 31 May - SQA exam leave for S4/5/6 pupils

20 May – holiday for pupils only (staff in-service training)

24 May – S3 BGE Graduation (Pupils only)

27-31 May – S3 Work Experience

3 June – start of new timetable for all year groups

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 resourcescourse choicessupported 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 84CEAEA2   for the latest information and updates.

Published: 10 May 2024

Staffing

Our Curriculum Leader (PT) Science post will be advertised on Friday 17 May.

PT Equitycongratulations to Hannah McBride who had been appointed to the permanent post.

On behalf of all at Knox Academy, I would like to thank Kathryn Zhong, our Mandarin teacher, who leaves us on Friday to go to Queensferry High School. Kathryn has been an inspiration to our pupils in her teaching of Mandarin and we wish her well in inspiring many others in years to come.

SQA

Exams continue to go well and a few ‘big’ exams, N5/H English and N5 Maths have now taken place this week. Pupils reported that these exam papers seemed fair.

Evening of Celebration

This will take place on Thursday, 20 June 2024. The S1-S2 ceremony will take place from 6-7.15pm and the S3-S6 from 8-9.15pm. All award winners will be notified over the coming weeks.

Parent Council

The next Parent Council meeting will take place in the school library on Thursday 16th May. Come along for coffee and a chat from 6 pm, the meeting will start at 6.30pm and will include a discussion around reporting. This will be our final meeting of the year so it would be great to see as many parents/carers as long as possible. (By Sarah Ramsay and Morven Atkinson, Parent Council Chairs)

Music

Knox Academy’s new band ODDSOCKS were invited to play at an assembly at Belhaven Hill School on Friday 3rd May. They played a set of songs by David Bowie, Nirvana, Tears for Fears and Eurythmics. The young musicians inspired and impressed the 120 strong audience of pupils and teachers with their performance and conduct. During a quick tour of the school, they resisted the temptation to drive a Rolls Royce into the Belhaven’s outdoor heated swimming pool before heading back to Knox. They’re now working on a full set for future gigs. (Kenny Hutch)

Knox Choir will launch with the new academic timetable on 5 June and rehearsals will take place every Wednesday after school in the Music Department 3:30 - 4:30pm. 

Knox Students, Staff, Parents/Carers and Alumni all welcome! We will be singing 'What a Wonderful World' and 'Leaving on a Jet Plane' with Haddington Community Choir at 5pm on Saturday 22nd June at St Mary's Kirk. Free Entry. (By Martha Middlemiss)

East Lothian Council Arts Service is delighted to offer a selection of taster sessions at the Bridge Centre (Haddington) on Saturday 25 and Sun 26 May.

These sessions form part of the wider Haddstock festival, and will run alongside the Newcomer Stage and  ELJam's Battle of the Bands competition.

No previous experience will be required but places are limited and you will need to book online. (Pay what you can afford)

Families Together – East Lothian Survey

Win a £50 shopping voucher

There are all sorts of reasons that families can feel pressured. Our Families Together East Lothian Team is out and about in the county speaking with families about the challenges they face and what helps them to thrive.

Share your views on what works for your family and how you feel about your local area by completing a short online survey. Your views will help shape support for families in East Lothian and you could even win a £50 shopping voucher!

The survey closes on 21 June.

Find out more about Families Together East Lothian and how they could support you, and complete the survey: www.eastlothian.gov.uk/families-together

Arts Taster Workshops at Haddstock

We will be offering:

Family samba drumming

Community singing

Introduction to drama

Musical Theatre

 

If listening is more your thing, we have a Newcomers Showcase at the Haddington Corn Exchange (12-4pm), which features youth acts from Haddington and around East Lothian:

Woodwind warriors; Dance network; Knox guitar ensemble; String quartet; Knox jazz band; Jell; Room 5; The watts; Gaslight; Room 27; Human renegade

 

On Sunday 26th you are also very welcome to come along to the Battle of the Bands competition to hear 12 bands from 6 local high schools perform:

12pm-1.30pm:

Oddsocks (Knox A); The Watts (Dunbar GS); Sixteen Again (Ross HS); Cryptid (Knox); Girls of Stone (DGS); Room 5 (RHS)

 

2.30pm-4pm:

High Speed Real Estate (North Berwick HS); Black Diamonds (Prestonlodge); Scene One (Musselburgh GS); Title of Your Mixtape (NBHS); Sofia’s Choice (PL); About ’08 (MGS).

 

We hope to see you there. It’s going to be a fabulous weekend of local talent on display! (By ELC Arts Service Team).

Successes

Duke of Edinburgh

Congratulations to Finlay Taylor (S5), Leon Williamson (S5) and Katie Llewellyn (S6) who have achieved their Silver Duke of Edinburgh award.

