We had a really great P7 Open Evening on Wednesday night. It was lovely to meet some of prospective pupils and to meet, or become reacquainted with, their parents. The groups of parents and P7s were shown around by some of our S6 who were an absolute credit to themselves and I lost count of the number of positive comments that I got about them. Everyone got to visit a selection of departments, see what goes on, have a look at resources and meet some staff. If anyone visited and didn’t get to see what they wanted to, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us and we will see what we can do. Equally, if you didn’t manage to come to the evening and would like a look around, get in touch. Parents who do not live in the school catchment, and who wish their child to come to Knox should go to the East Lothian Council Homepage (www.eastlothian.gov.uk) and should search for the section “Making a placement request”, where they will find out about the process that they need to undertake. The closing date for these applications is the 31st December.

One of the parents I spoke to at the P7 Evening is an “extant” parent who was telling me that her child (who is in S1) is very excited about our S1 residential that we are running during Activities’ Week (30th May to 3rd June 2016). The trip should cost in the region of £250 per pupil and is great value for money given the experience that they will have (follow this link for a look at what’s on offer and what the pupils get out of it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbBzSMl3OGA ). If you are in receipt of benefits the school can provide some financial assistance – parents can contact me in complete confidence and I’ll get the ball rolling with any support that I can.

I’ve had the real pleasure of observing some classes over the last couple of weeks. It’s been great to take part in lessons and see that pupils are really getting to grips with what they are learning. I think that the Learning Conversations that have been taking place in the senior school are already bearing fruit – pupils are already asking for revision sessions and opportunities to consolidate their learning. We are really focusing on the S5/6 at the moment and looking at target setting as well as their attendance. I plan to meet up with all pupils in S5 or S6 whose attendance is looking a bit ropey – more in terms of looking at ways in which we can support these pupils. We intend to contact parents after these meetings to let them know what we are doing to help their youngster.

We are on holiday on Friday 18th and Monday 21st September, and we are all back (bright eyed etc.) on the 22nd! A lot of the S6 are spending the weekend at Dalguise for the annual Staff/S6 weekend – I hope they have a wonderful time and look forward to hearing all their tales on Tuesday.

Have a lovely weekend.

S Ingham