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! 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 S5 ‘buddies’ who provided such excellent support for our visitors.

All week, the S1 and S5 pupils, have been working on ‘State of Emergency’. In a changing world it is important for the pupils to be flexible, creative and solution focused. They had plenty of opportunities to develop their skills as they were confronted with the problems associated with emergencies such a ‘plane crash, war, energy shortages etc. Activities varied from a Maths roadshow to role-playing to investigating and problem solving. Congratulations to all involved.

On Tuesday, Mrs Barber (Geography) and Mr Jappy (Science) travelled to the Czech Republic as part of the school’s Comenius Project. On hearing that our partner school in Karvina has been working on a short  film to showcase their school, one of Mr Jappy’s S2 Science classes (as part of International Week) prepared a short film to showcase Knox Academy to the pupils at Gymnazium Karvina. I look forward to hearing about the visit and how the Knox film was received, when Mrs Barber and Mr Jappy return next week.

Five teams of Knox pupils were involved in the ‘Five Minute Theatre’ event marking the five years’ celebration of the National Theatre of Scotland. The event started at 5pm on Tuesday the 21 June and ran for 24 hours. A new piece of theatre was streamed on the website every five minutes. To look at the project, please go to www.fiveminutetheatre.com. The Knox productions were very well received and garnered ‘rave’ reviews: catch Joyce MacMillan’s review in ‘The Scotsman’ here and other comments can also be found on the Love Drama Blog. Congratulations to all involved and the Drama/Music Departments for supporting the pupils through the nerve-wracking process and performance.

Election fever is in the air, with School Council elections and senior pupils canvassing for the leadership roles for next session. So far, things have been very civilised but that could all change at the hustings next week……

Best wishes

JB Craig