Staffing

Paul Goodall, our new Curriculum Leader of Numeracy and Computing, starts with us on Tuesday 28 January.

Assemblies

There is a series of assemblies planned over the next few weeks for all House Groups. These are on our new booking system for appointments with Pupil Support Leaders (for pupils only); Young Scot; Coursing, and the final one is on our School Values and opportunities to join our Pupil Learning team.

Coursing Information Evening

Thank you to all the parents/carers and young people who came along to the coursing information event on Monday evening.  I am sure it has helped in explaining the process your young person is about to embark on and provided you with the necessary information to support them with-it too. Thank you to Mr Russell who led the session. All the information you will need to support you and your young person with their choices can be found here.

Careers Event 2025

A huge thank you to everyone who came along on Wednesday evening. It was really busy and the feedback from those attending, and the exhibitors, was very positive. The Apprenticeship talks were very well received by pupils and parents/carers attending them.

We are so grateful to all the companies and organisations who gave of their time to support us. It is always risky to start thanking particular people due to the worry of missing people out but the following certainly deserve a mention:

Elaine Gorman, our DYW link, who pulled the whole event together. Her professionalism and determination are two of the key factors in its success. She really does go above and beyond to reach out to a diverse group of companies to ensure all career areas are represented.

Our senior pupils who helped on the night. They were complimented by a range of our exhibitors for being so helpful in setting up and dismantling stalls and ensuring all had teas/coffees.

The FES staff who put a shift in to set up all the tables and arrange other logistics.

Our fantastic parents/carers who supported our event in terms of serving refreshments– a true school community effort.

If you attended the event and would like to provide feedback, we would be very grateful if you drop us an email to let us know what you thought as we are always keen to improve things for next year.

Reading Schools Award

We are proud to announce that Meadowpark has been awarded the Reading Schools Award. This is the feedback given from the awarding body:

Thank you so very much for submitting your OUTSTANDING evidence plan for your Reading Schools Core accreditation! It was very inspiring to read about all your hard work as a school that has gone in to building and sustaining a reading culture that is so tailored to your individual community.

Having looked through all of your absolutely excellent evidence, I am delighted to let you know that you have achieved your Reading Schools Core accreditation. Congratulations!

The huge amount of work and dedication you have put into the programme really shone through your application – what an incredible reading environment for your learners, staff and families in your school community. Your evidence is absolutely exemplary and shows a real understanding and clear ethos in approaching your reading culture in school, with learners’ needs and interests at the heart of driving this.

S2 Battle of the Bands

Our curricular S2 Battle of the Bands competition will take place this year on Thursday 30th January in the Assembly Hall. Each class in S2 will perform a song in the heats, which take place during the day, and the top band from each House will progress through to the final, which will take place P7. Good luck to all the bands!

Diversity Evening – Thursday 6 March 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, there will be an international market place and workshops (many of you will have attended our previous Diversity Evening in February 2023 – which was a huge success).  All in our community will be warmly welcomed. More information will follow nearer the time. Although the international market place will be free to access, you may need some money if you wish to buy anything from the array of market stalls or purchase your dinner from the variety of cuisines we will have available in our food court (some may also take cards/Apple Pay). Many of the workshops we will be running will be free and some will have a small cost in order to cover resources – a booking form will be issued to parents/carers/pupils soon so you can book on to these. Access to the show, which is limited to 300 people, will be by ticket only (£5/£3 concessions) and these tickets will be available for purchase three weeks in advance of the event. Please do put it in your diaries now and come along and support this event – you will enjoy it! A great opportunity to bring all of our community together.

Rights Respecting School

As you will be aware, we are working towards our silver award, and aiming to achieve this in March. We are keen to involve our wider school community in the rights we are looking at and to encourage you to speak about these with your young people. The award is important to us but what is even more vital is that we action these rights through our day to day school life and link these with our school values.

This week's Right is the Right to an Education (Rights 28 and 29)

Education is a key social and cultural right and plays an important role in reducing poverty and child labour. Furthermore, education promotes democracy, peace, tolerance, development and economic growth. There are a number of articles in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child that focus on a child’s right to education.

