It has been great to meet with staff, pupils and some parents this morning as part of the working group looking at strategies to recognise achievement in and out of school. Some good ideas were discussed and once I have collated these I will feed back to everyone about the school’s next steps. We also looked at a House tie for the school, which will be part of our school uniform next session. Pupils, parents and staff were able to review a variety of different styles of tie and select their favourite. This will also be consulted on at the forthcoming Pupil Parliament and Parent Council meetings and at registration to gather lots of views. I will also put the most popular options on Twitter after these meetings so parents/carers can also vote.
As I said in a previous Head Teacher update, I will be sending out a letter in April giving details of our school uniform for session 2019-20. It would be great in the meantime if parents/carers continued to support the school and ensure their young person wears uniform to school as this ensures that we are identified as a school community and ensures a professional dress code pupils link with for ‘work’ as opposed to ‘leisure’. This also allows them to keep their casual clothes for after school hours, as well as ensuring, through the school dress code, that everyone is identifiable in the building, which ensures the safety of all.
Staffing
Mrs Caroline Falconer (DHT) is embarking on a 23 month secondment as a Quality Improvement Officer with the South East Improvement. Alice Clubb, currently Faculty Head of Maths at North Berwick High School, will start with us on Monday 25th March.
This week we interviewed for a Librarian and were successful in recruiting an experienced candidate who will start with us at the beginning of May.
Interviews took place for both Modern Studies and PE over the last week. These are new posts and are not replacing staff leaving. I am delighted to say we have preferred candidates for both of these positions. These posts will start in August.
We are re-advertising for a part-time Home Economics teacher.
World Book Day
There’s been a definite buzz around the Communications Faculty as the English Department celebrated World Book Day with Junior pupils today (Thursday) Pupils enthusiastically took part in a literary Kahoot quiz as well as Knox’s very own Guess the Teacher’s Favourite Book Quiz. S1-S2 pupils certainly enjoyed looking at the pictures of staff hiding their faces with their favourite books! All pupils will be issued with World Book Day tokens over the next couple of days and these can be used to get £1 off a book of their choice at various retailers. Thanks to all staff who helped make WBD 2019 a success (by Zara Machen, Faculty Head)
Drama
The Parents/Carers of National 4/5, Higher and Advanced Higher Drama students are invited to support performers at the open dress rehearsal of their performance exam pieces on Thursday 14th March, from 5pm in the Drama Studio.
SQA examiners shall be in to mark exam pieces for National 5 and Higher on Thursday 21st March and Advanced Higher on Wednesday 27th March. To all our performers in exams this year, Break a Leg! (by Emma Whitfield, Drama)
Music – Spring Concert
Spring Concert - please note the change of date to 28th March 2019 – dress rehearsal/performance to P7s in the afternoon with the evening performance at 7pm. Tickets, priced £5 for adults and £3 for pupils/concessions, will be available from the Music Department later this week. There is no reserved seating at our concerts (tickets may be numbered but this is just to allow us to keep note of numbers sold).
Gymnastics
Congratulations to Amy Reid & Oakleigh Robertson (S2) & all their teammates/coaches at Saltire Team Gymnastics. They won bronze in the Youth Division, Northern Qualifiers in Newcastle & qualified for the British Championships in Liverpool! What a fantastic achievement.
Cross Country Running/Cycling
Well done to Rudie Shearer who came 24th in Scottish Schools Cross Country Champs at Hopetoun House last weekend. Also, as a member of the Edinburgh Goodson Race Team Youth girls’ squad, Rudie helped Olympic Track Cyclist Katie Archibald to launch the first Women’s Tour of Scotland, a world-class professional cycle event to be held in August. It was great to meet with Rudie this morning to congratulate her on her achievements and also to hear that she is the Scottish Duathlon Champion for the 12-13 age group. Another star at Knox Academy!
Knox Eco-Committee
The Knox Eco-Committee's much anticipated Eco-Week is happening next week from March 11-15. The Eco-Committee have been working hard to plan a range of events for students and staff. The Eco-Committee will be giving an assembly presentation to all year groups and events include a plastic-free beauty tutorial, an eco-shop coming to Knox, bamboo toothbrush sales, a screening of WALL-E, and a transition event for P7s. Bamboo Toothbrush pre-order sales have already been going really well and it's been so great to see students and staff making the choice to ditch plastic toothbrushes in favour of their compostable and eco-friendly alternative!
All events with their specific details have been posted on the school bulletin and on the Eco-Committee Twitter account (@knox_eco_comm). We're looking forward to Eco-Week 2019! (by Miss Laudi)
Hockey
Congratulations to Nicola Stobie (Geography teacher) as her hockey team, Watsonians, has reached the semi-final of the Scottish Cup.
Finally, please can I encourage parents/carers and friends of the school to follow us on Twitter @knoxacademy and @knoxacademyHT. This allows you to keep up-to-date with our day to day news as it happens. The school calendar, on our website, is also kept up-to-date with all of our events and parents/carers should continue to refer to this regularly so they know of any events that are coming up for their child(ren).
Emails
In order to improve communication at the school and to reduce the amount of group call messages, we will be sending out a letter to parents/carers asking for your permission to send information via email. I would like to thank you in advance for your support with this. Many schools now use this as their main communication system and say it is highly effective.
Dates for your diary:
Tuesday 12th March S2 Parents’ Evening (5-7pm)
Thursday 28th March Spring Concert (7pm)
Friday 5th April End of term (finish 12.05pm)
Tuesday 23rd April All resume (staff and pupils)
Wednesday 24th April S4, S5 and S6 Leavers’ Event (midday finish)
Thursday 25th April First day of exam leave for S4, S5 and S6 pupils (not in school)
Sue Cook
