The week of the change of timetable is always a bit of a bumpy one, but it is looking, as things settle down, that most people are where they need to be, doing what they wanted to do. Getting that right is a HUGE undertaking and I would like to take the opportunity of thanking Mr Illingworth, Ms Skirrow and the Office Staff for making it happen. The S4 have been away on Work Experience this week, so haven’t got their timetables yet, but I am hoping that everything goes smoothly for them on Monday. Also, I look forward to hearing about how they got on in their week away from school.
Last Friday the school joined up with the Jam Packed team to welcome 59 pupils from primary schools across East Lothian for our “Hack to the Future” Event. During the morning the pupils got to experience four different activities from digital storytelling using Twine, making a plain game in Scratch interesting, coding a squirrel using Python, and “hacking” Minecraft on the Raspberry Pi. The “Family Hack Jam” brought in various groups from all over the Lothians, some coming from the city centre to participate. They spent their time creating interactive stories ranging from the fate of Sherlock Holmes (who was having a pint in an Edinburgh pub) to a grisly end for Justin Bieber. I hear that watching families sit down to create and collaborate was great - something I hope as a community we can build on in the future. On Saturday there was the main event - the “Raspberry Jam”. You can see more of what went on at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uONHb8FLicE
On Sunday Mr Flood and Mr Simpson attended the opening ceremony of the Haddington Festival. I am told that it was a great community event (as usual) with families and friends out in strength. It was a particularly proud time for the school as Saimah Uddin was the joint winner of the Haddington Achiever Award. Saimah has worked very hard in her role as Sport Ambassador in the school, and also in her fundraising efforts, she is worthy recipient of the trophy.
On Monday night we had a meeting about the future of the School Of Rugby at Knox Academy. It was a grim evening weather-wise, but that atmosphere in our Food Court was far from bleak. School of Rugby goes from strength to strength here (thanks to great staff and parental support) and it looks like the future is bright.
Wednesday saw the running (or should I say “floating”) of the annual Duck Derby – I was delighted to hear that our own Mrs McInnes had picked the winner. It was a lovely evening and whilst I wasn’t able to go to that event I was able to represent the school at an open evening at St Mary’s Pleasance. It was a delight to see this hidden gem and I would commend it to anyone as a lovely place to visit.
I wish you all a good weekend, and look forward to seeing anyone who is in the float parade on Saturday (I’m judging, so be nice!) and let’s hope the weather holds.
S Ingham
