East Lothian Council has published the revised session dates for 2020-2021 as a result of COVID-19.
General News
Published: 26 June 2020
This has been the most unusual and challenging terms for us all, and one I am sure none of us want to repeat!
Please find below the introduction to a letter detailing Arrangements for Return to School in August 2020 and our Contingency Plan. I am hopeful that the contingency plan will be just that and we will never have to use it as we will all be back in August. I will be able to update parents/carers after the Depute First Minister’s speech on 30 July 2020, when we will know definitely if we are all back in August or if we need to move to our contingency plan.
I am writing to confirm the arrangements for our return to school after the summer holidays. Following the Depute First Minister’s announcement on Tuesday, the Scottish Government has now asked us to prepare for all pupils returning full-time to school from 12 August 2020 assuming it is safe to do so. At the time of writing we are waiting for further detailed guidance to be provided to all Local Authorities – including on issues such as physical distancing and transportation. Relevant information will be shared with you over the summer holidays so that you have full details on our plans for the start of the new school session.
We have also been asked by Scottish Government to ensure that we have contingency plans in place in case the virus rates increase again in the coming months, and full-time schooling is not possible. For this reason I am writing to share with you what ‘blended learning’ means for Knox Academy. Please note that, following the Scottish Government’s announcement, this is our ‘Plan B’ and we now expect our children to return full-time from 12 August. The purpose of sharing it with you is so that you will know, and can plan, what the impacts will be for your household if health and government advice changes over the summer holidays and we are asked to move to a blended learning model. (Please also see our ‘Contingency Plan for Knox Academy.’ On return we may still adopt some of the aspects within this document but this will be based on the advice from the Scottish Government nearer our return date).
- Read the full text of the "Arrangements for Return to School - August 2020" letter
- Contingency Plan Details
My end of term Head Teacher’s Update is also now available.
I hope you all have a happy and restful holiday. Stay safe and well and fingers crossed to see all of our young people back in August.
Sue Cook
Head Teacher
Published: 23 June 2020
You may be aware that the Depute First Minister has, this afternoon, made a statement in the Scottish Parliament about all children and young people returning to school in August. He has indicated that the Scottish Government’s planning assumption is now to have all pupils returning to schools in August if it safe to do so. He has also indicated that this will be conditional and based on the scientific and health advice. He has confirmed that the plans we were putting in place for blended learning will be a contingency and will be essential preparation in case they are needed.
We are now urgently considering the implications of this announcement on our plans for August. It is clear that final decisions on this full return will not be confirmed until during the summer holidays. We are awaiting further specific guidance and will be in touch with you again as soon as we can. We continue to work on the assumption that staff will return to school on the 10 August 2020 and pupils will return on the 12 August 2020.
We appreciate that this is a fast changing situation and you will be keen to know what this means for your child / children. We are committed to sharing information with you as soon as we can, including during the summer holidays.
Lesley Brown
Chief Operating Officer (Education) – Education & Children’s Services
Published: 21 June 2020
Our Virtual School Tour is now live... we hope that this will give some of our new S1s a chance to appreciate our building before they start with us in August 2020.
View the tour on our website or if using a mobile device directly within the Tour Software for the full 360° experience (knox.is/tour).
Best viewed with the Chrome Browser.
Over time further detail and scene narration will be added.
Published: 19 June 2020
The Knox Academy School Handbook has now been published for Session 2020-2021.
We look forward to welcoming our new S1 pupils in August 2020.
Published: 17 June 2020
Thank you to everyone who completed our recent parents’ survey where we sought your views about schools reopening. We received 8,246 responses which is an incredible response and we are very grateful to you for taking the time to give us your views. The results of our survey will provide the Education Service and our schools with very helpful information to support our planning for schools reopening in August. We know that this continues to be a challenging time for all families and that you are keen to know what will happen next. I’d like to thank you for your continued patience and support.
In line with the current advice from the Scottish Government, we are planning for our children returning to school in August. We are focussing on the health and wellbeing of our children and staff and we have placed Nurture at the heart of our planning, recognising that we will all need support to adjust and recover after the lockdown period. We are working closely with all Head Teachers on how we can safely bring children in to our school buildings for some in-school learning whilst also continuing with the learning at home. This will be very different for all of us and we understand that this model of ‘blended learning’ will present a challenge for everyone including families in terms of work and childcare arrangements.
... Read the full letter (PDF) from Lesley Brown, Chief Operating Officer (Education)
Published: 16 June 2020
As you’ll know Google Classroom has been essential to the way we have worked over the past few months. This online community has allowed learning to continue and is part of our digital strategy going forward into Session 2020/2021.
