Currently, Morrison Construction is working on a co-located primary school, incorporating Haddington Infant School and Nursery and St. Mary’s RC Primary School and Nursery.  Last week the Design and Technology Department worked with Morrison Construction to run a “School for the Future” project involving 14 pupils from S3 – S5.  The project involved the pupils working as a team, using the actual design brief given to Morrison Construction, to design their own primary school. The pupils worked extremely hard and produced a fantastic project that they presented to Mr W Gray, a representative from Morrison Construction.  Mr Gray was impressed with the work produced, and five work experience placements have been awarded to the pupils taking part. Next week, one of the pupils, Angus Riddell, will be undertaking a work experience placement with an architect.

On Monday evening, we hosted a well-attended P7 Information Evening. This was an opportunity for parents and carers to order items of dress code, find out about the school’s progress with the Curriculum for Excellence initiative and, most importantly, to be re-assured about their youngster’s visit to the school on Tuesday and Wednesday. The two-day visit proved to be very successful, the feedback from the P7 pupils was positive, they enjoyed everything! Some comments: "Knox is awesome"; "Knox is huge"; "the 6th years are really friendly" and "it's fun to burn stuff in science". We look forward to them joining Knox in August. Many thanks to all staff involved in the evening and the visit, and a big thank you to the S6 ‘buddies’ who provided such excellent support for our visitors.

Knox Academy is the only school taking part in the National Theatre of Scotland's Exchange Festival 2012 in Stirling in July. Yesterday evening, the group performed their play: ‘Hansel House of Horror’ at Telford College’s PASS Theatre. The audience was a mix of parents, friends, Knox staff and the general public. We all enjoyed the performance and the feedback was excellent. The group is a real credit to the school. Best wishes to the group, Mr Campbell and Ms Moffat for a successful ‘run’ in Stirling.

Two, very different trips, set off today; pre-dawn, the two groups of pupils and their intrepid leaders (Mr Woolley, Ms Ward, Ms Bulloch and Mr Wren) left for their expedition to Nicaragua and Honduras. This follows hectic fund-raising and intensive training and I am sure they will have an amazing adventure and I look forward to hearing all about it.

At the start of school, a very different trip set off for the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, as a group of senior pupils travelled to see the Dalai Lama. This should prove to be very interesting, thanks to Mrs Baird for organising the event.

During the week, the Head Boy and Girl and their Deputes for session 2012-2013, were appointed. This year the roles were filled using a scoring system.  Candidates were scored on their hustings performance, their manifesto, their interview and the election result.  This gave each candidate a score out of 120.  In the event of a tie the election result was used to separate the candidates.  The result of the process is as follows.

Head Boy:  Ben Nisbet; 5G1                   Head Girl:  Erin Lowe; 5G1

Depute Head Boy:  Jack Thomson; 5G1   Depute Head Girl:  Anya Singh; 5L2

The unsuccessful candidates were of such a universally high standard that we have decided to create the new position of 'Senior Prefect'.  Congratulations to everyone who took part and I wish Ben, Erin, Jack and Anya every success next year.

Best wishes.

JB Craig

On Saturday, Mr Jappy, Mr Ferriman and Mr Blair travelled to the Czech Republic as part of our Comenius environment project. During the four day trip, they visited Ciezyn (Poland) and Cesky Tesin (Czech Republic) cities split during the Soviet era; Radhostem, including a museum of cultural history; Hukvaldy Castle and Stramberk, medieval hill towns in the Beskydy Mountains and the Woodland School of Ostrava.

On Tuesday evening, Academy Productions presented ‘Showcase’, an evening of music, drama and dance. The large and enthusiastic audience were treated to wonderful performances, including an absurdist play, original contemporary dance and drama and a ‘lift the roof’ selection of musical theatre. Congratulations to all involved and a big thank you to the Ms Brown and the drama and music staff for organising and supporting the evening.

To continue the drama theme, Knox Academy is the only school taking part in the National Theatre of Scotland's Exchange Festival 2012 in Stirling in July. The group will be performing their play: ‘Hansel House of Horror’ on Thursday 21^st June at 7pm at Telford College, PASS Theatre, West Granton Road, Edinburgh (recommended for 15+ years). This is the only opportunity to see the production before the group head to Stirling.

On Wednesday, the school hosted its first STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Careers Event. All S2/3 pupils were involved and had face-to-face chats with industry based experts who gave lots of information on career paths and routes into employment. The event was designed to broaden the pupils’ outlook regarding future employment possibilities. Speakers included civil engineers, actuaries, a timber specialist and construction and wind turbine specialists. The day was a great success with positive feedback from the pupils and speakers. Many thanks to Frank and Kevin McKeever for organising the STEM Ambassador Speakers and the Maths Department for organising the, hopefully, annual event.

During the week, two very interesting speakers visited the Social Subjects Faculty.  On Tuesday, a representative from Wateraid UK visited on Tuesday and spoke to S1/3/5 RMPS classes and a S3 Modern Studies class.  Yesterday, a member of the Scottish Prison Service visited the RMPS department, tying in with the S2 Crime and Punishment unit.  The pupils asked lots of thoughtful questions and found the visits very informative.

Yesterday, J. Gidney, 2L3, C. Neillans, 3T1, R. Swinton, 2G1 and C. Wright, 3T1, took part in the 20th annual Enterprising Maths Event at Meadowbank Stadium. Thirty-three teams from Edinburgh and the Lothians were involved and pupils were scored in a number of challenges. Although the Knox team did not qualify for the next stage, the pupils did extremely well, were a real credit to the school and were considered a “thoughtful and supportive” group by their supervising teacher from Beeslack HS. More details will be available on the Maths ‘Pupil Work’ section of the website.

Early yesterday, Mr MacDonald and 6 members of the KWN group travelled to Musselburgh to see the Olympic Torch Relay They managed to find a great spot, and filmed some pieces before the event, showing the build-up, as well as filming the torch as it passed. Then they interviewed members of the public to get their thoughts and opinions on the Olympics coming to the UK. Their film will be available to view on the website.

Something of a sad day today as we say farewell, at the Leavers’ Ceremony, to all of S6 and other pupils leaving the school at the end of session. I am sure the whole school community join me in wishing them health, happiness and success.

Best wishes.

JB Craig