Dear Parent / Carer,

Welcome to our weekly family and community communication that provides a Headteacher overview of the weeks events and other school-based information.

The week that’s been…

It was a very surreal week this week due to the IT and Communication outage Monday through Wednesday. Again, I would like to thank all our community for your help and support in ensuring learning continued for our young people!

Given the lack of IT, it was a great opportunity to be out and around the school, in and out of classes and speaking to several of our learners. Despite the challenges of having limited IT, I was really impressed by the ingenuity of our teachers ensuring that learning time was not lost or wasted. It was also good to see and hear about learning conversations taking place with S4-6 learners prior to tracking reports being completed over the coming few weeks.

On Thursday evening, we welcomed several S1 families for an information evening focussing on English and Maths in KHS. It was great to have so many come along and great to see some of our S1s joining too. A massive thanks to Mrs Gibb for organising, Mrs Thompson and Mrs MacKenzie from English for their input and to Mrs Low who could not be there but had developed the information around maths that I shared with families.

Last Friday, Qualifications Scotland released the exam timetable for next year.

We will hold formal prelim examinations for learners undertaking study in National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher over the course of the session. A timetable will be shared with families once this is ready. Below are the dates of the prelims for each year group in S4-6.

• S4 Prelims will take place during w/b 23rd November and 30th November 2026
• S5/6 Prelims will take place during w/b 18th January and 25th January 2027

A reminder that we are making changes to our Guidance and Support structure following the October break. Thank you for sharing your views. We will pull key themes from this together and share them with you in due course.

Our key principles around this change are:

• To ensure optimal communication with families and key partners so that a school-based Team Around the Child exists for every young person
• To provide consistency of support for young people and families
• To allow Guidance and Support staff more to engage in more meaningful contact with young people across their caseloads, with renewed focus on attainment and attendance

The week ahead…

Next week we have:

• Family fun day – Sunday 6th September 2026 – 11am – 3pm at KHS – all welcome
• House assemblies for all young people – Thursday 10th September

I hope you have a great weekend when it comes!

Best wishes,

Chris McKay

Headteacher

04 September 2026