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Wow, what a day!

Today our youngsters had what may well be a once in a lifetime opportunity. We welcomed a genuine Enigma Machine..... 

At this point I'd like to thank the London Mathematical Society and our very own Knox Academy Support Group (KASG) for funding the Project but let me assure you that it was well worth it!

So, what did we learn and what did we do?

Then later, in the workshops, it was the pupil's turn to be the code breakers! We looked at the following types of code:

A lot of patience, careful thought and at times a bit of imagination is required and our youngsters coped admirably with the challenge. Yet again, the enthusiasm and perseverance of our pupils shone through. I'm sure that the code making and breaking experience here will help our youngsters problem solving skills and logical reasoning.

One of the aims of today was to get as many young people interested in maths, science and history as possible. I would also describe the perception of 'Code Breaking' as a career as something that just happens in the movies - well not so. Hopefully today also illustrated its importance in our past, future and present. There are some interesting careers to be found, for example, on the GCHQ website (click here).

Yet again I'd like to stress that this week wouldn't have been the success that it has been without the enthusiasm and imagination shown by our teachers and pupils. I've loved hearing our youngsters talk about the 'Spy Week' movie (not to be missed!), their Spy training camp, solving crimes (Mr Redford and Ms Machen were chief suspects I believe!), sending coded messages in various forms and guises and, on the flip-side, learning to communicate in silent. In fact I'd like to finish with something our School Librarian Mr Plain told a Colleague today - he hasn't heard our pupils talk, on mass, about anything as much as this before.

C. Blair 

Today I had the lovely opportunity to go and visit some classes and I must take this opportunity (I'm sure that I'll say it again though) to say a huge thanks to staff for really 'going for it' and to the pupils who are finishing the school year as they started it - enthusiastic, whole-hearted and committed. All qualities that bode well for the future.

I'll try to give a summary of the lessons I visited today:

Period 1: Mr Doig's "Spy School"  were looking at Morse code as an example of sending a coded message. They built a simple telegraph machine and tried sending messages through wires. They then moved onto sending the coded messages from classroom to classroom using radio waves (aka walkie talkies!). I was so impressed with how the class took on this challenge. Believe me, it's one thing to read a bunch of dots and dashes on paper, but it's much harder to decipher the sounds. All credit to the pupils.

Period 3: Our young recruits were put through their paces with the P.E. Departments "Spy Camp". With the help of our aspiring Sports Leaders (S5 and S6 pupils) the pupils had to complete 5 drills, designed to not only assess their fitness and agility but also their stealth and imagination. A number of the routines on some of the apparatus would make it to Glasgow 2014 that's for sure! One of my favourite bits of the lesson was Miss Duff and her loudspeaker - every time the siren sounded the recruits had to 'hit the deck'. Saluting Mr MacKinnon when he spoke somehow reminded of Police Academy!

Period 5: Exhausted after being put through my paces I was very happy to visit Ms Machen's English class. Before introducing the tasks, we had a great conversation about what the best Secret Agent might have to do if they were on a mission. They had two assignments to complete:-

(i) complete a Spy Profile - an imaginative piece of writing describing (and drawing) their Secret Agent

(ii) create a Spy suitcase. The question: what would you have in your suitcase if you were a Secret Agent? 007's Q would definitely get some brilliant ideas!

Thank you to everyone to everyone who invited me to their classrooms. I can't wait for tomorrow!

C. Blair

I received a certificate today thanking us for the money raised for Red  Nose Day and that reminded me we did something funny for money!

Knox Bake Off came alive when staff and pupils joined together to raise money for Red Nose Day. Pupils had to find a member of staff who was willing to participate and staff also found themselves looking for S1 – S3 pupils prepared to take the challenge. The search started and before we knew it we had 20 eager teams. Staff had to make a signature dish and on the day, the pair made the technical challenge. Wonderful cakes, gateaux, biscuits, scones and cheesecake arrived on the morning from extremely nervous staff. The staff  were asking questions, trying to find out what the technical challenge was going to be stress levels were very high with anticipation. When we started at 4.00pm the atmosphere was electric and it built up and up as the time went on.

The challenge was set, bags of measured ingredients were soon being grabbed, some people having a problem knowing what the ingredients were, where to use them, following a recipe too was hilarious to watch . The noise and excitement in the kitchens soon attracted other staff to visit and enjoy the moment. Our judges Craig Hunter from “The Avenue” and Martin Kelly from “Mal Maison” were fascinated watching how people interpreted the recipe and tried to carry out tasks.

The moment came for judging with very neat, well presented cakes to the other extreme of- - - -- - well shall we say they tried, participated and had a hilarious time trying to meet the challenge. However, we know looks can be deceptive! We expected the soggy bottoms on the pastry but not one, what we had instead was SALTY BOTTOMS. A few of the teams had put in a full tub of salt instead of the pinch that was required. They were very quickly eliminated by the judges. It then became very difficult to whittle it down to winners, we had various categories but the overall winners were Mr Woolley & Lucy Anderson.

All the bakeries were sold the next day and the buzz of the fun continued for days. By the response we have had we will have to do this again. A date for the calendar I think.

K Hossack

There are several opportunities being advertised by Midlothian Council on the 'Apprenticeships in Scotland' website.

Click here for more information.