Staffing

Mr Johnson’s will start his secondment as acting Head Teacher at Kaimes on 27 March 2025. Mrs Davis (currently PT at Meadowpark) will act up as Depute Head Teacher (DHT) until Mrs Shorthouse starts on 28 April 2025.

Assemblies

S4, S5/6 had assemblies this week from Citizen’s Advice informing them of a variety of services that can support them post 16. This service is based in Haddington.

S4/5/6 Study Support for SQA exams

As well as many study support clubs in school, E-Sgoil is offering study support during the Easter holidays.  To register for these support sessions pupils should click on this link. I would be grateful if parents/carers can encourage your young people to sign up. Thanks.

End of Term Arrangements

All parents/carers should have received a letter from me on Wednesday detailing our end of term arrangements.

Diversity Evening

What an amazing evening! It was great how our community came together to put on such a diverse event in terms of the workshops offered, the stalls at our market place and the mouth-watering cuisine in our food court. The evening then culminated with our Diversity Show, which highlighted the talents of both those at our school and in our local and wider community. I am sure for all those who attended, you would agree this was a memorable event celebrating our diversity and how it enriches our lives.

These events don’t happen without a lot of hard work from so many people. A massive thank you to parents/carers, staff, pupils, partners, charities and our local businesses who came together to put on our event – we very grateful to you.

School Improvement Planning for Session 2025-26

Parents/carers should have received an email from me on Monday asking you for your support in completing a questionnaire which will help us identify the key aspects we need to focus on next session. By us all working together we aim to ensure we support all of our young people to achieve their full potential. 

Thank you to the 55 parents/carers who have already responded, and I do hope you will all manage to complete our questionnaire by Friday 21 March. The more responses we have ensures we have a true representation of our school community’s views and what you believe are the important aspects we need to focus on to continue to improve – even if you feel things are ticking along fine it is good to hear that too.  Your views are very much valued and we have used these in previous years to help guide the school’s direction.

Pupils and staff are also being asked for their improvement ideas. Once we have feedback from all groups we will look at these collectively and extract the main themes to focus on to help us on our journey to excellence. I will also report back to you about the findings from all groups and our plans for next session.

Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) Programme Update

We are pleased to share an update on the ongoing success of our Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) programme. MVP Scotland Currently, 40 S6 volunteers and 18 mentors are delivering important sessions to S3 pupils through RME and PE lessons. So far, the programme has covered key topics such as expectations, consent, and the inappropriate use of language, including challenging phrases like “That’s gay.” These discussions encourage young people to reflect on their words and actions, fostering a more respectful and inclusive environment.

Adam Welsh, our PT Equity has recently attended a train the trainer event in Glasgow and 6 more staff (both teaching and support staff) will benefit from the one day training on 19^th May 2025. The programme is currently co-ordinated by Ms Fox (PT Inclusion) and Mr Welsh (PT Equity), who organise and support the delivery across the school.

The programme has been hugely beneficial—our S6 mentors have developed valuable leadership skills, while our S3 pupils have engaged thoughtfully with difficult but important issues, particularly those related to gender-based violence and the value of building healthy, respectful relationships both in the school and in the community.  We are proud of the impact this initiative is having and will continue to support our young people in building a positive school culture. (By Mrs Falconer, DHT)

Haddington Community Resilience Event

On Saturday the 1st of March, Knox Academy pupils Luke Mercer, Grace Scott, Finlay Paterson, Marischa Doctor, accompanied by Mr Flood, attended the resilient communities workshop held at the Corn Exchange in Haddington. We heard a presentation from Ryan Macfarlane, a senior operational meteorologist from the Met Office, who talked about coastal erosion in local towns, including North Berwick, which have been caused by recent storms such as Storm Elwyn and how that could affect residents in our communities. Kerry Jardine from Scottish Government Resilient Communities told the audience about how people in rural areas in Scotland can be more prepared to combat the ever-changing climate that impacts out-of-reach areas. She specifically mentioned flood risk and high winds which can both impact access to food and power to people's homes. The task of figuring out how to face the challenges was handed over to the audience where we took a few minutes to discuss and jot down ideas ourselves. A few tables, including ours, then volunteered ideas. Grace Scott proposed a couple of our thoughts which were warmly received by other members in the audience. Katie Bartholomew, who is a Senior Policy Advisor for Climate Change Behaviours, focused on how individual behaviour change can help us to decrease our rate of climate change. By changing our own individual behaviour, it can cause others to follow suit and try and replicate us. Jemma Landells from the Eyemouth response team looked at the importance of teaching young people how to use first aid skills. In Eyemouth children are learning first aid from primary one all the way through to primary 7, this means that by the time they leave to go to high school they have critical, lifesaving knowledge. (By Luke Mercer, S5)

Lockers

We are having a re-shuffle of lockers at the school so please can we ask that any pupil who currently has a locker empties it, by next Friday at latest, and hands their key to the office. Once the re-shuffle has taken place (a few weeks) they can get a new locker via the office. It is vital that belongings are removed or these may be lost in this process as not all lockers will be kept (as some have seen better days)!

Pupils’ Successes

Aubigny Twinning Scholarship

A huge congratulations to Bella Gold (S5) who has been awarded this scholarship this year. Bella will spend a month in Aubigny over the summer perfecting her French through immersion in the culture and language. A great experience for her.

Eco-Committee Achievements

Over the last few months, the Eco-Committee has been working on entries for the East Lothian Climate Hub's Climate Creativity Collaboration. The competition invited students to create an artistic piece, a story or a poem depicting what East Lothian would be like in 2040 if we all did everything we could to tackle climate change and support nature to flourish. Knox submitted a total of 10 entries, all of which were really well done, showing imagination and thoughtfulness in their work. Three Knox students won the first and second place prizes for their work! Congratulations to Delilah Brady (S2), who won first prize for her beautiful illustration and Emily Westgarth (S2) and Karis Hutchison (S3) who jointly won second place for their poem called "New Dawn". These students will be receiving their prizes from the East Lothian Climate Hub next week. 

All student entries will be shown in an exhibition at John Muir Birthplace Museum from Wednesday 23rd April to the end of May. Furthermore, a number of poems, stories, and artwork will be printed in the Courier, read out on local radio stations, and shown at a number of bus stops in East Lothian. More details to follow!

Rugby Referees

On 4 March, two S4 pupils were refereeing at the Scottish Rugby East Emerging Schools Festival at Meadowmill where there were 350 boys from across the East taking part in a number of games. Logan Stone & Lewis Oliver spent their afternoon supporting the event refereeing the S2 matches. Well done to them both!

Dates for your diary:

20 March – Parent Council 6.30-8pm – School Library – all welcome

4 April – End of term (12.15pm) and Easter holidays commence

22 April – School resumes for all at 8.28am.

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. E-Sgoil also has some great resources.

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.