Mitigations
An update came out from the Scottish Government late yesterday and no mitigations will change in schools until after the Easter break. I will give more information about these changes nearer the time. Covid cases are increasing again across East Lothian (and nationally) and both pupils' and staffing absences have increased again over the last few weeks. It is interesting to note that visiting senior classes in particular, many of the young people are still choosing to keep their face coverings on even though they no longer have to. On speaking to them they seem to want to retain these to minimise catching Covid over the next three weeks as this time is precious in terms of being in school in the lead up to their exams.
Staffing
Emma Whitfield, our Drama teacher, leaves us today. We would like to thank her for all her hard work and commitment to the school over the years and wish her well for the future.
Computing – advertised today – full-time, permanent position
Adam Welsh, our probationer in English, is our preferred candidate for the English post which starts in August. This post supports raising literacy across our Associated School Group.
Modern Languages – Lucy Fletcher, is our preferred candidate for this post which will start in August. Lucy is currently our languages probationer.
Drama – Mia Colquhoun is the preferred candidate subject to pre-employment checks. Mia is currently a Drama probationer at Leith Academy.
Curriculum and SQA Information
Easter Revision School and Booster Sessions
We will be running a small Easter Revision School this year for S4-S6 to support our young people with preparation for their exams. The programme for this will be issued shortly and pupils will need to sign up for this so we know who will be attending. We will also be offering in-school Booster Sessions during exam leave so that young people can attend a support session the day before their exam in that subject. More information will follow on this shortly.
National e-Learning Offer: e-Sgoil Easter Study Support
Easter Study Support will run between 7 and 14 April 2022 and comprises live, interactive webinars delivered by experienced, GTCS registered teachers. 66 courses are on offer, with a total of 80 webinar groups. The service is free to all learners and last year learners’ evaluations were overwhelmingly positive. Registration is open for the month of March, and I must advise that there may be upper limits for registration numbers on some courses, therefore registration is on a first come, first served basis. The link to the registration and information page on the e-Sgoil website is here and a short promotional video also gives more information about the offer.
Leavers’ Information
The official leaving date will be Tuesday 31 May 2022 for all pupils in S6 and any pupils who wish to leave school in S5 and S4 (and who are 16 prior to 30 September). Those leaving must ensure they complete a leavers’ form, which can be collected from the school office. We will do all we can to support our young people in to a positive and sustained destination. Our Careers Advisor, Chris Trotter, can also be contacted for support with next steps chris.trotter@sds.co.uk.
Parents’/Carers’ Information
School Improvement Planning
Parents/carers should have received an email on Monday asking you for your support in helping us identify the aspects we are doing well at Knox Academy and asking for the areas you think we can do better in/ need to focus on next session. By us all working together we aim to ensure we support all of our young people to achieve their potential.
Thank you to the parents/carers who have already responded, and I do hope you will all manage to complete our questionnaire (it takes about 5-10 minutes to complete). The more responses we have ensures we have a true representation of our school community’s views and what you believe are the important aspects we need to focus on to improve. Your views are very much valued.
Pupils and staff are also being asked for their improvement ideas. Once we have feedback from all groups we will look at these collectively and extract the main themes to focus on to help us on our journey to excellence. I will also report back to you about the findings from all groups and our plans for next session.
Parent Council Meeting
The next meeting is on Wednesday 23 March 2022 at 6.30pm (virtual meeting). Our DHT, Steve Johnson will be speaking about Autism. If you would like to attend this meeting please email our Chair of the Parent Council to gain access to our meeting code, parentcouncil@ka-net.org.uk. It would be great to see as many people attend as possible.
Achievement Ties – Applications Now Open
A reminder that Achievement Ties applications are now open with the deadline for nominations this session on Friday 6 May 2022. Nominations can be completed through the google form found here .
For information please see the attached Presentation. A presentation to pupils is planned on this in the next week.
Knox Sport – Girls’ Football
We are delighted to announce that PureMalt is going to be sponsoring our Girls’ Football team this coming session. PureMalt is a Haddington based company that focuses on responsible ingredient Innovation and employs ninety-five people. It was set up in 1986 and currently produces natural ingredients for the global food and beverage industries. PureMalt distributes products to more than seventy countries on six continents. We look forward to a great partnership developing between the school and them and thank them very much for supporting our teams (Senior rugby as well).
Pupils’ Achievements
A number of our pupils were taking part in the Edinburgh Swimming Meeting at the Commonwealth Pool last week. They all performed superbly! Owen Williamson competed in the 50m & 100m Back and 400 freestyle; Louisa Stoddart competed in the 50m, 100m, 200m & 400m Freestyle and 50m & 100m Butterfly; Helen Stoddart competed in the 50m & 100m Freestyle, 50m Backcrawl, 50m &100m Butterfly; Lauren Clark competed in the 50m, 100m & 200m Butterfly, 400m Freestyle and 200m Backcrawl. Louisa was a junior finalist for the 100m Butterfly and was the 50m Butterfly junior reserve finalist. Helen was a junior finalist for the 50m Butterfly and Lauren was a junior finalist for the 200m Butterfly.
They all said that it was an amazing competition to be able to qualify for as there was Olympians such as Tom Dean, Duncan Scott, James Wilby, Abbie Wood and Ben Proud racing too. A weekend of competing they will all take a lot away from and which will definitely help them with their preparation for the upcoming British and Scottish Nationals, which are both within the next two months. We will wish them all the very best of luck in the championships and look forward to hearing the results! We are very proud of you all!
Covid-19 Information
Please continue to report all positive Covid-19 cases to covidinschools@eastlothian.gov.uk or if you do not have access to email, telephone 01875 613921. Please also inform the school so we can amend your young person’s attendance record. LFD kits are available every morning on arrival to school and during the day from the office. They can also be collected from pharmacies and test centres.
Please do not send pupils to school who have symptoms. They should self-isolate and book a PCR test and not return to school until they know this is negative and they have no symptoms. Pupils should also continue to do a twice weekly LFD test and if this is positive, self-isolate until they get two negative LFD tests, two days apart after day 6. If they do not, they are able to return after day 10.
We now have a dedicated section on our website for all things Covid, so please refer to it for the latest information.
Dates for your diary:
Friday 8 April S6 Leavers’ Ceremony
Monday 11 – Friday 22 April Easter holidays
Monday 25 April All pupils and staff return
Wednesday 27 April *Exam leave starts for S4-S6
Have a great weekend – the weather forecast is for warm and sunny weather so make the most of it!
Sue Cook
Parent Council Request
At the Parent Council meeting parents asked if there could be a footer on my HT’s update that stayed there year round and which offered quick links to remote learning resources, course choices, supported study and https://www.ka-net.org.uk/careersnews. 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 @knoxacademyHT for the latest information and updates
