Dear Parent/Carer
I hope that this regular message finds you well.
This week we held House Assemblies, with Adam Smith on Tuesday, Oswald on Wednesday and Carlyle on Thursday. The main purpose was to welcome the new S1 and introduce our House Leaders and Captains. I hope that we get a good level of interest for our weekly House Forums. This is an excellent way for young people to make their voices heard.
On Monday, English pupils had a great day out at the Edinburgh International Book Festival and on Wednesday, our Sports Ambassadors enjoyed an excellent training experience at St Andrews University. Our Sports Leaders, which is a different group, also helped out yesterday afternoon and evening at the Templehall Family Fun Afternoon.
On Tuesday, our S5/6 students were given a special PSE input on employability and future pathways, with a focus on securing and sustaining a positive destination after school; college, an apprenticeship, university place or a job. To assist us to build this culture across the school, we have a group of seniors being trained this morning by staff from “Skills Development Scotland”. They will become “My World of Work” ambassadors for KHS. It’s a peer mentoring role.
On this theme, please find attached our regular “employability” bulletin. Thanks to Ms Nessel for compiling this every week.
This morning we welcomed a delegation of 12 teachers form across Europe. Mr Young (Depute Head) put together a rich programme for our guests, who are keen to know more about Scottish education, and KHS has been identified as an example of one of the schools with much to share as “good practice”. Thanks to all the staff who welcomed our European colleagues and to the Prefects who showed them around.
Also, it’s also been great to welcome back a former pupil, Mohsin Muhammed. Mohsin is now a fourth year medical student at Glasgow University and he is also an entrepreneur. He gave a very interesting talk about post-school learning with our Higher Biology and Personal Development students. Thanks to Mohsin.
Next week will be another busy one, with yeargroup asemblies all week. For S1 we will highlight the forthcoming adventure and teambuilding day at Fordell Firs. For all years, we’ll emphasise road safety. Our pupils travel to and from school along busy routes and I am ever conscious of the danger factor, especially along Dunnikier Way, Hendry Road and Whyteman’s Brae.
On Tuesday it will be a pleasure to attend a special lunch at Kirkcaldy Rotary Club with S6 Prefects Kyle Dick and Chloe McGlashan. Kyle and Chloe were part of the “RYLA” leadership programme during the summer holiday and will be giving a presentation to the Club. It’s also a “Friends of KHS” meeting that evening. We are always so grateful of the support received. The next fund raiser you should know about is the Race Night on Friday 3 November. Please contact Mrs Davidson in school for details.
Wednesday sees an English Department trip to Jupiter Artland near Edinburgh, whilst our Higher Geography pupils take part in workshop sessions supported by St Andrews University. Our assemblies for senior pupils will also include ambassadors from St Andrews University to talk about the “REACH” Access programme. This encourages young people from working class backgrounds to consider university as a viable option. Often, our pupils lack the confidence rather than the ability to believe that they can achieve a degree level qualification.
After school on Wednesday, we’ll have a group of fifteen S5/6 students across at the University of Edinburgh Law School for the first session of their mock trial competition. This takes place over the coming months with the final held in the High Court. I am grateful to Miss Ashby for her support of our young people. Let’s hope we can emulate last session’s success, when we were declared the winners of the Eve Crowe Trophy, beating off competition from state and private schools from all over the East of Scotland.
The week ends with a visit from Katie Rafferty, Director of “RespectMe”, which is Scotland’s main anti-bullying service and is supported by the Scottish Government. You will know that we were commended in the Scottish Parliament as a school which is effectively tackling prejudice based bullying and discrimination, especially in relation to sexual orientation. Katie will meet our LGBT student group and discuss “school ethos” with our Learning Council at lunchtime.
I’d like to remind you about “Show My Homework”. This is an online tool to help you track homework. S2-6 parents/carers can access this using the PIN issued last year and many teachers have already set homework for their classes. All S1 pupils will be shown the resource at assembly on Monday and then taken to computers during next week to register and be shown how to use SMHW. All pupils (S1-6) will be issued with a card noting their own PIN. And new S1 will be given a letter, on pink paper, with your own log-in details. Watch out for the letter next week.
May I commend the vast majority of our young people for their smart appearance? Dress code really helps to focus on learning and it’s great to see such a good uptake of blazers. I’d like to remind you that white/coloured trainers are not acceptable. Also, there seems to be a fashion trend among a few girls, with a number wearing a denim jacket to school. This is not an appropriate garment and we will emphasise this at assemblies next week. A school blazer or a plain jacket or coat should be worn to school.
Finally, our menu for next week is:
Monday: Lentil soup, Stovies with crusty bread, turnip
Tuesday: French onion soup, Chicken korma, boiled rice and vegetables
Wednesday: Tomato soup, Sweet chilli beef and noodles, vegetables
Thursday: Green pea soup, Steak pie, potatoes and vegetables
Friday: Vegetable soup, Breaded fish/Scotch pie, chips, peas
We also have baked potatoes, pizza, pasta, sandwiches and salad available every day.
Please also remember that we offer a free cup of soup with bread for all our young people, regardless of their “free school meals” status.
As always, please do be in touch if we can assist with any matter.
Yours truly
Derek Allan
RECTOR
25 August 2017
