Staffing

All at Knox Academy would like to wish Susanne Fox the very best in her new role as PT Inclusion, at Newbattle High School. She will be missed by many – staff, pupils and families.

Temporary Curriculum Leader of Communications – interviews take place on Tuesday 25 November.

Posts closing on Sunday:

Senior Business Support Assistant (to support Guidance) – 30hrs per week (39 weeks per year). Goes live today and closes two weeks on Sunday.

Assemblies

This week’s assemblies were on anti-bullying.

Prelims

These will now run from 25 November until 11 December 2025. The updated timetable can be accessed here.

SQA – assessment arrangements explained

The SQA link that explains assessment arrangements for learners (and parents/carers) can be found here.

Achievement Ties

Achievement Ties nominations close today - Friday 21 November 2025. Application forms can be accessed here.

PTA – Hamper donations

Knox Academy Support Group (PTA) is excited to announce its first fundraising event of the school year at the S1 Festive Fayre in December. We are raffling off Xmas Hampers and would be extremely grateful for any donations. We are looking for and not limited to, Christmas puddings, mince pies, Christmas cake, chocolates, sweets, tea, coffee, jam, chutney, soup, biscuits, crisps, cheese crackers and oatcakes. Please hand in any donations to Ms Borwick in the PE Department by no later than Friday 28th November. Thank you in advance for your support!

Children in Need

Thank you to everyone who donated to this amazing cause. We raised £752.43!

Festive Fayre 

This takes place on Saturday 6 December and our S1, in particular, have been working hard on their enterprise skills to prepare lots to sell! There will also be other stalls, including our very own PTA who will be raffling superb hampers for school funds. Please pop this date in your diary and come and enjoy the fun and some delicious home baking too.

Rights Respecting Schools

This week’s right of the week is Article 13.

Children have the right to share freely with others what they learn, think and feel by talking, drawing, writing or any other way unless it harms other people.

Trips/visits/events

Career Ready

The launch of Career Ready is this Friday, in Edinburgh. We have four (S5) young people who are embarking on this programme and will have a mentor from a business. They will also do an internship during the summer as part of this programme.  This is an absolutely great experience for them and helps develop both their skills and confidence. A huge thank you  to Mrs Ferguson who leads on this.

Interior Design Industry Link

The S3 Graphics class visited TANGRAM, an interior Design Studio in Edinburgh last term and over a few weeks, learners (individually or in groups), developed an Interior Design project to a brief set by TANGRAM. Tangram staff then came to school and gave feedback on the projects after presentations. 

Learners developed their skills for work and got to see what a future career in Interior Design/Graphics would look like through this project based learning.

Developing the Young Workforce (DYW)

This week S4/5/6 pupils attended the DYW Roadshow Live event in Edinburgh. These trips are free and open to young people looking for a positive destination in a range of 15+ careers. Employers offer sign them up to contact them about future jobs, apprenticeships and graduate apprenticeships.  The School website has weekly updates with these opportunities too.  (By Mr Tait, CL Expressive Arts).

Events for all

Community Music

Haddington Christmas Lights will be switched on at 5pm on Sunday 23^rd November 2025.

Come along and join in with some community carols round the Christmas Tree at 4:30pm with the support of some of Knox's brass & woodwind players and singers from Haddington Community Church, Haddington Community Choir and Knox Choir. A festive opportunity to pursue our school value of Community. Lyric sheets will be provided.  (By Martha Middlemiss, Music)

Events for parents/carers

Neurodiversity discussion group

The neurodiversity discussion group is for carers of care experienced children (Adopters and Foster Carers) with queried or diagnosed neurodiversity (ASD, ADHD, Dyslexia, FAS). Aim: We will provide a forum for informal carer led discussion, with specialist guests and experts. For the November group we will welcome Jane from CAPA. We will be discussing behaviours that are difficult for carers to manage. This will focus on overwhelmed behaviours that result in physical actions such as hitting out and targeting. The first hour will be carer led discussion. Jane will come along at 11am.

