On Tuesday and Wednesday evenings this week, the NC Musical Theatre class gave performances of their last collaboration. The S6 cast of Leanne Adams, Ryan Bissoonauth, Charlie Cowan, Ailie Henderson, Katie MacKinnon and Flora Muirhead, supported by the Glee Club, provided a wonderful evening of extracts from 3 musicals, including ‘Les Mis’. I was lucky enough to catch the Tuesday performance and was in awe of the talent and sensitivity on display; a fabulous way to finish the NC course. Congratulations to all involved, and thanks to Mr Campbell, Ms Whitfield, Ms Brown and Miss Orr for their support and hard work with the pupils. Also, thanks to the junior members of the Drama Club who helped with tickets and programmes, KASG for the refreshments and all those who attended as part of the audience.

This week and next week have an ‘International’ theme and classes have been looking at various international aspects of their subjects. On Tuesday afternoon, a group of S5 pupils attended a workshop on the Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz. The Scottish Poetry Library conducted the workshop, feedback has been excellent and the event was good preparation for pupils going on to study Advanced Higher English in S6.

All week, the S1 pupils have been involved in their Activities Week, this has given them the opportunity to visit the Glasgow Science Centre, undertake extreme sports at Bonaly, take a walk back in time in Edinburgh and take part in a highly competitive enterprise event. To finish the week, today the school has been alive with the sound of music as staff and pupils presented their favourite songs to S1 audiences. As this was part of the literacy initiative, the presentations included information on the text of the songs, why it means so much to the individual and what the songwriter was trying to express.

I would like to flag up the ‘Five Minute Theatre’ next week, when teams of Knox pupils will be involved in the five years’ celebration of the National Theatre of Scotland. The event  starts at 5pm on Tuesday the 21 June and runs for 24 hours, ending at 5pm on Wednesday 22nd June, with a new piece of theatre being streamed on the website every five minutes. To watch the project, please go to www.fiveminutetheatre.com. The Knox productions are 9.30am, 10.30am, 11.30am, 1.30pm and 2.30pm and can be seen live on that website.

Something of a sad day today as we say farewell, at the Leavers’ Ceremony, to all of S6 and other pupils leaving the school at the end of session. I am sure the whole school community join me in wishing them health, happiness and success.

Best wishes.

JB Craig