Parents’ and Pupils’ Information

SQA

In order to support parents/carers SQA have produced a parents’ blog post you may wish to read, which is full of lots of useful information for you.

SQA Appeals 2023    

Following careful consideration of the views of learners, parents, carers, teachers, lecturers and other stakeholders, the Appeals 2023 service will be different to the service used last year and will be more aligned with the service used before the pandemic, with some important enhancements. Alternative assessment evidence will not be required for this service. Instead, learners will be able to request a review of their SQA-marked assessment components. The service will be free and available to all learners regardless of their estimate. Learners will be able to appeal directly to SQA. 

Appeals 2023 will include a priority service for learners with conditional offers for further education, training or employment.  We are working closely with UCAS to ensure the outcome of priority appeals will be released ahead of their deadline.

S3 Parents’ Evening

It was great to see so many parents/carers back in school and speaking face to face again, with staff, about their young person’s progress. Having spoken to many parents on the night it was a very informative evening and both the parents/carers and young people are clearer on next steps for improvement. These conversations have also helped in advising appropriate learner pathway choices for S4. If you were unable to make the parents’ consultation and wish an update on your young person’s progress, please email their House Team. Thank you.

Diversity Evening – 9 February from 5-9pm

This is a really exciting event for our community as Knox Academy comes together with our associated primary schools to put on a huge event to celebrate our diversity and inclusion. As well as a show from 7-9pm with lots of diverse acts and our guest speakers Jamie Andrew and Professor Sir Geoff Palmer OBE , both whom I have heard speak on a number of occasions are inspirational. (Tickets should be purchased in advance are now available from the School Office at any time during the school day and up until 4.15pm. Please phone the school to reserve them and arrange payment - £5 for adults and £3 for concessions and pupils). There will be an international market place (with fun games e.g. our Chinese chopstick challenge; raffles and challenges as well as businesses and charities with diverse themes such as Show Racism the Red Card – with former Scottish Footballer Michael Weir (Mickey), who is SRRC Ambassador, leading this stall), workshops (booking for these has now closed) and a food court on the evening too (these run from 5-6.45pm and no ticket is required for them). All in our community will be warmly welcomed so please do invite friends and family along too. This letter gives all the detailed information. The food court will have haggis, neeps and tatties for sale and there will also be curries, calzone and lasagne (all of these meals will be £4 each). There will also be hummus, quiches, salads and ice creams (prices will vary for these). There will also be foods for you to sample at the food court too and a smoothie making bike for you to pedal and make your own tasty concoction. Please bring cash/change for food court purchases as these are cash only; however some of our vendors selling goods in the market place will be able to accept cards for larger purchases. We will look forward to seeing as many of you as possible on the night and celebrating our diversity and inclusion at Knox Academy and in our wider community.

Parents’ Information

Parent Council

Thank you to all parents/carers who attended our Parent Council meeting on Tuesday evening and so good to meet again in person. It was great talk around our forthcoming review, which takes place next week, and will focus on our approaches to Child Protection and Safeguarding (2.1) and also Personalised Support (2.4). Thank you also to all parents/carers who completed the questionnaires. At the Parent Council we also discussed prelim attainment; fund-raising and our draft policy on positive relationships and promoting positive behaviour, ‘The Knox Academy Way.’ Mrs McBride also talked about the planned opportunities for S1-S3 pupils as part of our Activities Week in May.

Our next Parent Council Meeting takes place on Wednesday 22 March 2023, to which all parents/carers are invited.

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)

S1 School Ties

The school ties have been despatched and are expected to be delivered next week.  Hopefully this will allow our S1’s to have these prior to the February holiday and they can use the February break to practise tying them. I would like to thank parents/carers and pupils for their patience.

Pupils’ Achievements

Athletics

Huge congratulations to Morven Kenny, S1, who won a silver medal in the Pentathlon at the Scottish National Combined Events last weekend at the Emirates Stadium in Glasgow.  A massive well done also to Aoife Swan-Ashe (S2) who came fourth in the 200m at the Scottish Schools Indoor Championships.

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:

Thursday 9 February – Diversity Evening – 5-9pm – at Knox Academy (tickets for show £5/£3)

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

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.