Dear Parent/Carer

Welcome to your weekly news round-up. I hope that you and all your family are well.

We’ve successfully negotiated our way through another week in KHS and are hopefully now a wee bit closer to the day when school will feel much more “normal” than it has done for the past year and a bit. The best news of all, and I have to say this with a metaphorical crossing of the fingers, is that we’ve had no new Covid cases reported this week. This is despite the ongoing concerns about the B.1.617 strain being traced in Templehall and the Valley. We have a group of S3 pupils coming out of self isolation over the weekend but fortunately no live cases among those undertaking SQA qualifications.

Much respect goes to those in S4-6 who are taking those qualifications this year. The evidence requirements are such that it’s a very punishing schedule of assessments throughout May and well in to June. Credit also to the teachers who are handling the setting and marking workload with great commitment and professionalism. It goes without saying that we’ll do our collective best to help the kids demonstrate how well they have learned and to fairly achieve the grades they deserve. We are still on track to share those “Provisional Grades” in the final week of term (from 21 June) with the SQA certificates arriving in the post on August 10. Candidates can also sign up to receive results by text. Go to www.mysqa.org.uk and register before 21 July. Please remember that June 3 and 4 are additional “Inset” Days when the teachers will be working with colleagues in other Fife schools to compare and agree that each other’s marking standards are in line with the SQA requirements. This ensures fairness.

May I give a particular shout out to Mr Broadway and his Supported Learning team members, who are going to great lengths to ensure that those learners with additional needs get the additional arrangements to which they are entitled. It could be coloured overlays for test papers, a reader/scribe or extra time for an assessment. It’s all exceptionally complex and time consuming and I’m so impressed by the smooth running of the arrangements programme.

We held Yeargroup meetings for S2 this week and these went very well. Mr Young and I reinforced the expectations we have about the basics, or the “givens” as Mr Young is fond of calling them. We need kids to be on time, in uniform, behaving calmly and being reasonably quiet, not eating or chewing and with phones away at the start of every lesson. We’ll then always expect full attention, good effort and lots of involvement in lessons. Only through these “givens” can we ensure our values are developed. You’ll know that these are RESPECT FOR SELF, OTHERS AND LEARNING. We also need a culture of kindness and honesty across this school. All of these things are the basis of a happy and successful community and it was good to be able to revisit these concepts this week. With assemblies not being allowed due to Covid, we’ve missed the opportunity to be together like this. Next week we’ll have similar Yeargroup meetings for S3, led by Mrs Hamilton and I.

I’ll be reminding our kids about dropping litter, on the way to school and in the playground. Since returning after the coronavirus closures we are encouraging pupils to eat outside at breaks, and this is working well. However, an increase in litter has been an unfortunate consequence of this measure. There is no excuse for it and it’s just not good enough. We’ve ordered up additional litter bins for the playground and will be looking for greater cooperation in keeping the grounds and routes to and from school free of mess.

On the issue of mobile phones, we are looking into creating a text alert system for parents/carers to let you know that mobile use has been a problem during class time. It could be that you would agree to keep a phone at home for a wee while in order to help your son/daughter break the habit of checking Snapchat, Tik Tok etc every few minutes. You’ll appreciate that this is not good for learning and it is disruptive in class time. I’ll be in touch once we have fully developed a new way of involving you in helping to sort this out. Thanks in advance.

Next week, we should also hear about our staffing allocation of trainee teachers for the session ahead. We also have a live job advert up which closes on Monday. We are looking for an excellent Home Economics Teacher. Should you of anyone who might be interested, please ask them to contact me right away. We are expecting to take on quite a few new members of staff with the school roll expected to swell to around 1450 or slightly above that figure.

Thanks to Mr Paterson, who has once again put together a jobs bulletin relevant for leavers and all those in the Senior Phase. It’s one of our “givens” too, that young people will be afforded the chance to develop employability skills and be supported to achieve a “positive destination” … that’s a job, training place or a place at College or University.

In other news, congratulations to Shirley-Anne Somerville, who has been appointed to the top role in Scottish education, becoming Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills after this week’s government “reshuffle”. Ms Somerville is a former pupil of KHS, and she delivered our prizegiving address a couple of years ago. It’s a challenging brief for any politician, especially at this particular time, and I’m sure we all wish her well in her new position.

I’m sorry to have to return to Covid to end this week’s “Log”. Please remember to support your son or daughter to take the LFD test on Sunday. Extra kits are available from the PSO base if required. It’s through asymptomatic testing (and eventually through vaccination) that we will create the safe and near normal conditions I’m sure we all crave.

Have a good weekend and take care.

Derek Allan
RECTOR
21 May 2021