Dear Parent/Carer
I hope that our regular communication finds you well.
We’ve had a busy week, culminating today in what is effectively the last day of school for our S6. Also this week (Tuesday to Thursday), we have had House Assemblies which were led by those S6 leavers saying their goodbyes.
In the last email, I should have mentioned the employability session we held last Friday afternoon in conjunction with Costa Coffee. We had a large group of young people from several different secondaries engaging with the Costa training team to set up a series of work placements, mainly at the coffee shop in the Fife Retail Park. Two of our Senior Phase pupils will be starting with Costa shortly.
After school on Tuesday, our Active Schools Ambassadors were busy hosting a transition event which they had organised for our new P7 intake, laying on taster sessions in dance and netball. We are also continuing with the “enhanced transition” events and welcomed over 30 young people during class time this week. They had tours and met staff who will be supporting them from August.
On that theme, Mrs Aitken is finalising the timetable for next session and one particular feature is the rising intake of S1. It seems to be about 20% higher than usual with a large number of “placing requests” from schools outwith our catchment. We now have a projected roll of around 1150 and this has implications for our staffing. We are actively seeking to recruit new teachers for 2018-2019.
Also on Tuesday evening, Mrs Davidson and I attended the Rotary Club of Kirkcaldy meeting at the Dean Park Hotel. This had a strong focus on youth activities and Rachel Cummings (S3) and Charlie Murdoch (S2) of our Interact Club members spoke about their fund raising activities. The Rotarians were also introduced to Kiara Montgomery and Blain Aitken (S5), our successful RYLA Leadership Camp applicants. Kiara and Blain are being sponsored to take part in a week long adventure and leadership camp in the Highlands this summer. There was also a presentation certificate for Aimee Lindsay (S5) who won through to the regional finals of the Rotary Young Musician Competition in Perth earlier this year. Many thanks to Kirkcaldy Rotary for all their support.
On Wednesday, KHS was invited to be part of a prestigious event at Kirkcaldy West Primary School. It was the launch of the Scottish Government’s School Improvement Guidance in a pupil friendly format. Charlie Murdoch (S2), Christy Ritchie (S6) and Lucie Jones (S6) spoke about different aspects of young people being involved in designing learning and contributing to school improvement. Gayle Gorman, the new Chief Inspector of Schools attended the event and I am delighted that our successes in involving young people in the life of the school continues to be recognised. It certainly fits in well with our “Rights Respecting School” Award.
Yesterday, and once again on that same theme, a group of young people took part in a training event for Headteachers at the Carnegie Conference Centre in Dunfermline. It was all about “Pupil Voice” and “The Year of Young People”. Again, we are pleased to be recognised as leading the way in this area. Our pupils were regarded as being “outstanding” and we have received several email and Twitter messages thanking us for our inputs yesterday and on Wednesday.
It was also the Junior UK Maths Challenge yesterday. Many thanks to Miss Brown for taking the lead in organising this, it is always a very worthwhile activity for those involved. We had 35 young mathematicians taking part. Also, we had a large group of S1 girls taking part in the Fife Schools’ Netball competition at the Michael Woods Centre in Glenrothes, where they competed very well.
As I say, today is the last day before the exams, and S4-6 have study leave (or in some cases, work placements) until we start back on our new timetable after the Holiday on Monday 4 June. Please see the attached letter from Mrs Davidson, Depute Rector.
It has really been quite emotional today, as the “Class of 2018” said their final farewells. They collected their yearbooks this morning and have been having these signed by friends and staff with goodwill messages swapped. The S6 also had the chance to add their names to the traditional Leavers’ Mural. This time it’s in the Science corridor. Then, just before lunch, we laid on some farewell presentations and refreshments in the Library. Very best wishes to all our leavers. They have been a real credit to Kirkcaldy High School and to their families.
Also, very best wishes to our U14 footballers, who will contest the Fife Cup Final against Beath High School at Bayview Stadium after school this evening.
Next week, as well as the start of the exams on Monday we will welcome pupils from our link primaries as part of the “enhanced transition” process. We are also looking forward to the visit of Paul Johnston, Scottish Government’s Director-General for Education, Communities and Justice on Monday. He is keen to meet staff and young people in the “front line”. We’ll also host Steve Grimmond, the Chief Executive of Fife Council, who will be part of the visit too. That morning Mrs Davidson will be along at ASDA Carberry Road to collect a cheque as part of the “Green Token” scheme. Many thanks to the store for their support.
Tuesday will see a visit by our Go4SET technology team to Brand-Rex in Glenrothes. This is the national “STEM” competition and we are grateful to Brand-Rex for their support in preparing our team of S2 engineers. After school, our Rotary Interact Club is holding a sponsored walk which will help us buy a “shelter box” for use in a disaster zone. They will have a special guest to start off the walk … Denis Spiller is the top Rotarian in the British Isles. He is President of Rotary International Great Britain and Ireland and it will be a pleasure to welcome him here next week.
On Wednesday we’ll have a group of Science pupils up at Glenrothes, taking part in the Faraday Challenge. This is always a fun competition. Thursday see a FoKHS meeting at 7pm. You are welcome to come along if you are interested in becoming a “friend” … many thanks to FoKHS who continue to be a great support to the school.
I mentioned those exams, which start next week. We have Spanish and Urdu on Monday, Geography on Tuesday, Music and Administration/IT on Wednesday, Mathematics on Thursday and Physics on Friday. Please remember the “master class” study session the day before each exam.
Finally, the menu for next week is;
Monday: Lentil soup, Stovies with crusty bread, turnip
Tuesday: French onion soup, Chicken korma, boiled rice and vegetables
Wednesday Tomato soup, Steak pie, potatoes and vegetables
Thursday: Green pea soup, Sweet chilli beef and noodles, vegetables
Friday: Vegetable soup, Breaded fish/Scotch pie, chips, peas
We also have baked potatoes, pizza, pasta, sandwiches and salad available every day as well as our outdoor snack bar. Please do be aware that we offer a free cup of soup with bread for all our young people, regardless of their “free school meals” status. We also have our “Breakfast Club” available from 8.10am and this is free to those facing hardship (it costs 50p otherwise). We have cereal, toast and jam and juice on offer.
May I remind you that Monday 7 May is a holiday.
Aye yours
Derek Allan
RECTOR
27 April 2018
