I would like to thank all parents / carers for their continued support, both to your child(ren) and also to our school.  Term 3 is always the longest term, with many young people caught up in assessments, out of school activities and the day to day work.  We are extremely proud of all of them!

I hope you get a chance to relax over the break and that our young people come back refreshed and ready for term 4.

Curriculum change and review of school day

During term 3, I shared with you some updates following our consultation on curriculum and school day changes. Over this coming term, we will be working to develop our new curriculum in time for young people changing timetable on 4th June 2024. Please remember that we are focussing on S1, S3 and S5 for next session, with changes to S2, S4 and S6 coming for August 2025.

We intend to change our timetable on Tuesday 4th June, in line with other schools across Fife and as is normal practice at KHS. This means that young people will move up to the next year group and follow their ‘new’ timetables. This will be based on our new 33-period week, although, the school times will remain unchaged until August. This means that for the month of June, period lengths will remain at 45-minutes and that we will require to have an alternative offering on Friday afternoons.

I will write to you in May to confirm the plan for these afternoons but we are currently looking at 4 afternoons based around Literacy / Numeracy / HWB for the new S2 / S3 year groups, and study classes for our new S4-6 year groups, based on their chosen subjects.

We are still awaiting news of bus times etc., but this will be shared by Fife Council once these are confirmed with the relevant bus companies.

I am continuing to work with all members of our community to ensure a smooth transition to the new school week. I will continue to keep you updated as the term progresses.

SQA Examinations S4-6

As you will be aware, young people currently in S4-6 will be due to sit their SQA assessments / examinations in the coming weeks. Our study leave begins on Monday 22nd April and finishes on Wednesday 29th May. As ever, we will be holding masterclasses for young people on the days before their examinations. These are a great opportunity for young people to get that last bit of help and support, prior to their examinations. We would encourage all young people to attend. More information will be shared by Mrs Davidson asap.

We also have a wide range of Easter revision classes available over the spring break. I have emailed the timetable to all families and Mrs Hume has sent out an update to this. Please remember that young people should attend on time and stay for the duration of the class. Young people must sign in and out and should only attend the designated class room as we have works going on during the break.

For all other young people, we must ensure that we continue to be respectful of those sitting their examinations in the assembly hall and around the building. Young people should be outside at break and lunchtimes, or use the lunch hall if they wish to remain indoors. Should the weather be inclement, we will use breakout spaces in PE as necessary. Young people will be direcred by school staff if this is required.

Attendance

We continue to seek your support in ensuring that young people arrive at school on time, attend their classes and attend school, unless unwell. We have seen a small decline in our attendance over term 3. We hope that this improves going into the new term. So far, our attendance is just over 2% more than the same time last year. This is a great effort but we hope that this can improve over the final term. If you need support, please contact your child’s guidance teacher who can help and support you and your child(ren).

Rights Respecting Schools

At the beginning of next term, we have a visit from Rights Respecting Schools for re-accreditation of our Gold status. I will share with you the outcome of this in due course. My thanks to Mrs Young (PT Citzenship) for all her work, and that of our wider team, in pulling together the evidence for this.

Staffing

As you may be aware, we have some staffing changes to update you on. All have been communicated in previous Rector’s logs and other information.

Mr Geissler will take on the role of PT Inclusion from Monday 15th April, taking over from Mrs Harrower who moves back to her substantive role as Teacher of History. We wish Mr Geissler and Mrs Harrower well in their changed roles.

Mr Walsh (Teacher of Business) will take on the role of acting PT Guidance from Monday 29th April 2024. Mr Walsh will be working with Mrs Kerek in Adam Smith house, taking over Mrs Donaldson’s caseload as she takes her maternity leave. We wish all well moving forward.

Mr Young (DHT and S2 Year Head) returned to school, following an absence on Thursday 28th March.

Ms Springhall, Mr Caldwell and Ms Akers were all successful in gaining a permanent post with KHS. We wish them well as they move into these permanent roles.

Finally, we currently have 2 live adverts for posts in KHS. These are the role of PT Guidance, vacated by Mrs Thompson due to her new permanent role as PTC English and a new post for Teacher of Mathematics.

School Improvement and Pupil Equity Fund planning

Over next term, we will take the opportunity to review our current School Improvement and Pupil Equity Fund plans, detail our improvement over the session and look to the next plans with next steps. To help with this, we always want to understand how well we are doing from our community. Over the coming weeks, we will be asking young people to complete a survey on how well they feel learning and teaching is going at KHS. We also want to know your views. To that end, please complete a short survey – click here.

On Monday 29th April and Tuesday 30th April, we will have a team of senior officers and colleagues from across Fife in school to support our own Validated Self Evaluation (VSE) of our support and guidance faculties. They will be taking part in focus groups, observing lessons and leading discussions with staff / stakeholders from across KHS community.

Across the term, we will be holding our own VSE’s across Science, Expressive Arts and Social Subjects. This will mean that we have undertaken self-evaluation activities across every faculty since May last year, following up from our last Extended Learning Partnership with the authority in February 2023.

The evidence and informatione taken from these activities helps to form strategic direction, and next steps in our improvement journey. We will be in touch over the month of May to consult on what we feel our improvement priorities will be for session 2024/25. As we are moving to year 2 of a 3 year plan, it is an important opportunity to review and amend as necessary.

Dates for the diary

• Monday 15th April – School Starts back for the new term / SQA assembly for S4-6
• w/b 15th April – Leavers Assemblies for all Houses
• Friday 19th April – S6 last day and activities – information from Mrs Davidson / S4-6 Reports to parents with estimate grades
• Monday 22nd April – Study leave begins for those with SQA examinations S4-6
• Tuesday 23rd April – Extended Leadership Team meeting
• Saturday 27th April – Thursday 2nd May – Battlefields trip
• Monday 29th / Tuesday 30th April – VSE with Fife council colleagues focussed on Support and Guidance
• Wednesday 1st May – Collegiate session 6 – School Improvement Groups
• Monday 6th May – Mayday holiday
• Thursday 9th May – INSET Day 5
• w/b 13th May – S1-3 Tracking reports to families
• Tuesday 14th May – Parent Council (online) 6pm
• Wednesday 29th May – End of Study Leave
• Thursday 30th / Friday 31st May – Induction days for new S5/6, new timetables issued
• Monday 3rd June – Holiday
• Tuesday 4th June – New timetable begins, Year assemblies to take place
• Tuesday 11th June – KHS Prizegiving
• Wednesday 12th and Thursday 13th June – P7 Induction days
• Thursday 13th June – P7 Parent / Carer Information Evening
• Friday 14th June – S6 Prom
• Friday 28th June – Last day of session / dress down day

Lastly, I hope you and your family enjoy the Easter break. As ever, if we can help or support in any way, please get in contact via our email or phone.

Best wishes,

Chris McKay

Rector