Dear Parent/Carer,
Welcome to this weeks Rector’s log. I hope you and your family are doing well.
The week that’s been…
Life in KHS continues to be busy with lots of exciting and engaging activities taking place daily.
I continue to be impressed with the uniform standard across the school. As mentioned last week, I visited S2 and S4 classes yesterday and almost all young people were looking great. Young people continue to flourish through the wide range of engaging learning taking place. Next week, I will start to meet with 5 young people a day to seek their views on KHS. This will take place during tutor time in my office and will last for 5 minutes or so. Parents / carers will be alerted to this via groupcall text and young people will be invited through tutor teachers.
This week, 12 of our pupils (across S3/4/5) have started a ten-week course at the Levenmouth Trade Hub. There are two different courses, one in Hospitality and the other in Construction. These courses are an amazing opportunity for young people to develop skills for life and work as well as enjoying practical skills. The pupils have enjoyed their experience and are looking forward to the weeks ahead. Thank you to Jayne Preece (PSO Positive Destinations) and Mrs Davidson for setting this up and supporting our young people.
On the theme of developing the young workforce, The Padlet has been updated with some amazing In School Opportunities including some upcoming virtual work experiences for anyone thinking of joining the following careers: Nursing, Architecture, Engineering, Construction or Accountancy.
The details and how to sign up are on the Padlet but if any questions or you need help, please see Mrs Whyte in C13..
In addition, the SQA have launched the dates for the SQA exam diet in 2023. You can find this at the SQA website. The exam diet will start on Monday 24th April 2023 and last until Wednesday 31st May 2023.
As mentioned last week, I am looking for the views of parents / carers about Parents’ Evenings this session. As I am sure you are aware, Parents’ Evenings have been held virtually over the past couple of years due to COVID. This session provides us with an opportunity to get back to some normality and invite Parents back into school. That said, it would be great to hear your views on this. If you have a couple of minutes, please answer a few brief questions. We are very keen to bring our community back together following COVID and hope to see you in school very soon.
Recently, there was an online meeting of the “Friends of Kirkcaldy High School” (FoKHS). This is a long standing and highly valued support group for the school. Judith Kerr is the current Chair and membership mainly comes from former pupils and staff. The group raises funds to support projects in school and helps out in other ways, including accompanying trips, helping invigilate assessments and even mentoring individual young people. The group is planning a Race Night for 25th November 2022. Last year, this was postponed due to COVID but it is great to have this event taking place again. Tickets will be £5. If you are interested in coming along or supporting the night, please get in contact with Mrs Davidson (DHT).
Lastly, next week will see the start of some new attendance procedures in school. As you will be aware, parents / carers currently receive a groupcall text in the morning following an unexplained absence of their child. This is a request for information about the nature of an absence. Next week, we will start to send groupcall messages to parents / carers directly following lunch (Period 6) of those young people who attend in the morning but, for an unexplained reason, do not attend class after lunch. Like any new system, this will take time to bed in, but it is hoped that it will support you and the school in ensuring the safety of all.
The week ahead…
Next week, we will continue to focus on uniform standards and lateness and I will be dropping in to S5/6 classes with Mrs Davidson. We will also start to focus on attendance and mobile phones over the coming week(s).
As a school, our attendance dropped by 3% from the first week. This was almost uniform across all year groups. We will be developing our school attendance policy over the coming weeks and will seek your views (and that of our young people) to help form this policy.
Further ahead…
The first Parent Council of KHS for this session will take place on Tuesday 13th September 2022 at 6pm virtually. I will send a link and agenda to all parents / carers nearer the time. If your child recently joined KHS or if you wish to join the Parent Council, please join us at this time.
I hope you have an enjoyable weekend.
Best wishes
Chris McKay
Interim Rector
2 September 2022
