As for many in East Lothian, this week has been one of highs and lows.

I would like to take this opportunity to send our condolences to the parents, staff and pupils of Dunbar Grammar School.  We will continue to hold them in our thoughts at this difficult time.
We at Knox have much to be grateful for.

Last week Ms Hossack took young chef Bethany Hunter to compete in the Rotary Young Chef Competition.  To both their delight, Bethany won her heat and will be going on to represent East Lothian in the next round of heats.  We wish Bethany best of luck and I look forward to hearing how she gets on.

On Monday I had the pleasure of being asked to judge a lunchtime debate run by our seniors.  The topic revolved around hate speech and whether it should be allowed in public fora.  The motion to allow it was carried after some spirited argument.  The audience participated well and made thoughtful points.  Thanks to Lev Crofts, Janina Calder-Petrie, Naomi Rogers and Saimah Uddin for their eloquence and to Ms Summerling for organising it.

Wednesday saw the final Parent School Partnership meeting of 2013.  Mr Greenaway gave a presentation on profiling, tracking and monitoring in S1-S3 and Mr Simpson spoke about curriculum design.  Both presentations made for interesting discussions.  The next meeting will be on the 8th January 2014.  I would like to point you in the direction of the Parent council website that can be accessed here and would urge you to sign up via the “Mail Chimp” link to receiving updates and emails from them.

You can tell that Christmas is approaching and with that there are a few events, Christmassy and not-so-much, going on:
Tuesday 3rd December     S4 Parents’ Night (5-7pm)
Tuesday 10th December   Christmas Dance (Please see the “rules” pertaining to dances here)
Thursday 12th December  S5/6 Parents’ Night (5-7pm)
Tuesday 17th December   Christmas Concerts (2pm & 7pm)

And finally...There will be an opportunity to see a preview performance of the snappily titled S6 production of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in the Tale of the Poisoned iPod" at 7pm on Thursday 19th December.  Put the date in your diaries!

Have a very good week.
S Ingham