These rights link with our school values of Ambition, Respect and Community because at Knox Academy we aim to create a community of learners who try their hardest and who work together to achieve their best.  

In some parts of the world children are being deprived of their right to an education. Therefore, it is important for everyone to realise this is an important right which needs to be appreciated and nurtured.   (By Mrs Montgomery)

Library Survey (what books do you want)?

Our library survey is to encourage pupils to give us recommendations for books and other items they would like to see in our school library. It is also so we can better understand what our pupils enjoy or don't like about the library at present. It is an opportunity for PUPIL VOICE and our Librarian would love to get as many responses as possible to this survey. It would be great if parents/carers can complete this with their young people. Thank you.

Edinburgh Marathon Festival 2025

As with previous years, staff and S5/S6 pupils are looking to get involved in the EMF in May. In previous years we've had entries across the marathon, half marathon and 10k distances. In order to support our chosen charity (although still TBC) we are looking for as much involvement from our local community as possible.  If you would like to be involved as a staff member, senior pupil or parent/carer, could you please email lborwick@edubuzz.org with your name and preferred distance by Friday 31st January so I can inform the charity of our intentions to submit a large volume of entries.  (By Ms Borwick)

Parent Council 

A reminder that our next meeting will take place this Tuesday, 28 January 2025. If you would like to join this meeting please contact the Parent Council by email, parentcouncil@ka-net.org.uk, so they can send you the link as it will be online. It would be great to see as many parents/carers as possible at this meeting.

Cashless Catering – 31 January 2025

Our food court is extremely popular, and we thank our catering team for their efforts and continuous hard work in providing this facility for our young people and staff at Knox Academy.  As you will be aware, payments in the food court are made using a smartcard.  To improve efficiency with the operation of the food court and banking processes it is our aim for Knox Academy to be completely cashless from Friday 31 January 2025.  The revaluation machines used for collecting cash will cease to operate from 1 February 2025.  Any income to pay for schools meals/refreshments will need to be topped up onto an individual smartcard via SchoolPay.

Please see a link for information on: SchoolPay | East Lothian Council 

If you encounter any issues after looking at this guidance, please contact our admin team for support on admin@knox.elcschool.org.uk

If you have any concerns regarding the changeover to cashless catering, please contact the Business Manager on pluke@knox.elcschool.org.uk

Film Fridays from the Brunton at the Corn Exchange, Haddington

Book online 24hrs a day or call 0131 653 5245 (Mon – Fri, 11am to 3pm). Enjoy family films for £5 a ticket – all titles start at 1.30pm

Moana 2 (PG) - Friday 24 January

Mufasa: The Lion King (PG) – Friday 7 February

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (PG) – Friday 21 February

Discovery Film Festival: Shorts for Families (8+) – Friday 7 March

Dog Man (PG) – Friday 21 March

On each of these days there will also be a Matinee Movie at 4.15pm and a Big Screen Favourite at 7pm.All films titles can be found here

Pupils’ Successes

The Royal Society of Chemistry

We are very proud to announce that Leila Maycock (last year’s S6) was awarded the Dr Craig Grey Memorial Award for exceptional performance in her Advanced Higher Chemistry project. This was presented by the RSC Education Community, Scotland. What an amazing achievement for Leila a first for the school too! We wish her well in studying Veterinary Medicine at Edinburgh University.

Football

Ingrid (Maycock) S2 and Fia Proverbs S2, members of the Dunbar United Colts Under 14 Girls Football Squad are league winners for the 2024 season! They celebrated their success as a team with a trophy and medals presentation by the Captain of the ladies Hibs team last weekend!

Dates for your diary:

28 January – Parent Council (online) – 6.30-8pm

20 February – S3 Parents’ Evening – 4.30-6.30pm

6 March – Diversity Evening (workshops, market place and food court – 5-7pm; show 7-9pm)

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

Quick Links:

Remote learning resources, course choices, supported study and careers news. Clicking on these headings takes you straight to these pages. E-Sgoil also has some great resources.

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   @knoxacademyHT for the latest information and updates.