Last week, Drama pupils were involved in the National Theatre of Scotland’s Five Minute Theatre. For the second year running it was a great success for the Knox team and we have received the following message from Marianne Maxwell, Audience Development Manager, NTS:

‘Just a wee note from all of us here at the National Theatre of Scotland to say thank you for taking part in Five Minute Theatre last night (2 May). I’m sorry we asked you to pick just one performance – if we could have had them all, we would. Once again it’s been a pleasure working with you all on Five Minute Theatre – we hope you keep the ideas coming. Your show will be up on the ‘watch again’ tab of the site. We have still to do the sums on how many audience we had online; we streamed 62 pieces of theatre – 20 of them live – in six hours and had virtual audiences in Japan, Mexico, China, Germany, Serbia, Luxemburg, South Africa, Canada, India, France and the US and live ones in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Bo’ness and Portskerra. It was a cracking event that we are very proud of. Thank you for making it happen, we literally couldn’t have done it without you’.

Knox Academy is delighted to announce that it has been chosen as one of only 20 schools in Scotland to be awarded “School of Rugby” status. The “School of Rugby” programme is run by the Scottish Rugby Union, and is funded by monies reclaimed from criminal activity through the “Cashback for Communities” programme. Schools involved aim to promote rugby in curricular and extra-curricular programmes; focusing on the development of social, physical and academic skills of boys and girls in S1/2. Knox Academy is using the funding to employ Scott Marnoch (development officer for Haddington Rugby Football Club) as a rugby development officer. Currently, there are 25 places available for S1 pupils until the end of June; many pupils already playing rugby will be part of the programme and members of staff have been asked to nominate pupils who they feel would benefit from taking part. Pupils on the programme will continue in S2, with another 25 S1 pupils beginning the programme in August. Good luck to all involved in what should be an enjoyable development opportunity.

The SQA examinations for senior pupils continue and I am sure the whole school community joins me in wishing all the pupils every success in these important examinations.

Best wishes.

JB Craig