August 2024

HEAD TEACHER'S UPDATE 30 AUGUST 2024
Published: 30 August 2024

Staffing

Modern Languages – we did not appoint following the recent interviews so this will be re-advertised today.

We would like to wish Hannah McBride all the very best for her seconded DHT Outreach post that she start on Monday (in East Lothian). Adam Welsh will take over as PT Equity during Hannah’s secondment.

New Telephone System

To enhance communications with all school stakeholders, we have introduced a new telephone (call handler) system at Knox Academy, we are experiencing some minor issues which will hopefully be resolved very soon.

The new system gives the caller a sequence of options to best direct their call.  The current sequence available is:

Press 1 for Pupil Absence (It is the school preference that all parents/carers use the Parentsportal for reporting pupil absence)

Press 2 for Staff Absence / Business Manager

Press 3 for Pupil Support / Guidance

  • Press 1 – Garleton House - If the call cannot be answered, our preference is that you email garleton@knox.elcschool.org.uk rather than leave a voicemail
  • Press 2 –Lammerlaw House - If the call cannot be answered, our preference is that you email lammerlaw@knox.elcschool.org.uk rather than leave a voicemail
  • Press 3 – Traprain House - If the call cannot be answered, our preference is that you email traprain@knox.elcschool.org.uk rather than leave a voicemail
  • Press 4 – Support for Learning (Learning Support) - If the call cannot be answered, our preference is that you email sfl@knox.elcschool.org.uk rather than leave a voicemail (Email mailbox is currently being created and will take a week or so to activate)
  • Press 5 – Pupil Support Base - If the call cannot be answered, our preference is that you email psb@knox.elcschool.org.uk rather than leave a voicemail (Email mailbox is currently being created and will take a week or so to activate)

Press 4 for the School Office

Press 5 for the School Welfare Assistant / School Nurse

Press 6 for the Janitors

Press 7 for the School Library

ParentsPortal

Many thanks to the parents/carers who have already signed up to Parentsportal.  This is the preferred method for notifying the school of absences, and parents/carers can also check attendance.  Additional features, such as issuing of pupils reports, will also be introduced in due course.  Knox Academy would encourage all parents/carers to register for the parentsportal service.

If you are experiencing issues registering, please contact the office  for further advice. (Knox Academy Office)

Google Classroom – Guardian Summaries

You may be aware of an additional feature of Google Classroom which is designed to help Parents/Carers gain an overview of the set tasks and assignments. This feature is called Guardian Summaries and it enables Parents/Carers to receive e-mail updates about: Missing work — Work not turned in when the summary was sent; Upcoming work — Work that’s due today and tomorrow (for daily emails) or that’s due in the upcoming week (for weekly emails); Class activities — Announcements, assignments, and questions recently posted by teachers.

As a parent/carer you will be able to control the frequency of these updates or decide to opt-out of receiving them at a later date.

Setting up Guardian Summaries
To setup Guardian Summaries your child will need to follow these steps. This must be done by each child in your household for whom you wish to receive e-mail updates.

With your child use this link which requires your child to log in via Edubuzz.

We will use the main contact email we have on record but there is an option in the form to add a second email address. It is therefore essential that the pupil record is accurate so please contact us if you wish to make any changes to your stored information.

*Please also note that, due to GDPR regulations, your child may choose to opt out of sharing information with you and if they decline permission we will not be able to set up the summaries for you.

Activating Guardian Summaries is a manual process which needs to be carried out by the school once the form is completed.

Support

Please do not hesitate to contact our Pupil Support Team by emailing your young person’s House Team if you would like to discuss any support for your young person or to arrange an appointment to come in to speak to someone.

If you have a scheduled appointment at the school and you are unable to make it for any reason, please inform the school office /House Team ASAP or email the member of staff/House Team to let them know. You should then arrange another appointment with the member of staff you were meeting with. Thank you.

Pupils’ Success Stories

Golf

Congratulations to Murray Bowsher (S6) who won the Haddington Golf Club’s men's handicap championship last weekend.

Fixing For A Future

A huge thank you to Rosie Harrison and Sheena Carrs for organising and running sewing workshops for our young people, at Meadowpark, on Friday afternoons. This programme is all about re-using materials (eco and sustainability) to make fashion items. Further sewing workshops will be starting soon as well at Knox Academy.

