“Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.”

I cannot believe that we are just completing eight weeks of being back at school.  It has flown by at a terrifying rate (senior pupils, please note) and yet we seem to have packed in so much.

Last Friday was a foodie’s dream at Knox.  Pupils from all six secondary schools in the county participated in the “East Lothian Young Chef” competition. The rules were rigorous – two courses, an hour and a half, chicken as the main ingredient in the main course, and as much local produce as possible to be used.  The competition was fierce but good-natured, and all the young people involved produced high class dishes that no one would have objected paying for.  The Knox team (Rachel Elliot and Rebecca Smith) produced Chicken Balmoral with Clapshot and a creamy whisky sauce followed by a Baked Alaska.  Now, I tried these dishes when they were practising and they were de-lic-ious, however, they lost out to Preston Lodge by two points.  Everyone present (including Darrin Nightingale – Head of Education) was hugely impressed by the hard work and professionalism of all the young chefs and I was particularly proud of the Knox team – well done, ladies!

We have some reading “Millionaires” in the school already this session.  Pupils in S1 and S2 in particular take part in the Accelerated Reader programme that monitors how many words they have read.  Congratulations go to David Graham (nearly 2.25 million words read); Oliver smith (1.6 million); Scott McKee (1.3 million); and Alexander Hogg (1.2 million).  You might wonder why I’ve put the quote at the top, but feeling in a literary mood I thought I would give you an example of  “antanclasis” (is the stylistic scheme of repeating a single word or phrase, but with a different meaning.   Antanaclasis is a common type of pun, and like other kinds of pun, it is often found in slogans).  Plus it made me smile!

Last night I had the privilege of attending the Higher Investigative Drama performance.  The pupils showed an amazing amount of commitment to the pieces that they had all had a part in writing and directing.  Thanks should go to Ms Whitfield and Ms McKinnon for their tireless support of the pupils and also to parents and friends who attended to cheer on their friends and youngsters.

Some of our Pupil Council representatives are visiting the Czech Republic at the moment, specifically to visit the school with which we have a link.  They also plan to visit Krakow and Auschwitz on the trip.  Thanks to Mr Jappy and Mrs Jackson for giving up their time to accompany the pupils on what will be an interesting, if not life changing trip.  Thanks must also go to the British Council for funding this visit.

Two members of staff (Ms McPhee and Ms Waters) will be winging their way to Ruhanga School in Rwanda on Saturday.  We made the link with this school a number of years ago and thanks to the staff for using their holiday time to keep it going.  For the Commonwealth Games every local authority has been given “second teams” to support and one of ours in East Lothian is, coincidentally, Rwanda, so the staff go laden with Active Schools t-shirts and football challenge resources. We wish everyone on that trip a very safe journey.

Today we are having a dress down day, for no reason other than the pupils have been brilliant this term and we thought they deserved a treat.  However, the S6, not to be outdone, have taken collection buckets round classes to gather funds for Jeans for Genes and I look forward to letting you know how generous our pupils and staff have been.

Please remember that he school is shut to pupils from 12.05pm today until the 22nd October.  I look forward to seeing everyone at the usual time on that Tuesday morning.

Yours,
Sarah Ingham