On Monday Mr Boyle held an assembly on Duke of Edinburgh, for S3 pupils, inviting them to join up for Knox Academy’s next cohort, which will be starting soon. This is an amazing award full of challenges for young people and it would be great if as many of our current S3s could sign up as possible to start aiming to achieve their Bronze award. The commitment to this would be an average of an hour a week and a few expeditions at a weekend. Forms were sent out to pupils’ EduBuzz emails and should be completed by 30 November 2020. Once successful in achieving the Bronze award, pupils can move on to their Silver and Gold awards. So parents/carers, please do try to persuade them to do this as it is a fantastic award that helps develop so many extra skills. Thank you.
Staffing
We say a fond farewell to Mrs Moira Weir, who has been our admin assistant to the Pupil Support Team and at Knox Academy for 18 years and leaves us on Friday 27 November. We would like to wish her well for her a long, happy and healthy retirement and thank her for all her hard work and commitment in her time at Knox Academy.
Best wishes to Ms Borwick for her maternity leave, which starts today. We will miss you greatly at Knox Academy but what exciting times ahead for you. We’ll look forward to hearing your news in the near future.
Ms McBride – Acting Curriculum Leader, Communications. A huge thank you to Ms McBride for leading the faculty forward over the last term. She has done an amazing job! We welcome back Ms Machen to this role today and know she will also do a sterling role back at the helm.
Health and Safety at school
East Lothian moved back to Tier 2 on Tuesday this week and Lesley Brown, Head of Education, wrote to parents and pupils last week to explain what this means for us in East Lothian schools. As of Although it is no longer a requirement for staff and pupils to wear face coverings in senior phase classes it is still being recommended wherever possible to reduce transmission of Covid-19.
Any pupil showing Covid-19 symptoms must not attend school and you can book a test online at www.nhsinform.scot or by telephoning 0800 028 2816. Only if this test is negative should the pupil return to school. If pupils have the common cold, they should still attend school if they feel well enough to do so.
If your young person is absent from school, Covid-19 related or other, work will be available to access on Google Classroom and also through E-sgoil (Glow user name and password required) and E-sgoil live webinars; Scholar UK (S4-S6), SQA (past papers); SQA (subject content to work through topics) and BBC Bitesize and at Oak National Academy (some great resources for S1-S3 pupils).
Updated Prelim Timetable
These start on Wednesday 2 December and run until Thursday 10 December (inclusive) and S5/6 pupils were issued with their personalised timetables this morning. There are changes to the timings of the Higher and Advanced Higher Computing prelims. These will now take place outside the formal diet of prelims. The Higher Computing will take place on 16 December and the Advanced Higher on 15th December. The revised prelim timetable can be accessed here.
Young people in S5/6 following all National 5 or 4 courses do not have any prelims so they should attend school as normal. Those doing a combination of AH/H or all Highers have the full/flexible prelim entitlement. Those young people doing a combination of AH/H with N5s are welcome to attend their N5 timetabled classes when not sitting prelims or they can access the class work online. All young people who are on school transport are welcome to attend all timetabled classes when not in a prelim exam.
Learning and Teaching
In many classes we use self and peer assessment as our strategies for learning and teaching. To support this we have purchased mini-whiteboards for all our pupils (which wipe clean and can be used time and time again). These whiteboards allow pupils to write answers and comments on and share these with their peers and teachers and are a very useful resource to support feedback. Pupils have been supplied with a special pen for these too and will also receive a cloth to wipe these when they arrive. Pupils should keep these stored safely in their school bags and bring these to school daily for use in their classes.
S1 Parents’ Evening
We are looking forward to meeting parents/carers and S1 pupils at our virtual parents’ evening on Wednesday 2December. All S1s were given sheets to make appointments with staff and staff have set up meetings with them at agreed times. For more details please see the letter that was sent home last week.
Diligence Awards
Mr Dickie took a whole school assembly on Wednesday to explain the role of our diligence awards in creating ‘ambition’ in pupils and to support pupils in achieving their potential in all subject areas. The certificate will detail all subjects a pupil has been nominated in. The ultimate aim is for pupils to be nominated in all of their subjects. If they are not, the goal for term two (January – April) is to aim higher and achieve this. We hope to issue certificates to pupils at the end of next week/beginning of the following week. More information on our diligence awards is available by clicking on this link Diligence Awards.
Foodbanks and Christmas Boxes
This year register classes are collecting items for the local foodbank, which plays an important role in showing kindness and supporting our community, particularly in these challenging times. If you are able to support our collection of non-perishable goods that would be much appreciated. These should be passed to your young person’s register teacher by Friday 4 December at latest. Thank you.
Communication
If you have a question to ask about your young person or a question in general about the school, please email your young person’s Pupil Support Leader in the first instance as they will be best placed to help you. If need be, they will refer any questions on to the House Depute Head Teachers. The email addresses are as follows:
Ms Adam - ladam1@knox.elcschool.org.uk (Garleton Pupil Support Leader (PSL))
Mr Meekison - smeekison@knox.elcschool.org.uk (Lammerlaw PSL)
Mrs Doig - wdoig@knox.elcschool.org.uk (Traprain)
Dr Lyon - vlyon@knox.elcschool.org.uk (PSL Support for Learning)
Ms Fox - sfox@knox.elcschool.org.uk (PSL for Inclusion)
Parent Council
If you would like to come along to our next Parent Council on Thursday 3 December, please let Lesley Pirie (Chair) know by emailing her at parentcouncil@ka-net.org.uk so you can be invited to the virtual meeting.
Dates for your diary
2 December – S1 Parents’ Evening (virtual) – more information to follow shortly
3 December – Parent Council – 6.30 – 7.45 – virtual meeting
Stay safe and well and enjoy the weekend.
Sue Cook
Please also remember to follow us at: www.ka-net.org.uk 
@knoxacademy @knoxacademyHT