Rugby

Congratulations to Holden Duff-Smith Holden who has competed consistently at a high standard for Musselburgh Rugby Club U14s. His team were undefeated in the league, won the Calum Veitch Trophy, Portobello 10s and the East Lothian Sevens U14 Trophy. Holden was also selected for the West East Lothian Team.

Air Training Corps

We have an amazing group of young people involved in the North Berwick ATC Group (S2: Alexander McBain, Fred MacFarlane, Sam Maguire, Cee-Jay Jaffary, Izzy Corrin and Malcolm Crawford and, from S3, Robert McWilliams Snow). They are great ambassadors for the school and our community and are involved in so much.  After supporting a tough mudder down in Coldingham a week ago, they also attended the South East Scotland Wing athletics day at Grangemouth at the end of April. On the 5 May, they attended the Service of Remembrance for Coastal Command and the Maritime Air Association (CCMAA) at North Berwick.  With Alexander and Cee-Jay given the honour of being banner party. (All attended)
In addition to the commitment of attending twice a week, they are also achieving SQA recognised qualifications in leadership and aviation topics.  A huge well done to them all!.

 

Dates for your diary:

22 April – Friday 31 May - SQA exam leave for S4/5/6 pupils

13-17 May – S1-S3 Activities Week

16 May – Parent Council – 6.30-8pm (school library)

20 May - holiday (pupils only) - those sitting exams must still attend these

24 May – S3 BGE Graduation (Pupils only)

27-31 May – S3 Work Experience

3 June – start of new timetable for all year groups

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 resourcescourse choicessupported 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 84CEAEA2   for the latest information and updates.

Published: 03 May 2024

Staffing

Our acting DHT post closes on Sunday and interviews will take place for this next Friday (10 May 2024).

SQA

Exams continue to go well and attendance at these very good.

Curriculum

We have been working with our staff, pupils and Parent Council to review our curriculum. Please find a link to our revised curriculum rationale  (parental summary) which was the result of this process.

S2 Under the Stars Trip

Last week a group of 30 S2s were lucky enough to take part in the annual Knox Under the Stars Trip.  This is a trip ran alongside EL Outdoor Education where the pupils get to experience a night of camping.  We walked to the beautiful Lennox Love Estate and camped right out the front of the main House.  The surroundings were majestic and the pupils enjoyed many team building games around the estate as the sun was setting.  The pupils then cooked dinner over the camp fire and even enjoyed delicious popcorn!  The night ended with everyone sharing stories in the dark round the fire and it just showed that the rich Scottish storytelling tradition is still strong in East Lothian. After successfully scaring each other the pupils then went to sleep in tents and survived the chilly temperatures.  Next morning they made breakfast, played some more team building games and headed back to school with many new stories of their own. It was a very successful trip and the pupils behaved impeccably.  We hope to run more of these trips in the future. (By Mrs Reynolds, English)

Community Event Fund Competition

Haddington Rugby Club has entered a prize draw to support funds for Meadowpark. Please can our school staff, pupils and parents/carers vote here (voting is open for the month of May). Thank you.

Successes

Rugby

Congratulations to our S1 team who won the East Lothian 7s at North Berwick last weekend. They remain unbeaten this season! Congratulations also to Hamish Mainstone and Andrew Millar, who were playing for Edinburgh Gunners Under 16s, and won their games against Glasgow and Newcastle Falcons at the weekend. These matches for Andrew and Hamish competed the Scotland U16s pathway programme for this season.

Music

Congratulations to David Hunter (S3) has won Best Newcomer award for Dalkeith Brass Band (trumpet).

Maths - UKMT Junior Mathematical Challenge

S1 and S2 pupils participated in the UKMT Junior Mathematical Challenge last week. This involved solving up to 25 multiple choice questions encouraging mathematical reasoning to make pupils think. If you're interested in having some fun and trying some out yourself you can access the paper (and answers!) here. This is the first time Knox Academy has participated in the competition for a number of years and we're super proud of the amazing standard set by the pupils - not only in terms of their participation, engagement and effort in attempting to solve these unfamiliar problems but also for those who achieved a Bronze, Silver and Gold certificate. 16 pupils achieved Bronze, 10 achieved silver and 4 achieved Gold! I'd like to further congratulate Fred and Lexi in S2 who scored enough to go forward to the next round on 11 June 2024 - more details to follow!

 

Dates for your diary:

22 April – Friday 31 May - SQA exam leave for S4/5/6 pupils

6 May - holiday (all pupils/staff)

13-17 May – S1-S3 Activities Week

16 May – Parent Council – 6.30-8pm (school library)

20 May - holiday (pupils only) - those sitting exams must still attend these

24 May – S3 BGE Graduation (Pupils only)

27-31 May – S3 Work Experience

3 June – start of new timetable for all year groups

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 resourcescourse choicessupported 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 84CEAEA2   for the latest information and updates.