Dear Parent/Carer
Welcome to the Rector’s Log. I hope that all is well.
We close the penultimate week of the busiest term ever by meeting several important deadlines in terms of the SQA certification process. Thanks for your responses to the emails being sent out yesterday, today and over the next few days about “change of level”, “no award” or withdrawal. It’s really helpful that parents and carers are involved all the way. We don’t want any surprises (other than a few pleasant ones perhaps) when the provisional grade confirmation email is sent home to you next Wednesday. We are on track for that to work out in most cases, but still have assessments ongoing for young people having to self-isolate due to Covid. All credit to our young people … to those who have coped with all this and most especially, to those who have worked their socks off, particularly since April, to get the grades they aimed for.
As for the teachers and support staff here, what a bunch of heroes. They have done all the work which would normally have been done by the SQA … the setting, marking, moderation and data checks. And significantly, they have achieved all of this whilst still doing the day job, there being no study leave this year. The sense of exhaustion is obvious around the school, but at least we can all take a break in the knowledge that we have tried our best. As a personal tribute, can I please give a shout out to my dear friend and colleague Mrs Davidson, our SQA Coordinator? She has shown such a great deal of commitment to get it right for every one of our SQA candidates. Although there are plenty here, she’s my personal star of the moment.
We intend to give pupils a paper copy of their provisional results next week too, although most are becoming aware of the outcomes from their teachers. The actual SQA certificates will still be issued in the post on Tuesday 10 August. The appeals system is, as you’d expect, quite different this year, and details are on the SQA website.
Around about that same date, we expect to be posting home the new timetables for session 2021-2022. I also intend to include a letter which will have all the latest information on Covid, risk assessments etc. Of course, I’m hoping that we’ll be living more freely by then, but I’m afraid that there’s no way to predict the course of this pandemic.
On Monday this week it was my pleasure, along with Mrs Davidson, to meet with our new Prefect Leadership Team and announce the results of the recent elections for Head Boy and Girl and Deputes. I am delighted to offer my congratulations to Daanish Mahmood (Head Boy) and Jessica McGregor (Head Girl), Charlie Murdoch and Darci Paterson (First Deputes) and to Logan Piotrowicz, Ross Szmitz, Ramiza Ahmad and Isla Wheatley (Deputes). Teachers and all S6 were entitled to vote in the election, which was conducted online.
Our Guidance staff held online parent/carer evenings for our new S1 on Wednesday evening and these went well. I’m grateful to Mr Farquharson, who organised these. Also, to Mrs Kerek, who has been busy putting together our new class groupings over the past few weeks. We will have just shy of 300 new S1 pupils in August. Mr Young and I are visiting local primaries next week to follow up on the extensive video induction resources we have shared. We’ll take Daanish and Jessica with us to meet the P7 kids.
This afternoon it will be my honour to welcome the family of the late Shannon Napier to help plant a memorial tree in our Serenity Garden. Shannon was a former pupil who had gone on to become a midwife and tragically died giving birth to her own baby daughter Abbie in April last year. Thank you to Mrs Wood, Pupil Support Officer, for all the work she has done to develop this once drab area at the back of the school. It’s lovely that we now have a beautiful spot to remember those of the KHS community we have lost, and Mrs Wood is planning more memorial events for after the summer break. You can help by donating compost for use in the garden or in our new polytunnel. Please call 01593 583405 to do that.
As well as issuing the SQA Provisional Results, we’ll be awarding our subject prizes next week. It’s such a shame that we can’t have our usual prizegiving ceremony. I’ll send out a winners list in a message next. In the meantime, thanks to all all sponsors. We greatly apprectiate the support of the following businesses, organisations and individuals: Abbotsford Care, Adamson Drinks Ltd, Mr Graeme Middleton, Disability Fife, Dunnikier Park Golf Club, Edinburgh Academy Of Music, Elmwood College, Exterity Ltd, Exxon Mobil Chemical Ltd, Friends Of KHS, John Smart & Son (Kirkcaldy) Ltd, Kingdon Housing Association, Kwik Fit, Mr Alan Stewart, Mr Peter Easson, Mrs Judith Kerr, Ms Val McDermid, Rotary Club Of Kirkcaldy, Soroptomist International, The Pet Shop, The Ritchie Family and Waterstones.
Staffing is an ongoing news item at this time of year. I am delighted to report that the placement of three further probationer teachers, in Science, Maths and English will mean that we have a full staff complement for August. This is terrific news, especially given the growing number of shortage subjects across Scotland these days. Also, very best wishes to Mr Barry Mitchell, currently Guidance Teacher in Adam Smith House on a temporary basis. Mr Mitchell has just secured a permanent position in Guidance at St Andrews High School. Well done Barry, you will be a real loss to KHS and an asset to our friends along the road.
I mentioned the Scotland v Czech Republic match last week, which many pupils watched in class on Monday afternoon. Sure enough it was another hard luck story for us to swallow. This evening we take on the Auld Enemy at Wembley. Here’s hoping my impending sense of disaster is misplaced. Best wishes to you, whatever your team, and even if you have no interest in football at all … how very wise of you.
Take care
Derek Allan
RECTOR
18 June 2021
