Parents’ and Pupils’ Information

Diversity Evening

What an evening!! I am bursting with pride about how our community came together to put on such an amazing event at Knox Academy. The array of workshops were a huge success and all who took part said how much they had enjoyed them – learning something new and having fun. It was so nice to see families coming together to take part in these too. The Market Place had so many diverse aspects from charities such as Guide Dogs for the Blind, Sight Scotland, ELC Rangers looking at biodiversity and many local producers selling their produce. For those with energy the smoothie bike was a real winner! The food court offered an amazing array of Italian, Indian and Scottish cuisine and ice cream and cakes for the sweet toothed.

The culmination of the evening was our Diversity Show. This was absolutely stunning! Every single act had a diverse theme and added to the ambience of the evening. The Lion Dance raised the roof, and the guest speakers, Jamie Andrew and Professor Sir Geoff Palmer were inspirational. The primary school acts were so confidently presented and highly enjoyable. Knox Academy’s acts of jazz, our gospel choir, poetry and dance were equally brilliant! We were also privileged to host the premier of the ELC LGBT Film and this was very fitting given our recent award of our Silver Charter. The evening ended with Haddington Pipe Band playing La Baum, Highland Cathedral and Scotland the Brave – lifting the ceiling off in readiness for our departure!

This was truly a night to remember – celebrating our diversity with and across our community. These events don’t happen without a lot of work from many people. A massive thank you to parents/carers, staff, pupils, partners, charities and our local businesses who came together to put on last night’s event. To coin a phrase, team work really is the dream work!

Poppy Scotland

We can now confirm our total raised for this year was £6286.70. This is our highest ever total. Well done to all those involved in the Poppy Scotland Team.

Food Bank Visit

On the 7th of February, 24 Knox academy pupils from Mr Miller's Modern Studies class visited and volunteered at the Lighthouse Community Hub, a local food bank in Prestonpans. Our visit was a great way to learn more about food banks as part of our current topic in Modern Studies is poverty. 

While at the centre we saw first-hand how they help families in need. Since this time last year the number of people using the food bank has doubled due to the cost of living crisis.

Miss Lewis, who is a member of the church and a support teacher within the school, was delighted to introduce us to the staff and service users.

At the food bank we met Rev Hannah Montgomery, and also heard an unbelievably touching and emotional first hand story from Zoe, a person with lived experience from using foodbanks – now a volunteer. We then helped around the foodbank and were able to visit the storage room where they keep the food that they give out to those in need.

As we have been learning about poverty, part of this topic has been learning about food banks and why people rely on them. Food banks have distributed approximately over 2.1 million food parcels in 2021-22, and this is why we felt compelled to raise donations from our whole school community by giving presentations, that were created as part of our topic, to classes to encourage donations. 

This was an invaluable experience because it gave us a different perspective on the work of food banks and made us think about how this is a reality for a lot of people in poverty.

(Grace Scott, Poppy Reid, Katie Docherty, Kaiden Cockburn and Finlay Paterson)

All Years – Litter Pick Results

On Monday 6 February, the ECO-Committee carried out a litter pick around Haddington.  In a single period we collected 3.05kg of litter!  We noticed that the most common littered items around town were: cigarettes, small bits of paper, plastic wrappers, chocolate wrappers, crisp packets, bottle caps and chewing gum. We are asking everyone in town, including Knox students, to do their part and to bin their litter as this would, undoubtedly, make Haddington a cleaner place. (By The Eco Team)

Parents’ Information

School Payments

Parents and carers are reminded that online payment is the preferred option, as we can no longer accept cash or cheque payments.  SCHOOLPAY can be accessed via https://www.eastlothian.gov.uk/schoolpay (external link), and also via the SchoolPay tab in the Parent and Carers section of the website.  Users are required to register prior to use, and require a unique identifier to link your young person to your account – please contact the School Office if you require further information. (School Office)

Pupils’ Achievements

Squash

Congratulations to Phoebe Hamilton who won all her matches last weekend and has now become the U13 Scottish Squash Champion. Isla, her sister, came 4^th in the U15 Scottish Squash event – a huge congratulations to her too.  

Golf

Ben Austin and Adam MacDonald, both S5, have both been selected to go to Pinehurst - North Carolina for 10 nights, along with 18 other junior golfers, to represent East Lothian Junior Golf League. They will leave for North Carolina on Thursday 9 February and return on Sunday 19 February. 

The first competition they will play in is Pinehurst Winternational 7,and they will be competing against players from the USA.  They will also play a competitive match against Pinecrest High School on Wednesday 15 February. The other Winternational event is on the following weekend at the Longleaf course.  In total the boys will play 10 rounds of golf in the competitions mentioned above plus other championship courses in the area. We wish them luck and look forward to hearing about their experiences.

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 we can offer.

• Garleton - garleton@knox.elcschool.org.uk(link sends e-mail)
• Lammerlaw - lammerlaw@knox.elcschool.org.uk(link sends e-mail)
• Traprain - traprain@knox.elcschool.org.uk(link sends e-mail)

Dates for your diary:

Friday 10 February – half term – school resumes on Tuesday 21 February for pupils and Monday 20 for staff.

Thursday 23 February – S5/6 Parents’ Evening (online)

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

Parent Council

The Parent Council has requested a footer on my HT’s update that remains there year round and which offers quick links to 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   @knoxacademy(link is external) @knoxacademyHT(link is external) for the latest information and updates.