Staffing Update
We appointed an Acting Curriculum Leader of Communications (English, Literacy and Languages) today and once pre-employment checks have been completed I will be able to confirm who the successful candidate is. The part-time Music teacher vacancy closes this Sunday and we hope to interview for this in the next week or so. Both of these posts are temporary and are to cover the maternity leave of the current post holders.
Pupil News
Jenny Telford S3
Congratulations to Jenny who recently passed her grade 5 violin exam with a merit (I also believe Jenny is very adept at the piano too). Her gymnastics club, Ibex, Gracemount has been chosen to perform a full routine as part of the ‘gymnastique magique’ parade at Disneyland Paris in October. Not only are Jenny’s parents very proud of her achievements but we are too. What a multi-talented young lady and we wish her well in her Disneyland performance!
S6 Dalguise
Last weekend saw the annual Staff/S6 trip to Dalguise Activity Centre in Perthshire. The pupils took part in a wide range of team-building and sporting activities ranging from Problem Solving to Raft-Building and Rock(wall) Climbing. Despite a lot of tired eyes and sore legs on Monday morning, the pupils all had a fantastic time away on what, for many, will be the final school trip they take part in. The S6 were fantastic throughout the weekend, not only willing to take on personal challenges, but demonstrating their sense of community as they supported and encouraged their peers throughout what were often physically, and mentally, challenging activities. As ever, the fantastic conduct and engagement of our pupils meant it was an absolute pleasure for all the staff involved (by Mr Redford).
Higher Geography
Higher Geography pupils were out in Edinburgh on Monday carrying out some Urban fieldwork. Pupils were looking at Urban change in Edinburgh and collected data on traffic and housing in the city centre and Leith. Thankfully the weather was nice throughout the day and pupils enjoyed getting to visit places they have been learning about in the classroom (by Mr Clark).
UCAS Event
This was held on Tuesday evening and we had a good attendance from parents/carers and young people wishing to find out more about attending university and about various pathways/routes/courses and funding available. Thank you to Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh University, SAAS (Student Award Agency Scotland), LEAPS (Lothian Equal Access for Schools) and Chris Trotter (Skills Development Scotland) for their informative presentations.
Staffing News
At our Macmillan Coffee Morning on Wednesday we raised over £200. Thank you to all staff who contributed goodies for this and for everyone giving so generously to a great cause.
General School Information/Activities/Events
Silver LGBT Charter
As you may be aware, we are aiming to achieve our Silver Charter Award by the end of this session.
Some of our young peoples are currently organising a ‘Wear it Purple Day’ and also a series of House Assemblies about ‘Inclusion’. As part of our approaches to ensure that we embrace inclusion at Knox Academy, we have LGBTQ+ training on Tuesday 22nd October from 11am -12 midday. We would like to invite parents/carers to be part of this training to ensure a partnership approach towards inclusion at the school. If you would like to attend this hour’s training, please can you email emaguire@knox.elcschool.org.uk with your name? It would be great to have as many parents/carers along as possible to this event. Thank you.
Achievement Ties – Nominations
Nomination forms will be available online/from the school office and register teachers from Monday 30 September and must be submitted by Friday 11 October, at latest, to Mr Moncrieff. Staff, pupils/carers and coaches/leaders/community partners can nominate pupils. Please use this document for more details about the categories and criteria to apply for one. If you require any further details please email jmoncrieff@knox.elcschool.org.uk .
Knox Academy’s Vision
Thank you to all parents/carers who took the time to complete the online survey to help us create our vision for the next 5-10 years at Knox Academy. The four most popular words from pupils, parents/carers, staff and community partners are: respect(ful), inspire(d), achieve(ment) and kind (ness). A working group of staff, pupils, parents/carers and community partners will now work together to use these words as a framework for our vision statement. Once this statement has been finalised over the next few weeks I will let you know what this is. Thank you to all parents/carers who took part in this survey. Your views were most valued.
Final chance - S1 Parental Experience (new S1 parents/carers only) – Monday 28 October
So far we have only six parents/carers interested in taking part and we will need a minimum of ten people for it to be viable so if you are considering it, please do come along. If you would like to participate in this opportunity, please email emaguire@knox.elcschool.org.uk by Friday 4 October at latest. Please give us the following information in your email: Your Name/Your Young Person’s Name and their House and Class. We will be in touch with parents/carers after this date to let you know if you are part of the group of 20 and the programme for the day. Parents/carers who have taken part in these days have always seen it as a very valuable and fun experience.
Study Support
Our full programme of study support is now available. Please encourage your young person to attend these as it is better for young people to be supported throughout the year than to try to cram support in at the last minute before exams. The sessions provide an opportunity for supporting homework, exam preparation and extension tasks.
Show my homework
Once again, Knox Academy staff will be using Show My Homework, an online tool to help you keep track of your child’s homework. Show My Homework will allow you to see the details of the tasks your child has been set, all their deadlines and their submission status and grades. Following its success last session, we hope it will continue to support communicate with parents and give you greater visibility into the homework we set. All S1 learners should have had a letter home sharing access codes for the individual pupil and a parent account. If your son/daughter is in S2 or above, the username and passwords are the same as you have used previously. In the event that you have misplaced your login details over the summer, copies can be printed by register teachers or guidance teachers on request.
My World of Work
All our pupils (S1-S6) should be registering with My World of Work, a site run by Skills Development Scotland. This website will help all our young people track their skills throughout every year of secondary school. Some pupils have still to register so if parents/carers could support them doing this that would be much appreciated. It is a very informative site and parents/carers will be able to support their young people by looking through this with them and in completing aspects of it too. Thank you.
School Uniform
Please can I ask parents/carers to continue to encourage their young person to wear school uniform? As the weather gets colder it becomes more tempting to move away to non-dress code items. Pupils are looking immensely smart this year as most are in the school uniform and this also shows a strong commitment to building our school community, our values and common purpose.
* Please note that hooded tops are no longer part of our dress code for health and safety reasons and should not be worn in the school. If they are an outer garment worn to school, they should be removed on entering the school building. Thank you for your support with this.
Lost Property
Any lost property will be held at the school for reclaiming for one month. After this period items will either be recycled to our ‘pre-loved to re-loved uniform’, which will be available for parents/carers to select items from at school events, or will be sent to the East Lothian Uniform Bank which is available for families to access via a support letter from the school.
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Any absence emails/appointments/requests for call backs etc. should be sent to knoxacademy@knox.elcschool.org.uk
Dates for your diary (please also refer to the CALENDAR on the school website for all events across the year):
- 9 October – P7 Information Evening
- 14-22 October – Mid-term break for pupils
- 22 October – LGBTQ+ Training -11-12 at Knox Academy – parents/carers welcome
- 29 October – Parent Council Meeting 6.15-8pm (Library)
- 30 October – S1-S6 Halloween Dance (7-10pm)
- 6 November – S3 Parents’ Evening
Have a great weekend
Sue Cook