As part of our digital strategy we now want to roll out an additional feature of Google Classroom which is designed to help Parents/Carers gain an overview of the set tasks and assignments. This feature is called Guardian Summaries and it enables Parents/Carers to receive e-mail updates about:
- Missing work — Work not turned in when the summary was sent.
- Upcoming work — Work that’s due today and tomorrow (for daily emails) or that’s due in the upcoming week (for weekly emails).
- Class activities — Announcements, assignments, and questions recently posted by teachers.
As a parent/carer you will be able to control the frequency of these updates or decide to opt-out of receiving them at a later date.
Setting up Guardian Summaries
To setup Guardian Summaries your child will need to follow these steps. This must be done by each child in your household for whom you wish to receive e-mail updates.
All pupils have been sent an email with Subject title: Guardian Summary Permission to their Edubuzz account. Your child should complete this form. If this has not been delivered for any reason, use the link: knox.is/guardiansummary which requires your child to log in via Edubuzz.
We will use the main contact email we have on record but there will be an option in the form to add a second email address. It is therefore essential that the pupil record is accurate so please contact us if you wish to make any changes to your stored information.
Please also note that, due to GDPR regulations, your child may choose to opt out of sharing information with you and if they decline permission we will not be able to set up the summaries for you.
Published: 16 June 2020
As our last video got a good response, we decided to put together another one. We also wanted to thank those volunteering to support the vulnerable in our communities, for continuing their amazing work. Thank-you.
Take care and stay safe
Pupils of Knox Academy
- 1. WIld Mountain Time & Tiree Bridal Song - Jamie & Ben Gentil
- 2. Loch Lomond - Isla Booth
- 3. Maple Leaf Rag - Sophie Charbonnier
- 4. I Will Go Home to Kintail - Alexander Hogg
- 5. Candlelight - Nikolaus Hogg
- 6. We'll Meet Again - Kirsty Booth
- 7. Schindler's List - Tom Wilson
Website email readers can access this musical performance on our school website.
Published: 12 June 2020
Please note that all cancelled Activities Week 2020 trips have now been refunded.
Individual transactions have been reversed and should show on your bank statement.
An automated message has been sent to your email however please ignore the last statement – “You had not made any payments for this so you do not need to do anything further”. Sorry for any confusion caused.
The School Admin Team
Published: 12 June 2020
VIRTUAL SPORTS DAY RESULTS in partnership with...
Leisure Time Sports and CrossFit Haddington
A huge thank you to all pupils and staff who took part in this event. We were overwhelmed by the number of participants and with all the evidence submitted. Pupils from all over the school including Meadowpark took part and we were very impressed with all of your efforts. After tallying up all the scores - the point totals are as follows;
Congratulations to Garleton who have won the House Sports Trophy.
Just for interest - we also totalled the distance/times/repetitions you all managed to complete for your houses. Pretty impressive - Knox Rocks!
Plank Challenge
- Garleton 1 Hour, 37 Minutes, 34 Seconds
- Lammerlaw 1 Hour, 06 Minutes, 21 Seconds
- Traprain 1 Hour, 42 Minutes, 34 Seconds
Distance Run/Walk Challenge
- Garleton 281.82 Km
- Lammerlaw 249.68 Km
- Traprain 198.89 Km
Wall Sit Challenge
- Garleton 2 Hours, 03 Minutes, 19 Seconds
- Lammerlaw 1 Hour, 22 Minutes, 14 Seconds
- Traprain 1 Hour, 04 Minutes, 40 Seconds
Dizzy Lunges Challenge
- Garleton 1032 Reps
- Lammerlaw 743 Reps
- Traprain 571 Reps
Stork Balance Challenge
- Garleton 1 Hour, 46 Minutes, 37 Seconds
- Lammerlaw 52 Minutes, 54 Seconds
- Traprain 1 Hour, 07 Minutes, 21 Seconds
Sit Up Challenge
- Garleton 1342 Reps
- Lammerlaw 686 Reps
- Traprain 787 Reps
The following pupils have been awarded overall year group winners of the Virtual Sports events. The majority of them completed all 9 challenges and were consistent in their approaches to each - producing some excellent results.
- S1 - Isla W
- S2 - Leila M
- S3 - Mara P
- SNR - Amelia H
We were particularly impressed by the motivational quote submitted by Leila M
“A winner is a dreamer who never gives up” (Nelson Mandela)
