Welcome to this weeks Rector’s log. I hope you and your family are doing well.
The week that’s been…
It’s been a very busy week here at KHS with lots happening in and out of class.
On Monday and Tuesday, I visited all S1 – S4 classes, checking how our young people were getting on with their class work and school in general. I also continued meeting with 5 young people during tutor time, talking about what was going well and what we could improve. Again, my thanks to our young people who are proud of our school and community. This is clear in how respectful they are and the standards of uniform. My thanks to you as parents / carers for your support with this too.
On Wednesday, we had a team from Fife College in school with a pop-up stall during lunch time. This allowed our young people to have a chat with the college team about courses and next steps. Our partnership with the college is invaluable for our young people and has been part of supporting increases in positive destinations for our leavers. The most recent data for this shows that 95.2% of leavers move on to a positive sustained destination, an increase of 0.4% from September and continuing a positive trend over the past 2 sessions. Well done to all our young people and the wider team who support them with this.
On Thursday, young people had assemblies with their year head, looking at our environment, celebrating success and reminders about our school values of Respect for Self, Respect for Others and Respect for Learning. The assemblies included a little quiz and some interaction across the year group.
We also celebrated World Book Day, with colleagues in the English faculty taking centre stage, from Mary Poppins to the Grand High Witch from Roald Dahl’s ‘The Witches’. A sight to behold across the second floor and some real imagination, bringing literature to life!
We also had young people representing KHS at S2 Fife Schools Netball Tournament on Thursday. 4 players from KHS travelled to Michael Woods sports centre to compete in the annual S2 Fife Schools Netball tournament. Competing against sixteen other teams from across Fife, both the A and B squad successfully qualified for the Cup competition after a tough morning in the group stage. Both teams were unfortunately knocked out in later rounds by Woodmill HS. All pupils were a credit to the school and played exceptionally well! Special mention to Alejandro and Conor (S1) who played up an age group and attended their first tournament at KHS.
Looking ahead to next week, our S3 squad will be competing against Dunfermline HS in the semi-final of league. Good luck girls!!
As ever, you can read more about the many things happening in KHS through our Blog.
In Supported learning this week…
“Across our senior phase it is exciting to have learners share another piece of work completed, units being passed and qualifications being achieved. It’s lovely to hear the pride with which they are sharing their learning. Across our younger learners there have been fantastic Spring Haikus being created and S1 have solved the mystery in our class novel which has kept us puzzling and investigating for the last few weeks.
Our learning in the community continues to take many forms; our weekly swimming group who are really improving skills and confidence and are really enjoying the experience, our learners working on independent shopping skills at ASDA, Travel and Tourism studies in our local community and those using our community facilities to further their independence and learning.
Finally, there has been a school-wide Futsal tournament culminating in this week’s Final. Our S1s were brilliant participants and played well in the group stages. Two of our learners were invited to provide the commentary for the Final and I am so proud of the way they embraced that challenge. Fantastic skills, knowledge and confidence to commentate in front of the wider school. Well done boys!”
Back in January, I had mentioned that we were keen to hear from you about various aspects in KHS. We held an open evening for any parent who wanted to discuss the proposed curriculum and school day changes and said we would be in touch with further evenings. Mrs Gibb is looking for parent / carer volunteers to meet to discuss our Promoting Positive relationships and behaviour strategies, including our Bullying processes. If you are interested in being part of this, please complete the form.
We are also keen to collect your views on the new reporting system, Progress – Didbook. Please complete the online form.
You can read a letter from Shelagh McLean, Head of Service at Fife Council outlining the next steps after the consultation. We will share with you the final school day and curriculum changes next week.
Lastly, some staffing news…congratulations to Mrs Logue who was successful in being appointed to the acting position of PT Humanities and Skills. Mrs Logue takes on the post whilst Mrs Whyte is on maternity leave. We also say a fond farewell to Ms Murray in Home Economics who leaves KHS to move to a new post with PSS as Teacher of ASN on Monday. We thank her for all of the support provided to young people here at KHS and wish her the very best in her new post.
The week ahead…
With just 3 school weeks left until the Easter break, we continue to focus on preparing our S4-6 for their SQA assessments and support our young people in S1-3 to get the very best out of KHS.
Next week, I will also share with you our confirmed plans for the curriculum and school day, and will be seeking your views on KHS in preparation for our next improvement planning phase.
Best wishes,
Chris McKay
Rector
08 March 2024
