Dear Parent/Carer

 

As always, I’m hoping this update finds you well. Best wishes for the weekend.

The week past has been a Personal Learning Planning week for our S4 pupils who will have had discussions with teachers about targets and about what they need to do next to do their very best in the SQA qualifications in May 2017. Full reports will be posted home in the New Year. S5/6 also received their latest on track report on Tuesday in advance of next week’s parent/carer evening. For all senior phase students (S4-6) there is now an increasingly strong focus on preparing for the exams. With that in mind we’ll share details of our prelim exams (January for S5/6 and February for S4) soon. Our Saturday School revision programme (from January to March) will also be issued shortly. Details of our lunchtime and after school study support classes are currently published daily on “Twitter” and there are posters up around the school.

We also had House Assemblies (from Tuesday to Thursday) at which we welcomed Marie Penman representing Refuge Fife. This is a locally based charity which supports refugees; those who have settled in Fife and those who are in temporary camps across Europe and the Middle East. Jan McColl is one of the volunteers and she was lined up to deliver the assemblies. Unfortunately, she is currently stranded in Greece, sleeping in a truck on a mercy mission.

Mrs Penman delivered a sometimes quite shocking presentation highlighting the struggles faced by Syrian refugees. Our young people are being asked to donate items of clothing which they no longer need to help these kids keep warm this winter. Once again, before Christmas, Jan McColl and her team will be travelling by truck overland to a camp in Thessaloniki, Greece. All donations of clothing suitable for children of all ages will be gratefully accepted. Bags have begun to come in already. Please be aware that we have a large quantity of lost property (especially PE kit) which has been unclaimed for some time. We intend to donate this to the cause – please regard this as a “last chance” to reclaim lost items. On Tuesday, our Rotary Interact Club presented a cheque for £180 to Refuge Fife after completing a sponsored walk recently. Very well done to them. The new committee has made a great start.

On Tuesday afternoon, Kingdom FM visited school to record a “Beat the Boss” quiz session for the Euan Notman lunchtime show. It will be broadcast at 1.15pm every day next week. You can perhaps understand my apprehension when I was invited to pit my wits against team KHS, the Kirkcaldy Schools’ quiz champions 2016 – six S6 students with some of school’s sharpest young minds! Tune in to find out how it went. Then, on Thursday afternoon, it was a pleasure for us to host a netball tournament for teams from our associated primaries: Capshard, Fair Isle, Torbain and Valley.

This morning, accompanied by Prefect representatives, I attended the funeral of Councillor Kay Carrington, who represented the Kirkcaldy East Ward and was a very powerful community champion. Kay was also a great friend to KHS, she will be sadly missed and is a sore loss to the Fife political scene.

Next week we have our S5/6 Parent/Carer Evening on the Wednesday (7 December). On the Thursday will welcome well known children’s author, Craig Robertson and in the evening, a good number of our S6 will attend the Kirkcaldy Schools Ceilidh at the Dean Park Hotel – it has been organised by young people from St Andrew’s High School this year.

Last week I mentioned the focus we are having on Numeracy and building a “Growth Mindset” about Maths. If there is one thing you can do to help your son/daughter do well in maths, it is to urge them to stick with problems. I know that some parents/carers find this difficult as Maths was perhaps not their favourite subject in school. It takes a persistent attitude to master Maths – please encourage your kids to persevere.  Success is almost always built on foundations of failure. We now have some new National 5 Mathematics resources on the school website, which will be useful when revising and studying for prelims or the final exam:

There is also an attachment to this email. As part of our business engagement programme, we are inviting local businesses and employers to become an official sponsor of the school. As you can see from the attached letter, working together can be mutually beneficial. If you have your own business or are in a position to bring this opportunity up with a local company, please give sponsorship some consideration. The advertising offer has already attracted several positive responses. Many thanks.

Next week’s hot dish menu is; Monday: Chicken and mushroom pie with potatoes. Tuesday: Gammon steak and chips. Wednesday: Mince pie and mash. Thursday: Lasagne with garlic bread. Friday: Chicken curry with naan bread. We also have our pasta, sandwich, soup and salad options too.

One last point, we are currently receiving “placing requests” from families outwith the catchment wishing to enrol P7 children into our S1 from August 2017. Places are likely to be limited, so please spread the word that the deadline for submission is 15 March 2017. That said, we would prefer earlier contact from parents/carers.

As always, please be in touch if we can help out with anything.

All the best to you

Derek Allan

2 December 2016