Dear Parent/Carer

I hope that the school holidays have worked out well and that your son/daughter is looking forward to returning to school … full time … from Monday. This good news was confirmed by the Scottish Government earlier this week and I know it’s welcome news for us all. We just want to get on with what we do best, giving kids the best chance to do well for themselves. We’ve also missed the social benefits of being together and everybody, adults and kids alike, were happy with the trial arrangement we had before Easter.

Of course, I really need to reiterate our risk assessment and virus mitigation regime. Firstly, all pupils will need to wear a face covering at all times indoors. We will have paper masks as a back up, but it’s much preferable if your son or daughter has their own cloth face covering. Please communicate with Guidance if a medical exemption is being claimed. These are rare and we do accept that a few people are just unable to wear a mask.

Thankfully, the 2m distancing rules for young people no longer apply, but would expect young people to avoid very close contact as best they can and respect the distancing rules for adults at all times. To avoid crowding in corridors, our one way system remains in operation.

Desk and workspace hygiene remains important, and all students should use the sanitiser availabe at the entrances to school and all classes. All will be given an antibacterial wipe on entering a class in order that they can clean their desk. We did this before Christmas, and it worked very well. I greatly appreciate the exceptional cooperation we’ve had from our learners with all our new rules. Here’s hoping we can avoid any outbreak resulting in disruption and self-isolation.

Can I ask that you remind (and assist if required) your son/daughter to take a coronavirus test (LFD type) tomorrow? Almost all of our pupils collected the boxes of kits before the break and we ask that these are administered at home every Sunday and Wednesday until further notice. For those who did not manage to pick up the boxes, these are available from our PSO Team base, next to Guidance.

Finally on this theme, it is essential that no person showing any of the virus symptoms comes anywhere near the school. They need to book a PCR test right away and stay off until the result is known.

Quite a few of our staff and pupils have been very busy during the break and I’m delighted to report that their work has a symbolic as well as a practical worth. Very well done to Mrs Woods and her volunteer team, who have been performing wonders in our “Serenity Garden” at the back of the school. It’s looking magnificent. We have also now installed a large “polycrub” in the playground. This is a reinforced polythene tunnel purchased after we successfully bid for a grant from the Scottish Government’s “Community Climate Asset Fund”, which is administered by “Keep Scotland Beautiful”. I am so very grateful to Mr Crawford of the CDT Department, who led the application, placed all the orders and has been chiefly responsible for building the structure. Please have a look on Twitter @KirkcaldyHigh for some terrific photos of the start of our “green recovery”. As I say, there’s something symbolic in this and I know that several staff are keen to develop sustainable learning of a “greener” curriculum. Our garden and greenhouse will be of significant benefit in the years ahead.

So, it’s all go from Monday. As we have made clear, we need our learners to be back in school with an optimistic outlook. Sure, we know that learning has been interrupted, but it hasn’t been “lost”. I really don’t like the stuff in the papers and on TV about “catching up” and “lost learning”. Our young people are bursting with potential and raring to go. The past is past, and we now to need take lessons from that but move on and live in the present with an eye on making the future better still. Teachers will usually be starting a fresh learning topic to avoid those who found home learning more difficult from feeling that they are “behind”. Each pupil will receive a new paper copy of their timetable. For some, rota changes mean that they may have one or two new teachers for this term.

Specifically, for S4-6 undertaking SQA qualifications, we will not be engaging with formal assessments right away. There has been a bit of a media fuss about young people being set “exams” despite these having been cancelled. We will have a schedule of class tests in May and will share that soon. Mrs Davidson is making the arrangements. However, please be assured that during a “window” of six weeks or so, our pupils will be given a fair chance to show they can make the standard at National 5, Higher or Advanced Higher.

By the middle of June, we’ll be submitting our “provisional grades” to the SQA. To help learners, and parents and carers to understand where our teachers think candidates are on their “journey” towards a qualification, we will be issuing a tracking report in the next fortnight. We will include a “working grade” in the report and think this will be useful. For example, if we report a “C” at this stage and a student is convinced they can gain an “A”, it will give them an idea of how much additional study/revision might be required during May and early June. For some learners, we may advise a change of level or withdrawal from a course. There will be the chance for you to discuss with Guidance before final decisions are made. The grades we indicate at this time may well change before the middle of June, so please don’t regard these as any guarantee. We just don’t have the evidence at this stage. That’s what the term ahead is about.

As I say, we are good to go. Good to grow even, with our amazing new polytunnel in the “quad”. I did mention that the “Good Morning Britain” TV show would be doing a live broadcast from KHS on Monday morning. Sadly, in more than one sense, the death of the Duke of Edinburgh means that all news schedules have been wiped for the next few days. Juliet, the ITV reporter, tells me that she is keen to do a piece on “recovery and renewal” for schools when that will be possible, and she is hoping that KHS can host that. I’ll keep you informed.

The Yearheads (Mr Young, Mrs Hamilton, Miss Diamond and Mrs Davidson) will likely be in touch tomorrow and will maybe have a few more specific details about the term ahead, even though certain things do remain quite uncertain. However, I am certain that KHS is back, we’re alive and kicking. Let’s all follow the rules and take all the steps (including Covid testing at home) to ensure that we can make the very best of it.

Many thanks

Derek Allan

RECTOR
10 April 2021