Dates for your diary:

11 September – S4 Parents’ Evening – 4.30-6.30pm (Knox Academy)

13 -16 September – school closed for holiday

17 September – Parent Council (School Library – 6.30-8pm) – all parents/carers welcome

25 September – S1 Parents’ Consultation – 4.30-6.30pm (Knox Academy)

Our school calendar is updated regularly and should be used to access all information throughout the year and allows you to plan ahead too.

 

if you are in the area this weekend the local Farmers Market is on and sells great local produce. 

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 84CEAEA2   for the latest information and updates.

 

HEAD TEACHER'S UPDATE 23 AUGUST 2024
Published: 23 August 2024

Staffing

PT Equity – Congratulations to Adam Welsh (English) who was appointed to this post following interviews on Wednesday. He will start this role on 2 September (until June 2026) and replace Hannah McBride, who goes off to be a seconded DHT leading the new ELC Outreach team.

Book Festival Trip

On the 21st of August, Mrs Reynolds and Ms Barnes took 60 of our S2s and S3s on a trip to the Edinburgh Book Festival! Pupils had the opportunity to attend inspiring author events (Lauren James and Sarah Crossan were highlights) and were even gifted with free books to take home. S3 pupils were also invited to take part in a L.A.B run by the BBC to learn the ins and outs of film making and interviewing! Keep your eye out for their video which will be uploaded to the BBC Scotland website in the L.A.B. Project section soon. A big thank you to our amazing S2s and S3s who represented Knox Academy wonderfully on our day out, as well as, a huge thank you to Ms Breslin and Mr Groome-Vine for helping on the day. (by Mrs Barnes)

Knox Academy Volunteering Fayre

The Knox Academy Volunteering Fayre will take place on the morning of Friday 6 September 2024, from 8.45 am until 12.15 pm. This is a great opportunity to recruit volunteers from the Knox community. All S3 - S6 pupils will attend during the morning, over 500 pupils. If you are a charity or business and you could offer some volunteering opportunities to our young people, please can you get in touch with rflood@knox.elcschool.org.uk – thank you.

LGBT+ Parents/Carers Information Evening

Ms Fletcher and Ms Stobie are planning to run an evening session for parents/carers on LGBT+ identities on Monday 30th September. This could be of interest to parents/carers with LGBT+ identifying pupils, or indeed parents/carers who would like to be more knowledgeable on the topic in order to help educate and support your young people. 

We would be grateful if you could take the time to fill out the Google Form that was emailed to you yesterday, in order to let us know if you would be interested in coming along to this and what sort of information you think would be useful to include. Please could you complete this form by Friday 13 September at latest. Thank you!

Flu Vaccine

Pupils’ flu vaccine: help beat flu with a “wee scoosh”! Given as a nasal (nose) spray, the flu vaccine is quick, easy and painless. Consent forms have now been sent home with your child. It’s very important to complete, sign and return the form by 30 August, even if you don’t want your child to get vaccinated. The vaccine is given once a year. Flu viruses are constantly changing, so a different vaccine has to be made every year to ensure the best protection against flu. The vaccination sessions will take place at Knox Academy on Monday 18th November and on 1 October for Meadowpark pupils. For more information visit here.

Pupils’ Success Stories

Golf

Good luck to Murray Bowsher (S6) who will play in the final of Haddington Golf Club's Men's Handicap Championship on 24 August. This will be played over 2 rounds (36 holes).Murray will also play in the Stephen Gallagher Foundation 'Open' which is being held again this year at the Fairmont in St Andrews. This competition is being played over 3 days Wed 2nd - Fri 4th October 2024. We will look forward to hearing how he gets on in both of these events.

Squash

Congratulations to Phoebe Hamilton (S3) who won the East of Scotland under 15's title last weekend, winning all her matches 3 - 0.

Dates for your diary:

28 August – UCAS Parents’ Info Evening – run by Mr Meekison – 6-7.30pm (School Assembly Hall)

11 September – S4 Parents’ Evening – 4.30-6.30pm (Knox Academy)

17 September – Parent Council (School Library – 6.30-8pm) – all parents/carers welcome

25 September – S1 Parents’ Consultation – 4.30-6.30pm (Knox Academy)

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 84CEAEA2   for the latest information and updates.

