This week is what might easily be termed as “full-on”.  The excitement has been building towards the Christmas Dance with pupils planning their outfits and the organisers organising for all they are worth.  It was a lovely evening with the pupils obviously enjoying themselves and looking very fine indeed.

Wednesday evening’s “Talking To Teens” coaching event went well.  As I had mentioned in a previous post, it focuses on a coaching approach to talking youngsters through difficult decisions and hard times.  The context we use for the training is talking about Prelim results, but the skill is transferrable.  If you couldn’t make it to this training we will happily run it again, probably after the S5/6 Prelims.
Talking of S5/6 Prelims, it was great to see so many familiar faces at the S5/6 Parents’ Night.  I hope that the information you got was helpful and that youngsters and parents alike got information and ideas that will help and encourage.

Last week, Saimah Uddin and Owen McHugh went to give a presentation at Haddington Community Cinema.  Saimah and Owen have been involved in the KWN project and went to talk about the two films that the Knox teams have made.  The feedback that I received was that they were “fluent, confident and engaged the audience – they were a real credit to Knox” – and so say all of us!

Yesterday we had House Assemblies to celebrate success with the pupils.  It was a great opportunity to celebrate all that is good about the school – cooperation, hard work, team work and going above and beyond what is expected.  It was lovely to reward pupils as groups and individuals and offer incentives to the pupils to encourage them to take responsibility for themselves and work with others.  I spoke to the pupils about the revised Dress Code and you will find a copy of it on the website either today or Monday and letters will be coming home next week.  I really appreciate the support that all members of the school community give to Dress Code and hope that it continues.
Next week sees the Christmas Drama Production being staged on Monday and Tuesday.  Please come along – all I can say is that the rehearsals are sounding very interesting and I am certain the performances will reach the usual high standards that we have come to expect. 

Finally – a plea – the pupils are in the throes of organising the traditional Christmas Boxes that go to members of the local community.  Each tutor group decorates a box and fills it with goodies.  Pupils are told to ask before taking things from the cupboards at home, but if you see your youngster wandering off with a bag of pasta, that is likely what it is for.  The elderly recipients really appreciate these boxes as they not only provide them with items to stock up their larders, but the decorative nature of them brings a bit of good cheer at what might be a lonely and bleak time.  Thank you for anything that you donate.

On that note I shall sign off, wishing you all the best for the next week.