Date: Thursday 27th November 10am to 11.30am/12pm. Venue: You can choose to join either online or in person at John Muir House, Haddington (Room G2). Details: Please contact Kendra Morrison on kmorrison@eastlothian.gov.uk or 07929836266 if you would like to attend either in person or online. Joining instructions for in person or online are on the next page (please let Kendra know if you intend to join). In Person We will be in Room G2 in John Muir House, Brewery Park, Haddington, East Lothian, EH41 3HA. 10am to 11.30am/12pm. We’ll have tea, coffee, and biscuits in the room

Children First – Information for Parents/carers

Geographic remit: All of East Lothian Age range: 0 to 18 years Remit: The kinship care Service provides a range of support designed to meet kinship families’ discrete and complex needs. These include befriending, advocacy, mediation, practical support, individual and group work, parenting support, financial inclusion advice, family group conferencing, and direct intensive therapeutic support working with loss, harm and trauma.

Website can be accessed here.

Phone Number: 0131 446 2300 Email Address: cfs@children1st.org.uk

Further details on supports offered by the service are below : The Children First Kinship team supports Kinship families across East Lothian in partnership with the ELC Kinship team.

Health Information for All

Norovirus outbreaks can happen at any time of year but are more prevalent during the winter months. Cases usually start to appear during the autumn, peaking during January. The symptoms usually last for 12 to 60 hours and often start with the sudden onset of nausea followed by projectile vomiting and/or diarrhoea. Norovirus is very infectious, and it takes a very small amount of the virus to cause ongoing spread. You catch it if small particles of vomit or faeces from an infected person get into your mouth such as through · close contact with someone with norovirus – they may breathe out small particles containing the virus that you could inhale · touching contaminated surfaces or objects – the virus can survive outside the body for several days · eating contaminated food – this can happen if an infected person doesn't wash their hands before handling food We would like to remind you of the importance of being prepared and vigilant for norovirus outbreaks as prompt action prevents spread of the virus and reduces the number of people becoming ill.

Respiratory infections Like Noroviruses, respiratory infections tend to occur in the winter months, most commonly from Autumn to Spring. All respiratory viruses generally present with similar symptoms such as runny nose, cough, fever.

Vital infection control measures for the initial management of an outbreak include: -

1. Thorough hand washing is the simplest and most important infection control measure. Washing hands thoroughly using soap and water will help prevent the spread of common infections such as colds, flu, covid19 and stomach bugs. Hands should be washed throughout the day i.e. before and after eating, using the toilet, after coughing and sneezing and when returning from breaks. Children need to understand why it is important to wash their hands; be taught how to wash, rinse and dry their hands correctly, and have easy access to running water and soap.

2. Environmental & Equipment cleaning: Robust environmental cleaning immediately after any contamination by diarrhoea or vomit is vital to contain the spread of the virus. The frequency of toilet cleaning and frequently touched surfaces e.g. toilet flushes, door handles and tap heads should be increased.

3. Prompt exclusion:  Children and staff with diarrhoea and/or vomiting should remain off until they have been symptom free for 48 hours. Affected children should be isolated from their classmates until collected by their parents/carer. For respiratory infections staff and children should stay at home if they have a high temperature and do not feel well enough to go to school and carry out normal duties. They should stay at home until they no longer have a high temperature or until they feel better.

For more information please refer to the NHS.

(From Mrs Swallow, Welfare).

Dates for you diary:

25 November – 11 December – S4/5/6 Prelims

3 December – S2 Parents’ Evening – 4.30-6.30pm

6 December – S1 Festive Fayre – 10am -12pm

8 December – S1-S3 Winter Ball – 7-9pm

10 December – Christmas lunch (food court)

11 December – Christmas Concert – 7pm – Assembly Hall

11 December - S1-S6 Flu Vaccinations (library)

16 December – S4-S6 Winter Ball – 7-9pm

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