 

HEAD TEACHER'S UPDATE 16 AUGUST 2024
Published: 16 August 2024

We hope you all had a lovely summer holiday. Welcome back to Session 2024-25. It has been great to have all of our new S1 pupils join us and to welcome back our S2-S6 pupils. We hope that our young people embrace the opportunities they have here for learning and also make the most of the many after school opportunities on offer to further develop their skills and friendships. Please do encourage your young people to take part in our wider school events as this builds our community too.

Staffing

Home Economics – Mrs Milan was appointed the last day of term to this post. We were delighted to welcome her to our staff team on Monday.

We also welcomed Mrs Sinclair (acting Curriculum Leader of Communications), Ms Milliken (Modern Studies), Mr Morris (Physics) and Ms Coats (PE).

Mrs MacDonald is Curriculum Leader of Science.

SQA Results

Our pupils performed really well in the SQA exams in April/May 2024. This is testament to their hard work and commitment to their studies, and the support of staff and parents/carers. We have to be mindful that the S4 were in the final year of primary school when the first lockdown happened in March 2020 and did not get the benefit of all the experiences of transition to Knox Academy – they also had a disrupted S1 with further lockdowns. S5 pupils also missed their final months of S1 and a disrupted S2. So taking this into account they have done amazingly well and coped with the SQA adding assignments back in to many subject last session too! We are super proud of them and know, for those returning to school, they will continue to build on these results over Session 2024-25

An overview of our results:

Our attainment at A-C for National 5 was 78%. This was marginally down on last year at 80.1% (but SQA has expressly said not to compare them to the last few years results when assessments were changed due to the pandemic). However our 78% above the National results of 77.2% and the East Lothian figure of 77.9%. We had 13 pupils in S4 who achieved 7 National 5 passes, all at Band A, and a further 8 pupils who attained 6As and a B or C.

At Higher level, our A-C attainment was 83% (80.5% last year). This was above the National results of 74.9% and the East Lothian figure of 74.3%. 8 pupils attained 5A passes and a further 9 attained 4As. A number of our pupils also attained very strong results in a combination of National 5s and Higher subjects.

At Advanced Higher, our A-C attainment was 67% (79.1% last year). This was below the National results of 75.3% and East Lothian figure of 70.1%. AH was down from last year at school, ELC and National levels. One pupil attained 4As in their Advanced Highers and 6 others attained 3 AHs and 9 pupils achieved 2 AHs.

Within National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher, many young people showed great progress to achieve the grades they did – whether these were As, Bs or Cs. We also had many young people achieving well at National 3 and National 4, with a significant increase in qualifications achieved by young people at Meadowpark too.

The above statistics are pre-appeal. Our focus this year will continue to be on teaching for excellence, closing our GAP, focusing on attendance (huge link between this and attainment and achievement) and ensuring that our young people attain the highest level and most qualifications they can that are relevant to them. We also need to work together to ensure that, in particular, our S6 cohort see all courses through from inception to completion to guarantee them the best results and reach their potential.

Careers Support

Chris Trotter is our Schools Development Scotland adviser and has said the following information will be useful to parents/carers to help with career guidance from S1 right up to S6 – My World of Work general information and Knox Academy (specific information).

Knox Sports

We are looking forward to getting Knox Sport back up and running! Please click to see the sports on offer and to register. If anyone has any issues registering please contact Thomas Salkeld at tsalkeld@elcschool.org.uk. All sports are available to book from Monday 19th August with all sports clubs restarting week beginning 26th August. If any parents or Carers would like to get into volunteering at any of our clubs please get in contact with Thomas. We would encourage all of our young people to get involved with one or more clubs at the school (there will be many more advertised beyond sport) to learn new skills, make new friends and add to our Knox Academy community. It allows pupils to work with other young people in different year groups too.

Pupils’ Success Stories

Gymnastics

Congratulations to Kyla Hynd (S4) her teammates won Bronze at the TeamGym British Championships 2024 in July. What an achievement!

Dates for your diary:

28 August – UCAS Parents’ Info Evening – run by Mr Meekison – 6-7.30pm (School Assembly Hall)

11 September – S4 Parents’ Evening – 4.30-6.30pm (Knox Academy)

17 September – Parent Council (School Library – 6.30-8pm) – all parents/carers welcome

25 September – S1 Parents’ Consultation – 4.30-6.30pm (Knox Academy)

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 84CEAEA2   for the latest information and updates