"Always to choose kindness and create a respectful environment where staff and pupils can inspire each other to achieve their goals and become life-long learners."

After a long consultation process with pupils, staff, parents /carers and our wider community, we identified three core values for us at Knox Academy.  

These are AMBITION, RESPECT AND COMMUNITY, which sit alongside East Lothian’s moral purpose which is, ‘Believe, achieve, strive for excellence and care for all.’

The importance of being ambitious and placing a high value on learning was identified by all member of the Knox Academy community. Staff and parents/carers work together so we have high aspirations for our young people and so we can encourage those high aspirations in the pupils themselves.  The school community also identified ambition as:

• Giving it your all; trying your hardest; striving to learn; hard work; effort; perseverance; determination; resilience; achieving the best you can; aspirational; ready for learning; commitment to learning; constant learning; excellence for all. 

Being respectful to each other and to our environment is something that we already talk about a lot at Knox Academy; respect is at the heart of the warm, positive relationships in our school community.  Respect was also seen as:

• Kindness; manners; courtesy; friendship; getting along; being helpful; fairness; don’t be judgemental. 

The sense of community at Knox Academy has always been strong, both within the school itself and in our links with the wider Haddington area community.  There is no doubt that this is valued by all in the Knox Academy community.  The sense of community was also seen as:

• Being inclusive; a sense of belonging; being a large educational family; working as a team; sharing and celebrating our successes together; everyone being equal.

At the end of their time at Knox Academy we aim that young people will...

• Have a strong sense of who they are, where their strengths lie and their role in a community.
• Realise that they have potential and know how to go about realising it.
• Have been challenged and know how to go about meeting challenge in the future. 
• Have been happy, having experienced positive relationships and will know how to form positive relationships with others.
• Have the qualifications and skills to move on to the next phase in their lives.

Following recent consultation we have expanded our school values to include our expectations, specifically for Knox Academy young people, entitled The Knox Academy Way.  This is based around positive relations, high expectations and ensuring an effective learning environment to allow everyone to achieve their potential.