Events
The school has been a very busy place this week, with lots going on outwith classrooms as well as within. On Sunday, Knox Academy was the venue for the East Lothian Schools Orchestra rehearsals, culminating in a wonderful performance of the two pieces the musicians had been working on over the weekend. There will be another opportunity to hear the Orchestra perform the pieces at the East Lothian Showcase concert in the spring. On Wednesday, senior RMPS (religious, moral and philosophical studies) pupils visited Edinburgh, enhancing their knowledge of Islam with a tour of the Mosque. Everyone particularly enjoyed lunch at the Mosque kitchen! For some of our senior pupils, their thoughts were focused on life beyond school when they visited the Skills Scotland event at Ingliston. Back in school, our S6s hosted a group of local veterans in the home economics department, serving afternoon tea with delicious home baking. This was a lovely event, and the veterans particularly enjoyed the tour of the school afterwards. There were many comments on how different school is now from their day. Two of our S6 pupils, Fergus Dickson and Phoebe Hayman, were part of a very special event on Thursday: as part of the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Lessons from Auschwitz project, they visited the former Nazi concentration and death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The aim of the project is to increase young people’s knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust and to highlight what can happen if prejudice and racism become acceptable. To that end, Fergus and Phoebe will be sharing something of their experience with their fellow pupils here at Knox.

Assemblies
This week assemblies have had a poppy theme, with Mr Flood explaining the significance of Remembrance Sunday. He also shared a very moving slide presentation, displaying facts and images from World War I, interspersed with the names of the local Haddington men who lost their lives in the Great War. S6 pupils from the Environment Committee then told us how we can help others, in our own small way, when they explained the work of the Rock Trust. This charity works with young people between the ages of 16 and 25 who are homeless, or at risk of becoming homeless. Pupils have been asked to donate items of clothing, particularly warm clothing, as well as toiletries and foodstuffs. Any donations can be handed in to Ms Laudi in modern languages.

Charities
Each month, Tesco in Haddington chooses local charities to support. Customers are given tokens to drop into the box for their nominated charity, and this is matched with funding from Tesco. This month, please consider placing your tokens in the box for East Lothian Playscheme, or for Knox Academy’s own Green Angels. Both initiatives are extremely worthy of funding.

Parent Events
This week, we held three evening events for parents. The S5/S6 parents’ consultation evening on Wednesday gave parents and carers an opportunity to speak to their child’s teachers about progress in learning. In the foyer outside the Hall, there was a stunning display of art work by our senior pupils. There is no doubt that we have some very creative young people here at Knox Academy. On Thursday evening there were two events: the third session of the Family Learning Programme for S1 parents, and the Parent Council meeting. We have received some very positive feedback from the parents who are attending the Family Learning Programme, and we hope to offer this course to more parents in the near future. At the Parent Council meeting, we discussed topics such as home learning, curriculum development, East Lothian’s Parental Engagement Strategy and the recent evaluation visit by local authority staff. We are very lucky here at Knox Academy to have such supportive parents, keen to foster partnership with the school for the benefit of all our young people.

Lauren Rodger,
Head Teacher